SWE
Orange County
Save these upcoming events to your calendar:
> Professional Development Conference - April 18th
> Work/Life Balance Workshop - April 29th
> SWE-OC 30th Anniversary Celebration - June 11th
> SWE-OC Scholarships Open! Due 04/24
> SWE-OC Certificate of Merit: Seeking Nominations by 04/17
> Sponsor our Professional Development Conference!
> Join the Region B Mentoring Program
> WE15 Hotel Block Open
> SWE's New Outreach Program for Girls K-12
> United States Academic Decathlon - Volunteers Needed 04/16 - 04/17
> Johns Hopkins Engineering Innovation Summer Program
Upcoming Events and Opportunities:
CONGRATULATIONS TO SWE-OC
Winning Several Awards
SWE
Orange County A P R I L 2 0 1 5
S P E CI A L
P O I N T S O F
I N TE R E S T :
Annual
Professional
Development
Conference is
this month!
Check out
our new
website:
www.swe-
oc.org
President:
Nadia Bess
Vice President:
Tasha Kamegai-
Karadi
Treasurer:
Yvonne Huynh
Secretary:
Sandra Thompson
Newsletter Editor:
Cynthia Carter
Section
Representatives:
Paola Chavira,
Kim O'Rourke,
Rachael Lomax
P A G E 2
SWE-OC Dinner Meeting: Increase Your
Productivity and Profitability: The Power
of Clear Communication By: Roxana Carrillo
On February 5th, SWE-OC hosted the "Increase Your Productivity and Profitability:
The Power of Clear Communication" dinner meeting. The speaker was Dr. Patty
Malone, an expert in the field of communication with over 25 years of experience.
She gave an interactive presentation showing how to communicate effectively and
clearly between individuals and across teams, explaining how to improve
communication habits, and highlighting the three most costly communication mistakes
and how to avoid them.
Overall, attendees learned how clear communication can increase productivity, reduce
mistakes, build trust, foster happier employees, and ultimately increase profits for their
company.
SWE-OC has begun
collecting applications
for the 2015 Graduate
and Undergraduate
Student Scholarships!
Do you know of a local
college student who you
think would be a good
applicant? SWE-OC
collects scholarship
applications from both
g r a d u a t e a n d
undergraduate female
students studying in the
field of engineering.
Applicants must be
attending either CSU
Fullerton, CSU Long
Beach, UC Irvine, or UC
Riverside and have a
minimum 3.0 GPA.
Three scholarships will
be given to both graduate
and unde rgraduate
appl icants in the
amounts of $200, $400,
and $650.
Graduate and Undergraduate
application information can be
found at the following link:
h t t p : / / w w w . s w e - o c . o r g /
scholarships.html
For additional questions or to
request an application by
email, please contact Cynthia
C a r t e r a t s w e - o c -
[email protected]. Please
return or submit form no later
than Friday, April 24th, 2015.
Awards will be distributed in
June 2015.
FY 15 SWE-OC Scholarships
are now open!
K-12 Outreach: Currie Middle School
P A G E 3 A P R I L 2 0 1 5
By: Paola Chavira
Paola Chavira attended Currie Middle School to promote engineering careers. She was welcomed by a
group of 32 students attending their STEM class. The students were very happy to find out how much
engineers made and how many jobs they could find after college. Following the presentation, Paola lead
the a group design activity in which the students built a race car out of cardboard, rubber bands and other
office materials. The kids loved the engineering presentation and activity and will now all be engineers...
or we can only hope.
Spring Collegiate Training
By: Emily Nguyen
On March 7th, 2015, SWE-OC hosted a day long training for the 5 chapters (UCI, UCR, CSULB, CSUF,
and SAC) at the Santa Ana College Campus with the help of SWE's CLCC, we were able to provide 2
training modules. Students were encourage to talk and share ideas from each other, plan the rest of the
year, and set goals for the next year.
SWE-OC Dinner Meeting: "Climate Change: Another
Factor in Managing California’s Water Resources"
By: Roxana Carrillo
On March 24, 2015, SWE-OC had a
successful dinner meeting where we discussed
California climate and weather, current trends
and observations, greenhouse gas emissions,
and projections and impacts. Our guest
speaker for the evening was Lauma Jurkevics,
Senior Environmental Scientist and Climate
Change Specialist for the California
Department of Water Resources. The March
dinner meeting was sponsored by Incledon
Consulting Group, a civil engineering firm
that provides design, surveying, planning, and
water resources services for the public and
private sector.
STEM U Late Pi Day @Moreno Valley College
SWE-OC Technical Tour: ChocXO Chocolatier Factory
By: Paola Chavira
Paola attended the STEM U Late event at Moreno Valley College in celebration of Pi Day. She and her
coworker from SoCalGas demonstrated to the attendants how natural gas works and some safety measures to
follow. Paola also encouraged the visitors to engage in STEM and explained the different possibilities to
follow a career in STEM at SoCalGas.
By: Mica Lee
SWE-OC took a technical tour of ChocXO's chocolate factory in Irvine to learn about the chocolate making
process. An Operations Manager walked us through the machines and processes used to make their chocolate
products. We sampled cacao pulp, cacao liquor, cacao nibs, cacao flakes, a chocolate shot, truffles, and bark.
P A G E 4
Member
Spotlights
P A G E 5
SWE-OC would like to congratulate the recipients
for winning the Orange County Engineering
Council’s
Outstanding Young Engineers:
Cynthia Carter
Paola Chavira
Tasha Kamegai-Karadi
Mica Lee
Outstanding Engineer Educator Award:
Dr. Judith Forbes
Outstanding STEM Program Award:
SWE-OC K-12 STEM Outreach
She currently works for Altura Associates on building energy efficiency
projects. As an analyst, she takes large datasets and turns them into
useful results - her favorite part of her job is the variety of projects they
have, as no two clients are the same. She loves being able to
simultaneously make a building less wasteful and improve the comfort
of those working inside of the space, because she knows that if the
occupants are happy their changes will persist long after their contract is
over. Previously, she has worked on airplane climate control systems
and large infrastructure projects.
Julia Diaz
P A G E 6
Do you have any exciting news to share? Please send an email to [email protected]
The new SWE-OC year begins on July 1, 2015 and volunteer opportunities are open! We are looking for
people to help organize and plan the exciting events for FY16. The SWE-OC leadership consists of the
Executive Council (EC) and Committee Chairs who meet once a month to discuss business and plan events.
Volunteering for a position is fun, rewarding, and a great way to expand your leadership skills.
Have you ever considered volunteering with SWE-OC but are unsure what is involved? Feel free to email
Nominating Chair Kathleen Monk at [email protected] or SWE-OC President Nadia Bess at swe-oc-
[email protected] for more information!
SWE-OC Executive Council Officer Nominations
If you are interested in holding an officer or committee chair position for FY16, please fill out the interest
form here by April 17, 2015:https://docs.google.com/…/1voz26BJZx1qxDkJEdi52QWf…/viewform
The FY16 org chart is available here for you to review:http://issuu.com/sweoc/docs/fy16_org_chart
More information on each position's responsibilities can be found in the Officer and Committee Chair Man-
ual: http://issuu.com/sweoc/…/swe-oc_officer___committee_chair_ma
Save the Date! SWE-OC will be celebrating our 30th anniversary
at our Annual End of Year Banquet on Thursday, June 11th. We
will distribute membership awards, give out scholarships to local
college students, recognize our volunteers, and reminisce about
our past 30 years.