DallaSWE
The Newsletter
of the Society of Women Engineers
March/April
2004
CONTENTS:
April 20 Meeting
Notice
July Training
Retreat
President’s Corner - focus
Umbrella Org for
Girl Scout Badge Mar 27 Report
School Mentors needed before June
Mathblazer Program and Volunteers Needed
Zap! Cutting Edge Surgery – volunteers
needed
Scholarship Deadline
Need Job, New
Jobs, and Good-bys
UPCOMING EVENTS -
SWE
APRIL 20 MEETING
NOTICE
SPEAKER: Dr. Dona Mularkey
Title: ME Lecturer, SMU
TOPIC: “Oh, the places you might go as an engineer”
DATE: Tuesday, April 20
TIME:
LOCATION: Nedley’s Restaurant – Community Room
www.nedleys.com
CONTACT: LeEarl Bryant; 972-699-1649
Dr. Mularkey is an outstanding role model for present and future engineers who want to have long lived and interesting careers. Unlike most engineering faculty, she has real industry experience, beginning at the entry B.S. level where experience is the most valuable. And she has taken learning for life as one of her many mottos as demonstrated by graduate degrees in engineering and business. Unlike many of us, she has also had a number of career adventures.
Dona has taken her topic from Dr. Seuss, promising to show
us how a career does not have to be boring.
Whether designing, serving as a Fellow to the U.S. Agency for
International Development, lecturing on aircraft carriers, or coordinating
student travel and studies in
JULY 24-26 REGION 5 TRAINING RETREAT – FUN!
Please check out the web-site
for additional information and send your registration form with the $75 fee to
Sarah Nuttall. Your registration fee includes shared accommodations at the Landing at
Seven Coves, training, lunch and brunch, and dinner cruise aboard the Southern
Empress, an authentic Stern Wheeler docked at the Landing at Seven Coves with a
special engineering tour of the vessel. We will take care of all your arrangements, you will be staying in 2-bedroom units at the
resort, sharing your unit with other leaders from your section. Region C and
Section Vitality Task Force have significantly subsidized this program to allow
members to benefit from the training and team building opportunity for a
fraction of the cost! Check out the Section Vitality Corner at the Region
C website for more updates and most current information:http://www.societyofwomenengineers.org/RegionC/SectionVitality.html
President’s Corner LeEarl
Bryant
Umbrella Org for
Pre-college Certificate program – your action
Girl Scout Badge Mar 27 Report
School Mentors needed before June
Dallas Habitat’s Women Build – volunteers needed
Mathblazer Program and Volunteers Needed
Zap! Cutting Edge Surgery – volunteers
needed
It’s hard to believe that our meeting schedule
for 2003/04 will end in a couple of months; the time has really flown. Though my major goal of having a truly
vibrant section has yet to be achieved, I do believe
that we may have turned the corner. We
now have a small group of “regulars” who make most of our meetings and have
made new friends and colleagues in the process.
We have several new activists who are potential section leaders and
valued new friends. I trust that more of
you will make your way to Nedley's before the summer comes.
We have
successfully pulled off another Engineering Career Night and Girl Scout Badge
program under the leadership of Eric Stromberg and Jaime Hunter,
respectively. (Oh, what would we do
without our men?) A
report re GS follows. In both
cases, it is the volunteers who came through for us who made the really big difference.
Though I’ve questioned the value of stress from wondering if anyone
will be coming to hear our speakers, I do believe that consistent time and
place are beginning to pay off. I wish
we could find a time that is convenient for everyone but that’s
apparently just not to be.
We’ve begun planning for our future. The first step will be finding our “new” officers and then setting the calendar for 2004/05. Your participation is most welcome.
Decades ago when I first came to
Pre-college Certificate program – your action
As you may remember, past-president Margaret Bareis volunteered to serve as the chair of our pre-college certificate of Merit program which has been in process since its beginning more than 30 years ago. In any case, we can use your help in letting your middle and high school educators know about this program. Web-master Barbara Vilbig has updated our page so that they can submit all details online. As you can appreciate, deadlines for the recognition program are approaching due to school calendars. Information on the awards is immediately follows.
High
School Certificate of Merit Awards
The Dallas Section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has sponsored
a program to honor women in grades 9 – 12 who attend
Jr.
High School Certificate of Achievement Awards
The Dallas Section of the Society of Women Engineers also sponsors
a program to honor young women, grades 7 – 9, in the
Girl Scout Badge Mar 27 Report – Making Things That Matter
We had a great turn out though lower than desired, with
approximately 82 Scouts fulfilling requirements from this engineering oriented
badge. And we
had participation from about 20 Scout Leaders and 20 volunteers. Jaime Hunter did an outstanding job of taking
the project over from Jean Cathcart at the last minute with lots of help from
Cheryl Hulman and others. We need to
especially thank employers who provided items for our goodie
bags including Raytheon, City of Dallas, Computer Science Corporation, and Dr.
Pepper. According to member
Helene Beganne this program began in 1989 with the major energy and focus
provided by LuAnne Beckley and activities taking place in a gym on the SMU
campus. In the beginning, we did this
twice a year with about 125 scouts participating in each event. Our present location caps the scouts at 100
and our volunteer resources restrict it to once a year. Even so, we are touching a
lot of lives and the responses are especially rewarding.
THANKS TO ALL WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE
School Mentors needed before June – Communities in School’s
I received a call recently from Leigh Anne Hope,
Executive Director of the Communities in School’s
In any case, Leigh Anne reports that her agency provides case
management, referrals, home visits, and food drives, self
esteem group services, etc. One
of their major projects is to find volunteers to tutor and mentor the
students. She says that the individual
attention and positive guidance go a long way in motivating, encouraging, and
increasing the students’ academic skills.
At this time of the year, Leigh Anne is in desperate need for
volunteers to help students “rescue” their grades and learning. And, she reports,
that there is a special need for positive career women (and men) with math and
science skills who can serve as mentors for the middle school. Of course, the bad news is that the volunteer
must do this during school ours, with many doing so at lunch and often with
employers’ support.
In any case, if you or someone who know has anytime, here are
schools with particular needs:
Janie Stark Elementary,
Visit the Communities in Schools’
This has really been a busy time for contacts concerning need for volunteers and this particular program seems ready made for SWE. In fact, I know that one of our members (don’t remember her name) has been employed by Habitat for Humanity and our LuAnne Beckley has served as an occasional volunteer.
In any case the Women Build program
encourages wider participation of women in the Habitat mission of building
affordable homes in partnership with and for sale to deserving low-income
families. They feel women are especially
important as volunteers since women and children are
disproportionately represented among the poor and needy and are often
clients in the project.
The Habitat has developed a series of training classes, with new
sessions beginning on April 5. In the
interest of time, I’m not copying the details but they
look very interesting and I’m sure that details can be found at
http://www.dallas-habitat.org, by email to cynlutz@dallas-habitat.org,
or calling Cyndy Lutz at 214-827-4037 X 45.
If you’ve ever thought about volunteering for
Habitat while also learning skills re house construction, this may be the
extra-curricular volunteer activity for you.
Math*Blazer Program and Volunteers Needed – May 15
I was
recruited as a volunteer last year for the Dallas Boys and Girls Clubs math
competition for middle school students that is known as Math*Blazers and it was
an exciting, rewarding event. So, if your available on May 15 (ends at
The Junior League of Plano has announced that “their” project supporting the Sci-Tech Discovery Center is more than launched as Sci-Tech is now an official stand-alone non-profit. Even better, they have achieved their goal, with our assistance, in raising the needed $200K to bring the exciting exhibit Zap! Cutting Edge Surgery to the Shops at Willow Bend this summer.
Now the real fun begins and they are recruiting volunteers. So, if you or those you know (including mature teens) are available for a few volunteer hours let them know. OR if you or your employer have need for something different in the way of summer excitement let them know. Visit http://www.mindstretchingfun.org for the details.
Please let educators and high school seniors know that SWE Dallas sponsors an annual scholarship for new women high school graduates who are major in engineering at college. Our deadline is May 15th with information provided on our website http://www.dallaswe.org
NEED JOB
We have a new member in our midst – Nicky Butler. Nicky moved to
My name is Nicole Butler although I have always gone by Nicky.
I just graduated from the
NEW JOB – from Jill Almaguer – Yeah for Jill
“For Epic Systems, I am doing
Strategic Business Development. If anyone has a need for IT equipment,
project management, consulting, maintenance or disposition, we can
help! “ Jill reports that she is
also teaching one night a week at DeVry in
GOOD-BYS
We’ve had good and bad news from our treasured and
dedicated treasurer, Karla Siedel.
Karla’s husband Russ is completing his MBA and has landed a job. The bad news – it’s
in
AND, as indicated above, Jill Almaguer has employment in
We will miss both of these treasured members but hope that they keep us posted on all of their positive activities. Their new sections are going to be winners, to say the least.
Tuesday, April 20 – Section Meeting; speaker SWE member and SMU ME Instructor Dr. Donna Mularkey; Nedley’s Restaurant
TBD SWE UTD – Student Section Banquet – Upgrade Recognition
TBD Certificate of Merit Program – Chair Margaret Bareis; vice chair needed
MAY 2004
3rd Tuesday, May 18 – Section meeting; Nedley’s Restaurant
Tentative plans – speaker from DFW First – jobs for our area and career strategies
May 15 –
JUNE 2004
Don’t know yet
The Landing at Seven
Coves (near
Please check out the web-site
for additional information and send your registration form with the $75 fee to
Sarah Nuttall. Check out the Section Vitality
Corner at the Region C website for more updates and most current information: http://www.societyofwomenengineers.org/RegionC/SectionVitality.html
======
I’ve got several ideas of how we
might work with other engineering organizations in our area on some new, joint
projects. I’m having problems getting contacts within
these organizations. So, I need members to volunteer
to serve as SWE-liaisons with other organizations. Please reply to l.bryant@ieee.org with your name and affiliation with
any other
SWE
Cares
Recognizing that going
through career transition is normal, WE helps its members by offering a dues
discount to members who are experience a period of unemployment. We want to
help you find not just any job, but the right job that meets your career
expectations.
www.swe.org/careers
You know what to do and you know how
to do it! Visit the SWE career center where job opportunities meet SWE member
resumes.
Join the SWE resume database where hundreds of recruiters identify new candidates all the time.
OBJECTIVES OF THE SOCIETY OF WOMEN
ENGINEERS
• To inform young women, their parents, counselors, and the public in general of the qualifications and achievements of women engineers and of the opportunities open to them.
• To assist women engineers in readying themselves for a return to active work after temporary retirements.
• To serve as a center of information on women in engineering.
• To encourage women engineers to attain high
levels of educational and professional achievement.
CHECK
US OUT! www.dallaswe.org
If you need to update your
contact information, please feel free to use the submission form on the web.
There is also a survey page. Please take the opportunity to let us know your
opinions. We would greatly appreciate your input.
President
LeEarl Bryant
(h) 972-699-1649
Section Representative
tbd
Vice President
(Interim) Jill Almaguer, P.E.
(h) 972-624-5546
Secretary
(h)
972-422-8626
Treasurer Karla Seidel
(h) 817-481-7123
Scholarship Chair |
Girl Scout WorkShop Chair |
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Fund Development |
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Girl Scout W/S Volunteer Chair |
Certificate of Merit Chair Margaret Bareis |
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Society of Women Engineers