The Women in Engineering Leadership Association (wela) held their annual wela Launch on 1 March 2013, to welcome and encourage all engineering ladies studying at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) to join wela. The launch was held in the wela room on North Campus at NMMU.
The students who were targeted included all the female engineering students who have not yet become a part of wela irrespective of their year of studies. Invitations to the launch were handed out at registration and during classes. We were amazed at the turn out. More than 80 ladies attended the launch. This is a huge step up from last year’s 46 girls.
The launch was set to commence during lunch time. A photo slideshow of the current wela ladies was showing as the students arrived and Dr Ann Lourens, Project Leader of wela opened the proceedings by welcoming everyone (wela-launch-2013-presentation). The guest speakers consisted out of all the people that are involved in the wela programme for the year which includes, Student Counselling, Career Development Centre, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Media, International Office and senior wela girls.
Wela was created in 2010 with the sole purpose of showing women that Engineering is not just a male dominated field but that women can also excel in it. Wela is a multi cultural and diverse group that consist of ladies working, students and aspiring engineers. The programme is structured in such a way that it develops each of the wela-ladies on an academic, personal and professional level. During the course of the year we make it our aim to assist and guide the wela-ladies through their studies. This is done through various workshops, self defence classes, self-development programmes and discussions.
Wela is proudly sponsored by merSeta.
Commitment-forms-2013
Launch-Programme-2013
Wela-2013-year-plan-1st-years
Wela-2013-year-plan-senior-wela-girls