Board Profile
Julayne Moser
A Hoosier With ‘Pride in Our Product’
Julayne Moser is the director of graduate programs in the Purdue University School of Mechanical Engineering, overseeing more than 600 students. “We’re a small community college by ourselves!” Born and raised in Southern Indiana, she earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees (in psychology and higher education administration, respectively) at Indiana University. She’s worked with Purdue for the past 32 years as an administrator. Though she started out in the liberal arts at Purdue, “for 95 percent of that time, I’ve been in engineering.”
In charge of everything from admissions to graduation, Moser reviews applications, advises students, and runs qualifying exams. She also finds innovative ways to connect graduate students with special programs and opportunities through the graduate student association and collaborations with universities abroad. “We take great pride in our ‘product,’ that being students,” she says.
Moser began working with ASEE’s winter Conference for Industry and Education Collaboration (CIEC) eight years after starting at Purdue at the request of her mentor, Bill Swain. “I started to get to know people that were doing the same things that I was doing, and started learning from them. I got very excited about it and felt that I could contribute to it—but maybe not as much as I could learn from others.”
After that, she began volunteering regularly with the Continuing Professional Development Division. “Whenever I was around those people, I got such a good feeling and such good ideas. It was great to feel like I was not the only person having these problems! It’s not me! I got some great ideas to apply here at Purdue.” The collegial atmosphere kept Moser engaged and running for positions on the ASEE board, where she is currently the PIC V chair. “It’s helped keep my job fresh for me. It’s brought right to my lap some things I didn’t even know I needed,” including mentoring and collaborations.
A die-hard Hoosier, Moser loves the diversity of opportunities that Indiana offers. “You’ve got the best of everything in the world in this state,” she says. “If you’re a newly graduating senior, you do not have to leave this state to get whatever you want.” Outside of that, she enjoys traveling and improv comedy, and is on the board of the local civic theater.
Winners of the Student Video/Essay Contest
By the ASEE Diversity Committee
The Board of Directors designated 2016-2017 as the Year to Commit to P-12: When Engineering Begins. In response, the ASEE Diversity Committee partnered with the P-12 Engineering Education Committee to encourage students from all walks of life and grade levels (P-12, undergraduate, and graduate) to share in an essay or video their experience organizing or participating in an effort that encouraged P-12 participation in STEM. As hoped, we received a wide variety of entries at all levels (P-12 to Ph.D. candidates). We are pleased to share excerpts from the committee’s top selections. The full versions and other entries can be found on the diversity website: http://diversity.asee.org/essay-contest.
Our first-place winner, Sophie Paul, a high school student from Missouri, created an inspirational video sharing the struggles and inspiration behind creating an all-female FIRST robotics team, Rampunzel Robotics. They created “a princess story with a twist” entitled The Story of Rampunzel, which they donated and read at libraries to “show that engineering is not just for boys.”
Second-place winner Maya Rozenstheyn, a high school student from California, shared her disappointment in local STEM events, which inspired her to create a Society of Women Engineers club. She states: “One of the main reasons girls do not pursue careers in STEM is that we unknowingly push them away. We teach them about male inventors and neglect all things woman made. We tell them to play with Barbie dolls, while their brothers get to build robots. Our culture has decided that girls should not be allowed to handle power tools or perform science experiments.”
The University of Illinois’s Katherine Kian, our third place winner, shared her experience performing outreach at local schools, starting early in her freshman year. She reminds us of the struggle many face pursuing engineering: “As true as that is for me, it is girls saying things such as ‘My major concern is whether I have the ability to actually pursue a career in engineering’ that really speak to me. When the most accessible stories of engineers are those of success, it’s easy to forget the failures that come before. It is a feeling I know I struggle with myself, and if I can use my experience to show a young girl or boy that you don’t have to be perfect to be an engineer; that you don’t have to have mastered programming by 16 or had multiple internships by junior year to be successful; that engineering is everywhere, and it allows you to change the world—then I feel that I’ve truly succeeded.”
The ASEE Diversity Committee encourages all ASEE members and constituents to engage in activities that lead our profession toward the creative strength, new ideas, and innovation that come with diversity. Let us know of your plans and actions by emailing diversity@asee.org. Please watch our website (http://diversity.asee.org) for updates.
Call for Nominations
The ASEE Nominating Committee, chaired by Most Immediate Past President Louis Martin-Vega, requests member participation in nominating board officers for the 2019 ASEE elections. Officers to be nominated for Society-wide Board positions are: President-Elect; Vice President, Finance; Vice President, External Relations; and Chairs of Professional Interest Councils I, IV, and V.
- All nominees must be individual members or institutional member representatives of ASEE at the time of nomination and must maintain ASEE membership during their term of office. Nominating Committee members are not eligible for nomination. The slate of candidates selected by the committee will not exceed two candidates per office.
- Candidates for President-Elect must be active members who have served or are serving on the Board of Directors. Because ASEE is a Department of Defense contractor, candidates for President-Elect must currently be U.S. citizens. Candidates for Vice President, External Relations shall be limited to those members of the Society who have previously served or currently serve on the Board of Directors. Candidates for Vice President, Finance shall be individual members or institutional member representatives of ASEE.
- Candidates for Chair of the Corporate Member Council and Chair-Elect for Zone II and Zone IV will be nominated and selected by their respective councils and zones, as the ASEE Constitution stipulates.
- Each proposed candidate for a Society-wide office should submit a first-person biographical sketch of fewer than 400 words that documents career contributions, ASEE offices held, awards and recognitions received, and educational background. Include comments on leadership qualities, ability to collaborate with others to achieve objectives, and willingness to serve if elected. Self-nominations are accepted. For nominations for the office of President-Elect, please include a statement summarizing why you think your nominee is a good candidate for the position. A listing of members who meet constitutional eligibility requirements for the offices of President-Elect and Vice President, Member Affairs is available from the executive director’s office at ASEE headquarters.
Nominations will be accepted electronically at c.evangelista@asee.org. Please include a subject line that begins with the words “2019 Nomination” so that it can be forwarded to the Nominating Committee. Please be assured that your nominations are confidential and will be seen only by the Assistant Board Secretary and Members of the Nominating Committee. The deadline to submit nominations is June 1, 2018.
Nominations postmarked by June 1, 2018, will also be accepted by mail. Please mark the envelope CONFIDENTIAL and address it to Louis Martin-Vega, Chair, ASEE Nominating Committee, ASEE, 1818 N Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036.
If you have any questions, please contact ASEE Assistant Board Secretary Christian Evangelista at (202) 350-3516 or c.evangelista@asee.org.