There are very few spaces on campus where I can walk in, exhale, and feel like myself without thinking about it.
For me, the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is that space.
SWE isn’t about competition. It’s not about comparison. It’s not about who’s doing the most or who’s ahead. It’s just people who share an experience and choose to show up for each other anyway.
In a lot of my classes, I feel like I have to be “on” all the time. Confident. Assertive. Proving that I belong. Engineering classrooms don’t always leave a lot of room to be soft or unsure or quiet. Sometimes it feels like I have to be a version of myself that’s sharper, louder, more traditionally “professional.”
SWE is where I get to turn that off.
It’s a space where we giggle. Where we paint, craft, talk, and exist without pressure. Where no one is judging how much you know, what you’re wearing, or how productive you’ve been lately. It’s a space that lets me feel like a girl in a world where I’m expected to be “a man” in class 24/7.
And the thing is — I don’t always feel like going.
There are nights when I’m tired, overwhelmed, or just not in the mood to be social. But I go anyway. And every single time, I leave happier than when I arrived. More relaxed. Lighter.
I leave with my shoulders unclenched.
There’s something incredibly grounding about being in a room full of women who understand you without explanation. Who know what it’s like to sit in classrooms where you’re one of the few. Who know what it’s like to balance ambition with exhaustion, confidence with doubt.
SWE, and the women at Stevens, remind me that community doesn’t have to be intense to be meaningful. Sometimes it’s just showing up, doing something cute, and letting yourself exist without expectations.
And in a world that constantly asks women in STEM to prove themselves, that kind of space matters more than we talk about.
So my call to you is go, go to SWE, EmpowerHER, Stevens Women in CS (SWiCs), Stevens Women in Business (SWIB) whatever org you identify with – because I know you will leave feeling better than you walked in.