I’m Grace, a sophomore in mechanical engineering. I am currently the Environmental Co-Chair on the Community Service Committee, and last year I was Large Events Fundraising Chair. SWE has been a major part of my college experience from the first week of college when I was introduced to some of the officer board at Quad Day my freshman year. It has helped me grow as a person, meet new people, and it has also provided me with opportunities to connect with companies and expand my network. At WE22, I was first introduced to the company I will be interning for over the summer. At WE Local ‘23, I met with a past SWE president, Stacey DelVecchio, who shared some amazing life advice and was very enthusiastic about SWE opportunities.

I wanted to share what a day in the life of a SWE chair looks like for anyone interested in becoming a chair themselves, or maybe they are curious about the University of Illinois and what it’s like to be an engineering major.

My day started off as any typical Thursday: doing homework and checking emails. I like to start my mornings by being productive so I don’t have as much work to do later. Before classes, I walked over to the SWOffice to get an Engineering Semi Formal ticket and talk with some of my SWEsters. To my surprise, there were leftover bagels from a coffee chat that morning! The SWOffice is truly a magical place.

My first class of the day was ME 330 (Engineering Materials). The course goes over strengthening materials, hardness, heat treatment techniques, behavior of materials based on composition, etc. It’s a pretty interesting course, and the labs usually involve testing a lot of materials until failure.

Once ME 330 was over, it was time to make the trek to the Foreign Languages Building for “French Food for Thought,” a gen ed. In this course, we discuss French cuisine and its influence on the world. Every week, my professor brings in a different French snack for us to try, and this was cronut day. A cronut is a mix between a croissant and a donut. It was delicious.

My next class was a discussion over Zoom, so I went back to my room to join the call. The course is MATH 442 (Partial Differential Equations). We completed discussion questions in the breakout rooms and ended early. I had a 30 minute break before my last class, so I decided to walk over to ISR for lunch.

My last class of the day is Women’s Glee Club, the University’s treble choir. Similar to SWE Illinois, this group is huge and powerful, and we even have some fellow SWEsters! We are currently preparing for our Mom’s weekend concert where we will perform pieces centered around Women’s Suffrage and empowering women.

After classes, it was time to head over to the SWE March GM/Elections. We had Shawarma Joint catered, which was delicious, especially the falafels. It was great to hear the candidates talk about their plans for next year. I’m really excited for the future of SWE.

I then left and went to the Armory for a cappella rehearsal. My group, Unified Voices, was starting to learn “Don’t Blame Me” by Taylor Swift. This was perfect timing because Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour just kicked off last weekend!

When rehearsal was over, I made my way back to the Mechanical Engineering Laboratory to work on the Engineering Open House project for Women in MechSE. This year, we are doing a pulley demo to give the user “the strength of She-Hulk.” At 9 pm, we were outside spray painting the wooden frame green and purple to fit the theme. It got done rather quickly with about seven of us helping out. We let it dry for a bit and called it a night.

I concluded my night in the Jackson Innovation Studio in the Mechanical Engineering Building. I met with some friends and we worked on homework, lab reports, design projects, or whatever else we needed to get done on a Thursday.