My collegiate section is hosting their first meeting of the year today, and it suddenly reminded me that today marks 6 years (to the day) since the first SWE meeting I ever attended. As many of you know, SWE (Society of Women Engineers) is one of the biggest parts of my life outside of work, and keeps me fairly busy between my responsibilities on the outreach and awards committees, plus a small role on the Boeing – St. Louis SWE planning team and a growing role on the 2017 Region i conference planning committee. But it wasn’t always this way.
Part of the reason I attended was that I’d made a pact with one of my female classmates that we would both get involved in SWE. I barely knew anyone there (since I didn’t live in the engineering learning community) and felt a little intimidated by the older, more seasoned engineering students who had completed impressive internships and held officer roles in our section. But I just had this feeling that it made sense to be involved in SWE, since our College of Engineering was maybe 13-14% women at the time that I started. And luckily, I had been influenced to join SWE by one of my engineering camp counselors in 2008, who was vice president of our section by the time I started my freshman year.
I was slow to get involved. It’s hard to get involved immediately when you’re navigating a new world of making new friends, taking harder classes, and taking on leadership roles in your dorm. But then, a group from my section went to annual conference, and when I found out the next year would be Orlando, I knew I wanted to go. At that time, conference attendance from my section was points-based on involvement, and I wanted to build a strong case. One of my close friends started saying that maybe I would be president of Mizzou SWE our senior year. (I’m pretty sure I laughed in his face.)
I went to the holiday party and volunteered at our region’s conference, and started getting involved in some outreach events. And I took a big step at the end of my freshman year, and managed to get elected to webmaster for my sophomore year. My love of SWE started to grow. I attended annual conference in Orlando (it was awesome), and by the end of the year, knew that I wanted to be that girl at the podium in E1419 my senior year. I wanted to be president of our section.
So, I took the next step and became vice president. I can say with 100% certainty that this was my favorite SWE position that I held in college. I have always loved recruiting (and still do), and had a blast talking to future Mizzou Engineering students (and SWE members) at so many events. It was sometimes exhausting, but I just loved it. Then I became president, and it was the biggest whirlwind of a year. I was so busy and often tired and overwhelmed, but I loved it and wouldn’t trade it for anything. That year cemented my love of SWE and made me realize that I had to stay in this for as long as possible.
I graduated and got overinvolved, and have slowly been pulling back and trying to focus on my true passions in SWE. I’ve found that passion, and it’s 100% outreach. I am so happy to be leading the new Wow! Innovations Program as we recognize and share the innovative outreach techniques that our SWE sections are already using. I’ve had a lot of fun leading outreach awards for the past 3 awards years, and though the technical issues drive me crazy sometimes, it’s a joy to see the impact that sections are making on their communities. And getting to play a big role in Invent It Build It and SWE’s presence at the FIRST championships has been a dream come true. (Have I mentioned that I love interacting with students?)
In early to mid-2014, I had this thought process of “Do I think I’ll be in SWE for at least 20 years? Do I see my attitude about SWE ever changing?” and came to the conclusion that this was something I wanted to be in for the rest of my life. I became a life member this past February (about 7 months ago) and was so pleased to receive a Life Member button from the Director of Regions when I attended our region conference in Kansas City.
SWE keeps me busy, but it’s out of love for this organization and knowing how much that it has impacted me, that I continue to be involved. I give full credit to SWE for helping me get to my current job (I first learned chemical engineers could be Boeing engineers when I attended WE10 as a sophomore) and for helping to develop some of the skills that I might have had to look elsewhere to acquire. I’m dreaming of chairing the outreach committee in a few years and hope to hold even more positions after that. My best friend from college was my sophomore year roommate who also got involved in SWE with me. And now, just a short time after graduating college, I can walk into annual conference with thousands of other women engineers, and immediately find someone I know. It’s really true what they say at renewal time – renewing your SWE membership is like getting 30,000 friends at once.
Kate
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
Planes & Pink 