Get psyched everyone – National Engineers Week is here! Last year Tufts revamped the week in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the engineering school. We are keeping the tradition this year by having 7 engineering related events in 7 days! It’s a lot to plan, but I have high hopes for the week. I’m in charge of advertising for the planning committee, so I have been learning Adobe Illustrator and making some pretty cool posters. Check them out!
At each event there will be a ton of opportunities to eat delicious food and win points for your major! In order to include the entire school, the liberal arts Comp Sci and Engineering Psych majors join their respective teams and all other liberal arts students join the liberal arts team. Points are awarded by attending events, participating in an activity, or snapping a selfie in the photo challenge.
The week is very conveniently aligned with when the freshmen engineers declare their major. At this point, most engineers have a general idea of what they will major in because of their special topics elective classes and general engineering requirements. Engineers week is an exciting welcome for them to feel like they have joined a community and earn points for their department. They get to meet other people in their major as part of the process, and there are events geared to helping them learn more about their department. On Monday, there will be an open house for all majors of the engineering school. They reserved every room in Anderson, our main engineering building, for the event! Students and faculty from each department will talk to the freshmen in a very casual setting to answer any questions they may have.
(Please note that even though freshmen engineers have to declare their major, it is easy to redeclare. I did in the beginning of April my freshman year, and some people change even a year later!)
As you can see, this week will be jam packed and it’s a great way to build community in the engineering school. More to come on this once the week is over!