Read a special interview of IEEE Region 8 Outstanding WIE Student Affinity Group of the Year Award winner: WIE Yeditepe University AG, Turkey.

A group of passionate, dedicated and talented members who were never afraid to put all their hearts and souls into their WIE affinity group. Who also demonstrated an outstanding dedication to promoting women engineers and scientists combined with a high level of awareness.

Their ultimate goal is to be “ THE BEST OF THE BEST”. Ambition, Strong Will and a lot of hard work led WIE Yeditepe University AG to be  The recipient of the prestigious award “Region 8 Outstanding WIE Student Affinity Group of the Year Award”.

Our readers are certainly curious to know their secret, whether you are planning to apply or you are simply as inspired as we are about this achievement, this article is for you. This article summarizes an interview with WIE Yeditepe University AG.

Can you tell us a bit about the impact you had that led to you winning the Award for Region 8 Outstanding WIE Student Affinity Group of the Year Award?

We never lost our hope. We studied hard and sacrificed a lot, as we believed we would be reaping the fruits of our labor sooner or later. Our families and consultant teachers were very much supportive throughout our journey. They never lost hope in us, so neither did we. You could say that we were pretty stubborn to get some results. But in the end, with this reward, we finally got what we worked hard for.

This was such an unforgettable and accomplishing experience for us. And for that we would like to thank you, you made us happier than ever.

What is the greatest advantage you feel you gained through your membership?

Of course we’ve learned many new things, gotten so much new and exciting experience out of working with WIE. But we think the most important thing we’ve learned thanks to our membership so far was learning how to work efficiently and keeping things under control even under immense pressure; because of course we want our time at the event to be fun, we don’t want any problems to surface during this productive time. That is why we felt like we were always on a knife’s edge. But even then, if a problem were to occur, we would be the ones that were supposed to go and fix that problem.

All in all that’s the reason why we had to learn how to stay cold blooded. So we guess this is the most important trait WIE gifted us in our time with them: keeping our cool under stress.

What advice you like to share to other Student affinity groups planning to apply for the award next year?

We’d say they should work their hardest. They should never lose their hopes and beliefs, ever. By the time they even briefly think about giving up, they lost. One must always be optimistic, always believe in themselves. Nothing ever gets done without pushing your limit, without sweat and blood. They should be stubborn and most importantly, they should never throw in the towel.

Before we applied for the award, we didn’t even have a consultant teacher! We had to go through all of our teachers at our school, one by one, asking them to be our consultant but we got rejected by all of them. But that is the thing. The thing is we never stopped looking and that ambition is what got us our dear advisor teacher.

In summary; one must always believe that if they wear their fingers to the bone, they will accomplish their objectives. You simply cannot surrender or it is certain you won’t meet your goals. If you just keep at it, there is no doubt you’ll make it in the end.

What are your future plans? 

We will continue setting up events around our school of course. Our primary objective is to make a name for ourselves by achieving the highest status amongst our school’s organizations, later amongst other WIE’s in Turkey. We’ll have to work up a sweat for sure, but I’m hundred percent certain it will be worth it. Even now, we are thinking hard on what we can achieve next by the time our semester starts.

If we were to keep it short, we want to make our name known; we as a group don’t want to be just good. We want to be the best of the best. The spearhead of the movement so to speak. That’s what we’ll be working on this year.

I hope this article was useful and inspired you to apply for the second edition of IEEE Region 8 Women in Engineering Awards. We are looking forward to hearing from you.

Ayed Mariem Mariem Ayed.