PESC Alumni Newsletter
President's Address
Happy fall PESC alumni
As the world began to return to normalcy throughout the Spring 2022 semester, so too did the Purdue Engineering Student Council. Along with this brought many challenges and opportunities for learning as council members planned and executed events that had not been in-person for 3 years. Although a time of change, council faced these challenges with excitement and innovation, and I am proud of the work done by each and every one of our committed members.
In January, the executive team had the privilege to bring on 8 new members to council. Their fresh perspectives and eagerness immediately made them a valuable asset, and we are very lucky to have them. We are so excited to see their growth continue throughout their time on council. The close bonds they have formed within their class leave us all assured that the futures of PESC and the College of Engineering are in good hands.
Additionally, the executive board has continued to look for new ways to invest in Purdue Engineering students. First, we have pursued an initiative to make the Engineering Your Major (EYM) process more streamlined, reaching out to coordinators and attempting to plan a week-long schedule of events for incoming First Year Engineering students to get clarity on the major they wish to pursue. Additionally, we have continued our efforts to pursue a new payment system for our career fairs. Conversations with multiple levels of administration have left us with a few potential solutions, and we plan to continue the work of executive teams before us to further simplify the career fair registration process. Not only will this aid our career fair committees, but it will also benefit all Purdue Engineering students. A final initiative that the executive team has worked towards throughout the spring and fall is a means to address engineering student wellbeing. Great work has been done by our wellbeing committee over the past three years, but seeking a more permanent and physical space to promote wellbeing has been a continued effort on our part.
There are many changes occurring all around us in the College of Engineering. The search for a new dean, updated COVID protocols, and more adjustments that seem to be announced daily. In these times of change, PESC remains unwavering in our commitment to our mission: serving students, serving industry, and serving the community. I hope you will take the time to read through what each of our committees has been able to accomplish throughout the spring semester. They have faced every challenge that has come their way head-on, and they truly embody what it means to not only be a Boilermaker, but to be a PESCer. Please feel free to contact us at any time and for anything at pesc@ecn.purdue.edu.
Boiler up!
Industrial Roundtable
Council Photo after a successful IR
The IR committee is in full swing and working hard on this fall’s career fair. Similar to IR 2021, the fair will be hosted in a hybrid format. However, the fair will now include two full in-person days and an additional virtual day. The fair is slated to be in person on September 13th and 14th, and virtual on the 15th. With the addition of virtual capability through Career Fair Plus, the fair is able to extend its radius across the U.S and connect top tier Purdue Engineers to more amazing companies no matter their distance from West Lafayette. Another big change coming this fall is the format of seminars. Instead of hosting the seminars on zoom, they will be transitioned to Career Fair Plus with its advanced interviewing features making the experience more enjoyable for both student and recruiter. Seminars will be hosted virtually on September 6th and 7th and in person on the 12th, giving students the opportunity to more informally connect with companies and recruiters. The committee led by Ben Pekarek has been hard at work registering over 445 companies for the three day fair. This sets an all time record for IR attendance. Registration for the fair closes August 15. More information can be found on the PESC website.
The committee has also been hard at work on the Industrial Roundtable Scholarship. The scholarship opened on April 10th to Purdue Engineering students and will provide $48,000 to the winning undergraduates.
Internal Development
Internal development led by Elisabeth Casetti has been putting out fantastic events for council members like a well-oiled machine.
Starting with a favorite, council trip was set in Louisville, Kentucky. The trip started off with the always memorable car ride with a fun riddle for members to decipher the destination. On arrival, council hopped back into the beautiful Purdue vans and raced to the community service activity. With the conflict in Ukraine escalating, ID chose to help pack meals to ship to the Ukrainian people. Council members worked hand in hand and produced 20 meals boxed and ready to ship overseas. Next up was the engineering activity at the Louisvile Slugger factory where members learned all about the manufacturing process of wooden bats some of which were used by historical baseball players. Last on the agenda was the fun activity where council participated in virtual reality gaming at Activate Games place where the players of the video game are the council members. The interactive games were challenging but brought nothing but smiles to council. A major change that might now be precedent is Spring Choice awards on council trip. After council dinner, members gathered and celebrated each other with hysterical awards. Council trip is something every member remembers and is always a blast proving the culture of council is strong and continuously growing in the best way.
Here is a summary fo the spring events hosted by the ID committee:
Boy and Girls Night: This year the male members of PESC went rock climbing and the girls fought their way through an escape room.
Shooting the Breeze: council freshman and executive board get together on a nice day on memorial mall to get to know eachother better outside of council activities.
Retreat at Camp Tecumseh: the first event for the new members in the spring where council gets to know the new members and help them acclimate to council right before diving into EXPO
WB/ID Event: A new event hosted by ID where the members of PESC destressed with yoga to re-center themselves so they could tackle the rest of the semester.
Council at a Diwali celebration
EXPO
Following suit of Industrial Roundtable earlier in the school year, EXPO maintained a hybrid format. This year the fair welcomed 172 total companies to recruit in-person and virtually through Career Fair Plus appointments. Similar to the career fair itself, the committee hosted hybrid seminars prior to the fair. Seminars were hosted virtually on Feburary 2nd and in person on the 7th. These ran smoothly and gave students the opportunity to connect with companies in a less professional format. The fair days were split between the 8th and 9th with the in-person format on the first day of the fair followed by a virtual day to end the recruiting. The fair provided Purdue Engineering undergraduates the opportunity to interview with employers for internships, co-ops, and full-time jobs. Over 7,000 meetings were scheduled with employers between the in-person and virtual days. Among the most popular companies at the fair were Los Alamos National Laboratories, Collins Aerospace, and Honda Motors.
In addition, the committee also raised $9,000 dollars for the annual EXPO scholarship which provided seven engineering undergraduates with scholarship funding.
Wellbeing
A major change to council this semester was the transition of the Well Being Committee (WB) from an ad-hoc committee to a full-time committee with the inclusion of some full-time members.
Well-Being has been planning and implementing activities and events for both council and Purdue students to educate them on mental health and the many things one can do to alleviate stress, seek help, and take care of oneself.
In General Meetings, Amanda Munsell hosts an activity called “Mind Yeti”, which are short youtube videos that walk listeners through exercises to lower their heart rate and re-center their mind—something that is often overlooked, but vital to strong mental health. Katy Zaloudek has also been presenting at council General Meetings, educating members about important mental-health considerations and methods to alleviate any detriments to a healthy mind. Amanda, Katy, and the whole WB Committee are vital in shaping council culture and ensuring a safe space where members can feel open to share any hardships, adversity, and issues they face and find comfort and relief in each other.
This spring the WB committee hosted MHAW Origami, Well-Being Tie Dye, Meet CAPS, and finished the semester off with Surthriving Week. MHAW Origami and Meet CAPS were the events in which the Well-Being committee partnered with other organizations to promote mutual goals of mental health awareness and making sure students are aware of the resources Purdue offers, as well as offering a break from the seriousness of studying. MHAW, or Mental Health Awareness Week, is intended for Purdue students and staff, and aims to destigmatize mental health conversations, promote a positive culture of community kindness, and spread mental health awareness. PESC hosted an origami workshop to promote the MHAW, which was led by Purdue Student Government and other organizations. In Meet CAPS, PESC partnered with Purdue’s Counseling and Psychological Services engineering liaisons–Bethany, Chase, and Andrea–to promote awareness of Purdue’s mental health resources and more widely introduce the engineering liaisons to students. Surthriving Week rounded out the semester, giving Purdue students a chance to take a break from studying and enjoy fun inflatables like obstacle courses.
This fall, WB will be hosting two Surthriving events, one in September and one in October. The Well-Being Survey will be sent out to collect insight on student well-being through a variety of topics like campus engagement, student support structures and services, and the general health and well-being of the student body.
Engineering Outreach
PNCRC (The Purdue National Chain Reaction Competition) finally made a return to Purdue’s campus this spring and hosted four amazing teams in the Krach Leadership Center. This year’s task was to place sunglasses on an object. Each team incorporated different stories into their chain reaction machines making them unique and fun to follow along with. This year’s teams included two Purdue teams, a UIUC team, and a Penn State team. The faculty who generously cut out some time to judge the competition were Dr. Joseph Chen, Dr. Jason Ware, and Dr. Seventy-Seb. The resolution of the event’s story ended with PSPE from Purdue taking the glory. It was a great event and definitely one that will continue to get even stronger.
EO was very happy to bring MINDS back in person! This year the team worked with multiple clubs: Marine Energy Collegiate Competition, SWE, Tau Beta Pi and HKN to put on this event to bring joy to the aspiring engineers in the greater Lafayette Community. With the help of those clubs EO was able to put on a variety of engineering events such as water filtration, marble roller coasters, DIY rubber band cars and many more. From environmental to aerospace engineering, the young students were able to learn about all the engineering world has to offer.
EO was very fortunate to work with Ms. Frioland from Battleground Middle school for MINDS On The Road. Here, PESC was able to teach her 7th and 8th graders to the fundamentals of water filtration. Students took water from the local Lafayette river and applied various filtration techniques in hopes that this project was enjoyable for all students as well as inspiring the next generation of environmental engineers.
Our PNCRC team of Roey, Sofia, Eli, and Landon
Campus Relations
Michael and Isabelle helping at Boiler Bash so engineering organizations can advertise themselves to new students
Campus Relations (CR) had another stellar semester working to provide the students of the College of Engineering opportunities to grow their talents through Merit Fund or catch a break with E-week and Backyard Bash. Starting off strong, the committee reviewed 45 applications, interviewed 28 engineering student organizations and awarded $27,520 to different projects. Merit Fund continues to be a shining success time and time again for CR and provides the talented engineers of Purdue funding for their projects.
Campus Relations teamed up with the College of Engineering again to host another successful E-Week. The week-long series of events provided students the chance to take a break from their book cracking for finals and participate in some fun activities like paper rocket and paper airplane competitions or (another days activities in E-week). Rewards such as Chick fil-A gift cards were given to the students who succeeded in the engineering challenge.
On top of an already packed IR schedule with record attendance, CR is hard at work prepping for Boiler Bash and FYE Picnic right around the corner. Boiler Bash is an engineering club fair where different student engineering organizations advertise their projects to recruit passionate Purdue engineering students and grow their clubs. FYE picnic coming up in just over a week is for freshman in the First Year Engineering program to enjoy various activities and get acclimated to the Purdue campus and culture.
Next in the Fall agenda for CR, is recruiting power hour hosted just before IR where recruiter from all industries join a panel to give advice to students for the recruiting season.
To top off the busy schedule for the CR committee, Purdue Pitch applications just went out, giving students the opportunity to pitch their innovative ideas to Purdue administrators and promote entrepreneurship and creativity in the student body. The winners of the competition will be paired with a faculty member and compete for future funding and implementation of their project. This marks the second annual Purdue Pitch competition and there will be many more to come!
Communications
The Communications committee led by Ben Pulver has been working on keeping all PESC events well advertised to the engineering community. Advertisement posts for IR have been going out on social media platforms and flyers are being passed out at pop-ups.
Along with Pop-Ups the Comm Committee has been working to organize contacts for all the PESC alumni and gage interest in speaking a GM in hopes to gain some insight into the amazing experiences the PESC alumni have to offer. A new trend the Committee is starting is summer internship highlights on Instagram where PESC spotlights its talented members in the summer themed post about what their internship experience.
The committee has been looking for innovative ways to advertise for career fairs and has been pursuing design of banners to spread around campus buildings. With career fair season coming up the team is getting everything ready for IR prep night in a few weeks.
Roey, Jaatani, and Katy at IR Prep Night