2021 Dallas SWE High School Scholarship Recipients
Dallas SWE is excited to award scholarships to each of these five extraordinary high school seniors from the Dallas area – Katherine Anderson, Kelly Chen, Aamilah Chowdhury, Alexia Rutledge and Abigail Simon. Applicants were evaluated based on need, academics, school and community involvement and plans to become engineers. Thanks to the Dallas SWE Scholarship Committee for taking the time to review a wonderful group of applicants! Congratulations to this year’s recipients: we wish you all the best!
Katherine Anderson – Coppell High School
Katherine Anderson will attend Georgia Institute of Technology where she will major in Aerospace Engineering. Katherine’s experience in SWENext, in the NASA High School Aerospace Scholar program, and in the astronautical engineering class at DukeTIP led to her passion for engineering. She is a member of the National Honor Society, National Art Honor Society, and a National Merit Scholar. She has been in choir for 5 years, performed at the Pre-Area level of the Texas All-State choir, achieved superior ratings in Texas State Solo and Ensemble, and received distinction at the North Texas Madrigals Competition. She enjoys using her musical talents to create songs that teach math concepts and dedicating her time to serving at the CCA food pantry and the Austin Street Shelter. Katherine hopes to work at JPL to engineer spacecraft for missions to the Moon and Mars.
Kelly Chen – Plano West Senior High School
Kelly Chen will attend Lehigh University where she will major in computer science and business. She is an active member of the Dallas Society of Women Engineers community and has volunteered to provide young girls with STEM-related hands-on learning activities. She is also a member of the Computer Science Club, Cybersecurity Club, and National Honor Society. Outside of school, she supports several online organizations as a software developer and web designer. With her interest to be an entrepreneur, she filed a pending patent about a new method of mobile phone payment. Kelly is proud to be a woman in engineering and has been selected as a NCWIT Aspiration in Computing National Honorable Mention & DFW Winner. She is passionate about girls in STEM and started a mentorship program with other accomplished high schoolers from Maryland, California, and Washington called The Sunflower Project. Her goal is to integrate her software and business talents to be an innovator and entrepreneur for the future.
Aamilah Chowdhury – Uplift Summit International Preparatory
Aamilah Chowdhury will attend Johns Hopkins University where she will major in Biomedical Engineering. Aamilah graduated in 2020 and with the pandemic, chose to continue performing biomedical research in cardiovascular medicine. While in high school, she was active in Key Club, National Beta Club, Mu Alpha Theta National Mathematical Honor Society and the National Honor Society. She was also editor of the Yearbook. Outside of the classroom, Aamilah is the founder of the summer program K-STEM! and devotes her time to nonprofits that work towards decreasing the gender gap in the sciences. She was also successful in multiple science and engineering competitions, having been a finalist in the international INSPOScience fair for her cardiovascular tissue engineering research. In addition to her achievements in the sciences, Aamilah placed at the National History Day competition in Washington D.C. where she also won the National Latino-American History award. Aamilah continues to participate in research and other activities that will enable her goal of solving medical cardiac issues. She is excited to perform biomedical research this summer at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as a part of a National Science Foundation internship.
Alexia Rutledge – Lewisville High School
Alexia Rutledge will attend the University of Texas at Austin where she will major in Aerospace Engineering. She is the founder and president of Texas Alliance for Minorities in Engineering, an organization that encourages the participation of minorities in STEM activities. For this work she was awarded a Girl Scout Gold Award from the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas. She is a president of the Technology Student Association and Mu Alpha Theta (National Mathematics Honor Society) and serves as historian for her school’s National Honor Society. Strong academic and leadership skills enabled Alexia to become a Texas High School Aerospace scholar where she worked with NASA scientists. Alexia is also a member of her high school’s marching and concert bands. Alexia enjoys giving back to her community through various organizations. At UT, Alexia looks forward to participating in and contributing to the Women in Engineering Program, Society of Women Engineers, and Women in Aerospace Leadership and Development (WALD). She is excited about becoming an Aerospace Engineer and passionate about increasing the representation of women and minorities in STEM.
Abigail Simon – Coppell High School
Abigail Simon will attend the University of Arizona, where she will major in Material Science and Engineering. Abigail is the President of Coppell High School’s SWENext Chapter, where she has been involved for four years. Abigail’s experience in SWENext, in the NASA High School Aerospace Scholar program, and as a volunteer for Dallas SWE’s Design Your World led to her passion for engineering. Abigail is heavily involved in Girl Scouts and was recognized as Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas Young Woman of Distinction in 2020. She is involved in theatre both in and out of school, serving on the Lifestage Youth Leadership Board and as a Student Director at Coppell Cowboy Theatre Company and a member of the International Thespian Society. Abigail has followed her passion to be a material scientist and engineer since the 3rd grade and is looking forward to impacting the future.
2021 Dallas SWE Annie Colaço Scholarship Recipient – Collegiate Leaders
The Dallas Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is delighted to announce the recipients of the Annie Colaço Scholarship for local college students. The scholarship is named in honor of Annie Colaço (1899-1991), the grandmother to SWE lifetime member Nandika D’Souza. Annie Colaço epitomized selfless service and lifelong learning, which is reflected in the SWE mission.
Dallas SWE is excited to recognize these outstanding SWE collegiate leaders and encourages each recipient to continue to be a SWE member upon graduation. The Society of Women Engineers, founded in 1950, is a not-for- profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and be recognized for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders.
Faith Fang – SMU Mentoring Chairman
Faith Fang is a student at the Southern Methodist University working toward her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and B.A. in Music. As the Mentoring Chair of the SMU SWE section, Faith worked to provide a program that fostered meaningful bonds and professional guidance between mentors and their mentees. This year, Faith assigned mentors to 25 new members, including those attending school both on-campus and virtually. Faith also created 7 virtual and hybrid events to allow mentoring pairs and members of SMU SWE to connect with one another in a socially distanced setting. It is anticipated that these mentor pairs will stay in touch, cultivating future mentors and officers while building a strong community within SWE. After graduation, Faith plans to pursue graduate school and apply her background in engineering to a career in consulting.
Camila Giron-Errazuriz – SMU Membership Chairman
Camila Giron-Errazuriz is a student at Southern Methodist University working toward her B.S. in Civill Engineering and Mathematics. As Membership Chairman of the SMU SWE Section, Camila developed a new incentive program which increased section membership by almost 30%. Most impressive, she achieved this at a time when new members were difficult to recruit due to social distancing. This new system has strengthen the capabilities of the section and these new members will definitely become part of the section’s future leadership. After graduation, Camila plans to work in construction management, obtain her PE and one day return to her native Honduras to help build sustainable housing.
Maaha Sakhia – UT Dallas Vice President of External Affairs
Maaha Sakhia is a student at University of Texas at Dallas working toward her B.S. in Electrical Engineering. As Vice President of External Affairs for the University of Texas at Dallas SWE Section, she played a crucial role in creating mentorship, competition, conference, volunteering, and hackathon programs for the section members to establish meaningful connections and to grow their technical skills. From her contributions, membership increased from less than 100 to over 300 members! Additionally, she has worked on establishing a sustainable structure for the UT Dallas SWE board to continue these initiatives. In order to determine how each committee/program runs, Maaha spearheaded the efforts to document the roles of each officer. Maaha is currently pursuing the Fast Track program at UTD, so after graduating with her B.S. in Electrical Engineering, she hopes to graduate with an MSEE, with a focus in Computing Systems. This summer she will intern at Texas Instruments.
