WE14: Day 5 Recap

I had a lot on my schedule during WE14, but the things I was most excited for were scheduled for the final day of conference.

As most people reading this will know, I’m really committed to STEM outreach and impacting the future generations of engineers.  I always had that engineering influence in my life, but I know that so many students don’t.  I firmly believe that regardless of profession, everyone should have an understanding of the global impact that engineers make.  I want to change the common perception of engineers and help students see that STEM fields are important, fun, and allow for creativity and imagination.

So anyway, back to Invent It. Build It.  This year marked the fifth annual Invent It. Build It. event at annual conference. The event features a community expo with local and national STEM- and girl-focused organizations; a parent/educator program with panels about high school coursework, college admissions, and talking to your kids about STEM fields; and a girls program, where girls interact directly with SWE members and work on fun projects.

My role this year was as an Activities Coordinator, which meant sitting through lots of teleconferences for the months leading up to conference.  I developed take-home activity kits for the girls (aluminum foil boat activity – it’s lots of fun!) and helped implement a new concept — roving role models.  (I included a preview photo of the sashes in my WE14 day 2 recap post.)  Our roving role models walked around with handheld activities related to their disciplines, interacting with students and parents.  Everyone had a blast, and I really want to continue this new concept as a tradition!

After collecting most of the sashes, I headed into the Activity Room, ready for a crazy day.  This year, we had 619 girls registered for Invent It. Build It… and 588 showed up!  It was record-setting.  We also had about 300 parents & educators.  The day went so well overall.  Our program also featured a host from Design Squad Nation and a director from the Department of Energy (Dot Harris).  Director Harris’ speech was amazing and inspiring, and even brought a few tears to my eyes.

It’s funny how months of planning result in a huge blur.  The girls worked on two activities — Touchdown (a lunar lander / “egg drop” sort of activity) and Dance Pad Mania (LEDs and completing circuits).  I walked around, solving issues from paper cuts to cramps, missing materials, and everything in between.  At the end of the event, each of us coordinators received the commemorative patch in a frame, and a SWE business card holder.  It sounds cheesy, but seeing all of those girls learn about engineering was reward enough.  It brought tears to my eyes, seeing hundreds of girls learn that they can be engineers someday. 🙂

Having an AMAZING morning at #InventItBuildIt with 588 girls and 300 parents & educators! @SWEtalk pic.twitter.com/zZSpV9PSys

— Kate Nolan (@KateNolan4) October 25, 2014

After a long day walking around and doing lots of standing, it was naturally time to put on heels… the closing piece of each annual SWE conference is Celebrate SWE, where awards are given to collegiate members and collegiate/professional sections. I’d only been talking about my sparkly dress for months. 😛

I sat with some CLCC friends and enjoyed the evening’s keynote speaker.  Finally, it was my turn to go up on stage, and present this year’s outreach awards.  I’ve had the privilege of coordinating outreach awards for the past two years.  This year, I was elated to receive 95 awards submissions from a wide variety of collegiate & professional sections.  We only disqualified a few for formatting issues, which was a huge relief after last year!  I had a blast, though frankly, I don’t remember much of speaking.  I have always had this odd habit of zoning out when I perform or present – in college, I had a lot of piano recitals, and after each one, I could only vaguely remember performing. 😛

Celebrate SWE program

Sadly, the banquet came to an end… but the night didn’t!  A few of us headed back to our Mexican restaurant from Friday afternoon, and finally had a chance to try the pomegranate margaritas.  It was so fun getting to hang out with my SWE Minnesota friends, since I rarely get to see them.

After a long day, I walked back to my hotel.  Fortunately, I had packed most of my stuff on Friday afternoon, so there wasn’t much to take care of before rolling into bed.  I woke up bright and early (I’m perpetually paranoid that I’ll be late), got ready quickly, ate a nice breakfast in the hotel, and am now waiting to board my flight back home.

I’ve had an amazing time here at WE14.  I don’t know how, but each SWE conference is more amazing than the last.  SWE is the only place in my life where being a woman engineer means that I am just like everyone else.  In my normal world where I’m 1 of 2 women in my area of 15-20 people, it’s nice to blend in with the crowd.  I have met so many incredible women through SWE, from across the country, and hopefully someday soon, across the globe.

Each year, SWE recognizes its newest life members at Celebrate SWE.  I’m halfway to completing my life membership contract right now, and desperately want to be on that list next year at WE15 in Nashville.  This organization has given me leadership experience, access to companies that I never would have *dreamed* of working for (aka the one where I am now), and this amazing network of 28,000 women in engineering.  I can’t wait to complete this commitment, and be a SWE member for the rest of my life.

Now it’s time to head back home, and the countdown is on to iCON15 in Kansas City. 🙂

Kate

WE14: Day 4 Recap

So, where was I?  After a long night of college recruiting, I was ready to fall asleep for a long time.  But alas, that was not to be.

Each year, the company I work for hosts a 7 AM Friday breakfast, in honor of any employees who are receiving major SWE awards. (As usual, we had three honorees, this year for Distinguished New Engineer, the Prism Award, and the Global Leadership Award.)

Anyway, early breakfast.  Not too excited.  I got on the elevator with plenty of time, all ready to get to the bottom floor solo… when into the elevator steps the chemical process manager from my summer internship in 2012!  I last saw her two years ago at WE12 in Houston, and was delighted to see her again. 🙂

After a delicious breakfast that was far superior to the previous morning’s keynote (i.e. there was actually enough food), we assembled out in the lobby for an all-company photo.  I was impressed last year when we had ~150 attendees, and this year, we actually broke 200.  I am so pleased to work for a company that is so supportive of my SWE involvement, continually encouraging its employees to get involved in SWE and develop their external leadership skills.

Then it was off to interviews. It’s easier in some ways to be on the other side of the table, but at the same time, it’s more difficult.  Someone’s future with your company is depending on you.  Your notes directly impact whether they receive that internship or full time position.  But on the lighter side of things, it’s a joy to share your experiences as an intern and now full-time hire, and to really show that it’s a wonderful place to work.

After two interviews, I escaped to eat lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant (Rosa Mexicana) with friends from the Collegiate Leadership Coaching Committee (CLCC).  The guacamole was overpriced, but I am not going to complain about having good service and good food, in comparison to the day before at Tom’s Urban.

A few of us went to a mega-session on Building Your Personal Brand (I think?), conducted by Jo Miller, an internationally recognized women’s leadership coach.  I admit that I nodded off a little bit during the session (I was tired… and should have gotten coffee…) but definitely plan to implement some of the things I learned – have a tagline, know what you’re about, and a lot more that I probably tweeted about.

The afternoon concluded with a walk-through for Saturday’s Invent It. Build It. event.  I’ll write a bit more on my day 5 recap post about Invent It Build It, but the basics are that this is a HUGE STEM outreach event designed for 6th-9th grade girls and their parents, educators, and other adult influencers.  The event features a community expo with local & national STEM-related organizations, a parent/educator program, and a girls’ program.

By this point, I was exhausted (shocking, right?), so I headed back to my hotel room and indulged in close to two hours of Say Yes to the Dress (no shame), before heading out for the night.  I met up with a group of women from my work site for a bit, and then headed over to where some of my CLCC friends were staying for conference.  We walked to a nearby wine bar, where I had delicious sliders (not sure what was on them… red cabbage, maybe beef?  maybe pork?) and a much-needed hard cider.  We had a wonderful time.  I have really enjoyed being part of this committee, and having an instant group of friends to hang out with at conferences. 🙂

After a loooong day, I rolled into bed, ready for the day ahead.  That day 5 post will be up soon. 🙂

Kate

WE14: Days 2 & 3 Recap

As always, I’m staying very busy out here at the annual SWE conference!  I didn’t have a chance to recap day 2 (Wednesday), so I’ll combine that with a day 3 recap.

Wednesday morning was my relaxation morning.  I managed to sleep until 6:15 am (not bad, considering I was on central time still), and got in a nice workout before getting ready for the day.  At long last, I headed over to the convention center, and picked up my badge for conference.  At this point, things were dead around the convention center.  A lot of people travel in on Wednesday, so the bulk of the attendees were nowhere to be found.

I had a significant amount of outreach work to do, so I headed over to our outreach office to get going.  I am serving as co-activities coordinator for Invent It. Build It. this year, and have had the time of my life doing it!  We’re introducing some new twists to Invent It. Build It. this year, including some international components, a take-home activity, and some fun interaction with volunteers in the morning.  I don’t want to spoil the surprise, but it looks a little bit like this –

More to come… stop by Invent It. Build It. between 8:30-10:00 on Saturday to see more!

I spent awhile putting together our take-home activity kits, before finally escaping to pick up lunch and relax a little in my hotel room.  One of the nice things about being with such a large corporation at conference is that we have a lot of our own activities, even by business unit.  I went to a quick meet & greet with others from my division, and it was so nice to meet people from other sites who knew some of my management, and were so welcoming.

Then it was off to regular SWE business, with our newly formatted committee meet-ups.  We spent a few hours discussing some big plans for the outreach committee.  Let me just say this:  the SWE outreach committee is an amazing group of women.  I feel SO blessed to have joined a committee with so much experience and so much knowledge, and I am so happy to work with them in spreading the word that engineering is an important, impactful career with so many opportunities.

I spent the rest of the evening with another of my committees – collegiate leadership coaching!  I have been a Collegiate Leadership Coach for just over a year, and I absolutely love it.  CLCC has given me a network of women engineers my age, spread across the country.  They are great to hang out with, amazing to learn from, and I’m so happy to have an instant group of friends, now that I’ve graduated.  We had a delicious dinner and were introduced to the Board of Directors and HQ staff, and later headed to the iScream social.  I thought my Minnie Mouse costume was original (Kevin is going to be Mickey Mouse), but it turned out that 15 other people had the same idea. 😦

Finally, I collapsed into bed at 9:30 PM.  The next morning was bright and early (as usual), with the keynote breakfast starting at 8 AM.  SWE did something a bit different this year, with an interactive conversation between Elizabeth Bierman (SWE president) and Gwynne Shotwell (SpaceX COO).

After the breakfast, I headed over to a plenary session, “Men as Diversity Partners” with someone who works at the same site as me within our company.  The session was amazing.  It was so wonderful to hear from male executives who really just get it – they were all so committed to promoting diversity in every way.  A senior vice president at my company spoke to the fact that in our workplace, a meeting of 9 engineers will probably have 1 woman.  And that’s very true – I’ve been in meetings up to 15 people before, and have been the only woman and the only person under the age of 40.  Feel free to check out my tweets from the session (look at October 23 tweets).

Then we headed off to lunch, which was incredibly slow.  If you are ever in downtown LA, do not go to Tom’s Urban.  Though the food was good, our server was terrible.  I particularly enjoyed someone saying “we’re packed!” when a third of the restaurant’s tables were empty.

Then it was off to a region meeting, which ran long as usual, before another outreach person and I left to go work on Invent It Build It.  I had the amazing opportunity to put together activity kits with a vice president from my company – actually the VP over my division.  She was so encouraging and engaging, and I absolutely loved having informal time to just talk to her and hear about her career path in our company.

The evening (as always) was exhausting.  I spent about 2 hours at our company’s booth, serving as a recruiter assistant, filtering potential interns over to the right hiring teams.  That was followed by an hour and a half in the hospitality suite… and by this time, I was exhausted.  I finally crawled into bed at 10 PM, ready for the day to end.

More to come on today’s activities – I am excited for these next two days of conference, especially all of the fun that will come tomorrow!  I’m having a wonderful time, and hope that I can come back to Southern California someday on vacation, to see more of the area.

Kate

WE14: Day 1 Recap

If you know me in real life, you are well aware that the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) has an important place in my life.  I joined this professional society five years ago as a freshman in college, and never looked back.  My collegiate SWE involvement helped me develop the leadership skills that were often lacking in my engineering courses, and made me apply to companies that I would have never imagined working for.  (Exhibit A:  the company where I work now.)  And I’m working towards life membership, which I am just unbelievably excited about.

I stayed involved in SWE after college, which is why I’m still attending conferences like I was in college.  But it’s very different now – I fly solo, I get in on Tuesday of conference (instead of missing the keynote), and I’m deeply involved in many aspects of conference.  This year, I’m bringing some new twists to activities for Invent It Build It, helping with college recruiting & interviewing prospective interns, and presenting outreach awards at Celebrate SWE on Saturday.  (And of course, hanging out with my friends from Collegiate Leadership Coaching as much as possible!)

But I’m getting ahead of myself – that’s all in the future.  This morning, I woke up in my apartment, bright and early at 4:30 am.  I am becoming all too familiar with that Southwest terminal – I’ve flown out of it 5 times in the past 14 months.  As usual, I dropped by Starbucks for a nonfat latte (yum) and settled in to wait for my flight.

The flight went off without a hitch, and I even got to see something interesting:  the landforms that we learned about in 2nd grade, that only exist in the American Southwest.  (I’ll never understand why plateaus and buttes were an integral part of our Missouri curriculum, but I’m glad that this knowledge is coming in handy at age 24.)

During my last semester of college, I wrote a paper about Googie architecture for a spaceflight history class.  Googie architecture was fairly short lived, and incorporated a lot of things from the budding space program – swooping lines, starbursts, aerodynamic shapes, and futuristic structures.  Examples I used were the original Holiday Inn sign, the Space Needle, and the Theme Building, which is part of LAX.  I finally saw it today, as my taxi left the airport!  So happy.  Below is a photo (not mine):

photo courtesy of UCLA

Some things I noticed on the way to downtown LA:  there are a lot of cars and palm trees, and the city is blanketed in smog.  I didn’t even see the main buildings until we were practically on top of them…

My hotel is incredible, and I’m so happy that I chose this one.  The room is so spacious, and I feel comfortable having this as my home away from home this week.

After unpacking, I forced myself to go out and explore a little.  I discovered last week that the Grammy Museum was a block from my hotel, and couldn’t pass up this opportunity to go!  I was a little nervous at first (reviews were mixed on TripAdvisor), but I had a wonderful time.

The museum began with a large room, filled with screens that showed Grammy Artist of the Year acceptance speeches from the very beginning until now.  The middle of the room was home to several small glass cases, showing the evolution of the Grammy award from its inception until the present.  I stood and watched the full video, and am not ashamed to admit that Taylor Swift made me tear up.  It’s fine.

Unfortunately, the museum doesn’t allow photos, so you’ll have to trust me that I saw Beyonce’s lace dress from the Grammys this year, Michael Jackson’s jackets & suit from the Thriller album, a garish jacket worn by BB King, Jimi Hendrix’ guitar, handwritten lyrics by Bob Dylan… the list goes on and on.  My favorite parts were obviously related to the piano – an upright played by fun. at this year’s Grammys was just sitting out, and I could have touched it if I wasn’t scared off by the “do not touch” sign.  And I stared at a 100-year-old Baldwin grand piano in the lobby for about five minutes… it once belonged to Thelonious Monk.

I also saw several exhibits about artists that I didn’t know much about – Donna Summer, the Laurel Canyon artists, and a large blues section.  The museum also included a lot of interactive displays, where I had the chance to explore musical genres (and their shared characteristics), listen to a song played through various historical recording devices (starting with the phonograph and moving towards HD surround sound), and see so many amazing pieces of music history.  This is a MUST see for anyone who loves music and/or music history.  I learned so much and am so happy that I paid this museum a visit!

By this point, I was exhausted.  It was 3:00 in LA (but 5:00 back home), and I was wiped out after having been up so early this morning.  I walked around the LA Live area a little, snapping photos of the Nokia Theater and the Staples Center, enjoying the sunshine.  Luckily, there was a Smashburger right there, so I picked up a quick dinner and stopped by Starbucks for iced tea, before heading back to my room.  I even found the Hollywood sign – unfortunately, I can’t get a good picture, since it’s visible only from the opposite side of the hotel from my room.  But seeing it was good enough. 🙂

Have I mentioned how much I love this room?  I’ve spent most of the evening at the breakfast bar, catching up on a few last-minute pre-conference items, trying to relax, and talking to Kevin on the phone for a bit.  I’m so appreciative of this room that isn’t much smaller than my apartment, the half-sized kitchen (yay for coffee in real mugs!) and a nice couch to relax on.  Tomorrow, I plan to get a nice run and a yummy breakfast in, before heading over to the convention center to work on outreach stuff for Saturday.

So yes, I’ve had a fairly lame evening.  That 4 hour flight and 2 hour time change has wiped me out.  Right now, it’s past 10 pm back home, but I am forcing myself to stay awake… I am not waking up at 5 am tomorrow morning.

I am really just beyond excited for this week, and am so happy that it’s finally here!  There’s no way that I’ll be able to write a post each day, but I’ll do my best to section these posts off by day, when I finally do write them.  (I’ll upload all of my photos in a special post, after conference ends!)  Here’s to an amazing WE14, full of memories to last a lifetime.

Kate

Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas

It has been a looooong time since my last post… I’m staying incredibly busy with work, and just got to LA today for my 5th annual SWE conference.  I’ve been enjoying fall since my birthday a few weeks ago, with a visit from Kevin’s parents and a quiet weekend after that.  (2001:  A Space Odyssey?  Woof.  What a crazy movie.)  Early last week, Kevin and I watched Before Sunrise (a 90s-era Ethan Hawke movie).  And the best part of my pre-conference craziness was hanging out with Angela and Ryan twice, while Ryan was home on fall break.  I love that they have been in my life for so long. 🙂

In between SWE conference calls and answering e-mails, I’ve been trying to find a few moments to have fun here and there.  Last Saturday was one of those fun “moments”!

Many of my family’s vacations (and my 2011 internship in Lexington) took us out to the East Coast by way of I-64, and we continually saw signs for Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana.  I never knew what Holiday World was, and frankly didn’t have much interest in going.   Then, I met this guy who loves amusement parks…

Holiday World is incredibly cute, and a breath of fresh air after the madness of Disney World this summer.  The park is broken into four “lands” (Halloween, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), with adorably themed rides.  Right now, the park is celebrating Halloweekends, and many of the rides are renamed for the upcoming holiday.

Our first ride was Voyage, in the Thanksgiving section of the park.  Wooden coasters are hard to stomach anyway, but a wooden coaster with a giant 165-foot hill?  Ugh, it was rough.  After a few minutes to recuperate, we hopped into the Gobbler Getaway, where we saved Thanksgiving, using obnoxious turkey callers to hit targets.  The best part was the constant presence of Thanksgiving smells and the ridiculous turkeys. 😛

this is Voyage. it is nowhere near as small as this photo makes it look.

We went on a bunch of other rides, but one of the more memorable moments of the day was a log flume ride.  Kevin loves water rides, and for some reason, I didn’t think we’d get too soaked on this one.  Woof, I was wrong.  Luckily, I was wearing a waterproof jacket, but my jeans got so wet. 😦  60 degrees + log flume + sitting in the front of your 2-person group = bad news.

I complained.

A lot.

I don’t like getting wet.  Especially not when it’s 30 degrees too cold for water rides.

We explored the corn maze (and found all 8 checkpoints) and were rewarded with GREAT prizes – we each received a glo stick on a red ribbon.  (I’m kidding, it was really lame and definitely intended for kids.) 😛

Overall, Holiday World was so cute.  I am looking forward to going back next summer, when a new roller coaster opens and the water park resumes operation!  Everyone was so nice, and they provide free soda and sunscreen throughout the park.  It’s the little things that go a long way.

Everything in Santa Claus, IN is Christmas-themed. The church? St. Nicholas. Rudolph campgrounds. North Star something. And a lot more… this is the Santa Claus in Holiday World. 🙂

Then we hopped back into the car, made a stop in Mount Vernon, IL for dinner (Applebee’s was packed) and made it back to STL, after a long day of too much car time.  I had so much fun and can’t wait to go back!

Sunday was beyond busy.  After church, I rushed around St. Louis running errands for 3 hours… Party City for Halloween costume pieces, Kinko’s for what seemed like a billion copies, Michael’s for a scrapbook paper cutter, and finally, Trader Joe’s, so my kitchen won’t be empty when I come home.

Then, I spent 2 hours cutting paper into half sheets, while watching Forest Gump (relaxing) and monitoring my laundry (annoying).  I should have made these copies last week… 30 minutes at Kinko’s and 2+ hours cutting paper really adds up. 😦  But it’s all going to be worth it, because those pieces of paper are going to impact so many kids this Saturday. 🙂

Luckily, I got to take a break from all the pre-WE14 madness.  Angela, Ryan, and I tried out Five Star Burgers in Kirkwood – so good!  I love that whenever we spend time together, it’s as if we’re back in high school again, and not much has changed.  The topic of discussion that particular evening was wedding planning for a Mississippi riverboat double-wedding, filmed for reality TV and scheduled for April 1.  I am not on board with this.  Yes, the pun was intended.

Monday (yesterday) seems like it didn’t happen.  I went to work, tried to tie everything up before leaving, and rushed home to pack.  Kevin and I got to spend a bit of time together (thankfully) before I was off to bed, for my bright & early 4:30 am wake-up call…

I’ll leave you hanging there… look for another post detailing my first day in Los Angeles!

Kate