Dear Corporate Representative,

 

The Graduate Society of Women Engineers (GradSWE) at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (UM) is proud to support women in engineering as innovative leaders in science and community, as well as a bridge between industry and academia. We thank you for your interest in GradSWE, and would like to take this opportunity to build a lasting relationship between our organizations.

 

GradSWE at UM is separate from the undergraduate Society of Women Engineers (SWE) in our day to day operations; we organize and host events specifically catered to graduate students. Throughout the year, we had the privilege of hosting numerous events that were sponsored by companies such as yours, assisting graduate students in building professional skills, network, and more. This past year 200+ members attended our events, from over 800 who receive our weekly digest. We expect a similar level of participation and enthusiasm in the upcoming year.      

 

We held several events for career path exploration and professional development, including  the tri-annual GradSWE mixer with faculty, post-docs, and professionals, salary negotiating workshops, and a panel discussing life after graduate school. This year, we aim to form and expand our involvement with industry professionals to provide more networking opportunities for female graduate engineering students with engineers outside of the university.

 

We enjoy a high-level of connection with our local community through various outreach programs. With Girl Scouts, we held activities for designing and testing a rubber band powered boat, designing their own robots, and programming lego mindstorm robots.  Together with Peace Neighborhood Center, we ran various tutoring and engineering activities for middle and high school students. In the upcoming year, we intend to further develop our involvements with these organizations, as well as expand into our Liberia SWE initiative. Liberia SWE (L-SWE) is part of our vision for a global support network for women engineers. Through both our local and international programs, we hope to continue being a positive force for women.

 

There are many exciting ways to support GradSWE. GradSWE hosts both professional and social events, all of which benefit from external funding. We encourage you to learn more about some of the events and activities we host (listed) below. From our annual welcome dinner and end-of-the-year banquet, to the women in tech mixer and company info-sessions, all these events are made possible through the support from groups like your organization. In addition, our members also benefit from travel grants for attending the national SWE conference. Aside from supporting specific events and activities, we also appreciate contributions towards general operations in GradSWE. Your contributions allow us to support and promote graduate women in engineering in both the short and long term.

 

We value the interaction we have with your company and we hope to build a lasting relationship with our organizations. To learn more about GradSWE, please visit our website at http://gradswe.engin.umich.edu/. You can contact us at the email addresses below if you have further questions.

 

Thank you again for your support! We look forward to working with you soon.

 

Sincerely,

 

Erin Evke, Kathleen Chou

Co-Directors

gradswe-codirectors@umich.edu

 

Connie Lee

External Relations Officer

gradswe-corporate@umich.edu

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