Fall / Automne 2017 49 One workshop that resonat- ed with her was the Technic- al Women’s Leadership Jour- ney, a leadership development program for female engineers, developed by female engineers. This training program is a part- nership between WIE and the Centre for Creative Leadership, designed to empower women to break through mid-career bar- riers and rise to senior tech- nical and leadership roles. The program has been successfully piloted in Silicon Valley and is now available to WIE groups and companies globally. “I came out of that saying, ‘That’s really cool and we should try to get that course here at work,’” says Davis. “Coming out of this conference, you make yourself a promise to do some- thing.” International WIE events like this one help to broaden the horizons of section volunteers towards opportunities for further involvement. ennifer Ng Ain Kin, long-serving IEEE volunteer with Ottawa Section, was also a repeat attendee at ILC. “If you want to engage at a global level you need to meet the people,” she says. “If members can attend these workshops or the local WIE sum- mits, they can build their network. There’s no better way to make contact than to be present.” As an IEEE WIE Committee member who works with volun- teers at an international level, Ng Ain Kin knows a thing or two about building networks. She’s also been doing it for 27 years with IEEE, starting out in 1990 and volunteering in myriad cap- acities over the years. Ng Ain Kin is currently responsible for regu- latory affairs — advertising and promotion, for Abbott Vascular in California, a division of global healthcare company Abbott. The WIE ILC conference has evolved, she says, from speak- ers at the CEO level to all other types of women’s leadership. And this year there was a big focus on mentoring. “There was a lot of professional coaching, more than I have seen before,” says Ng Ain Kin. “Mentoring is something I’ve done for a long time; I’ve done it for my alma mater, McGill University, for almost a decade. Funny enough, most of my men- tees are male,” she says. Ng Ain Kin has also mentored for IEEE, whose mentorship program is now run through the IEEE Col- labratec online community. WIE doesn’t currently have a mentor- ship program at the internation- al level. Ng Ain Kin never had a for- mal mentor herself. “I think it’s something inherent in women — we might be shy to say we need help,” she says. “I had profes- sors that guided me. I recognized they were mentors, but I never actually signed up for a mentor.” Shortly after she moved back to Ottawa after working in New Hampshire, Ng Ain Kin men- tored the WIE affinity group within Carleton University’s IEEE student branch, helping to explore opportunities within the Teacher In-Service Program. There, she served as Ottawa Section WIE Chair, and helped to advance the profile of IEEE Ottawa Section members that were active in WIE. In 2010, her mentoring work was recognized by the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance WIT (Women in Technology) group through an award publi- cized in Computer World and the IEEE Canadian Review. She was active in several pre-univer- sity initiatives of the IEEE Edu- cational Activities Board from 2011-2014, and in January 2015 joined the IEEE WIE commit- tee, helping to promote WIE and its activities throughout the 10 Regions of IEEE. Ng Ain Kin has created partnerships locally in Canada with groups such as Women In Science and Engineering and NSERC, and has also seen how IEEE WIE builds partnerships at an international level. In many ways, she is representa- tive of the way in which IEEE would like to move forward. She is not an academic; she’s from industry, and meeting the needs of those who work in industry is increasingly recognized as a pri- ority by IEEE. Many of Ng Ain Kin’s mentees have been those interested in making a career move from academia to industry. Ng Ain Kin’s three-year WIE Committee term comes to an end this year. During her first two years, she contributed by creating an environment that has increased membership. “You can’t just tell the plant to grow, you have to provide the right atmosphere and settings,” she says. One of the challenges is that women typically join WIE as a student, she says, but membership wanes after graduation. “When they’re in university, a lot of younger women have career and moral support from friends, they create a club and do a lot of activ- ities,” says Ng Ain Kin. “Then afterward they go off to their new jobs where they’re now a minority within a minority (of engineers). They no longer have a sisterhood connecting them — that’s where we see there’s a big gap.” “I have created and supported activities that I look back at and I’m very proud of. The news- letter is going well, membership is higher, engagement is there, we have a new website, we’re up to date. Three years is the perfect term for this volunteer role … if I cannot finish, my peers will continue on my work. La relève est là et prête … ” And conferences such as WIE ILC give her peers plenty of ideas — and inspiration — on how to do just that. ■ Vawn Himmelsbach is a free- lance writer who has written about business and technology for more than 20 years. If you want to engage at a global level you need to meet the people. If members can attend these workshops or the local WIE summits, they can build their network.There’snobetterway to make contact than to be present. Jennifer Ng Ain Kin, Ottawa Section; IEEE WIE Committee “When they’re in university, a lot of younger women have career and moral support from friends, they create a club and do a lot of activities. Then afterward they go off to their new jobs where they’re now a minority within a minority (of engineers). They no longer have a sisterhood connecting them — that’s where we see there’s a big gap.”