Dallas SWE Book Club – 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!
Please help decide our next book by voting at the link below! Please submit your votes by Friday 11/19.
Congratulations to Sarah Babson, Dallas SWE’s November Member of the Month. Check out her bio, below!
Hi everyone! I’m Sarah Babson and I was born and raised in Houston, TX. I graduated from Texas Tech in Spring 2020, where I studied Mechanical Engineering. I started my career in oil and gas as a drilling and completions engineer and recently pivoted to financial services. I currently work as an analyst for Goldman Sachs here in Dallas. I’m excited to be a part of Dallas SWE and I’ll be joining the membership and awards committee. I also love meeting new people and trying different foods!
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.
You can view the slides from the meeting here.
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!
