‘Purdue Pursuits’ Advising a student organization

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2022Oct 5

Virginia Booth WomackVirginia Booth Womack found her home at Purdue as a student member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). She helped NSBE assemble its first national conference in 1975 and served as the organization’s first female national chair. More than 30 years later, Booth Womack returned to campus and began advising the very same organization that she and her peers had worked so hard to build.“I remember as if it was yesterday,” Booth Womack says of her time as a student. “I was so excited to see students coming to West Lafayette from all over the nation to talk about how we could organize as a student body to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers across the nation. Now we are a global organization with more than 300 chapters.”Booth Womack, director of the Minority in Engineering Program (MEP), stepped into her advising role for the Purdue NSBE chapter in 2004. Refusing to let her student success and diversity work stop there, Booth Womack assisted in the establishment of the first Purdue chapter of Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES) in 2009 and still serves as adviser of the chapter. She also offers support to the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. Before her roles at Purdue, Booth Womack worked in industry for nearly two decades as an industrial engineer and an area manager in manufacturing. She focused heavily on manufacturing process improvements and increasing throughput — a concept that she’s found also applies to her current work.“Improving throughput and eliminating waste is important to any manufacturing process,” Booth Womack says. “If 100 engine blocks are placed on an assembly line, the goal is to yield 100% good engines out the door. I think the same way about students. If 100 students are admitted into the First Year Engineering program, of course we want 100 to graduate, but national graduation rates struggle, especially with minoritized students. Searching for the root cause of attrition in engineering is an engineering problem worth solving: How do you use engineering and throughput strategies to improve student success?”As a student organization adviser, Booth Womack sees the power that students have to shape their future through leadership development. Students contribute to each other’s success by forming a family community and holding one another accountable for completing academic requirements. Being an advisor affords the opportunity to help students enhance membership retention, fundraising, program and leadership development and academic excellence. About 'Purdue Pursuits'A variety of programs, workshops, fellowships and trainings are offered to Purdue faculty and staff each semester. All data is taken from the source: http://purdue.edu Article Link: https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/purdu... #Purdue #newsfortoday #newstodayfox #newstodaycnn #newstodaybbc #newstodaydonaldtrump #