3. Get a planner. Time management is key. Set daily and weekly schedules, deadlines, and expectations for your self. It is also helpful to have an accountability partner that will push you to achieve your goals. This brings us to the next tip.

4. Join a student organization, especially one related to your major. It is a good way to make friends and meet likeminded individuals. You can find an accountability partner through these organizations.

5. Don’t shy away from study groups. A study group is a good way to learn more and even teach others outside of the class. If you take classes that have Supplemental Instruction (SI) classes, attend them. You can also visit the math lab and writing lab for help! The link for their schedule will be below.

6. Do your assignments regardless of the percentage or how much it counts on your final grade. If your professor is taking the time to pick out questions to give as assignments, there is a reason! 
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7. Go to your professor’s office hours for help or clarifications on what was thought in class. It might be scary, but don’t worry they don’t bite! It is also an excellent way to build professional relationships. 
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​Let’s be honest, there are times we all feel like giving up. Maybe it’s a bad grade in one of your main courses, a stressful week/semester, or the voice in your head that says you will never be good enough. We have all been there. In low times like that, it definitely helps to have someone to look up to as a source of inspiration. We understand the struggle, and that is why we have decided to begin a new series on our blog. Every month, UNT SWE will present a female engineer in history, their journey and accomplishments. The goal is to encourage and inspire other women in STEM, as we bring to light these powerful women that helped shape the scientific world. That being said, Edith Clarke is our Female engineer of the month. 

​Edith Clarke was someone that marked a number of firsts for women in engineering. As we read further, we see that things weren’t always easy in her personal and career life; but she persisted. Her zeal and consistency is something we can all take from her story.
 
Clarke was born in Ellicott city, Maryland on February 10th 1883. Although she struggled with spelling and reading, she excelled in mathematics and card games. Orphaned by the age of 12, Clarke’s beginnings were quite difficult. She moved in with her uncle and was sent to a boarding school in Maryland. After she turned 18, things began to look up for Clarke. She inherited some money from her parent’s estate and used it to pay for college. She studied mathematics and astronomy at Vassar College. Clarke graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors in 1908. Afterwards, she worked as a mathematics and physics teacher in San Francisco and West Virginia (McFadden).
 
That was not the end of Clarke’s story. She recognized a desire to become an engineer and went for it. She enrolled as a civil-engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The summer break after her first year, she got a job to work as a computer assistant to Dr. George Campbell at AT & T. Little did she know that was the beginning of a different path for her. A summer job turned into a dream career and she decided to work full-time at
​AT & T. Her interest in the work she was doing with Campbell (applying mathematical methods to solve problems associated with long distance transmission of electricity) grew tremendously that, she decided to pursue an electrical engineering degree at Columbia University (McFadden). 

​Clarke left AT & T to earn a master’s degree in electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1919, she became the first woman to have an electrical engineering degree from MIT. After her graduation, she got a job at General Electric. She worked there for 26 years. Clarke excelled in her career. She “became an authority on the manipulation  of hyperbolic functions, equivalent circuits, and graphical analysis” (AgnesScottCollege). Clarke wrote a paper on "steady-state stability in transmission systems which described a mathematical technique to model a power system and its behavior. This allowed engineers to analyze longer transmission lines” (AgnesScottCollege). She became the first woman to present a paper at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Clarke published about 20 technical papers in 20 years and wrote the book “Circuit Analysis of A-C Power Sytems” (AgnesScottCollege).

After Clarke retired from AT & T, she became a full-time professor at the University of Texas, Austin. This made her the first female professor of Electrical Engineering in the United States. In 1948, she became the first woman elected for a Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Furthermore, she received a Society of Women Engineers Achievement award due to her original work in stability theory and circuit analysis. Edith Clarke died on October 29th 1959 (AgnesScottCollege).
 
Edith Clarke paved a way for other women in engineering. Her story is simply the result of hard work, dedication, and passion. She is someone that shows us that in the end, it all pays off. The summer is gradually coming to an end. It’s not too early to start preparing for the new school year. In what way were you lacking in your work, dedication or zeal last year? How do you want to fix that?


Works Cited
​AgnesScottCollege. Biographies of Women Mathematicians. 2016.
McFadden, Christopher. Edith Clarke: The First Female Electrical Engineer and Professor of Electrical Engineering. 25 March 2018.