Meet Northwestern's leading women engineers driving leadership in STEM

This piece is part of the ProMazo series “Before The Degree: Meet America’s future leaders.” It features exceptional students at universities across the country. Know someone who should be recognized? Recommend them here.

“Women need to not only get more involved in startups, but we have to lead them,” said Northwestern engineering student Sarah Ahmad. Not only are both of Northwestern’s Society of Women Engineers (SWE)’s presidents star students and campus leaders — Sarah Ahmad and Megana Audipudy spend their free time on side hustles that involve mentoring girls in STEM, supporting mental health advocacy and revolutionizing local startups.

The industrial and integrated engineering students are ambitious women in STEM driving leadership in a male-dominated field, and creating a community that empowers women engineers. So how did these two trailblazers come to be?

ProMazo: Why did you join SWE?

Megana Audipudy: I relate to being a woman and an engineer, and I recognize that sticks out. I actually only went to two SWE meetings my freshman year, but when SWE came out with committees I got really involved in outreach because it allowed me to work with kids in the Evanston and Chicagoland area. That’s really when I started.

Sarah Ahmad: I knew about the organization coming into college, so I knew I wanted to explore it. I remember the initial events being fun, but then I applied and ended up getting on the social committee which definitely got me more involved. Also, SWE does a mentor/mentee program and my mentor was one of the leaders of the committee that I was on. She is one of the most amazing, empathetic people I have ever met and she made me feel so welcome. She also ran the meetings incredibly well, which is not always the case in student groups, and that provided an environment in which I felt like I was actually doing something, as well as an incredible community that made me want to stick around.

ProMazo: What makes you passionate about SWE?

Audipudy: I really love working with kids, so it was interesting to see how I could combine my academic work in STEM with my passion for volunteering with children. SWE bridged that really well and gave me a lot of flexibility. It drew me in being able to work with kids and find so many others who were interested in the same things. Also, it was an open space for me to do whatever I wanted as long as I could get the resources and people involved. For instance, one year I was thrown into the role of planning our annual week-long summer camp for middle school girls. I had to learn everything about creating a camp and keeping the kids safe, interested and engaged very quickly. The experience gave me incredible leadership skills and was such a great experience. After that I couldn’t leave such an incredible organization.

Ahmad: SWE has a very wide variety of programming. One year, we put on this internal conference. That was one of the first bigger responsibilities I had. It was such an awesome experience being able to bring in speakers and host workshops, and producing something that people really enjoyed and learned from. We were able to create a place where women engineers could go and bond, but also gave them professional resources and learning opportunities. I felt so accomplished, and really like I was making an impact through the organization. I also found a community where I felt like I belonged.

ProMazo: What is something that has made an impact on your life besides SWE?

Audipudy: During the first two years of school, I was really struggling and couldn’t keep up with most of my classes. It got to the point that I had to leave and take a break for a little. So for the next 8 to 9 months I stayed at home, went to community college and started working for a startup. I learned a lot about myself and mental health, and really worked on rebuilding myself. When I came back and got involved in everything again, what I valued and what I look for really changed. Though I try not to define myself by this experience, I definitely look back on it and use it to help those around me. Now, I’m working for a startup in Chicago called Trigger Health which is an app that helps people struggling with drug and alcohol abuse who need a second chance. Though I can’t relate to their experiences exactly, I do know what it’s like to need a second chance. I really want to help promote empathy and emotional intelligence and their importance to mental health.

Ahmad: I’m the CEO of a Northwestern startup called Hot Plate, which is a platform for people to discover the best dishes at restaurants through ratings and such. I am super passionate about start-ups and entrepreneurial spaces. Startups are a really male-dominated space though. So this experience has truly shed a whole new light for me on what it is to be a woman in the business world. My biggest take away: Women need to not only get more involved in startups, but we have to lead them.

ProMazo: What have you done so far as president?

Audipudy: One thing we’ve done so far is HeForSWE, a campaign to get men’s support for women engineers. It is a movement to increase awareness in the engineering school at Northwestern on inequality, implicit bias, and to really educate men on what they can do to combat sexism in the university and the industry as a whole.

Ahmad: Similarly, I think we’ve done a great job of creating a community for women engineers. We face so many obstacles in the workforce, so it’s a great community to have. But, we really have to explain more to the outside community as to why this is so important.

Both Audipudy and Ahmad are non-stop. They’re obsessed with the hustle, and are always working to improve their organization. But what really makes these engineering students such exceptional leaders? They are passionate about creating a community of women meant to empower and inspire those around them.

“We get it,” Ahmad says. “We’re not in it for our resume, we’re in it because we care about the issue and we care about the community.”

NOTE: Some of these quotes have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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