Last weekend, over 200 SWE members from Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi met in Rogers, Arkansas for the FY16 Region C Conference hosted by the University of Arkansas SWE section. It was an exciting weekend of learning, networking, mentoring, and celebration! Fourteen Dallas SWE members attended the event and represented our section in various levels of SWE leadership!

Professional Development Sessions

• Nandika DSouza, Dallas SWE VP of Outraeach, presented a session, “Let’s Include the Elephant in the Room”, about recognizing and celebrating the cultural differences that bring us diversity in perspectives and ideas.
• Alicia M. Morgen, Dallas SWE Program Committee Member, spoke on “Women in STEM: Your Story, Your Voice, Your Power”, leveraging your personal experience to inspire others.

SWE Region C Awards

Dallas SWE took home several awards from Region C Conference!

• Most Creative Membership Campaign – for our partnership with Lennox International on member recruitment events, new member orientations, and our 2015 Holiday Mixer.
• Joint Professional and Collegiate Activity Award – for our partnership with SMU SWE on two Design Your World STEM Conference for Girls events, She Networks She Wins, and our LCC-led Leadership Workshop in 2015.
• Outstanding Professional Section Participation Award – for exceptional attendance at Region and Society conferences, on-time delivery of section reports, and award nomination submissions.
• Governor’s Choice Award – for Shelley Stracener’s contributions as Dallas SWE Webmaster and Region C Secretary & Webmaster, facilitating communication between the Society and Sections, promoting social media use for sections and Region C, and crocheting turtle mascots for Region C Sections & MALs.

Fundraising

Dallas SWE offered Region C Conference attendees purple polo shirts, mousepads, and stickers emblazoned with the SWE logo and tagline, “Aspire, Advance, Achieve”. Funds raised from the sale of these items help us provide great professional development programs, outreach activities, and scholarships to our local Dallas communities! We’ll have these items for sale at each of our meetings going forward so keep an eye out and support our local section!

Other Highlights

There were several excursions during the conference including a tour of the local WalMart distribution center and a trip to Dickson Street for a night on the town after the Award Banquet. We had a lot of fun socializing with old friends and making new ones!

Our latest Employee Resource Group contacts at Lennox sponsored the Region C Conference and were represented at the Career Fair where they networked with professionals and collegiates looking for employment! We look forward to more success from this partnership with Lennox!

We also spent a lot of time together as a leadership team getting to know each other better and talking about how we can better serve our members.

Personal Reflections

The Walmart distribution center tour gave an in depth view of their operations, automation with respect to warehouse and shipping technologies. The volume of items coming in and shipping out is very large. It also gave us an insight on challenges faced as some products have different packaging needs that make it difficult to automate the distribution process.
Sustainability Engineering was not heard of when I went to Graduate School, but now there is a lot of work done in the area. Jasmina burek (Univ of Arkansas’ Student) even won a Poster competition regarding the same topic. It is great to see research done on reducing carbon footprint, recycling and making the industrial world more sustainable.
~Shilpa Nagaraj

My SWE network is my most valuable professional and personal mentoring resource in my career. Serving as a leader at Section, Region, and Society levels has opened up a world of opportunities to me that I never would have experienced in my “day job.” I’ve been a SWE member for a long time but at this year’s Region Conference I learned about several new ways folks can get involved with SWE committees. Volunteering with SWE is always a rewarding experience, I encourage everyone to get involved and find out what SWE has to offer to you!
~Shelley Stracener, Dallas SWE Webmaster, SWE Region C Secretary & Webmaster

This was my first time attending a SWE Conference as well as presenting there. My particular topic was “Women in STEM: Your Story, Your Voice, Your Power.”  I enjoyed the conference and the consistent message of embracing your own story. Here are a few quotes that inspired me during the conference!
“Life is variable. SWE is consistent. As you move forward give back and inspire others.”
~Amy Spivey, Senior Vice President of Wal-Mart International Activity Management
“Enjoy the journey the twists and the turns. Consider not just big companies. It’s the value of the experience that matters.”
~Kristina Worgan, Director of Operational Excellence at Baldor Electric Company
I have been inspired to continue my journey and enjoy the process of evolving in my career and diversity mindset.
~Alicia M. Morgan, Dallas SWE Program Committee Member

As a single mom having to take care and of my children, nurturing them in all aspect of their lives, and juggling a career, I forget my existence as an individual. Attending this conference is the best decision I’ve made. It allowed me to think about turning the focus back on me, what’s important to me to grow personally and professionally. The sessions I attended did just that.
The connections and friendships I’ve gained are worth all the time and effort. I also appreciated the bonding, caring, nurturing, and support from all women I was surrounded with. Thank you!
~Tram Trinh, Dallas SWE Social Media Manager