Ladies In Tech Mentoring Program SWE UTD
In the past year, the Society of Women Engineers at UT Dallas introduced a new program called the Ladies in Tech Mentoring Program. In a collaborative effort with Women Who Compute, SWE has worked to assist underclassmen to navigate through college and their respective fields of study.
SWE president and mentor Medha Aiyah said LITMP creates an inclusive environment by showing younger girls that other women in technology have experienced similar situations. Currently, the program has a total of 30 mentor-mentee pairings.
“It’s really cool to be a mentor in the program and see it happening for the first time this year,” Aiyah said. “In fact, my mentee was able to get an internship at Collins Aerospace as a software engineer intern. She’s also now going to be a WEHack officer. It’s cool how she’s able to find and be active in a community virtually and how it’s helping her future in the right direction.”
LITMP also provides opportunities to gain new skills through Creations, a subprogram in which pairs can work on a hardware or software project together. Aiyah and her mentee, with another mentor-mentee pair, are working to create a portfolio website.
“It teaches them the different React libraries and teaches them how to develop something,” Aiyah said. “It is also a tangible website that they can use even during internship hunting. It really helps them grow even more. They can use it for their own benefit and the future.”
LITMP is a year-round program, and mentors and mentees are advised to talk weekly to check in with each other. Computer science freshman and mentee Alekhya Pinnamaneni said she joined because she thought it would be helpful, especially in the online learning environment, to be involved on campus. She said she was nervous to meet her mentor, computer science junior and SWE Marketing Committee Member Vamika Chatlani.
“She was super, super friendly and it was really easy to talk to her, so that made me feel a lot better,” Pinnamaneni said. Now, she gives me a lot of advice with what clubs to join and how to prepare for internships and the next few years of college. We also talk about a lot of personal stuff, and I can relate to her a lot. I thought it would be really professional, but she’s actually like a really good friend and someone I really enjoy talking to.”
Chatlani said Pinnamaneni wanted to make more friends, but it was difficult due to the pandemic. Through the program, Chatlani was able to guide her mentee in the right direction.
“It’s definitely going to be kind of weird trying to make friends online because everyone’s busy and a lot of the time [online messaging is] for homework help, but she would just have to try to stay persistent and make sure she goes to events,” Chatlani said. “I’m also in the Freshman Mentor Program. I have a mentee there too who is also a CS student, so I hooked them up. I think she’s more comfortable in reaching out for help.”
Pinnamaneni said that the contact Chatlani provided was really helpful. However, the mentee is not the only one who benefits from the program.
“Having a mentee is like having someone I’m responsible for, so it helps me be more responsible,” Chatlani said. “Before this year, I didn’t have a schedule, so I just did things when I needed to be done. If you have a mentee, you need to have a schedule because you have to make sure you catch up with them and make sure they’re doing okay. You need to kind of be on top of things if you’re going to be a mentor.”
Pinnamaneni said she would recommend this program to other freshmen and sophomores.
“It’s really nice to have someone who you can go to for advice and support, not just related to computer science and academics, but even just someone to talk to about anything,” Pinnameneni said. “It’s really nice to talk to other women in the same field as you because you don’t really see that a lot in the classroom. It’s nice to know that there are other people in the same position as you, and you can relate to them and they can be there for support.”
If you want to learn more about the Ladies in Tech Mentoring Program, visit utdlitmp.com.
If you are interested in participating in the program, mentor applications will be opening in May, and mentee applications will open in the fall.