Empowering Locally: Jeshna Gupta

From Ada Lovelace, the first programmer, to Edith Clarke, the first female electrical engineering employee and professor, there have been many powerful women who have paved the way for females in STEM.

However, female empowerment in STEM can start locally. Being the Women Mentoring Women in Engineering President, Jeshna Gupta has used her club to encourage girls pursuing engineering careers.

“The essence of the club is creating the first steps of fostering mentorships between students and people in the industry,” Gupta said. “The org is an easy way for students to do it without really having to try themselves because we do that partnership for them. We cover a range of topics from resumes to internships, or what you want to do with your career. The entire thing is just to tell women that they belong in this field.”

Gupta said that she didn’t know what she had to do when she first started as a computer science major.

“I was starting to contemplate my entire life in the second semester of freshman year because like a lot of freshmen already had internships,” Gupta said. “I’ve only been focusing on school because like I thought that’s all you needed in college. I didn’t know you needed to do extracurriculars and stuff like that. I was clueless about what I was supposed to be doing here. I felt like I couldn’t do STEM anymore.”

She said a professor told her to figure out what she was passionate about. After COVID hit, she became more involved.

“That was when I stepped up everything,” Gupta said. “I tried for ACM projects, I joined WMWE as a mentee, and I joined the Society of Women Engineers as a committee member. That’s when I also gained so many mentors.”

She became an Industry Chair for SWE later on, and she now connects with companies to organize events. Gupta said the old president of WMWE pushed her to start making those connections and reaching out. She is excited to be president, she said, to be able to do that for other girls.

“One of the girls in her junior year hasn’t had an internship before,” Gupta said. “The only thing that was missing was how to speak for her job and present her abilities. It’s one thing to have abilities, but it is another thing to present yourself as having those abilities. I feel like she’s just opened up so much more as a person because of this club, and she has two job offers now with pretty big companies.”