Engineering Leadership Summit

BY WILLIAM MANN

Over the weekend from March 22-24, a select delegation of Dalhousie engineering students attended the Atlantic Council of Engineering Students Leadership Summit in Wolfville, NS. The summit was an excellent networking opportunity as Dalhousie students met and learned about leadership with engineering students from across the Atlantic provinces. Delegates also had the chance to experience the town of Wolfville and student life at Acadia University.

There were a variety of interesting sessions about leadership and professionalism at the summit, including “People Management” with John Blake and “Environmental Stewardship” with Cameron Ells. In these sessions, delegates learned about ways to expand their perception of engineering with industry professionals. In particular, Dal students recalled that the session about “Leadership Accountability” with Diane Ingraham gave students a new perspective on the different ways to be an engineer.

Another intention behind the conference was to further the work of the Atlantic Council of Engineering students in which Dal students played a substantial role. At meetings with the elected representatives of other Atlantic engineering schools on Saturday, Dalhousie VP Externals Will Mann (DES) and Brian Budd (DUES) proposed ideas to get more Dal students involved in the Atlantic organizations and furthering their ability to attend conferences. On Sunday, they got to pass resolutions on these subjects at the General Assembly.

First and second year Dal students also got to meet with students from Associated Universities like St. Mary’s and Acadia who feed into Dalhousie’s engineering program after completing their first two years of engineering at their respective universities. Social events like Saturday’s banquet and an outing to The Anvil on Friday furthered the Dalhousie delegates’ opportunities to meet and socialize with future classmates. Delegates also got a taste of Acadian student life by living in their campus residence for the weekend and eating at their meal halls as well as a local Farmer’s Market, where they tried dishes such as locally made pasta and breakfast sandwiches with exclusively local ingredients.

Dalhousie is hosting this conference next year, so attending it gave us the valuable opportunity to look at ways to improve it and make it uniquely Dalhousie. Ted Stuart, an ELS delegate this year and next year’s conference chair says, “If run properly, I believe this conference has the ability to inspire students from all across Atlantic Canada to be leaders on campus, off campus, and in their Eng Soc.” He adds, “Three of the current Atlantic Canadian society presidents right now were inspired by this conference to rise up and be strong leaders this year.” This conference was an excellent opportunity for current Dalhousie students and with our campus’ strong leadership it will be even better next year.