WiE FYE course provides support and community building
When Kaitlyn Omans opened her email one December day in 2025, the email of her dreams was waiting: an acceptance to The Walt Disney Company’s industrial engineering intern program for summer and fall 2026.
The opportunity wasn’t one Omans considered possible when choosing engineering as a career path.
Then alum after alum came into Omans’ 2025 Women in Engineering (WiE) ENGR 19400 (WiE Seminar) class, talking about the paths they had taken to high-achieving, unique and fulfilling careers. Some alums had “engineering” in their titles. Some were business owners or government roles. Some had gone in entirely different directions but still used the skills engineering had taught them.
And most didn’t involve what Omans assumed engineering was: manufacturing.
“My biggest fear was sticking to the traditional path,” Omans said. “Seeing all these examples of engineers in different careers going all these non-traditional different paths was super important and cool for me.”
ENGR 194, offered by the Women in Engineering Program, exposes new Purdue engineering students to a multitude of professional skills, alum stories, and on-campus communities through a constant rotation of guest speakers and a team of instructors and teaching assistants (TAs). TAs, who aid in teaching content and in grading first-year engineering (FYE) student work, are assigned to various table groups to help answer any questions an FYE student might have.
In addition to the scheduled class times in one large group, TAs lead workshops for smaller groups of students which provide blueprints for succeeding at Purdue.
Omans gravitated toward industrial engineering — she came to West Lafayette, Indiana, with it in mind — and credited ENGR 194 with exposing her to the endless possibilities of engineering. And to a “more social engineering career” that the collaborative, extraverted part of Omans would thrive in.
“It's such an important class to take,” Omans said. “It's not just learning about the different types of engineering. It's to build that sense of community, to see examples of strong engineering alums who are in the field and who have all their unique experiences that they've been through and learn from each one of those.”
Omans also found that she could let her guard down in ENGR 194. She could have rough days, struggle with assignments and complain about how cold Indiana winter was to a table full of supportive FYE peers. Often, at least one other classmate would resonate with what Omans shared.
Those few minutes of laughter before class started made the difference between giving up for the day and keeping engaged in the rest of her courses, Omans said. And why she became a TA for ENGR 194 for the fall 2025 semester.
“It’s easy to get wrapped up your feelings, but struggling is not the end-all, be-all. You have to get back up in college, and you use your resources and your friends to help you do that.”
Part of being a TA, in Omans’ opinion, is having a happy attitude and a smile for the FYE students, just like hers did for her. Because the transition to college can be a lot and a bright smile might be just what they need to keep going.
“College is about learning how much you are as a person just as much as it is about your academic success,” Omans said. “You’re allowed to be vulnerable, ask questions and be anxious. My TAs were huge advocates for allowing yourself to be imperfect.”
That was a relief for Margaret Strand to hear. Strand, an FYE student from Dallas, came to college with a desire to reinvent herself from a shy and quiet student to a boisterous, social, innovative and involved engineer. Surely that would take some trial and error, and having familiar faces in ENGR 194 made the growing process a little more bearable.
“I had a lot of like anxieties last semester about not being a good enough engineer or a good enough student,” Strand said. “Knowing I have a whole group of students who are in the same boat, helped me see that I’m not the only one who’s worried about being great.”
ENGR 194 provided a fun glimpse of Strand’s future in engineering. The support of Strand’s ENGR 194 TAs has helped her find new opportunities and constantly learn new and exciting things. Her positive experience with ENGR 194 even inspired Strand to consider being a TA in the future, ready to share her own experiences and provide support for incoming FYE students.
