Volume 12April 2017

Welcome By Claire Mahoney

Hello from the Colorado School of Mines section of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). We are a group of passionate, engaged, and talented women (and men!) who care about equal advancement of women in the field of engineering. Recently, we hit an exciting milestone: we officially have over 800 members! We have been the largest collegiate SWE section in the nation for several years, but having surpassed 800 members signifies our continued presence on the Mines campus and beyond.

This year, the theme for our section was “The Secret Life of SWE”. We used this as an opportunity to shed light on the accomplishments of underrecognized women engineers and scientists in history. As a SWE section, it was important to us to acknowledge the hard work of the women who came before us in the STEM fields. Whether that meant sharing the stories of some of these women with high school girls at our Girls Lead the Way conference, or presenting their lives at one of our weekly lunch meetings, we were eager to learn more about these exceptional women in STEM.

SWE at Mines is quite an institution, and as the president of this incredible organization I am proud to share in the hard work and passion of all of its members. This newsletter contains the highlights of all of the accomplishments we have made during this school year. A deep thank you to all of our partners and sponsors, as we could never support an organization of such scale without your generous support.

SWE Officer Structure 2016-2017

1

SWE Faculty Advisor: Agata Dean WISEM Interim Director: Annette Pilkington

REGIONAL CONFERENCEBy: Megan Wolf

The 2017 Region i Conference was held February 24-26 in St Louis, Missouri. Our CSM SWE section was represented by four student officers and the faculty advisor. Friday night included a networking reception and a chance to meet professional SWE members. Saturday’s events included the keynote address and the state of SWE. There were also joint meetings geared toward learning more about the governance

of SWE. Additionally, there were breakout sessions with topics ranging from technical talks to professional development to event ideas. At the banquet on Saturday evening, our section won the Region i Involved Award and the Region i Invested Award for our Girl Scout Engineering Day. 

ANNUAL CONFERENCEBy: Tabitha Kalin

This year, eight CSM SWE officers traveled to Philadelphia to attend the SWE Annual Conference, WE16, over Halloween week-end. The conference was one of the largest gatherings of collegiate and professional women engineers to date with over 11,700 women engineers in attendance. Our executive board had the opportunity to attend career development, personal devel-opment, industry, chapter advancement, and networking workshops lead by countless inspirational speakers and women engineers who have succeeded in their respective fields. In addition, the Mines Alumni Associa-tion hosted a special private event for the Mines students to network and meet alumni from the greater Philadelphia area.

EVENING WITH INDUSTRYBy: Kathryn Regas

Our SWE section hosts Evening with Industry every fall semester on the Monday evening before Career Day. The event consists of an informal networking reception and a formal dinner. Our event this year was attended by students, company representatives, and Mines faculty and special guests. Our keynote speaker was Tracy Copp. a Mines alumna currently working as a Principal Materials Engineer at Ball Aerospace. Her keynote address was an inspiring reminder to students that a career path doesn’t have to be straightforward to be rewarding. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Recruiters reported being impressed by the professionalism and personality of the SWE members and many of our members reported receiving job offers from the contacts made during the event. Evening with Industry continues to be a wonderful way for our SWE members to sharpen their networking skills and to strengthen the Colorado School of Mines SWE section’s reputation among industry.

NETWORKING RECEPTIONBy: Diana Tamayo

SWE hosted its annual Networking Reception on February 13, the evening before CSM’s Spring Career Fair. This year’s event had a wonderful turnout with over 45 representatives from 23 different companies, and was attended by over 70 SWE and Multicultural Engineering Program (MEP) members. The reception was an excellent opportunity for members to practice network-ing skills and make connections with company recruiters.

FLORENCE CALDWELL SCHOLARSHIPBy: Chloe Archuleta

This scholarship honors the legacy of Florence Caldwell, the first woman to graduate from Mines in 1898. The recipients of the 2016-2017 academic year were Chloe Archuleta, Briana Farris, Amy Goldstein, and Megan Wolf. These SWE members were recognized for their involvement and dedication to the organization and its goals.

2016-2017Event & Meeting Schedule

Professional Development

2

9/2 Welcome to SWE at Mines9/7 Career Day Preparation ~Stephanie Berry 9/12 Evening with Industry9/14 Consulting Engineering ~Sarah Holmes 9/21 “Computer Science and Disco

Tech” ~Dr. Tracy Camp9/24 Girl Scout Engineering Day9/28 “My Journey from Engineering

to Management and Beyond” ~Sarah Beckman10/5 “Tech Talk”10/12 Chevron Lecture Series ~Elizabeth Hausler Strand10/19 SWE Section Picture10/26 Halloween Party11/2 “Navigating Industry as a

Young Professional”11/9 Faculty Ice Cream Social11/16 “Engineering Your Career” ~Kim Pattillo11/30 “Bringing Women Engineers

Out of the Shadows” ~Claire Mahoney12/7 Holiday Cookie Party12/14 The Continuum 1/18 Welcome Back to SWE!1/25 “Striking a Balance” ~Tessa Baerlocher2/1 “Why go to Graduate School?” ~Neal Sullivan, Anne Silverman,

and Jahi Simbai2/8 Valentine’s Cookie Party2/11 Girls Lead the Way Conference2/13 Networking Reception2/15 “Mining and Management” ~Kim Andrade2/22 “Women’s Studies at Mines” ~Paula Farca and Students 3/1 “Grit, Goals, and Getting There

Gracefully” ~Katherine Gaulke, PhD3/4 Girls and Science3/8 “Space and Time:

Accomplishing Your Goals in Engineering”

~Liz Wren3/15 “TED Talks”3/22 “Hammering Out Human

Rights” Women’s History Month Luncheon

~Susan Marie Frontczak4/5 Why Be a SWE Officer?4/12 ”SWE As Your Constant” ~Janeen Judah4/19 VP Elections 4/26 Director Elections5/3 Awards meeting5/10 The Continuum

SOCIAL ACTIVITIESBy: Bri Farris

At the beginning of each academic year at Mines, SWE hosts the Freshman and Sophomore Class Dinners. These dinners welcome incoming students and provide a fun social atmosphere for them to meet each other and learn about the SWE section at Mines. To go along with this year’s theme, “The Secret Life of SWE,” attendees watched spy movies while eating pasta.

FACULTY ICE CREAM SOCIALBy: Emma Elefante

The Faculty Ice Cream Social is an an-nual event which SWE hosts in the fall to show appreciation for the wonderful and talented Mines faculty and staff. Faculty members from a variety of departments and programs are invited based on student nominations. During the lunch event, students and faculty have fun, relaxed interactions over ice cream sundaes. The event is effective in both showing student appreciation for the staff that enable success at Mines and allowing more personal interactions between students, faculty and staff.

GIRLS & SCIENCEBy: Lindsey Whittington

This year’s Girls & Science event at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science was a huge success. More than 9,000 children and adults walked through the museum visiting various clubhouses to learn about different science disciplines, while doing fun hands-on activities and meeting female role models in professional fields. At the CSM SWE clubhouse, children learned about seismic activities via a shaker table, mechanical advantage while shooting catapults, geometric strength through building paper columns, and binary code by making binary bracelets. Volunteers and children were highly engaged in the activities. 

OUTREACHBy: Alex Flanagan

Our SWE section had a very successful out-reach year. We greatly value our community and view our outreach as a way to make a positive impact on the STEM futures of chil-dren. We’ve been very active in volunteering at science fairs and math and science nights at local elementary and middle schools. Our section has been involved in campus activities for high school seniors looking at attending Mines by participating on panels for Making the Connection and inviting girls to come to our weekly meetings. We have accessible tracking of volunteer hours which lets our members not only realize the impact of their volunteering, but also allows them to utilize these numbers on their resume. This year, our SWE members dedicated more than 550 hours of volunteer-ing to their community.

WELCOME BACK BBQBy: Nadima Dwihusna

On August 29, 2016, our SWE section hosted the Welcome Back BBQ.  This is an annual event that happens in the beginning of every fall semester with the intention of networking and recruiting new SWE members. During this event, we welcomed current and new mem-bers to a brand new school year and a fun new year of SWE! Many students participated in a bingo card ice breaker in which they had to collect signatures to fill unique bingo squares. This game encouraged attendees to mingle and network with each other as well as meet-ing company representatives who generously sponsor the annual event.

GIRL SCOUT ENGINEERING DAYBy: Hanna Bailey

September 24, 2016 marked another success-ful Girl Scout Engineering Day. Approximately 165 junior Girl Scouts attended and participat-ed in ten different STEM experiments, with 75 SWE volunteers aiding the girls in their learning by personally leading the girls through each experiment. The SWE volunteers were able to serve as role models for the aspiring scientists and engineers. The SWE volunteers all wore t-shirts reading “I’m an Engineer” to emphasize that girls can grow up to be engineers. The girls left with souvenirs from their experiments which included lava lamps, tie-dye squares, coding sheets, and asphalt cookies. Girl Scout Engineering Day is one of our biggest outreach events and an exciting and rewarding venue for our members to share their love of STEM with aspiring female scientists and engineers.

Social & Outreach

3

GIRLS LEAD THE WAYBy: Olivia Cordova

Girls Lead the Way is a conference for high school girls with the purpose of fostering inter-est in STEM fields. Nearly 200 girls attended the 2017 conference, held on February 11 at Colorado School of Mines. In the morning, the girls attended a student panel of several majors offered at Mines and a professional dress semi-nar. After lunch the girls went to their hands-on sessions, which featured unique experiences and a general introduction to two of thirteen majors offered at Mines. The girls were divided into these groups based on their interests. The activities included programming simple robots, learning to use surveying equipment, discover-ing the importance of aerospace resources, designing a website, using 3D printers and laser scanners, and much more. Institutional and individual support provided free registration for more than 20 girls from underrepresented populations.

THE CONTINUUMBy: Natalie Kalin

The Continuum was founded in 1999 by a SWE member and has endured as one of Mines’ greatest traditions celebrating the hard work and effort of graduat-ing women. The ceremony, which brings together families, friends, and CSM community members the Wednesday before Commencement, concludes with the presenta-tion of a rose and a CSM vase to each graduat-ing woman in recognition of their success and contribution to the tradition of women at Mines.

OFFICER RETREATBy: Aspen Davis

This year our officer group had an enjoyable time bonding and socializing during two officer retreats. At the beginning of the fall semester, the officers enjoyed some friendly competition while bowling. This was a fun way for officers to get to know each other and begin forming an incredible team network. Just before winter break, officers took in the beautiful sights at the Denver Botanic Gardens. These off-campus group activities strengthen the connection be-tween SWE officers in a stress-free atmosphere.

Dr. and Mr. Karen and David MahoneyMr. Brady and Ms. Lyndsey PfeifferMs. Denise Rome-Tamulis Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Tam Ms. Courtney N. Tamulis Ms. Suzanne Whittington Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Ziemkowski

Xcel  Energy  

 Newmont  Mining  

 BP  

 Aera  Energy  

 Halliburton  

   

   

Corporate Sponsors

Evening With Industry Attending Companies

Networking Reception Attending Companies

Gold Level Donors ($1500-$2499)

Silver Level Donors ($750-$1499)

Bronze Level Donors ($100- $749)

4

Platinum Level Donors ($2500+)

Applied Control Equipment ArcelorMittal Black & Veatch BP CH2MChevron Corporation

Gold  Level  Donors  ($1,500-­‐$2,499)  

Company  (DO  NOT  USE  IN  NEWSLETTER)  

Logo  

Hess  Corp  

 Lockheed  

   

Silver  Level  Donors  ($750-­‐$1,499)  

Company  (DO  NOT  USE  IN  NEWSLETTER)  

Logo  

Marathon  Oil  

 Olsson  and  Assoc  

 

Aera EnergyArcelorMittalBlack & VeatchBPBP L48CH2MChevron CorporationChevron Phillips Chemical Company LP

ConocoPhillipsCredera

DENSO Manufacturing Michigan, Inc.

FAST EnterprisesGerdauGH Phipps Construction Companies

Group14 EngineeringHalliburtonHarris CorporationKimley-HornKraemer North America

Level 3 CommunicationsLGS InnovationsMortenson ConstructionNucor SteelOlin CorporationOrbital ATKOrica USA Inc.P&GPhillips 66Ricoh USA, IncRio Tinto

S&P GlobalSEAKR EngineeringShellSolar TurbinesStanley Consultants, Inc.

Texas InstrumentsTrimble NavigationViaSatWorkdayZayo

Colorado School of Mines Graduate SchoolEagle River Water & Sanitation District Emerson GH Phipps Construction Companies

HalliburtonThe Haskell Company IMERYS LGS Innovations Nucor Steel Orbital ATK OSIsoft

Phillips 66SEAKR Engineering Inc.Shell Solar TurbinesTraylor Bros., Inc.U.S. Navy

Mr. Paul Barnett and Ms. Fang YuanMr. and Mrs. Jim BarufaldiMs. Kim Butler Ms. Helena M. ChouinardMr. Harvey and Ms. Sharon Dean Ms. Cindy Faatz Ms. Stephanie M. Fox Mr. and Mrs. Larry Kruger

ConocoPhillips

Harris Corporation

IMERYS

Phillips 66 - Corporation

Xcel Energy

Gold Level Donors ($1,500-$2,499)

ConocoPhillips

Harris Corporation

IMERYS

Phillips 66 - Corporation

Xcel Energy

Gold Level Donors ($1,500-$2,499)

Sponsors

Platinum Level Donors ($2,500+)

Company (DO NOT USE IN NEWSLETTER)

Logo

ArcelorMittal

BP

CH2M

Bronze Level Donors ($100-$749)

Company (DO NOT USE IN NEWSLETTER)

Logo

Baseline Engineering Corporation

Lehigh Hanson

CH2M

Bronze Level Donors ($100-$749)

Company (DO NOT USE IN NEWSLETTER)

Logo

Baseline Engineering Corporation

Lehigh Hanson

CH2M

Bronze Level Donors ($100-$749)

Company (DO NOT USE IN NEWSLETTER)

Logo

Baseline Engineering Corporation

Lehigh Hanson

Lockheed Martin

Ulteig

Mr. Paul Barnett and Ms. Fang Yuan Mr. and Mrs. Jim Barufaldi Ms. Kim Butler Ms. Helena M. Chouinard Mr. Harvey and Ms. Sharon Dean Ms. Cindy Faatz Ms. Stephanie M. Fox Mr. and Mrs. Larry Kruger Dr. and Mr. Karen and David Mahoney Mr. Brady and Ms. Lyndsey Pfeiffer Ms. Denise Rome-Tamulis Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Tam Ms. Courtney N. Tamulis Ms. Suzanne Whittington Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Ziemkowski