Over the six months leading up to ANTEC® Orlando @ NPE, SPE staff members visited numerous college campuses across the United States, interacting with current SPE Student Chapter members and encouraging other students to join the SPE community by becoming members and/or forming their own SPE Student Chapter. Their efforts, along with a one-year free membership promotion for students, have doubled the number of student members from 1,100 to well over 2,000 in only six months, with students now making up at least 16% of all SPE members.

One of their most recent visits was to the University of Connecticut, where roughly 30 engineering students, their professors, and members of the SPE Connecticut Section gathered to meet with SPE Managing Director Russell Broome. UConn professor and faculty advisor for UConn’s Student Chapter, Luyi Sun, introduced Broome.

Broome told the students about his initial exposure to SPE as a mechanical engineering undergraduate at North Carolina State University. The network of professional connections he formed through local SPE Section meetings resulted in his first job upon graduation. “I thank SPE for leading me to that manufacturing job in plastics,” he said. “Looking back, SPE was involved in each step of my career.” Broome talked further of his leadership involvement with SPE on a local and national level, including his service as president of the Society in 2011-2012 and now his current position on staff as the managing director of SPE.

“Get Connected”

Broome stressed to the students that to truly get connected with the industry, social media and the internet are not enough. Personal, face-to-face networking via a professional group like SPE is still a vital piece of forming meaningful connections.

He also emphasized that the SPE Foundation awards more than $100,000 worth of scholarships each year to both graduate and undergraduate students (these scholarships are easy to apply for at www.4spe.org/foundation). Grants are also available to college engineering departments for acquiring primary and secondary equipment to provide a “hands-on” experience for their students. Broome is working to set up additional scholarships specifically for graduating high school seniors in STEM-focused programs to help fill open seats in universities with plastics and polymers curricula.

“Currently the job market is very strong for plastics students, yet there still remains open seats in plastics-related degree programs across the country every semester,” Broome explained. “This new scholarship program is one of the many ways SPE is working to address the plastics industry’s workforce shortage we all hear so much about.” 

Student dues for SPE membership have been free throughout the recent membership drive, and Broome hopes to solicit a corporate partnership to cover all student dues in the future.

The students’ interest in connectivity was also addressed with a review of the mobile apps and media platforms available via the SPE website. In particular, the students got a solid introduction to The Chain, SPE’s new engagement platform designed specifically for plastics professionals. The Chain was engineered with students in mind; Campus Connection, one of the site’s premier forums, allows students around the world to connect in one central place.

Next Steps

SPE is planning further visits to its more than 60 partner colleges and universities. Other schools visited on the “Roadshow” previous to UConn included Pennsylvania College of Technology (PCT), University of Southern California, and Lehigh, Kettering, and Ferris State Universities. Many of these university visits included additional agenda items such as lab tours, senior project presentations, education nights at local SPE section meetings, lunches at favorite student/faculty restaurants, meetings with affiliated campus groups like the Plastics Innovation & Resource Center at PCT, and joint meetings during SPE TopCons. Most recently Broome attended a student dinner held in conjunction with the International Polyolefins Conference in Houston, Texas, USA, where a half-dozen local universities from Texas were well represented.

Broome and his SPE team plan to continue going “back to the roots” of SPE, by focusing on and meeting more member groups in North America—where, after all, SPE was born over 70 years ago.

Interested in having an SPE staff member visit your organization or university? Email Sarah Sullinger (ssullinger@4spe.org) or Sue Wojnicki (swojnicki@4spe.org) to schedule your visit today!

Also note that SPE’s 2015 Salary Survey needs your input. When you participate, you’ll get a look at current results and a copy of final results. (Your personal information will be confidential; only compiled findings will be published.) Participate at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/PlasticsSalarySurvey2015.