BECOME A WISE SPONSORING SOCIETY

WISE invites professional engineering societies to join the program as WISE sponsoring societies.  Currently, the National Science Foundation's Engineering Directorate supports the WISE program through a grant coordinated through Robert M. Welleck, Deputy Director of the Division of Chemical & Transport Systems. All WISE Interns are sponsored by the National Science Foundation in partnership with one of several engineering societies that participate in the WISE program: American Association of Engineering Societies, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, American Nuclear Society, American Society of Civil Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers Int'l, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, National Society of Professional Engineers, and Society of Automotive Engineers.

There are a number of ways for sponsoring societies to participate:

• Sponsor and mentor an intern(s);
• Only sponsor an intern. Some organizations may not be able to mentor an intern, if they do not have an office in the DC area. Many candidates belong to more than one society and/ or their field of study is significant to more than one organization. Arrangements can be made to sponsor an intern, and have another society or perhaps a local volunteer member mentor the intern; or
• Only mentor an intern. Likewise, if a society does not have funding available to sponsor an intern, it is possible to mentor an intern that is sponsored by another organization.

Requirements: 

• Professional engineering organization or a trade association in partnership with a professional organization.  
• Participating societies should have a strong professional staff (or volunteer) presence in the Washington, DC area who can commit to working with their WISE Intern and the WISE Faculty-Member-in-Residence to assist with the Intern with research and building an understanding of the federal government, the legislative process, and the fundamentals of good policy analysis.

Responsibilities of the sponsor:

• The internship program is jointly funded with NSF. The sponsorship fees range from $5000-$6600 per intern depending on the total program enrollment. This covers the cost of travel and housing for the intern, the stipend for the faculty-member-in-residence, and the management fee for the administering organization. 
• Where possible, sponsors also provide access to computer facilities and information resources available in their Washington offices to supplement those available through WISE and the George Washington University.
• Sponsoring societies work with their WISE Interns to select a research topic for the summer program.
• Society staff and/or volunteers are assigned as mentors to their WISE interns.

Benefits:

• Society and the profession benefit from preparing future leaders with an understanding of the important intersections between engineering and public policy;
• Each intern researches a paper on a topic that is pertinent to your association;
• WISE is a new benefit you can offer student members;
• WISE Alumni provide a future resource of volunteers savvy on public policy issues

For more information on how you can become a WISE sponsoring society, provide program mentors, and/or make a tax-deductible contribution to support the WISE Program, contact WISE Chairman Tom Price at tprice@aaes.org or 202/ 296-2237 x12.

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WISE Webmaster: Chris Brantley, c.brantley@ieee.org
Last Update: October 04, 2007