Hola amigos,

What a year! My first SHPE year…

I was honored to lead SHPE Houston President for the period ending this month and together with an extraordinary group of professionals, we were able to continue the long trajectory of SHPE Houston as the top professional chapter in the nation.  I want to thank each and every member of the board and appreciate all the help I received from them and all the SHPE familia during my time as president of SHPE Houston. 

We set high goals and were able to meet many of these goals even before COVID-19.  I am proud to announce that SHPE Houston ended this year as the largest professional chapter in the nation with 151 members (52% annual growth), of which 36 are SHPE Lifetime Professional members.
 
We delivered $14K in scholarships, impacting 12 students enrolled in STEM careers and recognized our key contributors via social media in lieu of the cancelled annual Gala awards ceremony.  In addition, we increased our relations with several organizations and industry ERGs (like BP and Leidos Hispanic ERGs) and Houston area ISD (Houston, Aldine, and Katy). We also expanded our relationship with all the SHPE student chapters in the South East sub-region.  

I am proud that we are leaving a very strong chapter under a very good group of professionals lead by our President-elect Ben Gonzalez.  Good luck to all of them and always count on me to lend you a hand.

As for me, since December, I assisted in the reactivation of SHPE Texas Bay Area Chapter (TBAC).  This chapter mainly will concentrate on bringing new STEM members to SHPE from a key STEM area: NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) and surrounding companies and IPC.  I was honored to be elected as President of TBAC for the new period.  I plan with the help of a great team at SHPE TBAC to continue to expand SHPE brand in Houston, support SHPE Houston events, grow SHPE TBAC relationship with our sub-region's student chapters and surrounding middle/high schools, and increase awareness of STEM careers in the Hispanic community. 

Gracias a todos y hasta luego SHPE Houston! Hola SHPE TBAC!

Juan Moreno-Gongora
President SHPE Houston
President-elect SHPE TBAC (president@shpe-tbac.org )
https://shpe-tbac.org 
https://www.linkedin.com/company/shpe-tbac

And don't forget to renew your SHPE Houston membership!