'Purdue Pursuits': Advising a student organization

Virginia Booth Womack

Virginia Booth Womack, a student member of NSBE, found her home at Purdue. She helped NSBE assemble its first national conference in 1975 and served as the organization’s first female national chair. Booth Womack returned to campus more than 30 years later to advise the same organization she and her peers had worked so hard for.

“I remember as if it was yesterday,” Booth Womack says of her time as a student. “I was so excited to see students coming to West Lafayette from all over the nation to talk about how we could organize as a student body to increase the number of culturally responsible Black engineers across the nation. Now we are a global organization with more than 300 chapters.”

Booth Womack, director for the Minority in Engineering Program, assumed her advising role in 2004 for the Purdue NSBE Chapter. Booth Womack refused to stop her student success and diversity work. She was instrumental in the founding of the Purdue chapter for Latinos in Science and Engineering in 2009 and is still the chapter's adviser. She also supports the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, (AISES), and the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers.

Booth Womack was an industrial engineer and a manager in the manufacturing sector for nearly 20 years before she joined Purdue. She focused heavily on manufacturing process improvements and increasing throughput — a concept that she’s found also applies to her current work.

“Improving throughput and eliminating waste is important to any manufacturing process,” Booth Womack says. “If 100 engine blocks are placed on an assembly line, the goal is to yield 100% good engines out the door. The same goes for students. We want 100 students to graduate from the First Year Engineering program. However, national graduation rates are low, especially for minorities. Searching for the root cause of attrition in engineering is an engineering problem worth solving: How do you use engineering and throughput strategies to improve student success?”

Booth Womack is a student organization advisor and sees the power students have to shape their futures through leadership development. Students contribute to each other’s success by forming a family community and holding one another accountable for completing academic requirements. As an advisor, you can help students improve their membership retention, fundraising, leadership development, and academic excellence.

Booth Womack says the key to advising students is to avoid being a dictator and respecting the fact that they are the leaders and decision makers. 

“Advising is just that — you give your informed advice,” Booth Womack says. “To offer informed advice doesn’t mean directing the organization or telling them what to do. It involves giving historical context. I listen to what they have to say and offer advice. I try to offer various ideas when asked and provide support and feedback.”

Watching ideas develop into real-life projects is one of Booth Womack’s favorite aspects of advising. Booth Womack fondly remembers the time that MAES and other campus and corporate supporters organized and executed Engineering and Science Extravaganza. This was a K-12 program that brought buses full of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders to Purdue to engage in hands-on engineering activities.

“I will never forget the celebration and how the kids felt,” Booth Womack says. “Seeing the response to student organizations from Purdue faculty and administrative leadership and the investments made in student professional development and academic success — that’s the epitome of what advising is all about. Serving as an adviser is an investment that pays the reward of seeing student leaders mature and manage responsibility successfully, so I’m hoping that more faculty and staff will become advisers.”

Staff and faculty can start the process of becoming advisers by watching a brief video and filling out the adviser interest form. Booth Womack says it’s important for individuals to get a feel for the organization and find their niche before committing.

“You don’t have to be an adviser at the onset, but when your confidence and vision of the students and the students’ confidence in you as an adviser come together, then it’s easy to make the decision to become an adviser,” Booth Womack says. “Get involved now would be my advice.”

How to participate

Students can be advised by full-time faculty members, management staff, or professionals.

Visit the Student Activities and Organizations website for more information on adviser eligibility, expectations, and resources. BoilerLink provides information about the various student organizations at Purdue.

Questions can be directed to the SAO Office at 765-494-1231, or sao@purdue.edu.

Writer: Carly Rosenberger. rosenbe4@purdue.edu