This post was prepared by Melissa Buckley, Vice President of Communications at the Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario.
What is ESSCO?
When the Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario (ESSCO) was founded in 1987, its initial objectives were to improve curriculum, quality of teaching, and costs. Recently, ESSCO has been known to provide engineering students professional development opportunities outside of the classroom in addition to academic advocacy. As such, the organization has refined its mission statement to: “ESSCO promotes unity continuity and visibility among Ontario engineering students.”
What’s new at ESSCO?
ESSCO is driven by exceptional students from across Ontario who are passionate about academic advocacy and sharing best practices. The ESSCO executives are thrilled to be working with such a motivated group of student leaders for the remainder of the year and beyond. The ESSCO executives for 2015-2016 are:
- Jake Lipohar (President, Carleton University)
- Zachary Muma (Vice President Finance and Administration, Conestoga College)
- Melissa Buckley (Vice President Communications, University of Waterloo)
- Ezekial Areghan (Vice President Services, McMaster University)
Strategic Plan
ESSCO has an exciting year ahead of it. The Strategic Plan for ESSCO has been continuously worked on and refined over the past year until a final version was approved by council at this year’s ESSCO President’s Meeting. The ESSCO executives agree that the Strategic Plan gives the association a clear vision of what it hopes to accomplish over the next 5 years and beyond.
“We are in a great place to make effective changes that can strongly affect students across the province,” says ESSCO President Jake Lipohar, a fourth year engineering student at Carleton University.
Member schools from across Ontario gathered in Toronto for a weekend conference organized by the ESSCO President. The weekend consisted of a giant brainstorming session, where council sat down for an entire day, powering through policy and discussing new ideas.
Continuing with its focus on academic advocacy, ESSCO is considering adding an additional executive role to be this voice for the 24,000 Ontario engineering students that the organization represents. The conference also included an effective plenary session and lots of planning for the upcoming year. ESSCO is pleased to already have conference host for the majority of its upcoming conferences over the next two years.
ESSCO has recently established a Board of Advisors. The Board is made up of experienced engineering graduates with valuable professional experience and/or former involved members of ESSCO. The organization also plans to start a charity fund, to be used for sponsoring conferences and contributing to school Design Teams, who will be able to apply for funding. The “ESSCO Fund” aims to be a central funding source for all of the province’s member schools.
For more information on ESSCO’s structure, council, executives or current news, please visit our website.
