KU Society of Women Engineers (KUSWE)

Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is a USA-based non-profit organization established in 1950 that aims to give women engineers a unique place and voice within the engineering industry. SWE supports women engineers and provides the means for them to become successful leaders and engineers. SWE also aims to introduce girls with science and encourage them to pursue engineering. Currently, SWE has 100 professional member sections and 300 collegiate member sections.

Koç University Society of Women Engineers (KUSWE), is the first collegiate affiliate founded outside of the United States. KUSWE was established in 2010 at Koç University (KU) and it has a profound importance as an affiliate in the globalization of SWE. It is one of the most active clubs at KU, with over 100 active members and successfully implemented projects. KUSWE organizes career events for students to expand their perspective about relevant sectors and companies, contributing further to participants’ career plans as well as social responsibility projects to raise awareness about gender inequality and to encourage young women in STEM.

Networking Event Approximately 10 companies and 100 students were reached with the Networking Event. Our participants had the opportunity to communicate with successful engineers and business people from well-known companies and followed the companies’ policy and recruitment processes.

Girls Who Code Girls Who Code was held with the participation of 24 students (14 girls and 10 boys). The event aimed to teach the Python programming language to high school students for 8 weeks. Apart from the educational activity, on April 21, the students who participated in our event were invited to our university for a campus tour.

Career Station This long-term event is organized with the collaboration of different companies during the whole year. For each company, a panel and a follow-up event such as mock interview, workshop and presentation is organized. Through these events, students had the chance to know the sector better and make decisions on their career paths.

SweNext This event aims to introduce engineering, encourage high-school students to become engineers, and show the importance of STEM. Furthermore, it helps them in career planning and job selection. Within the scope of the event, high-school students become university students in Koç University for a day. Nine businesses sponsored SWENext and showed their support of students.

Other Social Awareness Projects In October, which is the breast cancer awareness month, KUSWE shared informative posts about breast cancer on its official Instagram account. The tower of Koç University was illuminated with pink light which is the color of the breast cancer awareness celebrations. Inspiring from the pink ribbon, the board members of KUSWE prepared a series of videos in which they highlighted the importance of the early diagnosis with the hashtag #followthepinkribbon and succeeded an effective social media movement.

KUSWE has participated in the Orange the World Summit organized in İzmir Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey. This summit has been organized with the collaboration of UNWomen’s Orange the World Campaign to conduct 16 days of activism to raise awareness towards violence against women and girls. KUSWE participated in this summit by presenting their social awareness campaigns geared towards both Koç University and high school students.

The group also focused on raising awareness as a club for the 3rd of December International Day of Persons with Disabilities towards improving participants’ soft skills. For this reason, a sign language workshop was arranged.