July 23, (THEWILL) – The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), Calabar Chapter, has charged female students to embrace engineering, saying the profession is not meant for only males.
Chairman of the Calabar Chapter of the association, Engr. Justina John Ulafor, gave the advice in Calabar during a one-day public lecture organised by APWEN themed: “She Engineer and Digitalization,” which also featured scholarship awards and recognitions.
Engr. Justina said the core value of the organisation is to encourage the girl child to take up the profession, adding that the association is also doing more sensitisation to bridge the gap.
“Our core value is to encourage our girls to become like us and some of the ways are the activities we undertake. We have done our STEM exams to see how we can encourage the girl child students in secondary schools to do the exams.
“We want to bridge the gap through what we are doing, encouraging the girl child to do science by taking up a career in engineering.
“For others, who are already engineers, we encourage them to stay put through a mentorship programme and capacity building in entrepreneurship because an engineer is supposed to be an entrepreneur,” she said.
Speaking during the public lecture, she said APWEN needed a situation whereby as engineers, they should know what digitalisation is, as it is more than what they thought before now.
She added that the purpose is to open members’ eyes to go further to know and start doing things digitally.
Also speaking, Engr. Faith Edu, the incoming Chairman of APWEN, said the mission of the association is to “encourage the girl child towards pursuing a career in engineering and breaking stereotypes.”
She insisted that engineering is a career women can excel in, adding that many women are breaking limits in the profession, so they are out to catch them young.
On her part, Engr. Minika Effiom said it’s not true that engineering is meant for only males, encouraging young girls to embrace the profession and show what they can do in the midst of men.
The high points of the programme were the presentation of a public lecture by Engr. Dr. Mary Ann O. Ezugwu, FNSE, as well as the presentation of scholarship awards to the top three students, who excelled in the STEM exams.
The association also presented a meritorious award to Engr. U.B. Ekong, Engr. Ross Ekpenyong, Engr Joseph Ukpata and Engr Desmond Ewa.
Similarly, Sermatech Construction Company also received a meritorious award for supporting the association.
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
