Host Highlight: Stanford University

Background
Stanford University's School of Engineering was founded by Theodore Jesse Hoover, an alumnus of the University and brother of the 31st President of the United States, Herbert Hoover, an engineer himself. With an enrollment of 1,970 undergraduate students, nearly 30% of which are female, Stanford is an academic powerhouse and a leader in pre-college outreach.

One of the more active engineering groups on campus in Stanford's chapter of SWE, the Society of Women Engineers, and it is this student-lead group that serves as the Stanford TEAMS host year after year.

Meet the Hostesses
This year's TEAMS co-chairs at Stanford are Serena Yueng and Jessa Lee. Serena, a sophomore at Stanford majoring in Electrical Engineering, has been active in the SWE student chapter since her freshman year when she attended a chapter event and was "really impressed by the support they showed both within the chapter and toward other women and girls interested in engineering." Jessa is a junior at Stanford majoring in physics, and as such takes a "wide smattering of engineering classes, especially in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering." She too has been involved in the SWE chapter at Stanford since her freshman year and says serving as the co-chair of high school outreach and becoming the TEAMS Coordinator was "a natural role I'm very excited about."

The Competition
"The Stanford SWE-sponsored TEAMS competition is a half day event in which approximately 150 students spend a Saturday morning competing in TEAMS after an early breakfast on the Stanford campus," explain Serena. "During lunch we try and plan an activity," she continues, "in the past we've invited speakers or organized informal chats with college students, and after lunch we present the awards for each division."

The Benefits
"My favorite park of working with TEAMS is seeing the teams get really excited during the competition, as they come up with and discuss some petty creative ideas," says Serena. Both she and Jessa hope their event stimulates an interest in engineering amongst the student participants, and eventually one day maybe even have some of those students follow in their own footsteps. "I chose to study electrical engineering because I've always been fascinated by how our understanding of fundamental concepts in math and physics can be applied to develop the seemingly magical technology we have today," says Serena. "It's been incredible (and fun!) to learn how everything fits together," she adds, hoping others also see the benefit of an engineering degree and encouraging high school students to consider that path.