2025 PKFEA Interview Prep Presentation

Maggie Miller Author

02/26/2025 Added

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Information and details about the interviews for the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy.

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[00:00:00.880]Hello, my name is Maggie Miller, and I am the Assistant Director of Recruitment and Retention with the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy.
[00:00:07.880]We are looking forward to meeting you in the upcoming days to learn about your experiences in high school and
[00:00:15.200]see why you are the best fit for the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy. In this brief video,
[00:00:21.400]I will be going over some information about the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy,
[00:00:26.300]some perks of the program, who the staff will be interviewing, as well as how to best prepare for your interview.
[00:00:32.600]Thank you again for applying and we look forward to seeing you on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday.
[00:00:38.980]So just to remind you again, what is the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy?
[00:00:46.900]We seek to recruit and retain students who are committed to supporting and advancing women in
[00:00:52.440]engineering in the state of Nebraska.
[00:00:54.940]And we also want to provide students who have financial need with the resources to pursue careers in engineering, computing, and construction.
[00:01:02.160]We have been around for the past three years
[00:01:05.600]in the College of Engineering, and we are looking forward to adding 40 more students to the program.
[00:01:11.160]Some perks of the program that you may have heard about before,
[00:01:16.400]but we just want to remind you of, is that we are a fully funded program for our students.
[00:01:23.580]We offer full tuition and fees for participants for up to five years.
[00:01:28.100]We also offer room and board for our students for up to five years. We do have a two-year live-on requirement
[00:01:34.420]for the students freshman and sophomore years, but after that you can choose to live off campus.
[00:01:39.920]The program just won't pay for that.
[00:01:42.500]Beyond that, we do offer a $600 book stipend each semester, a $500 professional clothing stipend,
[00:01:50.300]which is broken into two parts.
[00:01:52.220]So you get $250 your sophomore year, and then the other $250 during your senior year as you are preparing for your internship or job searches.
[00:02:01.620]You also receive a free personal laptop that you will get on the first day on campus,
[00:02:09.260]and then you will have that throughout the duration of the program and get to keep it upon graduation.
[00:02:14.740]There are also mentoring opportunities for you to be mentored by faculty, as well as students in the program,
[00:02:22.200]and then there will be opportunities for you to mentor future students, as well.
[00:02:25.760]We also offer specialized seminar courses for our students.
[00:02:29.840]Engineering 10 will be a year-long class where we learn about the complete engineer and engineering as a whole,
[00:02:38.820]as well as more about the program.
[00:02:41.540]In Engineering 20, we will focus on career development as you kind of start that main internship search
[00:02:48.020]and prepare for future job interviews.
[00:02:50.780]We also offer one-on-one success coaching with all of our students,
[00:02:54.680]which is a great opportunity to talk about what's happening in classes, in your personal life,
[00:02:59.060]in your professional goals.
[00:03:00.680]We have some guided discussion, but it is a time for you to share all about you
[00:03:05.660]and focus on yourself and your personal growth and development.
[00:03:08.620]We also offer a lot of opportunities to connect with professionals.
[00:03:12.440]We've held etiquette dinners. We host panels.
[00:03:15.520]We take students to locations to meet professionals working in the field
[00:03:20.640]of engineering so you can get a feel of what it will be like to be an
[00:03:24.120]engineer in your future and also potentially find internship or
[00:03:28.400]professional job opportunities.
[00:03:30.060]And finally, we do offer educational and social programming for our students
[00:03:34.740]to further your growth and development.
[00:03:37.100]Leading the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy is a great staff.
[00:03:45.160]We have Frances, who is our operations coordinator.
[00:03:50.500]She will be the one to welcome you to your interview
[00:03:52.960]when you arrive on campus in Omaha or Lincoln.
[00:03:56.640]We then have our Program Coordinators, Winnie, Casey, and Jeannine.
[00:04:02.060]They meet one-on-one with students for success coaching,
[00:04:05.500]as well as help with our programming in the program.
[00:04:09.260]We then have our leadership team, Stacey Riley,
[00:04:11.940]who is the Director of the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy.
[00:04:15.360]Myself, Maggie Miller, the Assistant Director of Recruitment and Retention.
[00:04:20.360]And then Erin Omar, who is our Assistant Director of Teaching and Programming.
[00:04:24.440]So most importantly, you're probably wondering how to best prepare for your interview.
[00:04:31.740]And we have some tips for you.
[00:04:33.220]So to give you an idea of what the interview looks like,
[00:04:36.380]it is broken into two main parts.
[00:04:38.660]So the first part is an individual interview.
[00:04:41.340]In that individual interview,
[00:04:43.340]you will have the opportunity to meet with a member of the PKFEA staff
[00:04:47.740]and then a member of the engineering students
[00:04:50.220]or student services staff or a faculty fellow.
[00:04:52.400]They will ask you questions over the course of 25 minutes,
[00:04:57.220]about 10 questions in total to learn about you,
[00:05:00.780]your experiences in high school,
[00:05:02.620]and why you would be a great fit for the PKFEA program.
[00:05:06.160]I would recommend practicing interview questions with a trusted adult,
[00:05:10.620]like a counselor, a teacher, a parent, etc.
[00:05:13.200]to be concise with your responses
[00:05:16.460]and to feel confident coming into that interview.
[00:05:20.080]I would also maybe recommend even just utilizing ChatGPT
[00:05:23.200]to come up with example interview questions
[00:05:26.020]just so you can have an idea of what to expect.
[00:05:29.040]We also will have five minutes at the end of that interview
[00:05:33.400]where you will have the opportunity to ask questions
[00:05:36.960]of the members in that interview.
[00:05:40.300]So I would advise you to prepare one to two questions
[00:05:43.980]to learn more about the PKFEA program or the College of Engineering.
[00:05:49.940]The interview will consist of a 30-minute Q&A panel
[00:05:54.100]with current PKFEA students slash scholars.
[00:05:57.700]This will be an opportunity for you to learn about
[00:06:01.900]what our students are involved in.
[00:06:03.560]We will have representatives from our freshman, sophomore, and junior classes.
[00:06:08.060]And you can learn about their experiences in college
[00:06:11.580]or how they prepared for the interview
[00:06:13.580]and what they've learned from the program.
[00:06:15.440]If you have a series of questions that you would like to ask during the Q&A
[00:06:19.800]portion, I would encourage you to ask those there.
[00:06:23.260]However, if you are not sure what to ask our current students,
[00:06:26.600]we do have some questions prepared for you and them to kind of kick off conversation
[00:06:33.700]so you can feel confident coming into that.
[00:06:36.880]There will also be an optional tour that will take place either before or after the interviews.
[00:06:43.460]Please remember that the tour will not impact our decision in the selection of who we
[00:06:49.660]invite to the program. Also, there is a 10 minute break built in between
[00:06:54.660]the individual interview in the panel so you will have the time to kind of take a
[00:07:00.020]water break use the restroom and just take a breather in between either of those options
[00:07:05.620]next I'm sure you're wondering where you need to go for your interviews so if you are interviewing
[00:07:13.060]with us in Omaha, we will be interviewing at the Peter Kiewit Institute. I have the address posted
[00:07:18.740]here for you to make note of and it is also noted in the letter you received we have it circled here
[00:07:24.420]on the map in yellow and to let you know about parking there are a few visitor parking spots
[00:07:30.340]out in front of the building if those are full you will need to park in the parking garage and
[00:07:36.100]utilize the Park Omaha App to park there and pay for your the duration of your stay
[00:07:41.860]if you are interviewing with us here in Lincoln, we are holding your interviews in Kiewit Hall the
[00:07:54.180]newest building to the Engineering Complex that is noted in a red star on this map
[00:07:59.380]there are various parking lots near the building and we encourage you to utilize all of those
[00:08:06.180]labeled on the map generally I recommend the ones labeled with the one and that are circled
[00:08:12.420]one thing to note is that you will use the like Park Lincoln App to utilize those lots
[00:08:19.140]and it is important to note that on Saturday if you are interviewing on Saturday
[00:08:23.940]you can potentially park in any of the a lots for free if there are spaces available
[00:08:29.620]next we have had a number of students reach out with questions about what to wear for the
[00:08:38.420]interview we typically recommend wearing business formal or business casual clothing
[00:08:43.940]for our interviews we know not everyone has access to business formal clothing so that's
[00:08:50.340]why we are perfectly fine with business casual clothing
[00:08:53.700]we do not think it is too casual like the description states on there
[00:08:57.620]because we know you're high school students and you also might not have access to all the resources
[00:09:02.820]to get business formal wear so either of these descriptions for the clothing that you choose
[00:09:08.020]are going to be the best option and also please note if you do not have clothing that fits this
[00:09:13.620]description we want you to wear what you feel best in and is the most probably modest clothing
[00:09:20.820]that you may own we do have some examples of that
[00:09:23.460]on the next slide to show you as mentioned on the last slide we do have some examples for you
[00:09:30.820]um for what a business casual clothing outfit may look like or what a business professional outfit
[00:09:37.220]may look like please note the big thing is that you want to wear something that makes you feel
[00:09:42.180]confident and comfortable because if you're wearing clothing that is maybe too tight
[00:09:46.580]or makes you feel self-conscious you're going to be more nervous for the interview so please just
[00:09:53.220]wear whatever clothing you feel the most confident and nicest in because that will help you feel
[00:09:58.820]so much more prepared for the interview
[00:10:01.780]some additional tips that we recommend to prepare for your interview
[00:10:08.260]is think about your eye contact in an interview and it is appropriate to look at the interviewers
[00:10:14.900]and make eye contact but don't stare us down please blink that's very important um and
[00:10:22.980]also don't look away the whole time we want to be able to see your eyes because that'll help us make
[00:10:27.060]sure you're feeling confident as you are answering our questions the interviewers will also be
[00:10:34.260]writing down your responses so we will try to maintain eye contact as much as possible but we
[00:10:40.420]will be taking notes just so we have good notes on your responses next fully listen to the questions
[00:10:46.260]that we are asking some of them are lengthy so it's okay to ask us to repeat a question but make
[00:10:52.740]sure to just take time to respond fully understand the question and stay calm that's very important
[00:10:59.700]if you get nervous it's okay to say pause can i take a moment just to think about this a little
[00:11:05.780]bit we're totally okay with that and if you don't get through all of the questions during
[00:11:10.820]your interview that is okay we will have good notes on the ones that you are able to respond to
[00:11:15.940]for additional guidance you can check out our interviewing guide here from the college of
[00:11:22.500]engineering so i would encourage you to scan that qr code to learn more about best
[00:11:27.860]interview tips and practices some final tips that we would encourage you to think about
[00:11:37.140]as you prepare for the interviews next week is think about your own personal experiences
[00:11:42.340]that you would like to share with us we want to learn all about you
[00:11:46.340]so think of some really good examples from life of like how you've helped people or where you
[00:11:52.260]have felt successful or maybe where you learned a lesson and grew personally those are important
[00:11:58.500]stories to share and are often commonly asked interview questions also think about how you
[00:12:04.660]personally have supported or will support the growth of women or other marginalized identities
[00:12:09.780]in engineering that is the focus of our program so we want you to really think about the impact
[00:12:15.460]that you may have on that area and also it's important to think about your interest in UNL or
[00:12:22.020]UNO your future major as well as the Peter Kiewit Foundation Engineering Academy it's important to
[00:12:28.900]convey those interests to us to show that you're really passionate about what you're doing and
[00:12:33.460]would be the best fit for our program and also as I mentioned I would encourage you to have one to
[00:12:40.020]two questions prepared to ask the staff about the program or to ask during the student panel as well
[00:12:47.060]and most importantly again as I said before be yourself we really want to get
[00:12:51.780]to know you and we want you to feel confident and be successful during this interview process
[00:12:56.180]again we just want to thank you for taking the time to apply for the peter kewitt foundation
[00:13:04.900]engineering academy and for taking time out of your busy schedules
[00:13:08.900]as high school seniors to come to campus and learn about the program and share your passion
[00:13:15.940]for engineering and supporting women in engineering if you have questions during this
[00:13:21.540]process i would encourage you to reach out to me, Maggie Miller at mmiller113@unl.edu
[00:13:29.620]or you can call me at 402-472-8596 if anything happens prior to the interviews
[00:13:38.100]like a snowstorm or anything like that we will be sure to reach out to you
[00:13:42.020]ahead of time to schedule a virtual interview thank you again and have a wonderful day

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2025 PKFEA Interview Prep Presentation

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