WE18 Newsletter

November 2018

Upcoming Events January

9 15 19

GBM #4 Social Event Women in Stem Conference

24

Mentorship

February

7-10

WeLocal

Breaking Boundaries at WE18

From October 18th to October 20th, thirteen outstanding members

of SWE had the amazing opportunity to attend the SWE National Conference, WE18, in Minneapolis! The weekend was full of networking, learning, volunteering, and fun! Pitt SWE was fortunate to receive two awards: Gold Collegiate Section Award and Best Practice of SWE Resource Promotion! Additionally, two wonderful Pitt SWE members, Sabrina Helbig and Dana Emswiler were awarded scholarships! Read about all the great times we had and learn from the breakout session articles about networking, leadership, de-stressing, encouraging girls in STEM, transitioning from college to industry, and more! Our next conference is WeLocal in Baltimore, Maryland at the beginning of February.

Networking is Not a Four-Letter Word By: Sabrina Helbig

Four-letter words. The first slew of vocabulary that

comes to mind most likely consists of the colorful words that we’re taught as children to never ever say. But did you think of “time” or “self” or even “fear”? Probably not. However, in the context of networking, these types of four-letter words hold us back from making connections. As Beverly Canham, an engineer from Intel, explained in her engaging presentation, we believe that we don’t have time to network or that we don’t know how. To dispel these fears, she did as an engineer would do – she broke it down, analyzed it, and processed it.

The result of Beverly’s analysis suggested that networking is not necessarily a selfish activity; instead, networking thrives on relationships rather than what can be gained from the interaction.

Effective relationship-oriented networking includes four key facets: set a goal, find and execute a niche, connect personally, and utilize the power of four. To start, what’s the goal? The goal could be any objective from keeping up with industry trends and news to having a connection in which you can freely give and receive help. Think of SMART principles – what is the networking goal, why is this the goal, how is progress measured, and at what time is the goal complete. Moving to the niche, who is in your current network… who all is in your current network? Personal connections with these folks foster better relationships and a stronger network, but how does one do this? A few suggestions: open-ended questions, walking and talking, volunteering, food!

Finally, the power of four. Beverly’s idea for the power of four involves two connections who each bring together three people from their respective networks for a session of conversation, connection, and ideation.

Taken piecemeal in this way, networking doesn’t seem as frightening or self-absorbed. Through her presentation, Beverly provided a useful framework to begin networking with goals in mind, tools on hand, and relationships at the core. As someone who sometimes feels awkward about social interaction, I now feel immensely more capable in networking – in fact, right after the breakout session, I made an initial connection with a representative from a power transformer company! So when the four-letter words show up to scare you away, take a moment to breathe and to think about Beverly’s tips and strategies, and with practice, you’ll be on your way to building a robust network!

Work the Stress Out of Your Life: How Exercise Impacts Mental Health

By: Dana Emswiler Calling anyone who feels stressed out: Engineering school – and honestly everything else – is tough to balance! Before I debrief on an amazing lightning talk on how to de-stress through exercise, I want to applaud my fellow ladies of STEM for crushing it every day. On the final day of an inspiring WE18, I attended a lightning talk on how exercise can promote positive mental health. The speaker began her talk with a fact that when you’re stressed, you generally perform at a poorer level than your non-stressed counterparts. However, the effect of exercise actually equalizes performance while simultaneously providing a slew of additional health benefits.

Therefore, exercise should be integrated into our daily routine. Given our busy schedules, it may be difficult to find time to dedicate to exercise, but the speaker gave some tips and tricks for us. We should incorporate exercise in small bursts – think: 10 push-ups before you shower, and wall sits while you brush your teeth. It’s really key however to set a goal and involve your friends and family to encourage you to keep up with it! You’ve got this…give exercise a chance to de-stress your life!

The State of Women in Engineering By: Laura Traczynski

During the conference, I attended a special presentation on the current research

trends on the state of women in engineering. Five different researchers presented their data on gender bias, workplace culture, and trends for women in this dynamic field. From the time that they are young, cultural stereotypes make great impressions on women. In grade school, boys are associated with high intelligence and greater ability in STEM; however, the evidence tells a different story, as girls are generally performing better on standardized tests.

As they progress into college, they are surrounded by a masculine culture that does not always address the issues that women face. Through education and their careers, many women experience a “Prove-It-Again-Bias”, where they feel the need to constantly prove their worth to themselves in order to feel satisfied.

This phenomenon decreases feeling of belonging within an organization. Of the many issues that women face, there are three that are most prominent: not getting enough respect, not fitting in, and work/family bias. As we recognize the stereotypes and issues that women in engineering face throughout their entire lives, we must push forward to encourage them and advocate for their success.

Collegiate to Professional: Managing the Transition

By: Kelsey Prem

The transition from college to industry can be difficult for many to manage, mostly because all

we’ve known for the past 16 years of our lives was going to school. Megan Nelson, an engineer from Mortenson, offered college students advice on how to manage the transition in a way that works for you! Her first piece of advice was to get involved. Whether that means joining a rec sport or volunteering with work, find a way to socialize with groups. This will help you make friends quickly, especially if you moved to a new city to begin your career. Next, she advised we ask questions. This doesn’t mean going to work and asking questions about projects, but instead, ask co-workers about their families, ask your new neighbors about things to do in the area. This helps you make friends, form relationships, and smoothly transition to your new home. Third, take time for yourself. Workout, go for walks, learn a new hobby. It is important to realize that prioritizing free time is important for your mental health. Her last piece of advice was to enjoy the time you have left in college. Soon you won’t live so close to your friends, you won’t have breaks in the afternoon for naps, there is no Christmas or Fall break, so enjoy it while it lasts! These simple pieces of advice can help transform your journey from college to industry into a successful one.

Target Corporate Tour

By: Sydney Winner

Every year the SWE conference features tours of corporations in the city the conference is hosted at. Since

Outreach Event: Invent it Build it

Minneapolis is Target headquarters, attendees were presented with a unique opportunity at a behind the scenes look of the operations of Target. The tour was comprised of two parts. The first was a quick walkthrough of the corporate working space, highlighting amenities for the employees, such as multiple co-working spaces, a dedicated IT desk, and an in-house doctor’s office. The second part of the tour took us down the street to Target Headquarters’ smart buildings project. The smart buildings project is centered around using technology to monitor energy usage in each Target store across the country. Through monitoring and recording this data, Target is able to test energy-saving tools for their efficacy and also to look through the data for where there is an opportunity to save energy and then implement it. This project was the highlight of the Target tour as it was a prime example of sustainability as a business case and it featured many cross-functional teams of engineers working within Target behind the scenes.

By: Eryn McCormick

On Friday, October 19th, I along with a few other Pitt SWE members volunteered for Invent It,

Build It in the pre-event shift. Invent It, Build It exposed hundreds of middle school and high school students to the disciplines of engineering. Components to the program included an EXPO and various hands-on activities – much like the parts planned for Pitt SWE’s outreach programs. In addition, a PEP (Parent Educator Program) was hosted by a Pittsburgh representative, Mary Zeis.

Our morning shift consisted of us spot-checking pre-made activity bags and laying out shirts for parents and students. The following day, I checked out the EXPO in the morning, and it was very cool to see hundreds of students engaging in various engineering activities and meeting with universities. Overall, I enjoyed volunteering and would hopefully like to serve as a mentor for the students in upcoming outreach initiatives at conferences.

Working Beyond Titles: Lead From Where You Are By: Alexandra Lee

A common leadership myth is the idea that you need

a title to be a leader. The fact of the matter is, anyone can be a leader, fancy title or not. Being a leader is not about getting recognition. In this breakout session we focused on the idea that even without a title you can still be a leader by challenging your team and always focusing on doing the right thing. There is not one type of personality that can be a leader, different traits across many types of personalities make strong leaders. A good leader knows how and when to follow others.

The opposite of being a leader is being apathetic. As a leader at any level you should: • make your team feel relevant, respected, and invested in • hold yourself to a higher standard than what others expect of you (but make sure to give yourself some grace when things don’t go as planned) • be bold - it shouldn’t be scary to be the type of leader you want to be • project confidence in what you do and say, but never fake knowledge • “fail early, fail often” – be willing to risk an idea that could be bad and encourage your team to find faults in it, it’s only by failing that you can move on to discover the best solution, so the earlier and more you fail, the sooner you come to your success

Self-Awareness By: Kayla Ruslavage

As a female engineer, I have often experienced

the feeling of “imposter syndrome” throughout my academic career. Even in high school, I always doubted my ability to effectively complete assignments or projects. So, when I saw that there was a breakout session dealing with being more self-aware, I figured it might be helpful for the times when I’m doubting myself.

This session was even more helpful than I had initially anticipated. Both of the speakers were energetic and engaging and thoroughly explained the major components that contribute to selfawareness: authenticity and empathy. The major take-aways from the session were the importance of being true to yourself in your actions, words, and behaviors, and of seeing things from others’ perspectives in order to respond in ways that make people feel heard. The presenters then went on to explain how being authentic will help you to be a better leader by asking the audience to think of how they feel towards inauthentic leaders. It helped me to reflect on myself and recognize that if I don’t truly know myself or my abilities, it will be very difficult to earn trust and respect in leadership positions.

The Career Fair is Really Fun… When You’re Not Looking for a Job By: Jackie Welsh

Leading up to WE18, I was very much looking forward to the career

fair. As a senior, this seems unexpected, given that I should be on the job market. Luckily, I had accepted an offer the Tuesday before, so I was going to the Career Fair for something else besides employment: the free stuff. For those not familiar, WE 18’s Career Fair is a force to be reckoned with. Two days with hundreds of companies eager to recruit young female engineers for internships, co-op, full-time, and everything in-between. Companies such as Deloitte, Boeing, Apple, and Nike are there as well as schools from all over the country recruiting for graduate programs. It can be very intimidating, but if you come in with a plan, for free stuff or a job, you can kill it. First, know the big names and what they’re supplying. I was in need for a coffee cup and some headphones, and luckily FedEx and Kohler delivered. Second, know your grabbing strategy. As a busy woman with places to be and people to see, I am a big supporter of the grab-n-go (don’t make eye contact, snag it, and bolt), however, the better goodies lie behind the recruiter’s line, and are typically reserved for interviewees, but sometimes you can finesse it. Once you have a cool opening line, make some polite small talk, shake some hands, and grab your prize. Although the career fair can have a tense energy, just coming for the goodies can prove to be a rewarding time.

Engage and Excite Girls in STEM!

By: Jessica Sorick This session focused on sharing a list based off 25 years of research on how to engage girls in STEM. These strategies have been proven to work with all learners, including underrepresented youth. This research is important because it has been found that “some girls begin to lose interest and confidence in their abilities in math and science as early as middle school.” The SciGirls Seven is as follows: 1. Girls benefit from collaboration, especially when they can participate and communicate fairly 2. Girls are motivated by projects they find personally relevant and meaningful 3. Girls enjoy hands-on, open ended projects and investigations 4. Girls are motivated when they can approach projects in their own way, applying their creativity, unique talents and preferred learning styles 5. Girls confidence and performance improve in response to specific, positive feedback on things they can control – such as effort, strategies, and behaviors 6. Girls gain confidence and trust in their own reasoning when encouraged to think critically 7. Girls benefit from relationships with role models and mentors Three major lessons I took away from this are: have activities that connect to students’ lives, have the students share what they learned in a way they want, and answer students’ questions with questions that help them think critically. I hope to be able to integrate some of the SciGirls Seven into training for our volunteers at our outreach events in the future!

Minneapolis: The Land of 10,000 Lakes

By: Maya McCann

Minnesota is primarily known for cold weather and a giant mall. However, our weekend in Minneapolis was

filled with beautiful fall weather and a bunch of fun local places to go. In addition to having the largest shopping mall in the country, Minneapolis is home to the world’s longest connecting sky bridge system. The Minneapolis Skyway System is the largest contiguous system of enclosed, second-level bridges in the world, composed of 9.5 miles of pathways connecting 80 city blocks. The first day we arrived in the city, the group visited the Mall of America. With over 500 stores located inside of the mall and an entire amusement park, the 4.87 million square foot building was impossible to cover in one night. We were able to ride a couple of rides and do some souvenir shopping. The most interesting store I found was a store that sold only kilts called “Got Kilt?”. Minneapolis has many small parks within the city. When we had a break during day one of the conference, we visited Loring Park during the golden hour for sunsets. This park was connected to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. The sculpture garden included very large contemporary art, one of which was a large blue chicken. For our last day of site seeing we visited Minnehaha Regional Park that features a 53-foot waterfall. The beautiful autumn weather and falls allowed for some cute pics with the group. Minneapolis is a growing city full of entertainment and culture. I’d highly recommend visiting if you are ever given the opportunity to.

Stories of National SWE Conferences

By: Kaleigh Smith

I was fortunate to attend three societal SWE conferences during my college career. Each time, I took something

different away.

At WE16 in Philadelphia, I not only took away too many giveaways from the career fair, but also tons of information on hosting outreach events. It was at this time that I became interested in expanding Pitt SWE’s outreach program, based on talking to other SWE chapters, participating in the WE16 outreach event- Invent It Build It, and sitting in on sessions about outreach. After getting together with the new executive board, we made it a priority to bring more Pitt SWE leaders into outreach. We went from one outreach chair to four outreach chairs and two overseeing outreach executive board members. Members in those positions are doing an amazing job today reaching many more students than before.

The following year was a blast at WE17 in Austin. Packing six SWE members into each hotel room, we made sure to get the most out of this conference! You could say we were successful- I received an internship offer as well as did a friend of mine, and we had another member receive a full-time offer from her dream company. This was just a bonus to experiencing and learning from all of the break-out sessions and keynotes.

WE18 in Minneapolis was my last national SWE conference (as a collegiate at least.) It was bittersweet being my last one, but I didn’t take anything for granted. From touring Minneapolis during our down time and running between sessions trying to find open seats, I was very grateful I was invited to the conference. It all came full circle when we got to see a Pitt SWE Alum who accepted her full time offer from last years conference for a job in Minneapolis, and attended the conference as a professional. As I’m starting to prepare for my transition from college to industry, I attended different sessions than before and could appreciate how much I’ve learned from these conferences every year. Another added bonus- I received a full time job offer from the conference!

Hopefully I’ll be back as a professional and get to meet new SWE members who carry on the leadership with such poise and professionalism as this year’s conference attendees and officers do. Sponsors, donors, and any supporters of Pitt SWE should know what a great cause they’re supporting! I haven’t gotten better networking, professional development, or volunteer experience from any other organization or program, which at the peak occurs at national conferences like WE18 Minneapolis.