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My name is Bridgette Wadge, and I am a fourth year majoring in Mechanical Engineering and pursuing a minor in Community Outreach Education. I am also the current Treasurer for our campus’s section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE), and I teach freshman students as a TA in our Fundamentals of Engineering Honors program. I have been involved with initiatives within the College of Engineering Office of Diversity, Outreach and Inclusion (DOI) since my first semester on campus, and they have consistently helped me to succeed at Ohio State. When I arrived on campus, I was unsure of exactly where I would fit and how I would feel comfortable in a degree program that proportionally is pursued by many more men than women. The DOI office has helped me to feel more at home within the College of Engineering, to recognize the power of my individual perspective and voice, and to see the impact that outreach and inclusion efforts have within our campus community and beyond.
As an underclassman, I believed that a lack of female representation was the most glaring issue in the engineering community. I joined the Society of Women Engineers at my first involvement fair and have since worked with the DOI office staff and my fellow SWE officers to promote women in engineering and to create a sense of advocacy and understanding between male and female students across the college. Programs such as the Women in Engineering efforts that the DOI staff lead have supported me and countless other female students – both financially through scholarships and academically and professionally with various campus initiatives. These efforts make us feel like we belong in a space that many people still struggle to picture women in.
I have realized over the last two years, however, that an even gender ratio is not the only form of inclusion and equality engineers should be working toward. As a TA and through my minor program’s coursework, I have realized that not everyone learns the same way, even though many college classes still follow traditional methods. The DOI office helps students adjust academically to collegiate life and helps them find methods and learning environments that help them excel in their unique situations. Even more importantly, many DOI programs focus on supporting our students of color at the collegiate and K-12 levels. As a white woman, I did not realize until recently the extent and importance of this branch of the DOI office’s work, nor did I recognize all the struggles these students face in our academic community that are far greater than my own. The DOI office has directed programs that can help these students feel a sense of belonging that they may otherwise lack in Ohio State’s engineering community.
We are experiencing a moment in which many people (myself included) are just beginning to grasp the full meaning of terms such as diversity, outreach and inclusion, all of which are broad terms that hold deep, personal meaning to a wide range of individuals. The DOI office is committed to helping the College of Engineering recognize what these words mean to our students in order to create opportunities that improve the social climate of our college and better the educational experience of all students. My Ohio State experience has been transformed by the kindness and the programming that stems from this office, but there are many students that are in even more need of the support that the DOI initiatives provide. As our college, university and community rethink and redefine priorities surrounding diversity and inclusion, support for these initiatives and these students will be more important than ever before.
