We had a great group of about 20 people for our Happy Hour on Thursday! Attendees socialized with our Dallas SWE leadership team and enjoyed tasty food and drinks at Good Union BBQ in the swanky new CityLine urban complex in Richardson. We enjoyed spending time with old friends and meeting some new folks too! Thanks to everyone who was able to attend. If you couldn’t make it this time, save the date for our next professional development meeting September 19 and stay tuned for details!
The President of Dallas SWE, that is! Welcome to FY18, everyone. I am looking forward to another exciting year of events and service to our local communities. Our leadership team and I am passionate about communication: if you have questions, concerns, or suggestions for Dallas SWE, please email us at dallas.swe@gmail.com or connect with us via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. We want to interact with you!
If you’re new to Dallas SWE, we participate in a variety of activities each year, all of which we will post to this blog and our Google calendar (list in the right sidebar). We’ll send out bimonthly emails to highlight upcoming events, so subscribe to our mailing list (to the right) or follow us on social media. Here’s a sample of what we have to offer you this year:
If you’re not a member of SWE but would like to become one, the cost is an affordable $100 per year. A portion of your dues come back to our not-for-profit Dallas section to support the events and scholarships we sponsor. You’ll also get access to SWE’s extensive library of recorded webinars, their online career center, discounted registration fees for Region and Society conferences, an untold number of leadership opportunities to grow personally and professionally, and you’ll be a part of the largest network of women engineers (over 40,000 members!). Visit the Society of Women Engineers website and click “Membership” to find out more about the benefits and to join.
I have been a SWE member since my sophomore year of college (15 years!) and find the most value in the conferences and in the mentors and friends I’ve met in SWE (my “SWEsters”) from every industry, engineering discipline, culture, ethnicity, and career stage. This is especially true in Dallas where we enjoy an exceptionally diverse membership numbering 250 and growing. Our leadership team is amazing as well! Check out our Officer & Committee Chair page for an introduction to them, and contact us if you’re interested in joining a committee!
Thanks again for your interest in Dallas SWE, and we hope to see you at an event soon!
Shelley Stracener
Dallas SWE FY18 President
ALERT! This event has been rescheduled due to the impending landfall of Hurricane Harvey. See the leadership summit website at the link below for details.
We are excited to announce that the FY18 Region C Leadership Summit will be held Saturday, August 26 October 7, 2017, from 7:30 AM to 5:30 PM at The Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX.
For those who don’t know, SWE Region C is comprised of collegiate and professional section members and Members at Large in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas. The SWE Leadership Summit is an opportunity for all members to get leadership training, especially those who are SWE leaders and those interested in future SWE leadership. Led by outside Life Coach Jen Newman and the Region C Leadership Coaches, it will be a great weekend of learning and networking with your fellow SWE members.
For more information and a link to register, visit the Leadership Summit webpage here.
Then fill out our Dallas SWE travel coordination survey to plan carpool and room sharing partners!
Moon Day at the Frontiers of Flight Museum honors previous space flight accomplishments and focuses on current and future activities in space exploration. The annual STEM-focused event, held on July 22, 2017, served over 2,000 visitors. The Dallas and Fort Worth sections of SWE had the pleasure of being joint exhibitors again this year.
We had a blast! Event attendees that visited our tables had the “shocking” experience of building different types of electrical circuits. They also had the opportunity to learn about structural engineering by making towers and domes out of tooth picks and jelly beans. Thanks to our amazing SWE volunteers! The activities were a hit and the event was a success. We can’t wait for next year! Check out photos below and more on our Facebook photo album.
What do you want to see from Dallas SWE this year? Help us make the most of our organization and improve your leadership skills by becoming a Committee Member or Chair! We are an all-volunteer organization and need YOUR help to make Dallas SWE great. If you’ve already emailed us within the last month or so, no need to submit a separate entry in the form: our officers will be in touch with you soon.
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 July Member of the Month is Kate Van Dellen! Kate witnessed an airplane crash when she was a teenager and her dreams of flying grew into dreams of creating safer skies. In her aerospace engineering career she has worked with cargo aircraft, business jets, helicopters, anti-missile systems, satellites, and unmanned aviation. Her specialties included flight test, systems engineering, and emergency field support.
She credits SWE with launching her career and enjoys giving back to the organization. She has been the Membership Committee Chair for the entire Society, and currently serves as a Region C Senator. SWE awarded her the Outstanding Collegiate Member Award in 2008 and the Distinguished New Engineer Award in 2015.
When Kate and her spouse moved back to Texas in 2015, she took a risk and started her own company focused on STEM learning and motivational speaking called, New Trees Education. The name is based on Kate’s philosophy that knowledge grows. She blogs for the Huffington Post and has been featured in local magazines. She was also recently featured on SWE’s YouTube channel, speaking on the importance of SWE’s Core Values.
I’ve moved thousands of miles for my career, multiple times, and my constant has been SWE. At one of my first SWE section meetings in a new town, I really connected with this one member, Janine. She had also recently moved, and I couldn’t get over how awesome her jacket was. I needed a new professional wardrobe, so I asked if she would come help me pick some items out. Fast forward to a couple years later, and she was helping me pick out my wedding dress. In fact, most of my bridesmaids were SWE friends, because I’ve met so many lifelong friends.
~Kate Van Dellen
