WIE program honors outstanding CoE female students and faculty

Sandra Song
College of Engineering

	Special photo Materials Science and Engineering Assistant Professor Valeria Tohver Milam and Mathematics Professor Doron S. Lubinsky received excellence in mentoring and teaching awards from Sylvia Little (center), with banquet sponsor Kimberly-Clark Corp.

On March 27, 520 Georgia Tech students, faculty members, Institute leaders and corporate representatives filled the Georgia Tech Hotel Grand Ballroom for the ninth annual Women in Engineering (WIE) Excellence Awards Banquet. The guests of honor were the undergraduate female engineering students who qualified to attend the banquet by earning an overall GPA of 3.35 or higher.

Representing 37 percent of the College of Engineering’s female student body, 576 students were recognized. “Regarding diversity and women, when I hear someone say, ‘I just want to hire the best,’ I point to our female students and say, here you are, these are the best,” said WIE director Mimi Philobos, also a Civil & Environmental Engineering senior academic professional.

Students were given the opportunity to nominate faculty members who had positively impacted their lives and their experiences at Tech. For their excellence in teaching and their mentoring, Mathematics Professor Doron S. Lubinsky and Materials Science and Engineering Assistant Professor Valeria Tohver Milam received these awards. A special tribute was given to Lynn Boyd, the Institute’s Corporate Liaison director, on the eve of her retirement for her sustained contributions.

“WIE provides an inviting and supportive forum for women in engineering to network and strive for excellence in their professional development,” Milam said. “The banquet is an important celebration of recent service, leadership and academic achievements of women in all engineering disciplines. I was especially impressed by the number of scholarships made possible by sponsors to award so many deserving students.”

During the evening, 92 corporate scholarships totaling more than $100,000 were awarded to students who distinguished themselves not only by their academic excellence, but also by their leadership and service. In addition, 15 Outstanding Mentor Awards were given to students for their work in the Mentor/Mentee (M&M) program. This program, initiated in 1999, currently serves 350 students in all majors campus-wide.

The keynote speaker was Marsha Anderson Bomar, president and founder of Street Smarts and a longtime supporter and friend to WIE. Her speech about the power of giving culminated in her announcement of WIE’s very first endowment from Street Smarts in support of the M&M peer mentoring program. “It is a wonderful feeling to know that with this endowment, generations of future Tech students will benefit from this great mentoring program,” Bomar said.

The Excellence Awards Banquet, the annual capstone event of the Women in Engineering Program, is sponsored by a grant from the Kimberly-Clark Corp.

Sandra Song is associate director of Tech’s Women in Engineering program.