11th Annual Young Women’s Engineering Symposium

  • Posted December 11, 2024
Senior Leads and Guest Speakers

By: Shrijani '25 and Mohira '25

Under the leadership of seniors Shrijani '25 and Mohira '25, Notre Dame hosted the 11th annual Young Women's Engineering Symposium (YWES). This transformative event is designed to provide female and non-binary high school students an opportunity to learn from and network with accomplished female leaders across a wide range of engineering disciplines. 

This year's symposium featured five inspirational female speakers: 

  • Lindsey Drone, Data Engineer at NASA Ames Research Center  
  • Lauren Fahey '13, Mechanical Engineer at CalTech 
  • Fanny Frausto, Senior Scientist at Clorox Company
  • Surpiya Madan, Chief Development Officer and Co-Founder at Tsavorite Scalable Intelligence 
  • Diep Vo, Project Lead/Post-Market Quality Engineer at Abbott Laboratories 

Guest Speaker Panel

Through engaging presentations and a Q&A panel, attendees gained valuable takeaways from the speakers' journeys in STEM, including the importance of mentorship, overcoming challenges and learning from failures. Despite their different backgrounds and paths to the STEM field, it was fascinating to note the common themes mentioned throughout the event. 

Guest Speaker Presenation

Many attendees found the event impactful. Annika '27 reflected on her experience and said, "As someone who wants to go into engineering, the YWES was an incredible learning experience. We got to hear from five women in the engineering field who gave great advice from their own experiences that will help us in our own futures." Ananya '27 also noted, "Listening to their stories was truly inspiring, and it provided insight into their journeys and how they found their way into the field of engineering." 

Guest Speaker Presentation

This year's YWES marked over a decade of connecting established figures in STEM with high school students, becoming a key event to inspire future engineers. We would like to thank all the presenters for taking the time to share their experiences and valuable advice with us.