Are you a Twitter, Linked In, or Facebook whiz who can help Dallas SWE build our contact list and connect with local engineering and STEM companies? We need your help! This is a low-time-commitment way to help our section, and it’s vital! Corporate sponsorships are the major source of funding for our section’s events and scholarships programs, and we also love partnering with local companies for events. Any and all help would be appreciated. Contact Katie Mills, Treasurer, for more info: superkatie@gmail.com, or, as always, Dallas.swe@gmail.com.
On August 25th, Dallas SWE gathered for our first professional development event of FY22, which was a Negotiation Panel featuring 3 seasoned speakers on this topic, Kaley Young, Terriekka Cardenas, and Rana Karimi.
The event opened with Rana setting the stage on why you should negotiate and presented the data around the current gender wage gap. Currently, women on average earn 18.5% less1 than men in the same occupation. The gap widens for women of color. Over the course of a career, this could contribute to hundreds of thousands lost for women. If today’s progress continues, it will still take another 38 years to reach pay parity. Therefore, it is crucial that we as women are aware of the opportunity that lie ahead of us to ensure we advocate for ourselves and others as much as possible to ensure we are just as competitive as men in the workforce. Then, Terriekka presented tips for negotiating based on her experience as a business owner and entrepreneur. Negotiation is an art form and is all about collaboration and communication. Despite the reservations or hesitation you may have, it’s important to be confident in yourself and your net worth. She explained how it’s important to be prepared for any negotiation by developing your plan and value proposition. Then, Kaley presented her experience as a recruiter on common negotiating mistakes she has seen. She encouraged everyone to negotiate the first offer, and never to settle for the first number. Additionally, you don’t need to wait for the “right time” to negotiate. Advocating for yourself is a continual process and you need to be clear with managers and sponsors of your goals and your path to achieve them so that when it is time to have the discussion, your have strong ground to stand on.
We hope this panel informed our audience to advocate for themselves and normalize conversations around negotiation.
1Institute for Women’s Policy Research. 2020. “Women’s Median Earnings as a Percent
of Men’s Median Earnings, 1960-2019 (Full-Time, Year-Round Workers) with Projection
for Pay Equity in 2059.” IWPR Publication #Q086 <https://iwpr.org/iwpr-issues/employment-and-earnings/womens-median-earnings-as-a-percent-of-mens-median-earnings1960-2019-full-time-year-round-workers-with-projection-for-pay-equity-in-2059/>
Come treat yo “shelf” with the Dallas SWE Book Club! Never read Fitzgerald? Brontë? You Gatsby kidding me! Come get a breath of fresh Eyre with us!
If you are interested in joining the book club, please reach out to Rana at rana.m.karimi@gmail.com. We are also in the process of soliciting book recommendations for our next great read. So check your ‘shelf before you wreck your ‘shelf, and submit your book recommendations to Rana.
Pencil us in and book yourself for a great read with the Dallas SWE Book Club! We hope to hear from you soon.
George Hademenos, Physics Teacher at Richardson High School, has developed an 8-week Project-Based Learning program for his students titled Using Physics to Drive Action on Sustainable Development Goals. Six of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will be featured and you can learn more about the potential project topics here.
Volunteer Engineers will occasionally provide guidance to the student groups from now until December 10 and help them propose solutions or alternate approaches as issues arise. Scheduling is flexible! An estimated 2-3 question sessions per volunteer lasting less than 30 minutes each are anticipated. Mr. Hademenos will be coordinating communication between volunteers and students, which will primarily be over Zoom and email. This is a great opportunity to directly impact students and help inspire them to make STEM a part of their future! Details on the student project requirements can be found here. For more information or to volunteer, please contact George Hademenos at George.Hademenos@risd.org and let him know you heard about the opportunity through Dallas SWE!
Congratulations to Meena Nagappan, Dallas SWE’s October Member of the Month!
Meena is an Electrical Engineer at Raytheon Technologies in Dallas, Texas. She graduated from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with her Bachelors in Electrical Engineering in 2020. Meena was involved with the Women in Engineering branch of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in college for three years, and volunteered for her SWE chapter in university throughout her undergraduate career. This is her first year with Dallas SWE on the Membership Committee.
SWE has been a big part of Meena’s life since high school – from encouraging her to accept UCLA to receiving a couple of job offers! Now she believes it is time to give back to the community that gave so much to her. Since she recently moved to Dallas from LA, she would like to grow her network and meet more people in the area! By joining the ranks of Dallas SWE, Meena hopes to encourage, support, and have fun with fellow women engineers and give back to the community as much as she can.
Join us for our kickoff event on Saturday, October 9th! We will be networking and playing board games to get to know each other better. This event will be hosted both in person and virtually so everyone can be comfortable. Masks will be required for our in person group.
