Women in Engineering A Year in Review
2024 Highlights
Mission Statement
We ensure that Altieri is a champion of women’s personal and professional growth in the industry and community.
2024 was a successful year for Altieri’s Women in Engineering (WIE) employee resource group. We started off strong, creating our mission statement and developing goals for the year. We hosted office events showcasing women, presented to future generations of engineers at schools and STEM programs around the county, hosted guest speakers and invited industry associates to write for our wom(EN)gineer blog, supported community organizations, welcomed 2 women summer interns to WIE, and engaged our allies.
Read on to learn more about our accomplishments!
Women’s History Month
Women in Engineering enjoyed the occasion all month long. We shared our baby photos with a little piece of each of our stories (some of the guys did a good job guessing who was who!). We showcased some of the many talented women architects who are our clients, highlighting their career paths and impacts on the industry and our built environment. We asked our staff: What is the best piece of advice a woman in your life has given you? – and received some terrific responses, including:
• Always stand up for yourself and never let anyone underestimate your abilities just because you are a woman.
• You are enough as you are, always show up as you.
• Embrace challenges, learn from failures, and stay committed to your goals.
To top it off, we supported a local, woman-owned business. Rebel Daughter Cookies in Norwalk, CT was founded by Anne Grossman who, despite having no culinary experience, rebelled against what others told her and created a brand “centered around women empowerment and giving yourself permission to indulge and savor every bite.” We were inspired by her message and showed our support for her business by providing Rebel Daughter cookies to all our employees. And these were no small cookies! Everyone participated (after all, who doesn’t like a cookie?!) and helped our male colleagues focus on the impact women have in their personal and professional lives.
The wom(EN)gineer blog was reintroduced as a prominent feature of Altieri’s exciting new website, www.altieri.llc. Throughout the year, blog posts were written on a variety of topics: Altieri’s women engineers shared their stories, we posted about our efforts to reach out to young girls interested in STEM programs, the interns wrote about the different stages of their educational careers, guest blogger Kyla Davis reminisced about her summer internship at The Obama Presidential Center. Amanda, one of our mechanical engineers, even collaborated on a post with Anthony, a male colleague! And Katlyn Tracey (Pavarini North East Construction) was a guest speaker at our October monthly meeting.
JEDI Session
An important goal of our group was to include men - our allies - in the conversation. To do this, we hosted a JEDI (justise, equity, diversity, inclusion) session, inviting all staff (it was standing room only in our large conference room!) We shared the purpose of WIE with our colleagues and opened up with personal stories. Some attendees even shared their own personal tales and most wanted to know when we would host another session. We were thrilled to meet our goals for the first-time initiative, particularly to feel confident that we have allies in all our colleagues, not just members of our Women in Engineering group.
School Outreach
Altieri is an advocate of teaching all young minds about MEPF engineering, especially when it comes to young women. This year, we completed a total of 9 presentations at schools such as School of the Holy Child (Rye, NY), Staples High School (Westport, CT), Brien McMahon High School (Norwalk, CT), Laurelton Hall (Milford, CT), Norwalk P-Tech (Norwalk, CT), John Jay High School (Cross River, NY), Academy of Information Technology & Engineering (Stamford, CT), and Ridgefield High School (Ridgefield, CT).
Angelica Hermanto also presented at SoundWaters Science Star Camp in collaboration with two women from Pavarini North East Construction. The Science Star program in Stamford, CT takes place during the spring vacation for girls in grades 2-5. The week-long program is filled with hands-on STEM activities, conducting experiments, and working with professionals in the STEM industry. The girls were eager to learn and excited to sport their pink Altieri buttons on the pink vests provided by Pavarini!
Community Giving
Farmstand Build
We partnered with Cornerstone Home & Gardens in Ridgefield, CT to build a farmstand they can use to sell their homegrown produce. Cornerstone is a non-profit organization that gives an opportunity for Neurodivergent individuals to experience real-life work opportunities on the farm. We invited all staff to help design, build, paint, and deliver the farmstand. Thank you to Kari for spearheading this event!
Community Giving
Food Drive
Altieri has had a long-standing relationship with Open Doors in Norwalk, CT. Open Doors is a community organization that helps people dealing with poverty and homelessness in the greater Norwalk, CT area. They provide supportive services such as: emergency shelter, the community closet, free meals, a food pantry, after-school enrichment for children, and more. This year we held an all-company food drive to help stock the organization’s pantry. Our enthusiastic staff went above and beyond filling over 45 reusable bags with the different types of meal kits requested by Open Doors. Altieri’s Boston office participated by bringing food donations to the local chapter of Boston ABCD
Making bold visions work
