News & Events

SWE Region C Conference 2014 Recap

by Dallas SWE on in Special Events
2014 Region C Conference Program
2014 Region C Conference Program

The 2014 Region C Conference in Houston last weekend was a great success!  Rice University and the University of Houston hosted a busy, productive, and fun few days with the theme “Mobilize to Energize.”  For more photos, please visit Boyd Raburn’s photo gallery site.  He did such a great job capturing the excitement of this year’s Region C Conference!

In attendance from Dallas SWE were Jennifer Vilbig (President), Barbara Read (Vice President), Morgen Schroeder (Secretary), Amanda Posadas (Section Representative), Barbara Vilbig (Board of Trustees), Liong So (Board of Trustees), Cherrie Fisher (Scholarship Committee Chair), Rachel Seidner (Membership Committee Chair),  Nicole Navinsky (Fundraising Committee Chair), Shelley Stracener (Dallas SWE and Region C Webmaster), Sue Biancheri, and Lori Wiltz.  We enjoyed visiting with each other, members from our sister section, Fort Worth SWE, and other friends from all around Region C!

Barbara Read, Analecia Caylor (UH), and Liong So. Photo credit: Raburn Photography
Barbara Read, Analecia Caylor (UH), and Liong S.
Photo credit: Raburn Photography

 

(left to right) Barbara Vilbig, Inga Hughes (Collin College), Shelley Stracener, Amanda Posadas, Barbara Read, and Jennifer Vilbig. Photo credit: Raburn Photography
(left to right) Barbara Vilbig, Inga Hughes (Collin College), Shelley Stracener, Amanda Posadas, Barbara Read, and Jennifer Vilbig
Photo credit: Raburn Photography

The conference kicked off Friday evening with a Spa Social during which collegiate members were encouraged to get to know professional members by filling in a list of obscure trivia about each of us!  There were some really great statements on that list and it was fun to guess which professionals had lived in 4 different countries, loves dancing, or is an aspiring pianist.  Attendees got massages, manicures and tasty food as a relaxing intro to the busy days ahead.

Great attendance at the Keynote Breakfast this year!
Great attendance at the Keynote Breakfast this year!

Saturday morning’s breakfast keynote speaker was Karen Horting, CAE who delivered a State of SWE presentation that highlighted some exciting new things for the year ahead!  Included in her talk were statistics from a record-breaking WE13 conference (in Baltimore, MD October 2013), SWE’s strategic plan for the future (which include focus on Professional Excellence, Globalization, and Advocacy), new webinar and virtual conference topics, a partnership with Outreach 4 Change, and announcements about WE14 conference in Los Angeles October of this year!  It was a great insight into what the Society is planning at the national and international level.

After breakfast, we had a joint professional and collegiate Region Meeting hosted by Region C Governor Dianne Beever.  You can find the slides from that meeting here.  Region C leadership gave updates on the business of various committees and SWE Senate bylaw vote results, and we enjoyed presentations on two bids for the Region C Conference in 2015: the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and the University of Texas at Austin.  We then split off into separate professional and collegiate meetings.

Region C Professional Meeting 2014: What a great group!
Region C Professional Meeting 2014: What a great group!

Members attended various sessions throughout the day.  Workshop topics included volunteer service (Engineers Without Borders), the importance of Hackerspaces to local communities, engineering ethics, finance for SWE sections, building retirement strategies, effective communication, and graduate research fellowship proposals.  More information about the sessions can be found at the Region C 2014 Conference website.

Saturday’s lunch combined delicious food with an Oil & Gas Panel of four engineers with a variety of experience.  They answered questions from the moderator and audience including tips on how they’ve steered their own careers and family lives, their best and worst experiences in the field, the value of being open to new opportunities, and how recent legislation and public opinion on new fossil fuel extraction techniques has challenged the energy industry.  The panel members offered great insight and advice on these and other topics!

Closing out the formal events of the conference was the Awards Dinner at the Chevron building a few blocks away from the Crowne Plaza hotel.  A list of awards presented to Region C members can be found here. The keynote speaker was Dr. Bonnie J. Dunbar, a former NASA astronaut.  She gave a wonderful talk about her life growing up on a farm, how her curiosity about her environment inspired her to learn enthusiastically, how she was encouraged along the way by inspirational mentors and teachers, and about her experiences at NASA and in space!  Her story is so inspiring!

2014 Region C Conference Awards Photo Credit: Raburn Photography
2014 Region C Conference Awards
Photo Credit: Raburn Photography

Sunday morning we had an informal breakfast and two yoga sessions to round out a great weekend before attendees headed back to their respective home cities.

Thanks to all the conference committee members and volunteers who helped make this an outstanding event!  If you weren’t able to come to this conference, don’t miss the international SWE WE14 in October or the next Region C Conference in 2014.

She Networks, She Wins!

by Dallas SWE on in Collegiate, Outreach, Special Events

The SMU SWE Section and the Hart Center for Engineering Leadership invite you to attend She Networks, She Wins!  Come enjoy an evening networking with women in industry and join the Lean In book conversation. This year’s event includes a panel discussion with women who are, have been or are on their way to top positions in their fields.  Discover how they did or did not “Lean In”!

When:  Tuesday, February 18th at 5:30pm
Where: SMU (Caruth Hall, 3145 Dyer St. 75225 – click for map)
Cost: Free!  Light hor d’oeuvres will be served.
Registration: Please RSVP now!

This event takes the place of the Dallas SWE February meeting.

Volunteer opportunity:
Also, SWE Dallas is looking for volunteers during National Engineer’s Week to be a part of our exhibit at the Perot Museum, February 17, 10am-2pm.  Even if you can only be there for a portion of our time slot, any help is greatly appreciated!  Please contact Nandika D’souza if you are interested.

Recap: Dallas SWE at the Engineering & Technology Career Expo

by Dallas SWE on in Special Events
IMG_20140123_145647
Leslie Gulledge (left) and Barbara Read (right) at the Engineering & Technology Career Expo, Jan 23, 2014.

The Dallas Section of the Society of Women Engineers supported the recent Engineering & Technology Career Expo held January 23, 2014 at the Richardson Civic Center. The Dallas Morning News, Monster, and Expo Experts, LLC presented the Career Expo. Requirements for attendees included a minimum of two years of experience in an Engineering or Technology field plus a related degree.

In addition to promoting the Career Expo on its website, Dallas SWE hosted a booth at the Expo.  Approximately one in six of the Career Expo attendees visited the Dallas SWE booth. Hosting a booth allowed Dallas SWE to share information about professional development meetings, networking opportunities, and STEM outreach. Several visitors at the SWE booth were former collegiate SWE members; they were encouraged to check out the action of the professional section. Some of the employers exhibiting at the Career Expo also visited the Dallas SWE booth, expressing an interest in hiring women engineers.

– Barbara Read, Dallas SWE Vice President

Event Recap: Forging Your Career Path

by Dallas SWE on in Meetings

Forging a career path may not come with an exact road map, but members of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) were given the next best thing at a recent meeting at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD).

2014 UTD TI Meeting
Jan 22, 2014 Professional Development Meeting with SWE Dallas and UTD

Samantha Dwinell, vice president of human resources for Talent Management at Texas Instruments, addressed the SWE audience, which included members of the Dallas professional chapter and UTD student chapter. While attendees ranged in age and background, all were united in their focus on engineering and leadership.

“There are many different paths, particularly for engineers,” Dwinell told the audience. “There may be specific types of engineering roles, but the reality is that the field is open for you to forge your own path. And for engineers it’s a wide path to explore.”

Dwinell discussed the importance and need to balance three key elements as engineers consider advancement throughout their career: Insight, Direction, and Capability.

“Before you can move forward, you need to first have insight into who you are, what you value and what you are good at,” she offered. “You should also understand your company’s focus and direction, and what they value. When you combine all those elements, you’ll perform your best.  Great performance is the starting point. From there, work to develop your capability and continuously push yourself to strengthen your skills.”

Dwinell reflected on her own career at Texas Instruments to offer attendees relatable advice on forging a career path.

“If you want others to put you into leadership roles, you have to first see yourself as a leader,” Dwinell said. “If things aren’t going right, go left. Use everything around you as a learning opportunity, ask for help, and continuously seek feedback. Reach up and connect with leaders at school, within your company, or organization. And when you start to forge your path, bring others along. Continue to build relationships and be the kind of leader that helps to develop others.”

Dwinell explained that career advancement isn’t just a job title, leadership can take many forms. “Not everyone wants to be the head of the company,” she said. “Advancing your career may mean you stay in the same area, and dig deeper to grow your skills and become an expert at what you do.”

Before opening the discussion to questions, Dwinell reinforced the need to communicate your value.  “Have an elevator speech ready,” she said. “Be able to succinctly state your expertise and value, because you never know when opportunity will present itself or who you will meet, at school, at your job, or in life.”

Tips to forging your path

  1. Own your career
  2. Insight into yourself and what you value
  3. Understand what your organization values, including how they define great performance
  4. Continuously build your capability and improve
  5. Key methods for development: on-the-job, learning from others and formal training
  6. Be intentional about what you choose to develop
  7. Be open to feedback
  8. Understand your career options
  9. Communicate your value

– Leah Templeton, TI Communications Manager

Sci-Girls Event Review

by Dallas SWE on in Outreach

Outreach is aspiring! Sci-Girls, a PBS KIDS weekly series and website, is out to change how millions of tween girls think about science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM! In addition to the television show, SciGirls training workshops integrate inquiry-based science instruction with a commitment to gender equity. To date, the SciGirls team has used both online and in-person methods to train over 500 formal and informal science education providers, offering professional development opportunities at numerous conferences nationwide.

SciGirls Group, Dallas 2014
SciGirls Group, Dallas 2014

On Saturday January 25, 2014, Dallas SWE hosted a Sci-Girls workshop enabled by a mini grant from the Twin Cities Public Television. We had around 30 girl scout leaders, school and university educators, SWE Dallas engineers and UNT SWE students attend the program led by two volunteer coordinators, Katelyn Wamsted from GirlStart and Danielle Rodgers from Girl Scouts of Central Texas. The program started at 9 am and participants learned data and research driven suggestions on how to communicate with a tone of inclusion to both genders. The response to event and club opportunities differed among boys and girls and it became clear that with good intentions people keen to bring more underrepresented groups into engineering can be more effective with small changes. The interactive approach brought participants to communicate with each other.

Lunch was provided from Dallas SWE with a good ‘ol Cowboy Chicken assortment. The afternoon session was designed around 3 activities that were hands on experiences of Sci-Girls activities for engineering, physical science and forensics. The closing program confirmed the increasingly positive comments in the day with all participants thanking the coordinators and Dallas SWE for an experience that was high impact, encouraging and enabling. Bria Miles, event chair for UNT Student section and Design Your World- Stem conference for Girls, co-chair, said “I think the workshop was very enlightening and enjoyable. I learned a lot and had a lot of fun.” Mayaria Johnson, UNT SWE section President said “I thoroughly enjoyed Sci-Girls as well. It was very motivational.  I am looking forward to incorporating some of the activities and techniques we learned to get girls engaged in STEM!” JoAnn Harris Hill, of IBM, showed through her creative circuit that the Sci-Girls theme of create engages more than build that the two were indeed one. A Title I teacher who drove in from Mesquite said she felt inspired to be able to bring more opportunities to enable emergence from poverty.

In addition to hosting the Sci-Girls Connect workshop, Dallas SWE has pledge its support to Twin Cities Public Television for a new Latina Sci-Girls television special and an educational outreach program! We hope that Latina Sci-Girls is selected by the National Science Foundation so we can share this excellent resource with the Spanish-speaking community in North Texas.

In summary, the event was educational, inspirational and will enable all who attended to encourage young men and women to #BeThatEngineer.

-Nandika DSouza, Dallas SWE Vice President of Outreach

January Professional Development Meeting and Upcoming Events

by Dallas SWE on in Collegiate, Meetings

Happy new year, everyone!  We hope you had a bright and happy holiday season and we’re excited about the busy year ahead.  We’ll be starting the year off with our monthly professional development meeting: “Forging Pathways to Leadership.”  Are you curious about what HR looks for in employees? Do you want to develop your leadership skills? Then RSVP to attend just joint professional development meeting with Dallas SWE and UTD SWE! We will hear a great presentation from Sam Dwinell, the Vice-President of Human Resources for Texas Instruments!

When: Wednesday, January 22, 2014.  Networking begins at 6pm, main event begins at 6:30pm.

Where: UTD Campus, Naveen Jindal School of Management, Executive Dining Room, 1.606 (click for map).

Cost: FREE for students, $5 for SWE members, $10 for non-members

Registration: Please RSVP at the Eventbrite registration page (click here) no later than January 20.

samanthandwinellAbout the Speaker: As Vice President of Human Resources, Samantha Dwinell leads TI’s global talent management function, ensuring that TI has a continual pipeline of diverse internal and external talent ready and committed to meeting TI business needs. Her areas of expertise include organizational change, organization development, leadership development, coaching, communications, employee engagement, and talent management. Samantha has a strong background in global HR, including direct experience managing HR in foreign locations.

 

There are also a number of events coming up in the next few months.  For details on the events listed below, visit our Calendar page where you can bring up more information from our Google calendar.  Save these dates!

January 23: Expo Experts Engineering and Technology Career Expo
January 25: SciGirls Outreach Training Event (SOLD OUT, but there’s another being hosted in Killeen on January 17 if you just can’t miss it!)
January 30: ASCE, SWE, AWWA, and SWE Younger Members Happy Hour
February 7-9: Region C Annual Conference – Click here to visit the event’s website and to register.
February 16-22: National Engineers Week
February 18: She Networks, She Wins! at SMU
March 18: Dallas SWE Monthly meeting
March 29: Design Your World at UNT

Also, we’ve added a couple of new events and job openings to our Careers page so if you or someone you know is looking for engineering opportunities, please go take a look.   That’s about it for now!  Stay tuned for updates on these and other events throughout the winter and spring.

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