Category: Outreach - SWE East Central Iowa Section

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WE22: A World of Opportunity Awaits

10/23/2022

WE22's theme was A World of Opportunity Awaits. We had five SWE-ECI members attend the conference, going to multiple sessions across the three days, Oct. 20th - 22nd. Many of them recruited for their respective companies, as well. As part of a long-standing tradition, on Friday night, our professional members got together with 13 Iowa Hawkeye collegiates to get dinner and socialize. Everyone had an enjoyable time relaxing and refueling for the rest of the conference. Between stellar professional development sessions, a massive career fair, and multiple thought-provoking keynote presentations there was no lack of conversation at the dinner table! Lastly, on Saturday two of our ECI members volunteered at SWE's "Invent It. Build It." K-12 Outreach event to encourage girls to choose a career in engineering and technology.

We hope you can join us next year!

UI High School Conference Professional Panel

4/9/2022

Annually, The University of Iowa SWE section hosts a High School Conference where they invite female high schoolers that are either admitted into the UI College of Engineering or interested in engineering. This year the tradition was finally back in person! SWE - East Central Iowa enjoys supporting the event with a Professional Panel and sponsoring the networking dinner to follow. The high schoolers were able to ask questions about experiences in college and professional life. The panel shared their engineering journeys, critical experiences along the way, and accomplishments. Thank you to the four professionals that were on the panel - Jill, Shelby, Adriane, & Kristen!

UI Collegiate Upgrade Event

3/25/2022

SWE-ECI hosted our annual Upgrade Event on March 24th! A number of collegiate students and SWE-ECI members jumped on a Zoom call to learn about the benefits of staying involved with SWE post-college. We also discussed everyone's summer plans and learned that a couple of the collegiates are staying in the ECI area! Mira Peckler was awarded the one-year professional SWE membership for the upcoming fiscal year starting in July! Please join us in congratulating her!

Xavier High School Panel

10/13/2021

On October 12th, Devin Wagner, Ashley Cassell, & Katie Brendecke traveled to Xavier High School and spoke during the school’s Introduction to Engineering Design class. This class is part of the PLTW (Project Lead the Way) curriculum, which provides high school students the opportunity to explore various aspects of the engineering field while earning dual credit. These three panelists gave backgrounds on their paths to becoming engineers and provided insight into each of their respective companies and disciplines. The students had great questions regarding college classes, specific industries, how the recent pandemic has affected engineering work, and more. The three engineers had a great time talking to the class and encouraging the next generation of engineers!

High School Conference

4/19/2021

Annually the University of Iowa SWE Section hosts a High School Conference where they invite female high schoolers that are either admitted into the College of Engineering or interested in Engineering for a 2 day event. This year the tradition lived on virtually! SWE-East Central Iowa loves that we have the opportunity to support the event with a Professional Panel. The high schoolers were able to ask us any questions about our experience in college and professional life. We were able to share our journeys to where we are now and share what our day to day work life looks like. It was neat to have a couple High School Conference Alums on the panel with us! Thank you to our 5 professionals that helped with the panel - Jill, Sarah, Beth, April, and Jane!

Collegiate Upgrade Event

3/29/2021

SWE kicked off our annual Upgrade Event in March! A number of collegiate students and SWE ECI members jumped on a Zoom call to learn about the benefits of staying involved with SWE post-college. We also discussed how to prepare for the additional free-time, financial changes, and relocations. Amanda Oskey was awarded one-year professional SWE memberships for the upcoming fiscal year! Please join us in congratulating her!

SWENext Cookie Exchange

1/3/2019

The SWE Cookie Exchange took place on December 20th. We had attendees from the professional, collegiate, and high school chapters. The students from Iowa State and North Dakota State shared stories about college, their favorite and least favorite classes, and how they dealt with hard classes. The high school students learned that it isn’t uncommon to struggle with a college class (even though most of the people there were straight A students in high school) since college is completely different. Struggling with a college class doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be an engineer but that you have to learn to use your resources. After we talked and exchanged cookies, we toured Crystal Group’s new state of the art facility. It was a relaxed event and a fun way to wrap up 2018.

Coaching the next Generation of Engineers at "Step into STEM" Jr. Girl Scout Day

10/30/2017

This year's event was another great success! Twenty-nine Junior Girl Scouts in 4th and 5th grade attended "Step into STEM!" hosted by SWE-ECI on Oct. 21st, where they spent the day learning about engineering and participating in hands-on activities. A couple of the activities included creating a burglar alarm and working for NASA on a lunar lander! The day wrapped up with what turned out to be the girls' favorite event, which was an Egg Drop team activity. For this event, groups of two or three girls had a limited budget to 'purchase' supplies for their device which needed to protect an egg from cracking when dropped from an elevated height. We had many successful teams!

This event also included a Parent Educator Program (PEP) to advise parents and troop leaders on how to keep young girls involved in STEM. The seven attendees left with take-home activities and a list of website resources. Thank you to Clara and Victoria for leading this adult portion!

SWE-ECI would like to send a big thank you to the 14 volunteers that helped make this event possible! We had volunteers from SWE-ECI, The University of Iowa SWE collegiate section, and a new local chapter of SWENext for high school students. It's always wonderful to see multiple groups working together to get more girls interested in STEM!

Step into STEM! Junior Girl Scout Day Teaches 5th Grade Girls About Engineering

11/5/2016

This year's event was another great success! Twenty-six Junior Girl Scouts attended "Step into STEM!" hosted by SWE-ECI, where they spent the day learning about engineering and participating in various activities. A few of the activities included using ASCII to "code" the letters of their name into a necklace, building a robot using a toothbrush head and pager motor, and making super slime! The day wrapped up with what turned out to be the girls' favorite event, which was an Egg Drop team activity. For this event, groups of two or three girls had a limited budget to 'purchase' supplies for their device which was aimed to protect an egg from cracking when dropped from an elevated height. We had many successful teams!

SWE-ECI would like to send a big thanks to the 33 volunteers that help make this event possible. It's always wonderful to see the next generation excited about STEM!

The University of Iowa SWE Upgrade Event

4/18/2016

On March 22nd, 2016, four members of SWE-ECI met with The University of Iowa SWE section for this year's Upgrade Event. The theme of the event was "Next Steps After College (in SWE and in Life!)". At the event, the members of SWE-ECI informed the students of the benefits of having a SWE Professional Membership; encouraged the seniors to stay involved with SWE after graduation, regardless of where they start their careers; and discussed how to succeed in the professional world, especially during their first year. Even though the event was targeted toward seniors, there were a few juniors that attended, as well!

At the end of the event, SWE-ECI raffled off a one-year SWE professional membership to a senior that didn't have the College to Career membership. This year's winner was Mollie Knake!

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