HOW IT BEGAN
The Guelph Engineering Leadership program was launched in 2020, with the motivation to educate and empower students in leadership and to provide leadership opportunities to all interested students. Catherine Dang, a 4th year engineering student at the time, was extensively involved in student leadership and the Engineering Society throughout her undergraduate education. Catherine said she “felt very lucky to have so many opportunities and believed that engineering could only be at its best and most impactful with good, foundational leadership.”
Based on her experience, Catherine did not like the narrow definition of leadership that seemed to be prevalent, observing that “if you weren’t extroverted and loved speaking in front of crowds, people would question your leadership capabilities.” This view highlighted only one type of leader and that leadership opportunities were not always accessible, inclusive, or even attractive to all types of students. Catherine’s main goal at the end of the day was to paint a more inclusive image of leadership. Instead of being exclusive to charismatic presenters with impressive titles, leadership is about having a good set of core values and knowing how to effectively mobilize them.
At the same time, Professor John Donald had established a graduate level course in Engineering Leadership and was looking for opportunities to provide broadly accessible leadership learning experiences to undergraduate students. The idea that emerged was to create a co-curricular engineering leadership program in the School of Engineering. Working with interested students and with the support of the School, Catherine and Professor Donald were able to launch the Guelph Engineering Leadership (GEL) program in September 2020.
CORE PRINCIPLES
1. Broadly Accessible
- The GEL Program is available to every student at any level of student leadership.
2. Student Driven
- Our work values and facilitates peer-to-peer connections with emphasis on student-led initiatives.
3. Growth Mindset
- Our work inspires and develops the mindset to value personal and professional growth equally.
4. Promote Non-Technical Skills
- Our work promotes the graduate attributes of Communication Skills, Professionalism, Ethics and Equity, Individual and Teamwork, and Impact of Engineering on Society and the Environment.
5. Fostering Leadership
- Our work promotes engagement in leadership opportunities outside of the GEL community. Establish the mindset that Engineering is a leadership profession.
6. Interdisciplinary Collaboration
- Develop partnerships external to GEL that align with the program values and mission by offering students the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration.
PROGRAM STRUCTURE
The engineering leadership workshops are designed, developed, delivered, and facilitated by Guelph Engineering students. GEL offers 6 co-curricular workshops over the fall and winter semesters, and successful completion of the program leads to a certificate of participation from the School of Engineering (SOE). The program has a unique structure that highly engages students as both leaders and participants at three levels. First in coordinating and delivering the program, second in participation as facilitators of the workshop, and third, as participants in the workshops themselves. The intent is for engineering students to begin to identify engineering as leadership profession. The leadership topics are contextualized to engineering and span the leadership domains of self, team, organization, and society.
2020-2021 GEL YEAR 1
Starting in September 2020, the GEL program team developed and delivered six co-curricular online workshops over the fall 2020 and winter 2021 semesters. Click here to see the GEL team for 2020-21.
The GEL workshops delivered in the 2020-21 offering were:
1. Personal Values & Self Leadership.
2. Becoming a Productive Leader.
3. Professional Development Conference
4. What is Engineering Leadership?
5. Technological Stewardship and UN Sustainability Goals (with University of Waterloo)
6. Developing Your Personal Brand (with the Lang School of Business)
In the 2020-2021 GEL offering, partnerships included the Professional Development Conference, the University of Waterloo, and the Lang School of Business. These partnerships aligned with the program values and mission by offering students the opportunity to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration. These partnerships were well-received as students enjoyed the opportunity to network outside of the School of Engineering. In addition to that, the GEL team also connected, in the form of interviews, with Guelph engineering alumni that were currently working in STEM related professions and at various stages of their career to gain valuable insights on leadership.
The 2021-2022 program was highly successful, with approximately 200 students from across all years and engineering programs participating in at least one workshop, and over 100 students completing the program and receiving certificates.
YEAR 1 TESTIMONIALS
“My key takeaway from the workshop was that you must learn to lead yourself before others. Taking the time to organize your values allows one to see to potential consequences and gains of their actions. It provides a chance to reflect, and to understand what your drive is behind your aspirations. This workshop allowed me not only to work on better understanding my own path, but other paths that people are taking.”
3rd YEAR BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT
“I found that the workshop allowed to more deeply understand myself and my own leadership style. This knowledge is something that I’ll be able to tailor my future endeavors around, and instead of trying to conform to what other people may be doing in terms of leadership, I now better understand that everyone has different styles of leadership, and each and every one of them can work even though they’re all different.”
1ST YEAR COMPUTER ENGINEERING STUDENT
CONTACT US
Website: www.gel.uoguelph.ca
Instagram: @gel.uog
LinkedIn: Guelph Engineering Leadership Program
Email: gelinfo@uoguelph.ca
