Wendy Weeks

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Slide - 50 Years, 50 Voices - Wendy Weeks - 00:00
My name is Wendy Weeks and I attended UPEI from 1982 to 1985, to achieve my
diploma in Engineering, and I currently work in UPEI as Business Process
and Technology Change Manager, with ITSS and the Atlantic Veterinary
teaching hospital.


Slide - Why UPEI? - 00:24 
So I grew up in PEI and went to Colonel Gray and it was just very natural
for me to go to UPEI. One of the professors of engineering, Don Gillis,
came to our school and talked about engineering as a profession and I was
you know, not really one of these people that said "I wanna be this" but
the idea of applied science appealed to me, so that's kind of how I decided
to come here, and I also played volleyball here and worked at the local
Pizzeria Little Christo's down the street where Dino's is now and so had a
very busy time during my three years here at UPEI.


Slide - A Family University - 01:06 
My mom and dad both went to Prince of Wales, which is now Holland College
and that's where they met, so they didn't attend here Saint Dunstan's they
did secretarial and book-keeping and met one from the east and one from the
kind of, midwest of the Island, Fredericton and New Perth, coming together
in Charlottetown. My two brothers went here, my brother Blair did his
graduate his bachelor's degree here and then went on to get his Master's in
Kingston, and my brother, Doug, did a sociology degree and then later on
life got his teaching degree here.


Slide - The Next Generation - 01:44 
My daughter Meghan attended here, so that kind of brought me back I brought
her over, we were living in New Brunswick at the time in Quispamsis and she
decided she was trying to get away from us and come here to do a chemistry
degree but we followed her! so we actually moved back to the Island the
same time she came over and she did her honor's Chemistry here and
graduated five or six years ago so that brought me back for sure and coming
to the University, dropping her off and you know and just being around was
always great, like there's nothing like walking across the campus when it's
not blowing wind you know, when it's beautiful weather like today and stuff
like that, and it's such a beautiful campus that it was always nice to come
and I would go in and I'd sit in her computer lab and where she was working
on Computational Chemistry and stuff like that and just kind of get that
feeling being young again and at school.


Slide - Experiential Learning - 02:48 
When we were going through it was very much "book learning" that we did we
didn't do a lot of hands-on, we had labs with with physics and things like
that and some computer training or whatever but the school that we have
here now is really getting the engineers off the computer and off the desk
and out doing stuff and working with industry on projects that are near and
dear to the heart and real development projects that can you know provide
great results working out with the industry and you know, we would never
touch a 3D printer or something machining only the the text would be
allowed to do that back in my day so now it's you know, widened it up, I
think the experience is just so much more practical for engineers, you know
so it's not just book learning and trying to talk with the text and who
knew all the practical stuff it's bridging that gap between them so that
they all understand the reality as opposed to the design.


Slide - Influential Professors and Mentors - 03:57 
Sorry Professor Don Gillis and Professor McEwen, Don McEwen the two Don’s
were huge obviously and of course, Barry Judson who just passed last year
they were big influences, they taught us pretty much all of our engineering
courses and they knew us right from the get-go. Don McEwen has a picture of
a bunch of the girls I think we were six or so doing a little bit of a
chorus line dance up in his office that he wants to get a copy to me of but
it was very, very tight knit community, you know, they were there for us to
you know, whatever we needed, so they are they were great mentors.


Slide - Study Hard, Play Hard - 04:39 
As engineers we had to work really hard though because our course load was
a little bit stronger than most we had to take 6 and 5 courses each
semester, so 11 courses each year with lots of labs and homework and
assignments so as a group, we studied together over in the basement of
Duffy, so the two rooms that engineers were in, down in the basement, we
basically lived in there together. We would play crib together, we would
study together, assignments, hang out, all of that kind of stuff so it
became like a second home.


Slide - Engineering Hijinks - 05:14 
Engineers rule was the common phrase and the throw down so but when we went
out and had fun you know we tried to have a good time. In my third year we
had a group of the guys in the class who came to school for Halloween with
carved pumpkins on their heads, so that was quite fun and it was kind of
like, you know, name the person through you know with the pumpkin head so
anyway, we decided we'd go for a walk downtown we got our picture taken
here on campus which is in, actually in the magazine way way back in it
would've been 1985 or ‘84, we are in the cover of the UPEI magazine and
then we wandered down the street and we headed into CBC and the guys got to
be the background of the weather report and we got free fries and burgers
at Burger King and then we kept going and we went to see the mayor and we
talked to the mayor about free tuition for all pumpkin heads so yeah, those
were kind of the crazy pranks that we would get into sometimes, yeah.


Slide - A Woman in Engineering - 06:26 
I was lucky because a lot of the guys in my class I had gone to high school
with, so I already had you know bonds and good relationships with them, so
I got along very well. Some of the other girls in the class might've not
fared out quite as well engineers tend to be, you know a little
bit...overly masculine and you know, girls were harder to break in into
that cell and so you know a little bit of teasing, nicknames, that kind of
stuff but luckily for me I didn't really think about it too much at the
time, it kind of became a bigger deal later on in life as I went through my
career but luckily here at UPEI it was very you know, very open to me at
the time, the professors never made feel like I shouldn't be there.


Slide - 30 By 30 Engineers Canada - 07:21 
Women in Engineering Group basically we are part of the mandate for the 30
by 30, which is the Engineers Canada Initiative to help increase the number
of women in the engineering profession from let's say, its 11% currently
across Canada, to 30% by 2030. It's a pretty lofty goal, we are really
finding it difficult to get the message out the best way that's occurring
is, I think, by reaching back into elementary school children, and the
girls in grades 10 and 11 so again, our [unknown] from FSDE has 'Progress
Girls' program that she does, where girls from grades 10-11, come and do,
practically internships through the summer with the School of Design and as
well, we do the 'Go Girls' Engineering Day, where girls from the same age
group come in and spend the day at school, and do some projects and things
and learn more about engineering, and we talk with the parents and let them
understand what engineering is because unless you have an engineer in the
family most girls, especially, don't know what engineering is they see the
civil guy out in the construction site the hardhat on and then the level
and that's what they picture but they don't realize there's disciplines
within engineering, like there are with doctors, specialties and things
like that. And we are finding that the young girls are drawn to
environmental engineering or biomedical where they are helping that way
people that way, not just building things or dealing with bridges and that
kind of thing so there's definitely information, and knowledge that's
needed to make them understand that there's a wide variety of engineers and
possible career paths. So we spent a lot of time with the group, networking
with the female engineers in PEI so we can get together and be mentors for
each other and share experiences and we also make sure that we also get
involved in the 'Bricks for Kids' which Amber Jadis does, where she teaches
camps in the summer or does PD days and teaches them about engineering, and
support all of those groups and will come and talk to the girls about our
experiences and our careers and how they developed and changed over time to
really kind of, make them understand that this could be a viable career
path for them as well.


Slide - Final Thoughts - 10:06 
Well I think it's just growing and growing which is great and the new
climate change addition is just another piece of that puzzle, so I just see
that it's just adapting to the needs of you know, Islanders, it's not a big
university but it is a quality university, and then the life here is great,
the teachers are closer to you, it's not as impersonal as some of the
bigger universities so I think that we discussed that the School of
Engineering is a "niche" school, you know, and we are happy with that idea,
when we talk about it at Engineers PEI out at council that's a great thing
that you know, it may not be the idea that they are running be able to go
to a bigger university but we are you know, we are providing a quality
experience here that people can't necessarily get at the bigger
universities.