SWE WE Local Award Announcement

We’re excited to share that we won an award for the Professional Development Day we held in May! The Outstanding Professional Development Award recognizes groups who plan and carry out high-quality professional development events. Only 12 of these awards are given annually, so we are honored to receive this recognition!

Professional Development Day is an annual event and was held virtually in May 2022. We had panels titled “Building and Maintaining Your Professional Network” and “Advocating for Yourself in Workplace Communication;” a workshop on “Empowerment Through Self-Care and Career Alignment;” and a keynote addressing “Lifelong Learning.” We additionally held an attendee networking session, corporate networking session, and an in-person networking dinner. Post-event survey respondents gave the event a 9.7/10 satisfaction rating!

Thank you to all who attended our event and to all who volunteered their time to make the event a success. Keep an eye out for information on our 2023 Professional Development Day as well as a release of videos from our 2022 Professional Development Day! If you are interested in volunteering with this event or if your company would be interested in sponsoring, please reach out to us. 

3rd Annual Women’s + Networking Conference
at the University of Pittsburgh

Five members of the Pittsburgh SWE section participated in the 3rd annual Women’s + Networking Conference sponsored by Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering on Saturday, November 12, 2022.

This year’s theme was “Reclaim Order and Control in Your Professional Life”.  The event included a keynote address by Dr. Lise Vesterlund, Andrew W. Mellon professor of economics at Pitt and co-author of “The No Club: Putting a Stop to Women’s Dead-End Work.” 

Vesterlund spoke on the common issue of non-promotable tasks (NPT), a term in the book referring to work assigned that is outside of or below a professional’s expertise, giving them unmanageable workloads and work that isn’t rewarded by superiors.  Vesterlund’s research found that women are more likely than their male colleagues to be assigned and agree to complete an NPT.  “This is not a question of “fixing” women,” Vesterlund said. “This is an opportunity to improve organizations.” 

Over 75 people attended, from undergraduates to seasoned professionals.  Many attendees agreed they experienced a similar bias in their environments and worked in small groups to discuss strategies found in Vesterlund’s book to reject or renegotiate an NPT.

All participants received a copy of Dr. Vesterlund’s book.  If you have a book club, it would be an excellent choice for discussion!  And, if you wanted to start your own “No Club”, there is an appendix in the back of the book with guidance and best practices.

Thanks to SWE Pittsburgh members Dianne McMaster, Ann Sokalski, Mary Zeis, Daphne Belen-Cordero, and Mary Ann Walsh for participating!

 

 

Coffee Hour Discussion on Maternal Bias – Recap

On Saturday, November 12th, we met to discuss maternal bias (and other gender biases) while enjoying some beverages at De Fer Coffee and Tea. It was great to connect in person to share experiences and perspectives on a topic that has such an impact on women, especially in engineering and technology-related careers.

 

Volunteers Wanted – SWE’s Certificate of Merit Program

SWE Pittsburgh’s Certificate of Merit Program recognizes local high school girls who are interested in engineering or technology as a career and who excel in math and science.  Last year, we reached out to over 60 high schools in the area and 48 schools participated.  We honored 84 sophomores and juniors with certificates and 46 seniors with certificates and $100 awards.

The program runs from late February through late-May.  

We need several volunteers to help with the program.

Coordinator: Runs the overall program; assigns tasks to the volunteers; follows-up on details; mails out certificate packets.  (This is a great role for someone to practice their leadership and management skills!)

Back-office Volunteers: There are several ways that volunteers can help in the “back-office” from the comfort of your home:

- Sending a personal “invitation to participate” email to each school (We can divide up the list with one volunteer taking schools starting with A through M and another volunteer doing schools starting with N through Z.)

- Sending reminders

- Sending “thanks for submitting your nominees” emails (Templates exist for all of these standard emails.)

- Transferring student names to the certificate template in preparation for printing by the coordinator

- Creating labels by transferring names and schools to the labels for printing by the coordinator

Note-Writer Volunteers: We send personal hand-written notes to every recipient.  A template exists for the basic outline of these notes.  Typically, we hold a “note-writing get-together” to write the majority of these, although individuals can volunteer to write some at their home.  (It’s best if the volunteer is centrally located so the written notes can be easily picked up by the coordinator.)  Note writing typically happens in late April and May.

If you would like to help in any of these roles, or if you’d like additional information, please reach out to us at swe.pittsburgh@gmail.com.  Since the program starts soon, we’d like to have our volunteers in place and trained by late February.  Thanks for considering this STEM volunteer opportunity!

Volunteers Needed for STEM Outreach

 

We are looking for volunteers to support an upcoming in-person Outreach event!

Carnegie Science Center SciTech Day – Friday, December 16th, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Location: Carnegie Science Center, 1 Allegheny Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15212.

SWE Pittsburgh will host an activity table during the December SciTech Day. The theme is “Physical Sciences”. Participants will create a catapult with craft sticks and rubber bands to launch “snowballs” at snowmen.

We need a few volunteers to help staff the table throughout the day. This event is during the work week, but if you have Fridays off, or you can take a few hours away from work to support an outreach program, we would love for you to join us!

Please note that SWE has a new Youth Protection Policy, which requires all volunteers to take a short training before interacting with youth at a SWE-sponsored event. The training takes less than 15 minutes to complete and can be found here: https://swe.org/youthprotection/. The training applies for 3 years, so if you’ve recently taken the training, you do not need to take it again prior to this event.

You can sign up for a shift to volunteer here:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1HTJQS5ayOF0z12kUaj3soGIfAvcTE91o4lAi00N-gY4

Please sign up for the shift(s) that fits your schedule, or comment on your schedule and availability if different than the scheduled shifts. We are flexible!

If you have any questions about this event, please reach out to us at swe.pittsburgh@gmail.com.

Check out Job Postings in the Newsletter and on the SWE Website
 

Eaton:  
Multiple Positions

Bechtel Plant Machinery, Inc.:  
Multiple Positions

 

Did you know that by simply shopping on smile.amazon.com and selecting Society of Women Engineers as your supported charity, Amazon will donate 0.5% of eligible purchases to our Section? How awesome is that! 

If you want to put your Amazon shopping to good use, follow these steps:

Option 1: Click here:  https://smile.amazon.com/ch/25-1307660

Option 2: Follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to smile.amazon.com

Step 2: Select Choose your charity -OR- change the charity your supporting

Step 3: Search for Society of Women Engineers 

Step 4: Search for the Pittsburgh, PA Location

 

Step 5: Shop shop shop! Well, remember to shop at Smile.amazon.com!

SWE Pittsburgh FY23 Leadership
                                                         

Elizabeth Foster - President
Laura Traczynski - Vice President – Programming
Mary Zeis - Vice President – Outreach & STEM Outreach Co-Chair
Michal Chlebowski - Secretary
Kimberly Daloise - Treasurer
Mary Ann Walsh - Membership Co-Chair
Carolyn Casavan - Membership Co-Chair
Open - Fundraising Chair
Veronica Jaime-Lara - Social Media Chair
Deepika Devarajan - STEM Outreach Co-Chair
Dorothy Measures - Job Bank Coordinator
Shannon Falk - Webmaster
Cassandra Solarczyk - Newsletter Editor
Lucero Lopez - Collegiate Section Liaison
Chuck Bleil - Data Officer
Jayashree Iyengar - Chennai Partnership/Global Relations Chair
Open - Certificate of Merit Program Coordinator 
Mikayla Ferchaw - YouTube Manager
Michal Chlebowski - Carnegie Science Center (CSC) Event Coordinator
Open - STEM Outreach for Schools Coordinator
Dianne McMaster - Nominating Committee Chair
               
Look for us on the SWE Pittsburgh website and contact any of us by sending an email to swe.pittsburgh@gmail.com