Engineering New Plans, An Interview with the Engineering Society

Written by Carolee Avery

Thumbnail Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

Photo by Andrew Ollerhead via Linkedin

When I was writing my article Making Moves: Societies to Help Make Academic and Career Decisions, I compiled a list of societies that I thought would be helpful to students looking for connections outside of Saint Mary’s University. One of the societies that I wrote about was the Saint Mary’s University Engineering Society. While working on the article, I reached out to the executives of the society to ask them a few questions, and they were super helpful and incredibly kind. I knew after our correspondence that I had to interview them for an article, so I reached out to society President Andrew Ollerhead. He and the other executives were more than happy to provide me with an interview.

As a quick introduction for those who missed my July article, the purpose of the Saint Mary's Engineering Society is twofold. Their first objective is to create and provide the best experience for Saint Mary's Engineering students by hosting social and academic events such as Pizza with Professionals and their Engineering Networking Event. Both events allow members of the society to meet and connect with professionals in the engineering field. The events also allow members to ask questions about what it is like to work as an engineer in Nova Scotia and see what kind of opportunities graduates of the engineering program will have. The Engineering Society's second objective is to connect students with organizations such as the Atlantic Council of Engineering Students (ACES), who act as advocates on behalf of Atlantic Canadian engineering students to facilitate collaboration between engineering societies, and the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students(CFES), who offer services to students such as leadership development conferences, technical skill competitions, and other outreach efforts.

The society is currently open to any Saint Mary’s University student with an interest in engineering, regardless of whether you are an engineering student or not. However, all the current members of the society are enrolled in the engineering program at Saint Mary’s. I asked the executives why they thought this was the case, and if they were interested in recruiting members from the wider SMU community. In response, Andrew, the society’s president, said that“anyone interested is welcome to join the society! With that said, many of the CFES events are limited to students enrolled in the engineering program, meaning that members of the Eng Soc who are enrolled in other programs would have to be excluded from most regional/national events. For that reason, we are not actively recruiting members from other programs.”

As previously mentioned, the society works closely with the Canadian Federation of Engineering Students (CFES), which allows Saint Mary’s Engineering students to connect with industry professionals by hosting events. Events include guest speakers and leaders in the engineering field, connecting with these leaders allows students to get a footing in the professional engineering world. I asked Andrew about what it was like getting to work with the organization and the benefits it provides Saint Mary’s Engineering Program students, to which he said:“CFES offers many opportunities for networking, personal development, and career development to engineering students across Canada. It gives students a chance to expand their experiences and influence beyond the SMU community, where they can have a say in how engineering programs and support systems are being run.”

In previous years, the Engineering Society has participated in the CFES’ Atlantic Engineering Competition. I was curious if the society had any plans to attend this coming year's competition, which is being held in-person at the University of New Brunswick in March 2022. Andrew and the other executives were pleased to inform me that, “the society will be supporting delegates from SMU to compete in AEC 2022.”

I’ve had the chance to interview a few other societies during the pandemic to see how they chose to hold events and meetings, but I was curious how the Engineering Society decided to host events, or if they even chose to have events at all. In response to these questions, the executives said:“Events last year were held virtually, and included online game nights and social group calls.”

With events and meetings being held virtually, it was hard for societies to keep members active and engaged, which led to a decline in societies’ membership numbers. On top of that, the engineering program at Saint Mary’s University is only a two-year program (with the other two years being completed at Dal), meaning that a majority of the Engineering society’s members graduate rather quickly, producing a large turnover in members. I asked the executives about their current membership, to which they said: “The SMU engineering program is only a 2-year program, meaning that generally students only serve for a single year in the executive. Given that last year we saw very little in terms of society engagement given the circumstances, the executive this year is almost entirely new students, and we're pretty well starting from scratch in terms of membership and engagement.”

Like many other students, the executives that I had the chance to correspond with will be returning to campus and in-person classes for the fall semester. However, since Saint Mary’s will still be offering online classes for those students who cannot return to campus, this creates a unique problem for executives. Do they hold meetings and events in person, online, or have hybrid type meetings? I asked the executives what their plans are for the fall, and they replied that “most of the executives plan to be on campus for this coming academic year. The society will plan to include both in-person and virtual events so that all students can get involved, though we will focus on in-person events as long as public health measures allow”

While on the topic of events, I asked the executives if they had any plans to attend the Fall Societies Fair, granted SMUSA and Public Health directives allow one to happen this year. I also asked them if they had any events planned for September, or if there were any events they wanted to promote. 

With regard to the Fall Societies Fair, the executives said: “Yes, the society is looking to attend the fair. [If there isn’t one,] we will also be reaching out to all engineering students via email to promote the society and recruit new members.”

As for events the society has planned for the return to campus in the fall, the executives said: “[The society] plans on holding a small engineering competition in the first week of classes to promote the society and get first year students involved.”

It was a pleasure getting to connect with the Engineering Society executives and I wish them the best for this coming semester. I would also like to thank them again for being so accommodating and welcoming. If any other society executives would like to be interviewed for a future article, feel free to reach out to me at carolee.avery@smu.ca.