S-PACs and Beyond

Before Kristi Hummel, IEEE-USA SPAC Chair, commenced her talk, she asked the audience “What career advice would you give to your 21 year-old self? What about your 40 year-old self?” The participation was very high. To list a few answers “If you want to do it, do it. Once you go into the workforce, it will be very different to go back to school”, “Get into an internship program”, “Be confidence in yourself, and find what you want to do”, ”To get your PE license”, “If you think about getting your MBA, unless you can get into the top MBA school, otherwise it will be a waste of time”, “To set goals for your next 5 years”, “Choose your passion, and when you are looking back, you will be more satisfied that you had chose the path of your passion”, “If you are at 40, it is important to give back to the Society”……….

Kristi continued “Let Think S-PAC!”

What is S-PAC? Student Professional Awareness Conferences (S-PACs) are structured events organized by student branches where students listen to experienced engineers from diverse backgrounds and discuss topics from the six critical professional development categories. It is a student-managed conference with speakers who are mostly engineering professionals. Kristi added that S-PAC is the most popular and successful program, and last year, S-PAC celebrated its 30 years anniversary.

S-PAC topics can be Career Growth, Working (Balancing Work with Personal Life, Expectations Vs Reality), Professional Ethics, Self-Management, Engineer and Public Policy, or Importance to the Professional Society.

The Benefits of S-PAC to student are:
- Organizers of S-PACs gain project management experience
- Attendees learn valuable lessons and wisdom shared by working professional
- Initial networking with someone in industry
- Successful S-PAC boosts the momentum and activity if a student branch
- Student gain an awareness of the larger IEEE organization

Guru Madhavan, from Region 2 Washington DC Section, quoted “S-PAC pairs student with talent professionals, and the energy transfers.” Charles Rubenstein, Region 1 Director, quoted “One way the IEEE shows leadership is by giving people a safe, protective environment for cultivating their talents. S-PAC does this for students. Members provide the needed support and coaching for the student.”

After the audiences have shared their experience with their past S-PAC activities. Kristi went through the steps for organizing a S-PAC event. First is to contact the S-PAC Coordinator, and then select a date and location for the event. Next, to build the program.
Then, the student organizers will need to fill out the Budget Sheet, and send it to the Coordinator. Funding sources are School, IEEE (Section, Region, Chapter, Society, PACE or MGA), and ticket sales. Lastly, to publicize the event.

There are 48 National Speakers and located throughout the US. Student can select speakers from any Region, and IEEE-USA covers one speaker’s travel expenses. Kristi encouraged the audiences to consider becoming a S-PAC National Speaker. According to Joe Lilli, IEEE President-Elect Candidate, speaking at S-PAC has provided him an opportunity to share work experiences with the participants while at the same time learn what the hot topics are in the classroom. And, David Pierce, IEEE-USA VP-Professional Activities, said being a National Speaker for S-PAC is a fun, engaging opportunity to influence young minds.

Kristi also introduced another two great S-PAC programs: S-PAV (Student Professional Awareness Ventures) and S-PAW (Student Professional Awareness Workshop). Then, she gave the pop quiz for the audience to answer and win the S-PAC notepads.

Kristi ended the presentation by asking, “What are you going to think when you think of students?” Audiences exclaimed, “Think S-PAC!”