The University of Massachusetts at Amherst (UMass Amherst) recently featured Wystan Carswell on its Giving website. Wystan, who earned her doctorate in engineering from the school in 2015, shares her experience working with other women in STEM to secure a grant from the school’s Women for UMass Amherst (WFUM) fund. With the grant’s support, they created a graduate-to-undergraduate mentorship program that aimed to, the article reports, “provide undergraduates with a safe, nonjudgmental space for asking questions and seeking advice from their more experienced peers on how to successfully navigate their male-dominated field.”
Wystan has since served on the WFUM steering committee helping to allocate funds to initiatives like the one she developed as a student. She appreciated the chance to work with “really powerful women who are focused on elevating the next generation of female businesswomen, entrepreneurs, and innovators in STEM through thoughtful resource allocation,” she tells UMass Amherst. “It’s really quite something.”