Society of Women Engineers
University of Michigan

L-SWE is one of the first organizations in Liberia established to focus on encouraging women to study engineering. Established in 2013 by a group of ten female engineering students from the University of Liberia, the organization has already grown to include over 30 student members from 3 universities in Liberia. Already, the group has carried out an engineering competition for high school girls at a rural school in Liberia, as well as planned numerous other social and academic activities for their female peers when their university is in session. 

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Members from the SWE chapter at the University of Michigan (SWE at UM) have been traveling to Liberia to work with undergraduate Liberian students since 2011, including the L-SWE SUCCESS Annual Leadership Camp (SUCCESS = Setting Up Collegiates for Careers in Engineering through Social Support) in which ten students from SWE at UM travel to Liberia every August to develop engineering leadership and organizational development skills alongside 30 of their Liberian female undergraduate engineering peers. SWE at UM and L-SWE hope to be a model of student-led global partnerships that empower women studying engineering, and to be leaders in developing SWE international student initiatives.

 

You can view more photos of these trips and follow their travels on GradSWE's blog or on Twitter (@gradsweatum) and Instagram (#lsweSUCCESS).