On October 5th, Lynn Mortensen and Kate Van Dellen represented Dallas SWE at the Dallas Professional Diversity & Technology Career Fair hosted by the Professional Diversity Network. The event, held at the Embassy Suites Market Center, provided an excellent opportunity to showcase the advantages of being a SWE member to a diverse group of professionals. Dallas SWE members shared the many opportunities for professional development, networking and community outreach available locally and through the broader SWE organization. Several SWE members from other regions or collegiate sections stopped by to share their positive experiences being a SWE member and to inquire about how to connect with the local Dallas SWE section. A few visitors said they found out about the career fair from our website! The event gave all attendees a chance to network and socialize and to make quality connections with corporations and professional organizations who value diversity.
Last weekend, Dalals SWE members Alicia Morgan and Kim Concillado teamed up with Illuminate STEM and Women of AT&T for Self eSTEM, an all morning event building confidence in local 6th-12th graders to pursue their passion in science, technology, engineering and math. The program director, Awonu Lekia, led the y
oung ladies in ice breakers and introspective questions before breaking them up into small groups. Each table rotation focused on a unique facet of STEM: from coding their names in binary using beads, designing the furthest-flying paper airplane, using teamwork and leadership to build a structure, and even powering an LED with lemons! The day concluded with a panel of real engineers answering questions and describing their daily life. Alicia and Kim had a lot of fun giving out “Future Engineer” buttons and answered questions from students ranging from, “What superpower do you wish you had?” to, “What is your favorite part of being an engineer?”
When:
Saturday, October 8, 2016
11:00 AM-12:30 PM
Where:
Meso Maya | Preston Forest
11909 Preston Rd, Suite 1426, Dallas, TX 75230
Food and drink available for purchase by the individual, view brunch menu here.
Our guest speaker for September’s professional development meeting was Alicia Morgan, Dallas SWE member and a 2016 Honoree of Women of Color in STEM K-12 Promotion of Education Award. After some networking and tasty food from Coffee House Cafe, Alicia presented her strategies for recognizing the value of our unique life and work stories and how to share those stories by networking with confidence and purpose. She delineated the differences between physical, human, and social capital we use to build relationships, credibility, and influence in our daily 
interactions with others. The session was highly interactive with plenty of opportunities for discussion and practicing extemporaneous story development. One great quote she shared was from comedian Steve Martin: when asked about his success, he said his strategy was to “be so good they can’t ignore you.” If you’ve spent time and effort becoming indispensable, it’s just as important to spend some time on learning how to communicate your value in quantifiable terms so that you’re rewarded for your efforts!
Thanks to Alicia and our Program Committee for another great professional development event! You can view the meeting handout here. Stay tuned for details on our October 18 meeting at Ericsson in Plano!
Last year, Dallas SWE participated in North Texas Giving Day for the first time and raised $1,775! those donations helped us fund 3 high school senior scholarships, 4 collegiate SWE leader scholarships, and our award-winning outreach event series, Design Your World STEM Conference for Girls, which has been held twice a year since 2012. See the photo mosaics below highlighting these successes. THANK YOU to last year’s donors!
Dallas SWE also holds monthly professional development events for women engineers in our area, supports multiple outreach events hosted by local museums and schools, and develops mentoring relationships with collegiates at UT Dallas, SMU, UNT, and Collin College. We’re very excited to continue these programs but we want to do more! We are an all-volunteer 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization so your donation is tax deductible.
