On Saturday, January 13, the Membership Committee hosted our first social brunch of 2018 at Sixty Vines in Plano. It was one of the largest social event turnouts with 21 attendees including several new faces. It was a very engaging and lively group. Our president made announcements on open committee positions, the upcoming WE Local Tulsa, and Dallas SWE merchandise. If you missed this event, check out our other upcoming professional development and social events on our website calendar!
With our Member of the Month program, Dallas SWE seeks to recognize some of our non-officer members whose technical contributions, leadership accomplishments, or SWE volunteer service are particularly noteworthy. If you would like to nominate a Dallas SWE member for his/her contributions, please email us.
Our January Member of the Month is Rebecca Tom! Rebecca received her Bachelor’s of Science in Electrical Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. While there, she was deeply involved with the collegiate SWE section by leading various volunteering events, speaking on panels, and coordinating society and regional events for members and officers to attend. For the past three years, She has been at Texas Instruments (TI) as an Account Manager, finding solutions through semiconductor chips for the technical challenges industrial customers face in their designs.
Since moving to Dallas, Rebecca has continued to volunteer and promote women in engineering through events like UTD’s annual “Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day”, Design Your World, and Vex Robotics Girl Powered Flagship Workshop. In addition to staying active in the community, she is Co-Chair and Coffee Chat Coordinator for the Women’s Initiative at TI, connecting and collaborating among all functional groups and management levels (up to COO) to develop and positively influence the retention, recruitment, and advancement of women. Within TI, Rebecca is also an active member of the Chinese Initiative.
Outside of Dallas, Rebecca is Chair of the Corporate Advisory Board (CAB) for the UT SWE collegiate section. CAB is a 15-member team consisting of past officers assisting the current UT SWE section to increase and retain the number of women pursuing technical degrees and help prepare them for successful careers. As a professional SWE member, Rebecca enjoys helping others achieve their goals and meeting individuals who have the same passion and energy as she does in advocating for diversity and change.
“Since college, SWE has been a dependable constant wherever I am. This organization has enabled me to find lifelong friends, grow comfortable with a new city, and network with global leaders while still allowing me to have a local impact through outreach opportunities. The benefits of joining SWE are endless, from professional and leadership development to mentoring others. SWE provides us the tools needed to succeed and hit the ground running; all we have to do is take advantage of them!”
~Rebecca Tom
Join us for brunch at Sixty Vines as we network and socialize over some great food! Friends and partners are welcome! Food is available for purchase by the individual.
When: Saturday, January 13, 2018,
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Where: Sixty Vines, 3701 Dallas Parkway,Plano, TX 75093
The new year is a great time to meet new people or reach out to someone you work with! Consider bringing a colleague or someone that might be interested in SWE. To find out more about becoming a member, visit our About Us webpage.
The end of one year and start of another is the perfect time to take stock of what’s important to you and ways in which you can improve your skills, relationships, and volunteer activities. Make Dallas SWE a part of your self-improvement and community involvement goals! We are always in need of volunteers to help with event planning, K-12 outreach volunteers, fundraising help, and coming up in the spring we’ll be evaluating scholarship applications. We are also looking for a new Webmaster to help run our website. Get more involved with Dallas SWE!
Visit our Officer & Chair page to learn more about our current leadership team an access links to committee descriptions.
Thanks to everyone who made it out to our Holiday Potluck Brunch last Saturday! We had a great group of Dallas SWE members who enjoyed a selection of tasty treats and one another’s company while celebrating our section’s successes this calendar year and looking forward to the rest of FY18.
We also collected 43 childrens’ books for the Dallas Public Library! We’ll be delivering the books to them and they will be distributed to local branches as needed.
Thanks again to our members for a great year, and Happy Holidays to you and yours!
On Friday, December 8, Dallas SWE members and other local women engineering professionals spent several hours at the BEST Robotics competition at the University of Texas at Dallas campus for a Women in Technology panel talk and speed mentoring event. About 150 high school girls from across the state heard from the five panelists and had three one-on-one speed mentoring sessions, asking great questions about what it’s like to be an engineer, how the professionals got to their current positions, and what they love about engineering and technology. The student evaluations were overwhelmingly positive and the mentors really enjoyed sharing their stories! Thanks to UTD, BEST Robotics, and Dallas SWE member Lynn Mortensen for coordinating this event and including Dallas SWE volunteers!
