Recently, Dallas SWE helped Collin College charter a new SWE section on their campus. This summer, the Engineering Department at Collin has enabled the Collin College SWE section to sponsor a robotics camp this summer for girls. This camp will provide a unique opportunity to spend three fun filled days on our college campus experiencing an event that will stimulate the girls’ minds and unleash their creativity! They will also have female engineers from across the Metroplex as our lunch time guest speakers during the camp.
To close out FY14, here is a review of our March 2014 Design Your World event, written by Dallas SWE Vice President of Outreach Dr. Nandika D’Souza!
Design Your World-STEM Conference for 6-12th grade girls at the University of North Texas Discovery Park was an outstanding success. Supported completely by volunteers, the second DYW event in FY14 continued the partnership between professional organizations and student sections to form a single leadership framework. Ninety girls from 6-8th grade and 30 girls from 9-12th grade from around the Dallas/Fort Worth area participated in the conference.
Design Your World: STEM Conference for Girls attendees
The event started with a keynote address by Nancy Shugart, author of Prove Them Wrong, who inspired parents, volunteers and girls to never let the challenges of life affect their personal goals. The girls were sent off by an enthusiastic group of SWE members who donned a range of working clothes to exemplify the range of careers and environments that engineers get to choose to work in. 100 volunteers supported the efforts representative of companies such as AT&T, Raytheon, Halliburton and students from UNT chapters of ASME, SHPE, NSBE, IEEE, Construction Technology, Association of Computer Machinery (Women) –ACM-W.
Photo Credit: @bianca_avila26 (Twitter)
The girls then participated in their choice of 3 of 7 activities offered. The engineering and career activity choices that girls could choose from were:
Renewable Energy Activity (Solar Car)
Mechanical Engineering (Rube-Goldberg team design)
Electrical Engineering (Robots)
Computer Science (Alice Debugging)
Materials Science (strength to weight considerations for fuel efficient cars)
Construction Engineering Technology (house construction)
Forensic Science (technologies and tools for solving crimes)
A parallel parent and educator session was attended by 39 adults. The Parent Panel featured tools for parents and teachers to encourage their daughters and female students to consider engineering as a potential career option. First, Dave Whitmire (Raytheon), Cherrie Fisher (AT&T), and Edna Patino (Lockheed) spoke about how their parents had inspired them to be all that they could be and shared advice they had received during times when they faced academic or personal challenges. A second panel comprised of Amber Scheurer (Texas Instruments), Neha Dobhal (Abbott Laboratories), Jennifer Vilbig (Vilbig & Associates Engineering), and Britney Caldwell (The Brandt Companies) gave anecdotes as recent graduates about their experiences as engineers in the workplace. Parents toured the University of North Texas engineering campus and remarked that after the panel, they had a real world idea on what they needed to do to encourage their daughters.
Parent and Educator tour of UNT engineering facilities.
The evaluations by the girls and the parents after the conference underscored the importance of the event with very positive comments and acknowledgements on the impact the experience had on their career choices. Student attendees valued learning what engineers do, increasing their confidence in building and designing things, learning how to use the design process to solve problems, and that the event was just for girls. According to parents, the most important goals that were met by attending the conference were introducing their daughter to an engineer and educating themselves on what it takes to become an engineer.
Thank you to our sponsors for this Design Your World event, Capital One and Raytheon!
Below you will find links to photos and videos from the event. Enjoy, and stay tuned to the Design Your World website for updates on future DYW events!
Although FY14 is coming to a close, you don’t have to take a summer vacation from SWE! Here are some upcoming events for you to look forward to in FY15. Mark your calendars, we can’t wait to see you!
July 19: Moon Day at the Frontiers of Flight Museum – Celebrate the 46th anniversary of the Moon Landing by reaching out to thousands of attendees about what it means to you to be an engineer. Dallas SWE will have tables set up to interact with students. We need volunteers from 10am to 5pm! Email Dr. Nandika D’Souza to sign up, even if you can’t stay all day.
July 26:SWE Region C has tentative plans for a Leadership Retreat in North Austin. Stay tuned for more details.
August 9: Dallas SWE FY15 Kickoff Planning Meeting – Save the date for your chance to meet your FY15 leadership team and weigh in on what you want to see from Dallas SWE in the upcoming year. We look forward to hearing your suggestions! More information to come on this event.
October 23-25:We14 Annual SWE Conference – If you haven’t already, make plans to join us in Los Angeles, CA for the Annual SWE conference!
February 6-8, 2015: SWE Region C Conference – The University of Texas at Austin SWE section has announced the 2015 Region C Conference will be held at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center. A block of rooms has been held with a discounted guest rate of $174/night for Standard King and Standard Double Queen beds. There are two ways you can make room reservations: online (click here) or call toll free: 877-744-8822. The Texas State Legislature will be in session that weekend so reserve your room ASAP!
Come join Dallas SWE for our second annual Capital One Corporate Spotlight Event, thanks to our sponsor Capital One. The meeting will focus on highlights from the book “Leadership Presence” by Belle Halpern and Kathy Lubar, presented by guest speaker Celie Niehaus, Managing Vice President, Retail Bank Chief Compliance Officer.
Guest Speaker Celie Niehaus
Celie Niehaus joined Capital One in March 2013 and oversees legal and regulatory compliance of Capital One’s Retail and Direct Bank businesses. Ms. Niehaus is a member of the National History Day Board of Trustees and in 2012, she was appointed as special advisor to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Underserved and Community Empowerment of the US President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. She serves as Chair of Operation HOPE, Inc.’s Mid-Atlantic Board and is a Director on the National Board, as well as Vice Chair of Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia’s Board of Directors. Ms. Niehaus also serves on the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Washington, DC Advisory Board, and the Arlington (VA) Free Clinic Finance Committee. She served on the Financial Inclusion – Working Girls and Women Strategy Groups for the Clinton Global Initiatives of America and the Initiative on Financial Security and Youth Entrepreneurship Strategy Groups for the Aspen Institute. She is active in teaching financial literacy to youth, coaching young entrepreneurs, and enjoys being an icouldbe.org mentor to teenagers in lower income communities.
She has a Business Administration degree from Eastern Kentucky University, and is a graduate of the ABA’s National and Graduate Compliance Schools. She has also earned the Certified Regulatory Compliance Manger designation from the Institute for Certified Bankers.
Members of the Capital One diversity recruiting team, local recruiters, and lines of business to include the Women’s Associate Network will also be in attendance. It will be an open forum for SWE members to ask questions regarding Capital One open roles, culture, business, etc. Have you wondered how engineers fit into the corporate world at Capital One? Here is your opportunity to ask your questions in an informal setting.
On Tuesday, June 17, 25 Dallas SWE members met at Blue Mesa Grill in Addison to celebrate our successes over FY14! It was an evening of gratitude as we looked back at the professional development, outreach, and membership programs of the past year, and excitement as we looked forward to our plans for FY15.
First, we enjoyed a tasty meal and inspirational presentation from Terri Maxwell. She shared a bit about her journey from a childhood of poverty and abuse to becoming a successful entrepreneur, driven by her desire to help others achieve their career and life goals. She outlined three key steps in how she has been able to Succeed on Purpose:
Terri Maxwell of Succeed on Purpose
1) What do you want? Without a clearly defined goal in mind, your attention will be scattered and ineffective. You need to focus on what you truly want to accomplish.
2) How bad do you want it? Desire is key to motivating you to take action towards your goal. If you’re not willing to sacrifice, work hard, and endure some failures to achieve what you want, then you don’t want it badly enough.
3) How will it serve? Having a goal to make a lot of money or be famous is not enough in and of itself to sustain you through cycles of failure and fatigue along the way. When your goal serves a purpose, helps others, or meets a need where there was previously a gap, your focus and desire are well-placed.
Terri’s insight was timely as we recognized our leadership team for their hard work in the pursuit of inspiring young girls, collegiate women, and our fellow professionals to be confident engineers! Dallas SWE members asked Terri lots of questions about her experience in working with women’s outreach organizations, determining whether challenges in the workplace should be endured or signify a failure and opportunity to try different methods, and how her books, Succeed on Purpose: Everything Happens for a Reason and The World of New Work: From the Cube to the Cloud have helped her to realize and internalize her own success. Many thanks to Terri for sharing her story with us!
Later in the evening, Dallas SWE President Jennifer Vilbig gave an overview of the many activities we held throughout FY14. You can view the End of Year Flyer here! Jennifer also presented the following awards:
Dallas SWE Achievement Award: Stephanie Butler, for her accomplishments as a technology innovator at Texas Instuments, most recently as Innovation Manager for TI’s Power Supply Systems Business Unit.
Dallas SWE Distinguished Engineering Educator: Dr. Nandika D’Souza from the University of North Texas, for her unwavering leadership for numerous outreach programs including Design Your World, Moon Day, and the Coppell Engineering Expo. She’s also led her own initiatives within UNT that encompass SWE’s goals.
Dallas SWE Distinguished New Engineer Award: Neha Dobhal, for demonstrating outstanding technical performance, as well as leadership in professional organizations (SWE) and the community. As VP of Dallas SWE, her membership programs have raised Dallas SWE’s paid membership roster to over 150, which has resulted in vastly increased participation at events and our adding a second Section Representative to the Region C leadership level.
SWE Outstanding Collegiate Member Award Nominee: Moriah Momsen, for her dedication and leadership in the Southern Methodist University SWE chapter. She has helped increase SMU SWE’s membership, improved overall participation, supported monthly visits with girls at Girls Inc, and executed several annual She Networks, She Wins events with Dallas SWE.
SWE Outstanding SWE Counselor Award Nominee: Jennifer Vilbig, for her work in revitalizing the SWE chapter at Southern Methodist University. In the past few years their membership has grown rapidly and they have hosted a Region C Conference (2013).
Jennifer also recognized the following Dallas SWE leadership team members with certificates of appreciation:
Vice President Barbara Read, for planning and executing such excellent professional development programs this year!
SWE Treasurer Shalini Nair, for her prompt and accurate record keeping of Dallas SWE’s finances.
SWE Secretary Morgen Schroeder, for her efficient use of Constant Contact to keep members of our growing email distributions (which has almost DOUBLED!) in the know, and for excellent use of Dallas SWE’s social media reach.
SWE Vice President of Membership Neha Dobhal,, for her efforts to contact and engage new and existing members of Dallas SWE.
SWE Vice President of Outreach Dr. Nandika D’Souza, for her dedication to our growing outreach programs, especially the Design Your World event at UNT in March 2014.
SWE Section Representative Wanda Holmes and Alternate Section Representative Amanda Posadas, for their timely completion of section reports and representing Dallas SWE to Region C.
Awards Co-Chairs Neha Dobhal and Zaineb Ahmad, for organizing the documentation needed to nominate Dallas SWE members for Region C and SWE Society Awards.
Fundraising Committe Chair Nicole Navinsky, for her efforts in securing corporate sponsors and other donations for Dallas SWE and our various events throughout the year.
ISD Communications Chair Lynn Mortensen, for recruiting a record number of school districts in Dallas SWE’s outreach events.
Membership Committee Chair Rachel Siedner, for helping to grow Dallas SWE’s membership about 50% over the past year.
Nominating Committee Chair Haley Vingsness, for encouraging and recognizing the future leaders of Dallas SWE.
Outreach Awards Committee Chair Gwen Sollenberger, P.E., for awarding certificates to students as their teachers request them.
Programs Committee Chair Mehreen Halani, for her assistance on programs planning and execution throughout the year.
Scholarship Committee Chairs Juanita Miller and Cherrie Fischer, who evaluated a record 19 scholarship applications and awarded 3 new scholarships this year!
Webmaster Shelley Stracener, for her continued efforts to maintain and improve the Dallas SWE website, and for excellent use of Dallas SWE’s social media reach.
Board of Trustees Members Barbara Vilbig, P.E., Justa Trevino, Amy Herbel, and Liong So, who have done a great job managing Dallas SWE’s Scholarship funds.
Finally, leadership team members at the banquet recognized Jennifer Vilbig for her tireless efforts over the past two years to improve Dallas SWE! She has done an excellent job and we hope to continue the momentum she has inspired in the organization in FY15! After leadership roles transition to the newly elected FY15 team, look forward to another great year in the Society of Women Engineers!
It’s time to celebrate the end of FY14 and the start of FY15. Please join us in welcoming our incoming officers, thanking our outgoing officers, and recognizing the indiviuals who received awards and scholorships in our section at our End of the Year Celebration.
Terri Maxwell, founder and CEO of Succeed on Purpose, will be giving a keynote speech during the celebration. In a career that spans more than 20 years, Terri has put her talents to work for large and small companies, and is a well-known consultant to small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to accelerate growth. Terri provides game-changing insights that transform businesses, people, and industries. She is a passionate leader known for simplifying formulas for success and igniting potential and we are very happy she is joining us for our celebration.
When: Tuesday, June 17, 6:00 pm- 9:00 pm Where: Blue Mesa Grill, 14866 Montfort Drive Addison, TX 75254 Cost: $25 for SWE members, $30 for non-members. Dinner is included in the cost of the ticket.
