The Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario or ESSCO, is a student run organization that facilitates communication between 16 different Engineering Societies across Ontario. ESSCO represents over 24 000 undergraduate engineering students to organizations such as Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), the Ontario Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE), and the Council of Ontario Deans of Engineering (CODE). The focus of ESSCO is to be the voice of the engineering students in Ontario. ESSCO also communicates with the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES) and is responsible for providing the Ontario student’s opinion to the national council.
How can you get Involved?
As a first year student there are many ways you can get involved with and contribute to ESSCO! Here are just a few to get you started:
1) First Year Integration Conference
ESSCO runs four different conferences throughout the year and invites delegates from all over Ontario to come and learn from each other. The First Year Integration Conference (FYIC) is a conference for first years who are looking to get more involved with their Engineering Societies or in the school community. It focuses on leadership development, building on engineering traditions, and provides an introduction to ESSCO and other groups within the Engineering profession. The conference provides an opportunity to network with other motivated and engaged engineering students from Ontario and allows first years to interact more closely with involved students like the VP-External. This year the conference is being held at Carleton at the beginning of February. Waterloo ‘A’ (Eight Streams) and Waterloo ‘B’ (Four streams) both bring delegations of first years students, so keep an eye on the EngSoc mailing list in late November for application details, or talk to one of the VP Externals!
2) Rube Goldberg Project
Every year ESSCO facilitates an Ontario wide Rube Goldberg machine that connects over ten schools and for the past few years has culminated in lighting up the CN tower purple! The Waterloo Engineering Society has constructed a machine each of the three years the project has been running, and is looking to make it even better this year. The build happens in the Winter term during National Engineering month (March), so if you are an eight-stream or a four-stream on co-op in Waterloo and interested, come out and volunteer to help with this province-wide engineering awareness event. Details will be available on the EngSoc mailing list in February.
3) Wonderland Math and Science Day
Math and Science day happens in May at Canada’s Wonderland, and gives high school students a chance to experience first hand the engineering principles and concepts demonstrated by rollercoasters. ESSCO needs volunteers to help run the event and it is a great leadership opportunity and a way to help inspire the high school students involved. This happens in the summer term, so four-streams in their 1B term should watch the EngSoc mailing list in May for more details.
To find out more, check out the ESSCO website, or e-mail or talk to one of the Waterloo VP Externals, Leila and Kristina!
Website: www.essco.ca
executive@essco.ca
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