About Us
Who We Are
Victoria University of Wellington Women in Tech (VUWWIT) is a group that focusses on improving the support, representation, and opportunities for women, non-binary people, and other minority groups in any science or tech field. VUWWIT was started unofficially in 2017 and became a registered VUW club in 2018.
What We Do
VUWWIT runs social events, networking events, and workshops for students. We cater mostly to VUW engineering and computer science students, though our members include VUW alumni, students from other fields of study or other institutions, as well as industry members.
We are also involved in outreach to encourage more young girls to consider studying science or tech at university. We work closely with the Engineering and Computer Science Faculty at VUW to organise outreach events, and have previously been sponsored by Google for these initiatives.
How We Operate
VUWWIT is lead by a Committee of nine students. The Committee meets fortnightly to plan events, liaise with industry, and ensure our operations and processes are meeting the expectations of our members and aligning with our aims as a club.
Our website is the main go-to for all the VUWWIT information you could ever need - events, contact information, newsletters. We also post actively on our Facebook page about our own events and activites.
We maintain a Facebook group called VUWWIT Members Forum. The Forum is a place for our entire Community. Anyone can use the Forum to post about their own events, share news, job opportunities, ask for help, set up study groups - anything!
We use Instagram to connect with our members and share photos of them at our events. On the other hand, we use LinkedIn to connect with industry for sponsorship and attendance at events.
Finally, we send out a monthly newsletter to our registered members which has a collection of our upcoming events, and other local events and opportunities.
Our Aim:
Our aim is to build a strong community of diverse people in tech, and ensure they are supported and developed in all stages of their careers.
Networking
The purpose of our networking events is to bridge the gap between students and industry, or future employers. We know it’s important to foster a safe environment for students so that they feel as comfortable and supported as possible while networking.
Our main networking events include an event to celebrate International Girls in ICT Day, (which occurs on the 4th Thursday of every April) and our annual conference WITcon.
However, these are not the only times we put students and industry in the same room. We often invite industry to social events such as Quiz Nights, or collaborate with companies to run interesting and interactive workshops and seminars.
Workshops
A big goal for 2019 is to provide more workshops for our members. Our workshops are a great chance to learn something new, meet other students, and talk to industry about their companies, jobs, and specialised fields.
We will be working with Summer of Tech this year to provide relevant joint workshops and events for our members and their registered students."
We’re also planning on running our own workshops on campus, as well as seminar evenings, study sessions, and a mini-Hackathon.
Outreach
We want to do our part in ensuring the next generation of women are considering science, technology, engineering, and maths when thinking about their futures.
We work alongside the Engineering and Computer Science faculty at Victoria University of Wellington to run an annual Tech Day for Girls, where we invite high school students from all over Wellington to come to campus for a fun day of tech challenges and activities.
In 2019, we want to make visits to high schools and talk to students about their options. We also plan to run a Q&A Forum for students and parents to meet students and lecturers and ask questions.
Going to university is a big commitment! VUWWIT wants to help young women make informed choices about their studies.
If you are a Wellington high school teacher and would like VUWWIT to come to your school: please email us at [email protected].
Social Events
We run various social events throughout the year to help our members meet each other and make friends!
Our must-not-miss party is the STEM Ball, which was a sell-out event in 2018. We love getting together for Games Nights, Film Nights and Quiz Nights. We also love to eat together - there will always be food at our events.