Brown engineering students joined thousands of others from across the nation to attend conferences and conventions associated with the Society of Women Engineers and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers last semester.
These events include career fairs featuring professionals and recruiters from hundreds of companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Disney and government organizations such as the FBI, said Brown chapter leaders of SWE and SHPE.
SWE’s event, the largest in the world for women in engineering and technology, took place from Oct. 23 to 25. Emilia Pantigoso ’26, president of Brown’s SWE chapter, called the national conference “an incredible opportunity.”
Pantigoso stressed the importance of “having that opportunity to be face-to-face with recruiters.” Pantigoso said she acquired her past two internships and her full-time job offer at the SWE conference.
Diversity is crucial in engineering, Pantigoso added. She believes disparities in women’s medical devices and healthcare partially occur when engineering is restricted to “one type of person.”
“Any diversity of perspectives only strengthens solutions,” she said. “It’s so vital to have these conferences, not just for SWE but for all these affinity groups, because we can only make the best solutions when we do it all together.”
SHPE’s convention, which took place from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1, provides a starting point for engineering students to learn how to “maneuver through professionalism” and “build individual skills” that will benefit both their collegiate and professional careers, said Christopher Diaz ’28, vice president of Brown’s SHPE chapter.
The opportunity for students to develop their professional skills is a major benefit of these conferences, Diaz added.
Many members of SHPE are first-generation college students and come from low-income backgrounds, Diaz said. For these members, the professional scene is “completely foreign,” he added.
In difficult, time-intensive concentrations like engineering, it can be easy to lose motivation, Diaz said. “Going to a place like (SHPE’s conference), where you’re seeing other Hispanics, it’s encouraging,” he said. It shows that “we’re really building a name for ourselves in this market, in this country.”
In March, Brown’s chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers will attend a similar conference, said Amelia Allen ’27, the internal vice president of Brown’s NSBE chapter. She added that the conference is “a really unique space.”
There is “something really valuable about getting face-to-face time with professionals who are interested in speaking with you,” Allen said. This is especially true as online applications feel increasingly monitored by artificial intelligence, she added.
Allen and Diaz said that both NSBE and SHPE receive most of the funding to attend these events from the School of Engineering. SHPE sends an average of 15 students each year, and NSBE is planning on sending 16 students to their conference in March. A portion of SWE’s funding comes from the School of Engineering, and from diversity grants, sponsors and “self-fundraising” initiatives, Pantigoso said. In 2025, the club sent 26 students to the national conference.
This year, SWE’s application process to attend the conference was “extremely thorough,” involving three separate rounds of interviews, Pantigoso said.
To attend these conferences, students in Brown’s chapters of SHPE and NSBE are also required to complete applications to be considered by chapter leaders to attend the national conferences. When deciding which students to take, club leaders prioritize upperclassmen and members with prior engagement with the club. Once students are selected, the clubs hold informational sessions to ensure students are adequately prepared.
Sofia Tazi ’26, who attended the conference for the first time this year, said SWE provided valuable support before and during the conference.
“I came in knowing what to expect, which was kind of crazy, because this thing is wild, and it can be very, very easily overwhelming,” Tazi said.
This year, SWE also prioritized international students due to additional challenges they might face in the current job market, Pantigoso said.
Tazi, who is an international student from Morocco, said that one of her reasons for attending the conference was to gauge what the current job market in engineering is like for international students.
She learned that several recruiters were not hiring international students. But despite this “wake-up call,” Tazi said she ultimately gained valuable insight at the conference.
Not only did Tazi make connections to better prepare for her postgraduate plans, but she left the conference with a summer internship.
