PittSWE Newsletter - October 2013

PITT SWE Volume 2, Issue 2

October 2013 Edited by: Christine Bontempi

Annual Conference Winner Announcement

Upcoming Events

Announcement

November

Written By: Christine Bontempi The Society of Women Engineers National Conference was held in Baltimore, MD this year! The executive board of Pitt SWE was in attendance, along with Pitt SWE’s four most active members!

November 7 – Company Visit

Congratulations to this fall’s most active members: Michelle Banas, Pranathi Kaki, Rebecca Glucksman, and last year’s most active member: Hannah Fernau! These lucky winners won a free trip to conference including registration fees, Celebrate SWE, transportation and lodging.

If you didn’t win a trip to conference this year, stay active for the rest of the semester and the following spring because the most active member at the end of the year will go to conference next year! Also, the three most active members at the end of this year will get a gift card to their choice of Oakland restaurant!

Yoga Night Social Written By: Sovay McGalliard A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure to attend SWE’s yoga night, hosted by the yoga club president, Hannah. She kept the hour long session very mild and relaxing, taking us through sun salutations and some simple stretches.

The William Pitt Union’s ballet studio was just big enough for the ten girls that showed up to relax and distress in the midst of midterms. SWE would like to give another thank you to Hannah for taking the time out of her schedule to teach a class for our club. She did a great job and anyone who is interested in doing more yoga can look into yoga club

November 19 – Panel with SME and SPE November 27 – Ice Skating Night

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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Annual Conference Winner Announcement Upcoming Events Henna Tattoo Night Etiquette Dinner PMADD Regional News National News AAAC Distinguished Alumni Dinner SWE Riddle Halliburton Elementary Engineering Extravaganza Current Officers

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for more opportunities. Thanks also to all the girls who came!

PMADD Service Written By: Alicia Kolling

Celebrate SWE! Dinner at the Conference

Etiquette Dinner Professional Development & Networking Written By: Christine Bontempi The popular Etiquette Dinner was held in October with a large turnout of SWE members and three company representatives. Our sponsor for the evening Bayer, had two representatives in attendance who spoke about the company and job opportunities along with their new interview process.

The Bayer representatives along with a representative from Westinghouse had the opportunity to network with the students throughout the evening, giving them interview tips, and career advice. The representatives asked for advice about what college applicants are looking for and what they want to learn before applying for the company, and are eager to return to future Pitt SWE networking events.

The main presentation of the evening was by Jim McCarthy, a Career Consultant at the University of Pittsburgh. He presented about proper dinner etiquette in a business or professional setting. The presentation reminded attendees of important, but sometimes overlooked pieces of advice such as “don’t chew with your mouth open” and introduced some new pieces of advice such as how to dispose of unwanted food in one’s mouth at the table. Also, a sheet of tips was provided to all attendees that included advice such as where to leave your utensils on the plate to indicate you are done with your plate.

On Saturday, October 26th, SWE joined the University of Pittsburgh to participate in Pitt Make A Difference Day. Starting in 2007, Pitt students have been coming together to clean up local parks, repaint neighborhood buildings, and complete other acts of service in over 60 communities in Oakland and the greater Pittsburgh area. SWE members ventured off campus to do their part by helping to tidy-up the Southside Flats, located on East Carson Street between 10th and 20th streets on the Southside in Pittsburgh.

Thank you to all those who came out to help!

Regional News Region G Written By: Christine Bontempi At the national conference WE13, the collegiate and professional chapters in Region G met for a couple of meetings. The professional and collegiate joint meeting highlighted some changes about the election process to the region officers, allowing collegiate leaders to have a vote for some of the positions, rather than having them based on current officer nominations. Furthermore, the regional conference that will be held in the spring at Ohio State University was discussed including its theme of the Winter Olympics! It was great to meet all of the officers for the region face to face and meet other SWE members from the region at the conference!

Overall, the night was a success as students got reminded of proper business dinner etiquette and got to learn about some opportunities at Bayer, while all attendees enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

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SWE RIDDLE Pitt SWE would like to challenge you to a riddle! The first University of Pittsburgh student to email PittSWE@gmail.com with the correct answer will receive a $10 dollar gift certificate as a reward.

Suppose you’re on a game show, and you’re given the choice of three doors. Behind one door is an awesome TI-89 calculator and behind the others is nothing but a ruler. You pick a door, and the host who knows what’s behind the doors, opens another door, which has a ruler. Then he says to you, “Do you want to change the door you picked? Is it to your advantage to swith your choice and why?

Young Professional Women in Energy Panel Sponsor Highlight Written By: Christina O’Donnell On October 2nd, Pitt SWE and Pitt's Young Professionals in Energy (YPE) hosted a panel with Pittsburgh's Young Professional Women in Energy (YPWE). The panel was led

by YPWE's founder Amelia Roncone. Five professionals from the energy industry, including one lawyer, answered questions from Amelia. Amelia's questions were also supplemented with questions from students. The event ended with students networking with the professionals.

Henna Night Social Written By: Dhanu Thiyagarajan We hosted Henna Night on Oct 28 at 6pm in B02. It was a fun, successful event with about 20 attendees. Henna paste was bought from a local indian store; it was the real "stuff!"

Some people used the given handouts with possible designs or used their phone for their henna designs. Other people got really creative and free handed their whole design. There was some awesome talent in the room! We even had a pair of girls do some Harry Potter designs on their arms preparing for E-week! We all had a lot of fun doing henna on ourselves or doing it to someone else or having it done to us along with mingling and forming a great SWE bond!

At the SWE Career Fair University of Pittsburgh – Society of Women Engineers – October 2013 - 3

5.

Pitt SWE Conference Attendees

Top 10 Reasons to Attend a SWE Conference WE13 National Conference Written By: Julia Wasas 1.

2.

3.

4.

Jobs (Interns/Full-time) – The SWE conference hosts a job fair with over 200 companies every year! There are so many opportunities to find an internship or full time position. Companies interview at the career fair giving you some great interview experience as well.

Graduate Schools – The career fair also has a great variety of graduate school representatives attending. Some of the top graduate schools in the country are at this conference to answer any questions you may have about their programs.

Workshops/ Panels/ Development Sessions – There is always a workshop, panel, or development session going on during the conference. Topics run from very technical to very personal coving information to make you a better engineer, manager, mother, etc.

Networking – The conference is attended by professionals from all over the world. Each session you attend give you an opportunity to meet a new person who has a least one interest similar to yours. You never know who you may meet.

Role Models – Many of the women speaking at this conference are some of the most inspirational people you may ever meet. These women have done what you want to do and could serve as a great role model moving forward. SWE is a network of women engineers constantly reaching out to help one another.

6. Represent Pitt – Attending the SWE conference is representing your great school.

People from all over the world attend the conference and will be wondering where you are from. Telling people you are from the University of Pittsburgh reflects well upon you and your school.

7. Celebrate SWE! – This is a dinner where awards are handed out to sections who performed well in the past year. Pitt has received awards for the past four consecutive years and is proud to attend.

8. Learn about Pitt SWE – Pitt’s SWE section is rather active offering a wide variety of events each semester. As a member you may only attend events that are of interest to you, but attending the conference allows you to see all the great things our section has accomplished.

9. Free Stuff – This may not be the most important, but who really doesn’t like free stuff. At the conference, companies hand out many freebies to the attendees. In addition, one member of our Pitt group has won an expensive piece of technology every year for the past four years. Join us and you may be next.

10. Be Inspired – Overall, the SWE conference shows women everything they can do. Women speaking there are the ones who have accomplished it all and it is amazing to realize what your options are. Attending the conference can let you see who you want to be.

Pitt SWE Officers President – Christina O’Donnell Vice President – Christine Bontempi Secretary – Dhanu Thiyagarajan Treasurer – Sarah Pachesky

Two of the participants of E3 holding their marshmallow sling shots.

To stay updated on news and events visit our website www.pitt.edu/~pittswe.

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