From Slopes to Senator: How Club Involvement Betters the Engineering Experience

Meet Maddie Witte: Environmental Engineering student at USU, avid skier and College of Engineering senator.

In high school, Witte juggled schoolwork and a handful of extracurriculars, including involvement in student government and captain of the ski patrol team in her hometown of Highland Ranch, Colorado. When she started at Utah State, she felt too intimidated and ended up spending more time on classes and studying.

That changed when Engineering Retention Specialist Nina Glaittli, who also serves as the E-Council advisor, visited one of Witte’s classes to present on clubs in the College. Witte decided to give E-Council a chance and attended a meeting, where she instantly fell in love. Soon after, she was elected as the advocacy director for the club.

“I loved the people I worked with,” she said. “That was really the driving factor for why I got involved in the first place.”

The following year, Witte was elected as E-Council president, where she worked closely with then Engineering Senator Isabelle Santini-Haddock. The two met the year before when Santini-Haddock served as president. Witte credits her as inspiration for why she decided to run.

“Isabelle did a lot of good for our college. She made it seem not only doable, but something I could continue on in her absence. Because she showed me the ropes, I feel like I’m going to be able to continue doing all those amazing things for the College of Engineering too.”

As Engineering Senator, Witte plans to work with USU to get a computer science tutoring program in place to assist students in coding classes, which is used in many senior design projects and other higher-level classes. She also wants to work on better communication and connection between clubs, especially during Engineers Week.

“Having better communication between clubs will make the ecosystem easier to navigate and more accessible to underclassmen,” she said.

All in all, Witte wants all engineering students to know they have a place in the College.

“To those who might think they aren’t qualified or that it will be terrifying to join a club, don’t worry,” she said. “There is a place for everyone. No one will bite your head off. Everyone is trying out new things and are so kind and amazing to share what they are doing. Check it out; I promise you’ll be supported and end up falling in love with it.”

###

Writer: Sydney Dahle, sydney.dahle@usu.edu, 435-797-7512

Contact: Maddie Witte, engrsenator.ususa@usu.edu