Welcome to the our

quarterly newsletter of

the Mt Diablo SWE

section!

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Table of Contents Page 1 … President’s Letter

Page 3 … Election Ballot

Page 4 … Member Spotlight

Page 5-9 … Event Recaps

Page 10-11… Trivia Question Answer

Page 12-13 … New 2 Trivia Questions

Page 14-16 … Nearby Events &

Region A Announcements

Page 17 … Express Your Ideas

Page 18 … Contact Info

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Welcome to FY2014-2015! Here is to another exciting, cheerful year with our section theme “Success With Enthusiasm

Memorable Times and Dedication” As Benjamin Franklin said “An investment in KNOWLEDGE always pays the best INTEREST “; the same thing holds for investing time on our section events. Our members and Executive members’ dedication, trust and investing their time and energy by participating/organizing our section events; helped us to receive another (4th consecutive year) SWE Region A Highest retention award , presented at Region A Conference in April by our Region A Governor. We concluded our last SWE calendar year, with an always sparkling event, Scholarship Award dinner. Together with our Scholars’ families, we also take some pride and share happiness supporting them attend and share her

experience & wisdom with our Scholars. I continue to challenge all of us to add at least one “NEW” item; skill set, activity, hobby to our lives in addition to our section involvements/events… If you ask, what is NEW at our section? We continued to welcome new members as well as 3 new executive committee members (please see Election Update section of this newsletter ). In addition to last year’s new programs ,“Employer Spotlight” and “Book Discussion”, we are pleased to announce

inclusion of “Mentoring Circles” this year. Please stay tuned for more details on this and upcoming events soon. Also there are plenty of opportunities to our section events and its continuing success by contributing your ideas! Some of the ways to do this include

• Hosting/leading one of our events • Share your memories with us” by contributing an article to “Section memories “ • Enjoy reading various new sections added to this Newsletter… (in particular, check out our Trivia

Questions!)

Please stay connected with us at http://swe-goldenwest.org/mds/board.php and our local Section LinkedIn. Feel free to provide any feedback/ideas through http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/LRW5M2W at any time. Please continue investing your time & trust in us and all of our members; we promise you will never regret you did. Happy reading!

President’s Corner

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Region A Recognition with Region A President Ashley Pietz

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Election Information

FY15 Executive Committee to make this year SWE Mt. Diablo’s best

one yet!

President: Dilek Alkaya VP of Professional Development: Marta Wicke VP of Public Relations: Laura Harris VP of Membership: Priyanka Holmes Secretary: Morayo Noibi Treasurer: Diane Beck Section Representatives : Paloma Meija and Amber Iraeta

Please vote by Oct 1st ….

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7FTDKYP

If you are interested in joining our committees, finding out more

info, or just helping out in general, send an email to

swe.mt.diablo@gmail.com

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Member Spotlight

Paloma Mejia Paloma is originally from Lima, Peru. She

moved to the SF bay area from the mid-west

after graduating with a Master’s in

Mechanical Engineering from Purdue

University. She attended Miami University of

Ohio where she graduated with a Bachelor’s

in Manufacturing Engineering.

Through her involvement at SWE at the collegiate level, she met

women passionate about science and leadership. She has been

with the SWE Mt Diablo section since 2011 as VP of Professional

Development and later as Section Representative.

Paloma is a project manager for an energy boutique consulting firm.

In her free time, Paloma practices to improve her golf game, enjoys

running, traveling, and writing. She is planning a trip with her

husband at the end of September, a Mediterranean cruise through

Spain, France, and Italy.

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Feb Event Recap- Expanding Your Horizon (EYH)

On Saturday, Feb 22, 2014 at Las Positas Community College in Livermore, seven volunteers from SWE Mt. Diablo and Clorox helped out on a Build it Better! STEM workshop for 6th – 9th grade girls in the Tri Valley. This was an AWESOME way to help spark young girls’ interest in the STEM field. The workshop was presented twice with ~20 students attending each session. Students learned about design, product development, and manufacturing - all while competing in an engineering challenge. They made their own Ranch dressing, designed an egg holder from provided materials, and stress tested their design with an uncooked egg! Fun, excitement and competition were in the air for both participants, workshop presenters and volunteers Email Jen Decker at swe.mt.diablo@gmail.com or Liz Buzzard at Liz.Buzzard@clorox.com if you are interested in being a workshop organizer or volunteer next year.

More Info: http://www.tveyh.org/

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SWE Mt Diablo Workshop Presenters @ Region A Conference

Lyn Gomez, MechEng, PE of kW

Engineering co-presented a session

with Juliana Velez, Stanford

Master's Candidate and

Techbridge

(www.techbridgegirls.com) alum.

The presentation, entitled "Saving

the Environment, One Building at a Time", at

Graduate Studies session of Region A conference

and discussed two new careers in the green

economy: Commissioning and Energy Auditing. It

was geared to Collegiate, especially those in ME,

EE, and Arch E.

Lyn's second session, entitled "Diplomacy –

Who Needs it?" explored guidelines for

speaking with tact.

Her 1+4 guidelines were: Situational

awareness, Listen, # of Nice people # Jerks,

Use neutral language, and Have integrity. We

laughed a lot, shared stories, and supported each other by coming up with diplomatic

comeback.

Liz Buzzard, Marta Wiche and Shelby Reinhardt ,

ChE s of Clorox presented a workshop called

“Career Development Planning Your Next Steps”

at “Collegiate to Professional” track

………………………….…………………..…………

Dilek Alkaya, ChE, PhD of Tesoro

Golden Eagle Refinery gave a

presentation on the “Art & Science of

Conveying Message” at “Professional

Track.” The focus of her presentation was on

effective ways of conveying the message to

diverse (background, communication style)

audience at work and professional organizations

we are involve with. Attendees walked away

with quick and easy styles to use; time and effort

saving tips to implement and enhance their

presentation communications.

In case you missed these presentations at the Region A conference, please check to attend the ones

available again at We14 SWE National conference program to be held in Oct 23-26 in Los Angeles!

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On May 9th, SWE Mt. Diablo supported Ohlone College at the College’s annual STEM day! There were 60 middle school students from the Newark School District in attendance.

Ohlone College Engineering Professor and SWEster –Rose-Margaret

Itua, was supported by fellow SWesters Dilek Alkaya, Jen Decker and Sarah Balyon at the Engineering Section of the STEM day.

There were various hands on interactive activities like Electric Circuit construction, SMART wires Demo by Jen Decker, Build Construction and a Robotic Display. Dilek and Sarah helped and supported the students with all the activities and gave them engineering motivational talks.

Ohlone Engineering Students from Rose-Margret’s class also showcased their Engineering for Humanitarian Technology projects which was supported by the IEEE-CPMT of Santa Clara Valley as part of the Engineering for Female and Underrepresented Students Project initiated by Prof. Itua at the College and hoping to replicate at other Community Colleges in the Bay Area.

It was a great day and the Middle School Students were all thrilled and

inspired to become future Engineers!

Seeing Female Engineering role Models inspired the female students to pursue an Engineering Education and Career!

Thanks SWE!

Prof Rose Margaret Itua , Ohlone College

May Event Recap- SWE Mt Diablo at Ohlone College STEM Day

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Scholarships Program Update (April, May) The Mt. Diablo Section of SWE is pleased to announce our 2014 Scholarship Program.

24 eligible women graduating from high school and junior college transfer students who plan on majoring in engineering at an accredited university or college next fall, submitted their applications for our annual scholarship program

We are pleased to announce 4 recipients : Katherine Camenzind from San Ramon, Linh Nguyen from Fairfield, Kimberli Zhong from Dublin and Mariam Issa from Antioch.

Thanks to our sponsors, Chevron, Shell and individual contributors for allowing us to give 4 scholarships this year.

Find out more! http://swe-goldenwest.org/mds/scholarship.php

It is always nice to have scholarship

recipients and their families get together to talk to and learn about women in engineering.

Date : Sunday July 20th, 6pm

Skipolini’s, Walnut Creek

2014 Scholarship Award Dinner Recap

Scholarship News

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Previous Trivia Question Be the first person to answer the name of the person

on the picture right and obtain 1 free pass to one of our

ticketed events.

Joyce Woods 1st President

SWE Mt Diablo Section

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Joyce Woods 1st President of SWE Mt Diablo Section

Joyce Woods was MT Diablo charter President of 1982-1983 and subsequently the Section Representative, 1983-1984. She participated in writing of the Region A Bylaws as Regions were formed, and then served as SWE Bylaws Committee Chair the national organization. She received the Distinguished New Engineer Award in 1987 and was recognized as a “Woman of Excellence” by the Federation of Houston Professional Women in 1996, nominated by the Houston SWE Section. Joyce, a ChE, recently retired after 30 years with The Dow Chemical Company where she was a Commercial Director in Dow Technology Licensing. Her career included production management, global safety and quality training leadership, and project engineering in Pittsburg, CA, Texas and Michigan. She is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt. As a private pilot for 15 years and a small aircraft owner, she is now enjoying the freedom to spend more time with family, friends and her aviation hobby. She says “SWE was key for my early professional development. By attending National Conferences and getting involved at the Section, Region and then National level, I built a network of SWE friends I still cherish. They helped me adjust to new locations and new jobs. I have fond memories of Mt Diablo SWE and wish you all the best! Joyce with a “Young Eagle”, a volunteer program introducing kids to aviation

“Candy (Sandra) Robinson, an EE at Lawrence Livermore Labs had inquired with SWE at the national level to determine how to form a new SWE section. She received a packet of information on how to start a local section as she believed there was enough critical mass that would not travel to the Santa Clara Valley or Golden Gate Section meetings. The Sacramento Section had already split off and was off to good success. Meanwhile, Gayle Schaeffer (at Exxon in Benicia) and Joyce Woods (at Dow Chemical in Pittsburg/Walnut Creek) met while commuting to the Golden Gate Section meetings and also discussed how it would be nice to shorten the commute. Marvel Allen, then president of the Golden Gate Section called a meeting on April 22, 1982 in Hayward to discuss the opportunity. Since the existing sections have to agree to give up specific zip codes for a new section, it was essential to have their support. We had our ducks in a row and proposed a Diablo Valley Section. I was unable to attend but Gayle and Candy gained support to form a section with the current boundaries. A small group (led primarily by Candy and Gayle) organized an incredibly successful first meeting at a pizza place in San Ramon in August 1982 attended by 42 prospective members. Both Candy and Gayle had personal reasons (babies and MBAs as I recall) not to take on the role of President after having led us this far – so I was elected President of our provisional SWE Section. I still have Gayle’s synopsis in the animated handwritten letter she sent me after the meeting. And a Section was born! There were many others who made that first “provisional” year a success, allowing us to submit our application for a charter and have it accepted. “

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Trivia Question -2 Be the first person to answer the

name of the person on the picture

right and obtain 1 free pass to one

of our ticketed events.

Send your answers to

Dilek.Alkaya@swe.org by Oct 5th, if

not earlier

The Region A Leadership Team Governor Ashley Pietz Lt Governor Cassi Janakos

Secretary: Alya Elhawary Treasurer: Laura Harris Society Nominating Rep: Esther Heller Senator: Liz Buzzard Pearl Yamaguchi RCR: Leabeth Peterson RCS: Lisa Fong

RCCE: Maribel Locsin SWEfl: Heidi Otten Diana Chang

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Trivia Question -1 Be the first person to answer the

activity and the name of the SWE

member on the picture right

obtain 1 free pass to one of our

ticketed events.

Send your answers to

Dilek.Alkaya@swe.org by Oct 5th, if

not earlier

NEWS

This section is reserved for you…

Let us know your SWE / MtD Memories , experiences you want to share with our memberships at large Have pictures from the early year 19xx events , send them with brief information /write up….

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Master of Financial Engineering (MFE) Program at the University of California at Berkeley (The Berkeley MFE Program) representatives are very interested in speaking with individuals who have extensive training in mathematics, statistics, engineering, physics, computer science and related fields about careers in finance for people with quantitative backgrounds.

The one-year MFE program engages students from quantitative backgrounds at all degree levels (Bachelors, Masters, and Ph.D.'s, as well as individuals who have graduated from university programs and are currently working) and gives them the tools to apply their quantitative skills to the finance field.

If you are interested to learn more and have us to organize a section event on this please let us know at SWE.Mt.Diablo@gmail.com

Let us know if you are interested

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Section Event Planning Survey

The SWE Mt. Diablo Executive Committee wants to ensure that we are planning meaningful events in support of our current members as well as events that support our growth and outreach. Our membership numbers are growing and we are hoping to increase participation even more in the coming year. To do that, we need to know what you, our members, would like to see happen as far as the types, times and locations of events that would work best for you! Please fill out the short survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QC2KNVR

and let us know your thoughts! We REALLY appreciate the input!

Other Opportunities

Mentoring Help start our section's leadership

pipeline! Sign up now to be paired

with a mentor or a mentee

(professional or collegiate) in

Region A.

Scholarships The Mt. Diablo Section of SWE is

pleased to announce our all year

round open Scholarship Donation

Program. Eligible women

graduating from high school and

junior college transfer students who

plan on majoring in engineering at

an accredited university or college

next fall, are encouraged to apply.

Find out more! http://swe-

goldenwest.org/mds/scholarship.php

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Helpful Links

Websites

Mt Diablo Section

Region A

National SWE

Groups

Linked In

Facebook

2015 Executive Council Candidates President Dilek Alkaya VP of Prof Dev Marta Wicke VP of Membership Priyanka Holmes

VP of Public Relations Laura Ashley Harris Secretary Morayo Naobi Treasurer Diane Beck Section Rep Paloma Mejia Section Rep Amber Iraeta

2015 Committee Chairs Scholarship Chair Diane Beck Webmaster Amy Crandall Outreach Chair Jennifer Decker Contact us through SWE.Mt.Diablo@gmail.com