Dallas SWE partnered with Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas for our October Outreach Event! The morning began with the students learning from panelists about preparing for college and pursuing an engineering career. Afterwards, students and volunteers collaborated together on a robotics activity where robots were programmed to maneuver through a maze designed by the students. Thanks to SWE Volunteers Amanda Alsbrook, Rachel Gaspar, Domanique Johnson, Danielle Henry, Robyn Broniewski, and Cyonna Holmes for volunteering. Dallas SWE thanks our sponsors and Girls Inc. of Metropolitan Dallas for their continued partnership and commitment to promoting STEM!
Dallas SWE partnered with The Boys & Girls Club of Collin County to host a mini Winter DYW at their Plano Campus in November! Activity Lead, Cyonna Holmes, led middle school students in a bioengineering activity focused on building a prosthetic limb. Students learned about the design principles required when building inventions for the human body. Activity Lead, Robyn Broniewski, led the students in a saltwater car activity where students learned how chemistry, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering can work together to power movement.
Dallas SWE Volunteers helped guide breakout groups as they designed, built, and tested their inventions. Thank you to the Boys & Girls Club of Collin County for their partnership and thank you to our Dallas SWE volunteers for their continued dedication to community volunteering!
Dallas SWE thanks our sponsors for their partnership and commitment to STEM Outreach!
Stay tuned for information on our upcoming Spring DYW!
Save the Date for Dallas SWE’s Spring Design Your World Outreach Event with The Vickery Meadow Youth Development Foundation on Saturday, March 2nd from 10am – 3pm. Volunteer sign ups open on January 15th!
Congrats to Lynn Mortensen, Dallas SWE’s December Member of the Month!
Lynn is currently following her passion as a STEM advocate and volunteer after spending 30 plus years in the aerospace and defense industry. She started her career as a Computer Scientist with a degree from California State Polytechnic University Pomona. She retired from the Raytheon Company in 2013 having held many positions within the company in program management, product development and engineering management including vice president of engineering of a $3B business segment.
During her career, Lynn was the recipient of several awards including the Malcom R. Currie Innovation Award and Raytheon Womens Network Woman to Watch Award. In 2011, she was selected as a Women Worth Watching in Technology from the Diversity Journal. As a Raytheon executive, Lynn supported several SWE conferences as keynote speaker at the Raytheon & Navy sponsored collegiate luncheons as well as different sessions on mentoring. In 2018, Lynn was selected for the Society of Women Engineers Spark Award at the National Convention.
As a member of the Dallas Society of Women Engineers (SWE) Outreach Committee, Lynn has taken on leadership roles in the past for the signature Dallas SWE Design Your World STEM Conference for Girls and is the current lead of the Scholarship Committee. Lynn is also an active volunteer at BEST robotics events and is a board member for High-Tech High Heels. Lynn is a member of the STEM Advisory Board for the Girl Scouts of Northeast Texas (GSNETX) helping GSNETX identify technologies and activities for the Girl Scout STEM Center of Excellence at Camp Whispering Cedars.
Lynn continues to share her experiences with the next generation of engineers in the hope of increasing the number and diversity of engineers for the future.
“Being retired, I now have the time to volunteer with organizations where I can share my experiences with women and minorities as well as focus on the K-12 and post-secondary STEM pipeline. SWE offers me the opportunity to do both through our many events and meetings and our phenomenal scholarship and Design Your World outreach programs. By sharing my experiences with other SWE members, I hope that I’m helping them have a more rewarding career and personal life. Being able to connect Dallas SWE to other organizations that I work with is definitely creating value across our community and hopefully, helping increase the number of women and minorities in STEM. Dallas SWE has many innovative and accomplished members and I’m honored to work with everyone.”
On October 26-28, 2023, several Dallas SWE members attended WE23, the Society of Women Engineers annual international conference, in Los Angeles, CA.
WE23 hosted over 17,000 attendees from all over the world. Dallas SWE members attended to network, learn professional and technical development skills, and connect with other SWE-sters.
Dallas SWE also represented the section as speakers at the conference. Sammy Zellner presented a talk on “Organize Your Way to Your Dream Job”, teaching participants all about balancing job search, school, work, and more.
Claire Jordan and Barbara Read presented a panel on “Let’s Grow Up and Retire Those Stereotypes about Age”. They provided great tips on working with people of all ages and backgrounds.
Shelley Stracener presented on a panel discussion titled “Survive and Thrive Through SWE Leadership”. This panel gave great tips on balancing SWE leadership roles with work and life, as well as how to apply SWE experiences to career growth.
Zaineb Ahmad presented on “What is Human Systems Integration?”, where she explained the importance of this field and all of its applications into emerging technical systems.
Dallas SWE members also attended the career fair, getting to see new tech developments across industry and grabbing fun swag. Overall, the conference was a great success, and Dallas SWE can’t wait to attend WE24 next year in Chicago, IL!
Join SWE Dallas for our January Professional Development Event! We will be joined by Lauren Hasson, creator of DEVELOP[HER] as she shows us how to develop our professional skills to the next level. Come prepared with any questions you may have for our speaker. Refreshments and giveaways will be provided! RSVP by January 15th.
Lauren Hasson is an accomplished Director of Software Engineering at a leading Silicon Valley payments company where she has worked for the past five years. Her professional work has been featured in Apple keynotes, she was one of 100 top innovators worldwide invited to the UK G8 Innovation Conference, and she’s won more than eighteen international awards for her work in entrepreneurship, product innovation, and leadership including multiple recognitions by the United Nations. Lauren is also the best-selling author of The DevelopHer Playbook, published in 2021.
Despite her numerous accolades, Lauren found herself with no job, no marketable skills, and no money in her bank account just ten years ago. Lauren found a way to rebuild her life from rock bottom and transformed herself into a top, high-profile professional in less than two years. Upon learning from a male peer that he had been hired at a 50% higher salary than her, Lauren was able to triple her base salary in just another two short years. Lauren then founded DevelopHer to help women in tech to get ahead, stand out, and build their value so that no one else would have to go at it alone like she did.
Lauren now travels the world both virtually and to live events helping women and men professionally and personally move the needle to bridge the gender opportunity gap and has inspired thousands to reach for opportunities that they would have not otherwise reached for.
