Thank you for all of the volunteers that participated in the SWENext Mentoring Pilot Kickoff Event on Saturday January 25, 2020 from 11am too 1pm.  We have many volunteers out to support the event, along with six (6) SWENexters from the local Houston area.  We had a great time engaging with the young ladies about the various kinds of engineering opportunities and fields of study.  Everyone was very attentive and asked great questions about what being an engineer really means.  Activities included speed mentoring, table discussions and an engineering panel, as well as provided lunch for the students and parents.  We received lots of good feedback from the SWENexters in attendance, about how they loved seeing women engineers and that it was empowering and helpful!


Thanks!
Leteshia A. Lowe
Society of Women Engineers Houston Area Section
Vice President – Career Guidance FY 20
vp_careerguidance@houstonswe.org

Our 40th Anniversary Celebration and Scholarship Fundraiser on January 11th was a great success!  80 of our members filled a banquet room at Maggiano’s to celebrate and raise additional funds for scholarships.  This fun brunch event featured FY14 Society President Stacey DelVecchio as a keynote speaker.  Stacey took us on a history of SWE as it paralleled both her own history and that of women in America, in her talk “Busted!”  Members of SWE-HA also got to participate by “busting” through canvas frames featuring milestones that women achieved.  Last year’s FIRST scholarship winner, Savanah Smith shared how FIRST and SWE are helping her to be successful in her freshman year at UT.  After everyone raced to get their raffle tickets in the desired baskets, Susan Howes moderated a panel of Past SWE-HA Presidents including Sandra Aldridge, Barbara Brown, Lyndsay Forsyth and Marie Laplante.  They answered questions about their favorite memories of their time as President and what they  think still needs to improve in the workplace for women.  The event culminated with an exciting raffle drawing as ten baskets of prizes including books, coaching sessions, gift cards and more were awarded to lucky attendees.  Many thanks to Kathryn Schoer, Susan Howes and the entire event committee for putting together such a fantastic event!  The Raffle alone raised over $1600 for scholarships and in total, SWE-HA will be giving away over $20,000 to young women in the Houston area who will be pursuing engineering degrees in the fall. 

Know someone who’s planning to go to college for engineering?  She can apply for SWE-HA scholarships here: http://www.houstonswe.org/scholarships-782568.html


--
Amy Gelsinger
President
Houston Area Section
Society of Women Engineers

Gregg Elementary School Annual Science Fair
On Friday November 13, 2019, SWE HA volunteers visited Gregg Elementary School to participate in their annual Science Fair, hosted and sponsored by the Port City Links, Inc., along with other local organizations.  It was a great event and we had lots of fun traveling down memory lane while getting to experience science projects from kindergarten through 5th grade students.  The projects ranged from telling the difference between name brand and generic cereal, which item is more likely to float based on density, does a specific type of music make you eat faster, does the temperature of soda affect its fizz level and many more.  We had a great time interviewing the 5th graders on their projects, as they were judge on one additional area of being able to discuss and appropriately communicate the various elements of their project.  The students took pride in participating in the science fair and were very confident when answering questions.  The school has reported steady increases of grades since the start of this annual science fair, which is always good to hear.  Thanks you to the volunteers Nelia and Sandhya for attending his event with me!  We hope to have more volunteers for next year.  -L.Lowe, VP Career Guidance and Outreach

This year marks the SWE Houston Area Section’s 40th Anniversary!  It is quite a milestone for the section.  You can check out a wonderful historical archive of the section here: http://www.houstonswe.org/about-swe-ha-101663.html
In order to celebrate this momentous occasion, we will be celebrating with a brunch event on January 11th.  At this event, we will honor our past Presidents, leaders and award winners. Our keynote speaker at this event is SWE Fellow and FY14 Society President Stacey Delvecchio.  Stacey is an engaging and inspirational speaker with an infectious enthusiasm for SWE.  In addition to honoring our section’s past, we will also be preparing for our section’s future.  This event will also serve as a fundraiser for the scholarships we give out in the spring.  Each year, SWE-HA provides scholarships to local high school seniors who will be studying engineering in the fall.  If you’d like to learn more about the scholarships we give, we have more info on our website.  If you’d like to donate a scholarship in honor of someone (or just because), you can donate a named scholarship for a minimum of $500.  Donation of a named scholarship is due by December 3 and will get you free registration for the brunch as well as for the Awards Banquet in the spring.  More scholarship info here: http://www.houstonswe.org/scholarships.html  If you're looking for a cause for Giving Tuesday, attending the celebration, buying raffle tickets, or donating a scholarship are all great ways you can contribute to SWE's endeavor to support future generations of engineers.

Going to SWE Conference this year in Anaheim? 
Fill out the survey below and you can get connected with SWE HA while we're there.
 
SWE HA Conference Survey
 
A big congratulations to several SWE-HA members being nationally recognized!
 
Mary Higgins Studlick: Distinguished Service Award. "For embodying the ideals and goals of SWE; for flexible and accessible leadership and service; and for inspired outreach, encouraging countless young women to enter the engineering profession"
 
Marilyn Tears: Advocating Women in Engineering Award, "For deep dedication to recruiting and mentoring women engineers; for positive influence felt at every level in the workplace; and for ongoing advocacy of girls and young women in her community"
 
Katherine Farrell: SWENext Northrop Grumman Community Award winner, for her poster on encouraging girls in STEM through mentoring, exposure, and shadowing opportunities. Katherine will be displaying her poster at the Expo on Saturday Nov 9th at WE19.
 
Follow us on Instagram @swe.houston for a featured profile coming soon on each of these amazing women. More detailed information is available here and in the SWE Conference Magazine. If you are attending SWE Conference, please cheer them on at the awards ceremony!

I hope you all have had a chance to attend some of the great SWE events the EC has put on this year!  After reading about the fall PD event from our VP Internal Stephanie, I know I'm bummed I missed this event.  Check out her description below and let's all join them at the next one!

​This past Thursday on 10/24 we held our first Professional Development (PD) event for the Fall! Our Fall PD events involve a positive collaboration with a collegiate SWE section. Outcomes in this collaboration are informing students of our active professional section, networking among student members with Houston area professionals, and experiencing the benefits of joining upon graduating.  We held the event on campus at Rice University with a successful student and professional turnout of about 30 members!  Expert recruiter Jenny Cones spoke on the all-too prominent problem of not getting the pay you deserve and shared enlightening anecdotes and engaging stories on addressing this issue. She emphasized that because recruiters always allocate some room to salary negotiation, you will be at an automatic loss if you deny this tacit opportunity. She offered a strong narrative on breaking the “Good Girl Syndrome” and determining the balance between likeability and assertion on raise negotiation. Jenny’s recruiting insights transformed that daunting future conversation with our supervisor into a constructive, strategic, and profitable dialogue on our accomplishments and successes. A huge thanks to Jenny and to our members who attended! Join us for our next PD event to be held in March!

Post by
​Stephanie Roohi
Vice President - Internal
Society of Women Engineers - Houston Area

One of the greatest benefits of being a SWE member is access to Professional  Development opportunities.  Locally, we bring in speakers from diverse organizations around Houston to speak on topics to help our members build professional skills.  Last year, we our speakers included a panel of female entrepreneurs with businesses here in Houston; a professional speaker – who also happens to be an engineer; and a woman who’s on the board of directors at three oil and gas companies.  These women talked to us about how they started and grew their businesses, how to combat information overload and how social media can be used to build your network and further your career. 
​
This year’s professional development events will be just as exciting.  First up, on Oct 24th, we have Jenny Cones, a professional recruiter to talk about negotiating your benefits – both your initial offer when you  get a new job, and with promotions.  Statistics show that women leave an alarming amount of money on the table by not negotiating offers.  If you’d like to learn how to maximize your benefits, come check out this event!  As a bonus, we will be holding this event in conjunction with the collegiate SWE sections in our area.  It’s great for the students to have the opportunity to talk with professionals who attend this event.  You can register for this event here: https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07egmumv0pd548c8f2&oseq=&c=&ch=
Our two spring Professional Development events are still in the planning stages, but one of them will be on Team Building – a popular topic among first time leaders and mid-career engineers.  If there are other topics you’d like us to cover or you know an amazing female leader who’d be a great speaker, contact Stephanie, our VP-Internal at VP_Internal@Houstonswe.org.  We’d love to hear from you!
Join us for this year’s SWE-HA Professional Development Events and enhance your professional skills!

SWE-HA has had so many great events already this year!  Check out some of these photos from our recent events!