PittSWE Newsletter - September 2014

PITT SWE SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS

IN THIS ISSUE

PITT SWE OFFICERS

1

Welcome to SWE from the President

2

Schlumberger: Stilettos to Steel Toes

3

Halliburton

3

Career Fair 101 with Braskem

4

Leadership Conference: FY15 Ohio Valley Region G

4

Speed Dating Event President

Dhanu Thiyagarajan

WELCOME TO SWE: a letter from the President

O

n behalf of the University of

that you can benefit in similar ways, and

Pittsburgh Society of Women

feel comfortable doing so.

Engineers (Pitt SWE), I hope

The Executive Board and I are trying

you have been having a great semester

to make several improvements to Pitt

so far. Pitt SWE is a student run

SWE this year. We hope to build Pitt

organization (under societal SWE) that

SWE

provides

community for all females (and males)

professional,

outreach

opportunities for students,

both

female and male.

We hope this will allow you to grow personally

and professionally.

I know that SWE has

a

and

networking

both

leadership,

as

close

knit, in

“We hope to build Pitt SWE as a close knit, supportive community for all females (and males) in the Swanson School of Engineering.�

positively

supportive

the

Swanson

School

of

Engineering.

We

want Pitt SWE to be

a

support

system

that

anybody

feels

throughout

their

career at Pitt and emphasize

the

importance of joining professional SWE

career tremendously in addition to

post-graduation. We hope to further

being

system

encourage participation of our various

throughout my years at Pitt. Therefore,

events from professional development

I intend to lead Pitt SWE this year so

to outreach events in order to be a

great

support

Secretary

Kylie Zeis

comfortable using

impacted my personal life and my a

Vice President

Erica Stevens

stronger presence at Pitt and better

September 1, 2014 Volume 3, Issue 1

Treasurer

Kim Daloise pittswe@gmail.com Office: G32C BEH

PITT SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS

There are 5 houses in 5 different colors. In each house lives a person with a different nationality. The 5 owners drink a certain type of beverage, smoke a certain brand of cigar, and keep a certain pet. No owners have the same pet, smoke the same brand of cigar, or drink the same beverage.

Somebody owns a fish. The question is: who?

Hints: • The Brit lives in the red house.

• The Swede keeps dogs as pets.

• The Dane drinks tea.

• The green house is on the left and next to the white house.

• The green homeowner drinks coffee.

• The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.

• The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill.

• The man living in the center house drinks milk.

• The Norwegian lives in the first house.

• The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.

• The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.

• The owner who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer.

• The German smokes Prince.

• The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.

• The man who smokes Blends has a neighbor who drinks water.

Solve this riddle and claim your prize at the SWE Office in Benedum!!

impact our community. Please look out

(www.pitt.edu/~pittswe) will be used to

for information regarding a general

communicate any scholarship and job

body meeting later this semester to

opportunities as made available by our

further

these

sponsors. Our twitter will be used to

improvements will take place and how

provide general reminders about our

you can further benefit by being a

section. As each of our communication

member of Pitt SWE.

methods are being used for a variety of

talk

about

how

We have also made some changes

purposes, be sure to join/like/follow all

to our communication methods this

of them!

year. Our weekly emails will only be

If

you

have

any

questions,

used to send out information specific to

comments, concerns or just want to

Pitt SWE such as events hosted by us,

hang

monthly

section

pittswe@gmail.com or stop by our

updates. Our Facebook group will be

office in the student organization

used

lounge on the ground floor of Benedum.

newsletters to

and

further

communicate

out,

please

email

information about our section events along with societal SWE events and

Sincerely,

general Swanson School of Engineering events and updates. Our Facebook page will be used to communicate general information

about

our

section’s

activities and outreach events to the public.

Our

Dhanu Thiyagarajan Dhanu Thiyagarajan SWE President 2014-2015

website

SCHLUMBERGER: Stilettos to Steel Toes

O

n Thursday, September 11,

Los Angeles, CA! The contest is judged

2014, representatives from

on originality and creativity and is

Schlumberger,

submitted

an

oilfield

services company, came to

through

the

website

www.StilettosToSteelToes.com.

In

speak to the University of Pittsburgh

addition to these perks provided by

section of SWE about a sponsorship

Schlumberger, every Pitt SWE member

opportunity called “Stilettos to Steel

that writes an essay and submits it by

Toes”. Stilettos to Steel Toes is a

October 1, 2014 will receive five

contest where SWE members can write

dollars’ worth of Pitt SWE merchandise

a 100-350 word essay on how they will

and be entered to win a gift card of

“blaze

a

their choice! National and section

nontraditional engineering career path.

winners will be announced on October

By entering the contest, students can

8, 2014.

their

own

trail”

on

win cash, raise money for their SWE section, and potentially win a trip to the SWE 2014 National Conference in

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Pitt Society of Women Engineers

CAREER FAIR 101 with Braskem

Oct. 4 Girl Scout Engineering Day 7am – 1pm, BEH 102

S

WE,

NSBE,

and

SHPE

joined

th

together on September 17 to host

enjoyed the catered Chipotle for the event.

an event with Braskem. Braskem is

a petrochemical company that is only 12

Oct. 7 Coffee Hour: Interview Tips 10 – 11am, Student Org. Lounge

years old, but quickly growing. They held a helpful information session on tips for the career and co-op fair. Some of the major

Oct. 18

points they highlighted were to never ask

Elementary Engineering

a recruiter what they do and to always

Extravaganza

research the company and prepare

7am – 1pm, BEH 102

questions before an interview. We broke out into an elevator speech activity,

Oct. 23-25

practicing what we would say if we were

National Conference Los Angeles, CA

given 30 seconds to sell ourselves. Four brave souls presented their speeches to all the attendees. Braskem handed out

Oct. 27 Post Graduate Fair 6 – 8pm, CMU UC

engineering notepads and awarded one lucky raffle winner with a $50 gift card.

Everyone gained valuable insight on what recruiters are looking for and thoroughly

HALLIBURTON

F

ounded in 1919, Halliburton has become one of the world’s largest oil field service companies. Although it has headquarters based in Houston, Texas and Dubai, it conducts operations in more than 80 countries, employs more than 80,000 people, and represents 140 nationalities. Halliburton’s major business segment is the Energy Services Group (ESG).

Halliburton services the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry. This includes “locating hydrocarbons, managing the geological drilling and formation evaluation, well construction and completion, and optimizing production through the life of the field” (Halliburton Press Release, 2014). Halliburton also is a leader in corporate sustainability in accordance with the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for the fifth year in a row. They focus on compliance and conduct as well as releases to the environment and human capital development (Halliburton Press Release, 2014).

Halliburton visited our section on September 15th to give a presentation about their company and how to effectively write a resume in preparation for the upcoming career and co-op fairs on September 23rd and 24th. Elena Gearheart, Halliburton’s representative, gave advice was centered on how to develop a “life story” that best highlights your accomplishments in a resume format. She took us step-by-step through the thought process for completing this story. For more information about this company, visit www.gohalliburton.com.

3

Pitt Society of Women Engineers

LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE FY15 Ohio Valley Region G

O

n Friday, September 19th, four officers of

attended workshops entitled “Values, Branding, and

PittSWE traveled to Salt Fork State Park in

Perception” and “Strategic Objectives and Goals” to learn

Cambridge, Ohio to take part in the FY15 Ohio

about both national and regional goals of SWE. These goals

Valley Region G 7th Annual Leadership Summit.

include developing professional excellence, becoming a

Upon arriving Friday night, the officers were met with a

more global organization, and advocating for present and

bonfire and a chance to network with both collegiate and

prospective female engineers. In addition, the PittSWE

professional SWE members from Region G. As one of the

officers took part in Collegiate Section Officer Training,

ten regions in the United States, Region G encompasses

where they learned the requirements of both collegiate

Western Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

sections and of their offices.

Our PittSWE officers met SWE

members

PittSWE

from

officers

also met some very

schools such as Ohio State

important

University, University of

members

Dayton, and University of

President-Elect Colleen

Louisville. The officers also

Layman and Region G

met professionals from the

Governor Lisa Rimpf

Pittsburgh, Kentucky, and

(pictured). The officers

Northeastern

also met Region G

Ohio

sections among others.

The bonfire preceded a intended to help the SWE members in build

such

as

Senator Kate Kukla and many

full day of workshops and lectures attendance

SWE

relationships

between sections, learn more about the Society of Women Engineers, and train to become collegiate, sectional,

officers

of

various collegiate sections.

“goals… include developing

The Leadership Summit was co-

professional excellence… and

sponsored with funding by Societal

advocating for present and

SWE and ExxonMobil. We thank

prospective female engineers.”

and societal leaders! Our officers

them for their generosity, which allowed our officers to take part in an amazing leadership experience!

SPEED DATING EVENT Our speed dating networking event was held Wednesday, September 3rd. We gathered in Benedum 157 to start the

was paired up with a random member. Conversation was

year off right by building a variety of networks among Pitt

encouraged between the pair, to see what they had in

SWE members and learning how Pitt SWE can be the right

common and hopefully build a networking contact and

support group for you throughout your career at Pitt. The

maybe even a friend! We switched partners every seven

event started off by enjoying some great Jimmy John

minutes, so people were able to meet and talk to about nine

sandwiches (Of course, we always have free food at our

different people. We hope this event showed our members

events)! We then heard some updates from our officers and

the variety of membership within Pitt SWE and how we can

representatives from other organizations. Then everyone

help each other succeed!

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