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


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Amy Gelsinger
President
Houston Area Section
Society of Women Engineers