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Orientation Week is an endless stream of information, and as you can probably tell already, this issue of The Iron Warrior is no exception. The University of Waterloo Engineering Society exists to serve you as an undergraduate engineering student, providing opportunities in the school, the community and the rest of Canada. The VP-External tries to assist with the final two items on that list by providing outreach opportunities in the community as well as representing Waterloo to various organizations both provincially and nationally.
For approximately the next 16 months, the people tasked with this position are Yasser Al-Khder (2014 Mechatronics) representing B-Soc which is on stream in the Fall Term and Lisa Belbeck (2014 Nanotechnology) and Michael Seliske (2013 Computer) representing A-Soc who will be representing all of the 8-stream classes in the Winter.
So what will the three of us being doing for you? Beyond helping the rest of the Executive team run the Society, the VP-External is hard at work helping directors organize outreach events which allow Engineering students the opportunity give back to the community. We also have a representation section to our portfolio which has us traveling to various conferences around the country sharing ideas with other societies, while voicing the Waterloo perspective on national and provincial issues pertaining to Engineering.
The VP-Externals are not the only people who attend these conferences; some of the larger ones have room for additional students to attend in order to develop their leadership skills and share ideas with other schools. This means that you have the opportunity to attend an awesome engineering conference, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for various conference opportunities over the course of your undergraduate career at Waterloo. Pay close attention to your Inboxes in January when we will be opening applications for the First Year Integration Conference (FYIC) being held in February at McMaster University in Hamilton. This conference is specifically for first years and is meant to give you an introduction to the world of external organizations including the provincial (ESSCO) and National (CFES) level student run organizations as well as the professional organizations you will need to interact with such as Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) and the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE). We would encourage you to visit our website if you are curious about these organizations or read about ESSCO and CFES on page (insert page number).
The VP-Externals are also in charge of assisting their commissioner with the Waterloo Engineering Competition (WEC). WEC is a design/consulting engineering competition that serves as the school level qualifiers for the Ontario Engineering Competition (OEC). There is a junior design category for first and second year students so keep an eye out for that in November. For more information about WEC, check out www.wec.uwaterloo.ca.
The VP-Externals and the rest of the executive would always like to hear your feedback, thoughts, questions or even a joke you think is funny. Hit us up at ***(I need to confirm which email addresses we are using now as we are in the middle of a switch.)
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