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Virginia Tech's Hypatia helps women in engineering succeed as freshmen
Hypatia students learn what it's like to be a female in engineering, how to navigate through the university and how to network
By Claire Swedberg
Contributing Editor
 The Hypatia Women in Engineering Learning Community program at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA) offers women engineering students social and academic mentoring and networking. The program was designed to help first-year female engineering students navigate their crucial first year by housing them together and bringing them together for academic programs as well as extracurricular activities. The program is sponsored by Virginia Tech's Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity (CEED) in the college of engineering.
The program began in 2001 and is named for Egyptian female mathematician and astronomer Hypatia, head of the Platonist's school at Alexandria in 400 AD. A pioneer  in philosophy, math and astronomy, she serves as a symbol of strength, hard work and dedication to encourage participants to follow their dreams and reach for their goals.
Hypatia students commit to a full year in the program and must enroll in a fall semester seminar course that meets twice weekly. Topics for the class include professional development, academic success strategies, diversity, personal development and exploring issues surrounding women's roles in predominately male fields.
For the 2010-11 school year the school enrolled 113 students in the program, all of whom lived on two floors in a campus residence hall.
Mentors guide Hypatia students
Typically, students are scheduled together in blocks for their first semester on a schedule that complements their residential activities. In the second semester, students continue to build relationships with their peers and Virginia Tech students as a whole in a less structured environment.
Following their first year, students can remain with the program as mentors, or continue in other school residences or off-campus housing as program alumni. About nineteen remained at the end of the 2010-11 academic year. Those mentors were assigned a group of first-year students for whom they help plan and manage activities. They also participate in an academic committee to help Hypatia students prepare for career fairs, a social committee for networking with peers, and a community service committee for volunteer efforts in the community outside college.
"The volunteer work helps maintain Virginia Tech's tradition of serving the community," says Susan Arnold Christian, CEED assistant director. Students in Hypatia are expected to provide ten hours of community service in their first semester.
The program helps students adapt to academic requirements and own their individual challenges. "Engineering students are high performers," explains Arnold Christian. "They might not be used to getting a C or even a D." Both the school and students benefit when more young women engineers successfully navigate the challenges of that first year.
The Galileo Engineering Learning Community is a version of the program for male engineering students. The two groups meet for social and academic programs.
Hypatia helped Kori Price transition to college life
Kori Price, class of 2014, is majoring in general engineering with an expected focus in electrical engineering. "I'm interested in the fields of power generation and distribution," she says, "so working for a power plant or distribution center would be ideal."
She applied to the program to meet other engineering students who shared her interests. "I liked that Hypatia was all female engineers so if I needed help with something, I could go right across the hall or to my mentor," she notes.
After her first semester, she reported that "The program has been fantastic so far. I've been able to make new friends with similar interests and goals as me. I've also learned how to write a resume and I learned study skills from other Hypatia students."
The program, she says, "helped me become better acclimated to college life and classes by giving me an environment that was centered around my major."
Livi Erickson: giving back as a Hypatia mentor
Computer science major Livi Erickson intends to pursue a technical management position once she's graduated. Like Price, she was seeking a program that would enable her to meet others with similar interests.
"It also provided a great foundation for the collegiate experience in general, and I feel as though it has given me a head start in preparing for life after graduation as well," she says.
Erickson became a Hypatia mentor in her second year to give back to the organization that had provided so many tools in her own first year, and to help others the way she was helped.
"I've really enjoyed my time with Hypatia," she notes. "I think that being a mentor has really helped me grow as a peer leader and as an individual." Other women in engineering "really 'get' what I'm going through. If there is something that I have to miss because I'm studying for a test, my hallmates understand, because they're all in the same boat. Hypatia has really helped me make new friends and become a better person, both personally and professionally."
To get any real benefit out of the program, however, Erickson says, participants must be willing to put in the time that it takes to focus on becoming stronger students. "If a student wants to go out to parties all the time and not study, then a living community might not be the best option," she explains. "But if you want to start taking steps to succeed early on, then Hypatia is a great program to be a part of."
Bianca Brandveen: networking through Hypatia
Bianca Brandveen is an alum of the program who earned her BSME in 2011. She chose the major because it provided the hands-on work she was seeking.
"Engineering has come a long way since its inception, but my major has the potential to change the way we live, commute and play," she says. "I want to be an engineering designer and combine my knowledge of mechanics and physics with industrial design to create products that can be enjoyed on a global scale."
Brandveen was participating in Virginia Tech's Summer Transition to Engineering Program (STEP) when Whitney Edmister, former assistant director of CEED, encouraged her to apply to Hypatia. Several other students in STEP were applying and she wanted to live in a dorm with her friends so she took Edmister's advice.
In her year with the program, Brandveen met new people and increased her network. "Being a member of Hypatia, I had an instant connection to Galileo, the male engineering community. Between the communities, we made study groups, watched movies and hung out," she notes. "I can honestly say that I wouldn't have met half of the people that I know today if it weren't for Hypatia."
The Hypatia course had many requirements, some of which Brandveen didn't fully understand until after she'd completed the program. She recalls being required to create a weekly schedule in Outlook, attend the engineering expo career fair, write cover letters, do in-class presentations, attend a multicultural experience event and more. She learned how to improve her resume, speak in front of a group, network with employers, and experienced other cultures.
"The benefits of this program are too numerous not to apply," says Brandveen. She notes that students participating in Hypatia will gain a greater understanding of what it's like to be a female in engineering, learn how to navigate through the university and have many opportunities to network with other male and female engineering students.
Involvement in this program is also a talking point for interviews and conversations with other Virginia Tech engineering students, Brandveen points out. "In an interview, you can talk about your leadership during a volunteer service event or discuss a time when an event that you planned was a success."
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Claire Swedberg is a freelance writer who lives in La Conner, WA. |
