Say Yes to the ESS

A look inside the Lakehead Engineering Student Society

Lakehead Engineering Student Society  

The Lakehead Engineering Student Society (affectionately referred to as the ESS) is an organization which collaborates with students, professors, and industry professionals to support and represent all of the undergraduate engineering students at Lakehead University. The ESS is run by student volunteers with the goal of enriching student life, and helping to ensure that Lakehead students are successful both in and out of the classroom.

Throughout the year, we host a variety of speaking events, professional development workshops, conferences, social events, sporting events, and engineering competitions. The ESS also publishes The Rack, a newspaper for engineering students released every semester, and an occasional podcast, which can be found on our website. Additionally, the ESS sponsors students attending engineering conferences throughout the year and provides funding to upper year students for their degree projects.

While specific events vary from year to year with feasibility and demand, everything the ESS offers is in the spirit of providing rewarding, enriching, and challenging experiences in order to help prepare students for their lives in industry, while making their time at Lakehead as memorable as possible. For example, this year started out as all school years should: with a multiple day Frosh, inducting new students into our traditions and the engineering culture followed by an all-ages pub night at the local Sleeping Giant Brewery.  Live music, good beer, new friends, and purple paint makes the first week of a Lakehead engineering student’s time here hard to forget.

The Fall semester brought lots of exciting new social events, like our sewing days in the Outpost, the chance to join the Chicken Waffle Club (students sporting engineering apparel get discounted items from the Outpost, usually the last Thursday of every month), and ‘covies in the community,’ where students dressed in the traditional garb of an engineering student flood the Fort William Gardens, heckle the away team, and maybe even watch the Thunderwolves play. 

This past fall, the ESS also hosted the annual Bus Pull event, where teams of students or faculty members pull a school bus a set distance as fast as they can. The event raised $500 for Our Kids Count, part of Big Brothers Big Sisters.

The Lakehead ESS also maintains inter-school, inter-provincial, and international relationships on behalf of its students. This year we have sponsored delegates going to conferences hosted by the national and provincial organizations of engineering students. The CFES (Canadian Federation of Engineering Students) hosted Conference on Diversity in Engineering, which aims to develop a deeper understanding of the massive variety of individuals, cultures, and perspectives which can be found in modern engineering programs. 

Additionally, we sent a pair of students new to the school to the First Year Integration Conference hosted by ESSCO (The Engineering Student Society Council of Ontario) where they were advised on ways they could find success both as students and as part of their school and provincial communities. Lakehead delegates also attended ESSCO’s Professional Engineering of Ontario Student Conference, where they learned from industry professionals about the future of engineering and the integral role we as students play in it. In addition to these professional and academic development opportunities, the Lakehead ESS also represents the school as a voting member of both CFES and ESSCO, working with these organizations to make changes in our educational system, society, and culture.

As a society representative of its student body, we are always trying to grow and adapt to what the students of Lakehead want and need. We encourage you to reach out with suggestions or criticisms, to volunteer, and to apply for conferences and funding opportunities.

The upcoming winter term brings many popular events, such as: the LUNA/ESS Formal, Car Smash in support of the LUSU Food Bank, a pub night organized by our National Engineering Month committee, more academic support initiatives, and an industry night where we connect students with industry professionals.

We’re looking forward to the winter semester and everything it has to offer.