When Christina Visser, the founding president of the Sudbury chapter of WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) talks about when the organization had its first meeting, she refers to the “Dark Ages.”

Visser, a project engineer at Ionic Engineering, is referring to the late 1990s when women engineers working in Sudbury were few and far between.

WISE was formed as a networking (and support group) for women who were working in male-dominated fields such as engineering, sciences, trades, and technologies.
Over the past decade, these women are no longer considered anomalies, but they are still trailblazers.

The WISE women hold several events each year to encourage girls (and boys) to consider SETT careers (science, engineering, trades or technologies).

This year the Community Builders judges are awarding WISE the Excellence in Education Award.

In the fall, before teens have to fill out their applications for university, WISE holds an engineering information night for male and female students in Grades 11 and 12 and their parents.

“Part of the reason we have included boys and girls in high school (is) we think it is important for them to see both women and men working together as engineers, “ says Visser.
For the past nine years, WISE has also hosted a Science and Engineering Olympics for girls in Grades 4 to 7. This is a fun day for 120 girls to learn about engineering and science by competing as teams in hands-on activities.

“It was a success from the start,” says Visser.

“It is always full, and now we have waiting lists. It is a fun day,” says Donna Beneteau, who co-ordinates the event, and was the president of WISE in 2006.

Examples of Olympic activities include making bath balls or lip gloss (chemical engineering), obstacle courses (efficiency and safety) mining chocolate chips out of cookies (mining); and making a 30 second video on the environment.

There is a game show during the lunch break called Who Wants to be WISE, based on the television show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

Winning teams win gold, silver or bronze medals and all participants are given a WISE mascot, a stuffed owl.

This year the Science and Engineering Olympics will be held Saturday, April 26 at Collège Boréal.

In April 2006 WISE and its community partner Workforce Partnerships Board were provided with a $25,000 government grant through the Ontario Women’s Directorate to create a website which would be targetted at young people considering SETT careers.

The writers surveyed Grade 9 and 10 students to get an idea of what kind of information to include on the website.

The site profiles more than 60 male and female role models.

Although the target group is students in Grades 7 through 12, it is of interest to anyone seeking information about these career choices.

Also included on the site is a list of all the possible SETT careers, wage information and educational requirements. There are also facts about Sudbury and a list of Northern Ontario cities and towns.

Sharon Murdock, executive director of the Sudbury & Manitoulin Workforce

Partnerships Board (WPB), says her organization has had a long and productive association with WISE.

“WISE is an active partner in the annual Women of the Future conference...a day of interactive workshops and experiences for Grade 9 and 10 girls who are ‘hard to motivate’,” she says. “We always rely on WISE for a workshop and a booth where girls can build their self-esteem as well as learn how important it is to maintain their maths and sciences while in school.”

WISE volunteers are also often asked to speak at school career days and participate in science fairs and at Laurentian University’s GoEngGirl.

WISE members tell anecdotes about people who approach them in grocery stores or elsewhere and say they were influenced by attending a WISE event.

Although the success of WISE has not been officially monitored, the current president of WISE, Rebecca Winters is a mining engineer with FNX Mining.

She is one of the people who attended one of WISE’s first job shadowing events back in the dark ages.

And there is no better testimony to WISE’s success as that. For more information, visit wisecareers.ca/WISESudbury