February Virtual Career Level Networking Hour: Feb 7th-10th @ 7pm Volunteer Opportunity - Engineer Your Future: Feb 24-25th General Body Meeting: March 10th
Chennai India Roundtable Discussion: TBD
WE Local Buffalo: April 8-9th
Congratulations to our SWE Pittsburgh participation winners!
Participation points are earned for attendance at SWE Pittsburgh sponsored events
(Social, Outreach Volunteering, and Fundraising) and Society conferences.
1st Place: Dianne McMaster
2nd Place: Natalie Amos
3rd Place: Anna Borenstein
Thank you to everyone who participated in SWE Pittsburgh events in the first half of FY22!
Events
February Career Level Virtual Networking Hours
In lieu of a regular social hour, we’ll be hosting career-level networking hours. Please attend whichever category or categories describe you best.
Mid-Career: February 7th from 7- 8 PM
Senior Level: February 8th from 7 - 8 PM
Retired: February 9th from 7 - 8 PM
Entry-level: February 10th from 7-8 PM
RSVP HERE for one or multiple of the networking hours and I will send you a calendar invite with the Zoom link.
Save the Date:
General Body Meeting on March 10th
Global learning opportunity: Chennai India Roundtable Discussion, either March 26th or April 2nd (TBD) at 9 AM
Looking for a way to get more involved in SWE Pittsburgh?
Do you like writing notes and correspondence? We need you!
Our current FY22 Secretary, Lindsay Bonn, is relocating to Michigan for work in January.
We are hoping to find a replacement who can work virtually with Lindsay over the next several months to train in the role and take over for the remainder of FY22 (and ideally FY23).
This is a great role to strengthen your organizational and communication skills!
The main responsibilities of the Secretary include:
Maintain the records of the section by recording meeting minutes for monthly E-board meetings
Organizes and oversees Gmail account and outside communication with Pittsburgh SWE
Tracks member participation and section goals for Mission Awards
The time commitment is concentrated around monthly E-board meetings and varies with the amount of Gmail correspondence required, but is very easy to manage around your schedule.
If you are interested in being the Secretary please reach out to swe.pittsburgh@gmail.com. We look forward to you joining the E-Board team of Samantha Orlando, Mary Zeis, Elizabeth Foster, and Kim Daloise!
WE Local Buffalo – Start Planning Now!
Are you going to WE Local Buffalo? If so, let us know! So far, we have Mary, Mary Ann, Laura, Chuck, Deepika, and Lucero. We would love to take a group picture of all the SWE Pittsburgh section members who attend. Please let us know if you are going by sending an email to swe.pittsburgh@gmail.com.
WE Local Buffalo will take place in person at the Buffalo Convention Center and Hyatt Regency Buffalo Hotel on April 8 and 9, 2022.
Registration is now open! https://welocal.swe.org/register-for-we-local-buffalo/
Registration includes two full days of conference admission, including keynotes, educational sessions, and workshops. It also includes access to the career fair on Saturday, April 9, 2022.
Professionals Early Bird Member Pricing: $175.00
Collegiates Early Bird Member Pricing: $75.00
Come support SWE Pittsburgh members who will be presenting workshops!
Mission Award Gold: How Applying Can Re-energize Your Section(Laura Traczynski/Mary Ann Walsh) SWENext – What’s New, What’s Next!(Mary Zeis) Elder Care:What is Your Plan for the Unexpected? (Mary Ann Walsh/Mary Zeis) Responsible Innovation: What Can You Do Differently?(Deepika Devarajan)
(If you will be presenting a workshop, please let us know and we’ll add you to this list!)
Many organizations provide financial support to their employees to attend professional development conferences like WE Local. Use this sample request letter to help you approach your employer to ask for their support and demonstrate how attending WE Local will benefit you and them! Template Request Letter
Buffalo is just 4 hours away from Pittsburgh, so we hope to see many Pittsburgh SWEesters there!
STEM Outreach – Recap
Pittsburgh SWE Supports Future City
Seven SWE Pittsburgh members volunteered as judges for the 23rd Annual Future City Competition. Competition Day was January 29, 2022, and the event was held virtually this year.
Future City is a competition for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, to foster their interest in math, science, and engineering. Teams of students design a city of the future, write an engineering-related essay, and build a scale model of their city using recycled materials. During Competition Day, they present their city to a panel of judges. The theme this year was "Designing a Waste-Free City". As part of the challenge, students were asked to design a city that uses the principles of a circular economy – design out waste and pollution, keep products and materials in use, and regenerate natural systems.
Only 10 schools participated this year in the Pittsburgh regional competition due to the difficulty of students getting together to design and build their city. The winning school was The Ellis School. This is the third year in a row that they won. Congratulations! They now move on to the National competition in February.
The Pittsburgh SWE Section supports the competition each year by donating $250 to be a Special Award Sponsor at Future City. The SWE Special Award this year was for “Best Integrated City”. The criteria were “a city design that streamlines city operating systems and creates an effective infrastructure design for transportation, green space, communications, water delivery systems, and wastewater treatment”.
The SWE Special Award went to the Fort Couch Middle School team. Here is a picture of their model city, Thị Trấn Tre Hạnh Phúc (Vietnamese for Happy Bamboo City).
Thanks to the Pittsburgh SWE members who volunteered as judges: Carol Pan, Chuck Bleil, Edugie Niepa, Elaine Larkin, Mary Zeis, Mary Ann Walsh, and Suzanne Laurich-McIntyre.
If you’d like to volunteer for Future City next year, watch for “request for volunteers” in November’s newsletter.
Volunteers Needed!
Engineer the Future/Engineers Week – Thursday, Feb. 24 and Friday, Feb. 25, 2022
Location: Carnegie Science Center, 1 Allegheny Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.
SWE is once again hosting an activity table for Carnegie Science Center’s “Engineer the Future” on-site event during Engineers Week. (Masks will be required for all participants.)
We need volunteers to staff the SWE Activity Table! Volunteer for a ~2 hour shift or longer on either day!
Retirees and Collegiates: We really need your help on Thursday and Friday.
The event runs from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Click on the link below to see the shifts.
Working Professionals: If you have Fridays off or work a half-day on Fridays, please
volunteer on Friday!
Family and friends are welcome to volunteer with you. Sign them up! Admission to the Science Center is free for volunteers.
Please sign up for the shift(s) that most closely fits your schedule and then add comments if you have a schedule limitation or need an adjustment to the scheduled shift. We’re flexible!
Hope to see you there!
Volunteers Needed! - 2022 SWE Certificate of Merit Program
The SWE Certificate of Merit Program is a way for our section to recognize and reward local high school girls who excel in math and science and are interested in engineering or technology as a career. Each participating school can nominate a senior, a junior, and a sophomore. The senior receives $100. All students receive a certificate and a personal note written by a member of our section. 😊
42 schools participated in 2019, 34 schools participated in 2020 (a lower number as teachers were focused on acclimating to remote learning at the beginning of the pandemic), and in 2021, we had a record high of 45 schools participating! We were able to recognize 133 high school girls, which is fantastic. Over 75% of the girls recognized plan to study engineering or computer science in college. Another 15% plan to pursue another STEM field.
Are you interested in volunteering with SWE but not quite sure where to start? Well, look no further! Certificate of Merit is an extremely rewarding program to be involved with, and I need two volunteers to work with me to manage this program. Most of the work will occur in April/May. If you are interested, please contact me at ceb5479@gmail.com!
This year, we are inviting the 45 schools who participated in 2021, 9 schools who participated in 2020 or a prior year, and a few new schools who have never participated! Invitations to participate will be sent to schools in early March.
If you would like a school to be added to the list, please reach out to ceb5479@gmail.com.
Are You Award Worthy? Apply for a WE22 Individual Award!
SWE Individual Awards recognize the successes of SWE members who enhance the engineering profession through contributions to the industry, education, and the community.
There are 21 different awards to choose from!
Have you received a patent in the last three years? Apply for the Patent Recognition Award.
Are you a young engineer (< 5 years’ experience) who has individually contributed technical work resulting in significant breakthroughs or results? Apply for the Rising Technical Contributor Award.
Are you an Engineering Educator? Consider applying for either the Distinguished Engineering Educator Award or the Emerging Engineering Educator Award.
Have you had your own business for at least 5 years? Apply for the Entrepreneur Award.
Have you demonstrated outstanding technical performance, and leadership in SWE, professional organizations, and the community, with less than 10 years’ experience? Apply for the SWE Distinguished New Engineer Award.
Are you a leader in a global business or on a global team? Apply for the Global Leadership Award or the Global Team Leadership Award.
Questions? Reach out to the SWE Pittsburgh Executive Council at swe.pittsburgh@gmail.com and we can answer your questions and help you pull together your award package.
Please remember to keep your SWE profile up-to-date - please include your employment, education, and address; also remember to check to opt-in for SWE to send you emails (email is the main method of SWE Pittsburgh communication to our members). Members’ information is how we keep in touch with you and it is not shared outside of SWE
Did you know that by simply shopping on smile.amazon.com and selecting Society of Women Engineers as your supported charity, Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to our Section? How awesome is that!
If you want to put your Amazon shopping to good use, follow these steps:
Step 2: Select Choose your charity -OR- change the charity your supporting
Step 3: Search for Society of Women Engineers
Step 4: Search for the Pittsburgh, PA Location
Step 5: Shop shop shop! Well, remember to shop at Smile.amazon.com!
SWE Pittsburgh FY22 Leadership
Samantha Orlando - President
Elizabeth Foster - Vice President – Programming
Mary Zeis - Vice President – Outreach & STEM Outreach Co-Chair
Lindsay Bonn - Secretary
Kimberly Daloise - Treasurer
Mary Ann Walsh - Membership Co-Chair
Carol Pan - Membership Co-Chair
Jayashree Iyengar - Fundraising Chair
Veronica Jaime-Lara - Social Media Chair
Deepika Devarajan - STEM Outreach Co-Chair
Dorothy Measures - Job Bank Coordinator
Erica Stevens - Webmaster
Cassandra Solarczyk - Newsletter Editor
Laura Traczynski - Collegiate Section Liaison
Sara Guza - Collegiate Section Liaison
Chuck Bleil - Data Officer
Claire Bradshaw - Certificate of Merit Program Chair
Mikayla Ferchaw - YouTube Manager
Sharon Thomas - Carnegie Science Center (CSC) Event Chair
Meaghan Shea - Nominating Committee Chair
Look for us on the SWE Pittsburgh website and contact any of us by sending an email to swe.pittsburgh@gmail.com
Would you like to sponsor SWE Pittsburgh?
If you would like your company to be a local sponsor, contact SWEPittsburgh@gmail.com
