Member of the Month, November: Donna Creighton

Donna at Girl Scout Engineering Day Fall 2012

Last semester, as a part of SWE, I had the opportunity mentor a team of girl scouts in elementary school for the Jr. FIRST LEGO League (Jr. FLL). FIRST is an organization of programs designed to engage students in STEM fields through robotics challenges and projects. In high school I participated in the FIRST Robotics Competition, so when I heard that mentors were needed for Jr. FLL, I knew I wanted to help out!

We were up for a challenge, but a fun one! In Jr. FLL, groups of students aged 6-9 are given a theme, which they then research and create a LEGO project and poster on. This year’s theme was Super Seniors and so we did a lot of research about what life was like for senior citizens. The team met once a week for a few months to talk about senior citizens and work on creating the LEGO project and poster.

The girls really loved creating things with LEGOs; you could tell they had quite the imaginations! Although I helped, along with other mentors, to facilitate the girls to work on the project and as a team, a lot of my job was to just see what they came up with. It was awesome to see how the girls were able to create their own simple machines to make their ideas come to life. In the end, they created a model showing information sources from the past and present, to show how things have changed for senior citizens. They worked really hard on their project and ended up with a great model, complete with a library, including a book that you could open and close, as well as computer with a motorized spinning chair!

It was really rewarding getting to work with these girls for Jr. FLL. While they might not be old enough to know what they want to do for a career yet, I really think their experiences with Jr. FLL will help them become more confident in themselves and their ability to succeed in technical fields someday. In the end, I think that’s what SWE is all about anyways—not forcing girls down a technical path they wouldn’t enjoy, but showing them that they have the ability to be successful in engineering. SWE is such a great organization because it not only supports women who have chosen to pursue engineering during college and throughout their career, but also reaches out to girls to get them interested in engineering.

Veronique Parker: Thoughts from WE12

1. My experience at the WE12 summary: Running around the career fair, interviews, laughing, inspirational speakers, food and ironing pants.
2. Some highlights: Photo Booths and Flip books from the hospitality suites.
3. Biggest surprise: the magnitude of the event. Over 6,000 attending all with the same mission- to meet other awesome people! The career fair itself was bigger than any I had ever seen by at least 5 times. The amount of recruiters and rotating displays all there just to meet us pulsed an energy through the crowd waiting to grab their interview slots, me included. 
4. Result: Multiple interviews, tons of business cards and way too much cool swag.

Samantha Kolpak: Thoughts from WE12

1. After the opening of the career fair Thursday night, company's can rent a room where the employees can socialize with conference attendees and network in a casual manner. These are called Hospitality Suites. During the United Technologies Hospitality Suite, I met this employee who served as my "job fairy godmother". She was determined to find me an internship within the company and her mission was to find me a recruiter to speak with.  After a few minutes after she introduced me to a recruiter, the recruiter offered me an interview for the next day. This was  one of the highlights of my trip.
2. During the session Purse 101, I learned how to manage my money by staying on budget. I also learned important information about managing debt, job salary's, net versus gross income, taxes, retirement plans, etc. I feel that this was one of the most beneficial workshops to attend and I know this information will help me in both the present and future.

Jessica Ziegler: Thoughts on WE12

1. How do we get high school girls interested in engineering? In the talk 'Engaging High School Girls through Service Learning Projects' I learned that high school girls don't respond to a one-day event as positively as younger girls do; they need something that they can commit to. This program had groups of the high school girls build a device for children with a disability. The parents of the child told the girls what kind of device they needed to help their child perform some task. Supervised by professional SWE volunteers, the high school girls built and presented these devices.
2. I learned from a NASA astronaut that even the best and the brightest don't always get what they want the first time. If you really want something you were turned down for, find some way to improve your credentials and try again.

First Place Schlumberger Essay by Veronique Parker

From Tiaras to Test Flights

Following the smooth, paved path while walking in-sync with the rest of the world has never really been my style. Growing up in a small town in upstate New York where there are more Canadian tourists than residents, it was easy to get a skewed vision of life.

The “thing to do” in good old Saranac Lake was to jump on the train for a choice of three different life paths. First option: Graduate from Saranac Lake Public High School with average grades with the rest of your 90 person class and then work at the local grocery store for the rest of your life. Second option: Drop out of high school ASAP and make a living buying and selling drugs on the bad side of town while reproducing like there’s no tomorrow. Third option: Graduate at the top of your class after being on prom court and captain of your sports team. Go to a nearby University to major in Language Arts. Return to Saranac Lake to raise your family and continue the cycle.

Which one did I pick? The second option. Just kidding.

My family was always a little “off” in the eyes of the town. We were the crazy family that decided to move to Australia for five years then come back and build a house on a mountain. We were the strange family with the little girl who talked funny with a blonde Afro instead of straight hair with bangs, liked vegemite instead of peanut butter and was attached to her stuffed animal platypus instead of her teddy bear or blanky.

Going back to the three options, it is needless to say that I made my own option. I graduated at the top of my small class after taking many Advanced Placement classes, being on prom, homecoming and winter carnival court, participating in the school musicals and being the captain of the soccer and volleyball teams. I am aware that this is starting to sound like option number 3, but I assure you that it is not with as much confidence as I have saying that my hair is incredibly frizzy right now.

The difference between me and the option 3-ers is that I had Aerospace Engineering as my destiny every since I was 12 and obsessed with planetarium shows. A female engineer-not typical. A female Aerospace engineer-seriously not typical. This was my arrogant attitude as I went to RPI with high expectations and even higher confidence.

What a slap in the face that first semester was. I found out that I am not particularly good at math or science when you pull this fish out of its small pond. I worked hard in high school, but it was time to take off my waders and put on my fins!

Easier said than done. Those fins are still giving me blisters today. I watched my classmates drop like anchors in the ocean, changing to an easier major or different engineering concentration.

Today as I enter my senior year of college, I am proud to say that my biggest accomplishment has been sticking with what I love through all of its rapids. My work ethic has continuously grown to be my greatest characteristic. I recently had the opportunity to intern at Calspan Corporation’s Flight Research Center. I worked on control systems using a simulator with engineers and pilots from the FAA, analyzed test flight data, and even got to fly a small plane! Only through this beaten, rarely traveled path would I get such opportunities and experiences. After a life of untraditional ways, how could I stray from having an exciting, untraditional career? I plan to continue my life (including my career) with the same gusto as the first 21 years of my life.

Second Place Schlumberger Essay by Stephanie Lennon

Shoes are an essential part of every girls life. Shoes help make an outfit, whether its your brand new Sperry's for your first day of high school, perfectly broken-in pointe shoes for your ballet lesson or those heels for prom you searched for months to find. Shoes make everything just a little more perfect. When I think of my future as an environmental engineer, I don't picture a pair of Sperry's or heel, I picture waders. For those who don't know, waders look like rain boots with attached waterproof overalls. I may look dorky wearing them, but that's half the fun. Wearing waders means that I am going to have a great day filled with water sampling. Nothing gets better than spending a hot July day in the sun taking water samples at a local river or beach. Who wants to spend their day sitting at a desk looking at a computer screen, I sure don't! Wearing waders through a rushing river is an experience like no other. You feel the cool water pressing against your legs, like you're standing in quicksand, but you can move around. It does get tricky when you slip and fall in the river, but who doesn't want to accidentally go swimming on the job? My shoes will lead me in many different directions, all of them unconventional; I'm not a conventional girl, I'm an engineer and proud of it.

Third Place Schlumberger Essay by Gina Trivellini

My shoes have wings. No, I’m not Hermes, nor did I just drink a can of Red Bull. Rather, my shoes have the ability to take me far beyond those sensible heels that reside in office cubicles worldwide; they will take me to the sky…literally. My name is Gina Trivellini, and my passion lies in aviation.

Since my first air show at eighteen months old, I’ve been fascinated by airplanes. For the past eight years I’ve been volunteering at my local municipal airport and museum, and more recently have begun taking flight lessons to eventually earn my pilot’s license.

I’m lucky enough to have parents who have driven me to explore my interest in airplanes. One of the programs they enrolled me in – an aviation camp a few summers ago – is the reason that I ultimately decided to pursue a career in aviation in the future.

Throughout my childhood I knew that I wanted to someday help improve the lives of others, but I was never sure what to say when asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Attending aviation camp was simply for fun – I got to go behind the scenes (and through countless metal detectors) in and around the Atlantic City Airport to see the runway pavement testing, baggage security screening, wind tunnels and a whole lot more.

One particular day at camp, a woman speaking about her career asked us, “Who here has considered becoming an aeronautical engineer?” A few boys – but only one girl – raised their hands. The woman went on to tell us that she was a rarity in a field dominated by males, but that she loved her job. She couldn’t emphasize enough how high the demand was for women engineers. Her words made such an impression that I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the career for me. Extensive research opened my eyes to endless opportunities. It wasn’t long before I realized that the ever-changing field of aeronautical engineering would allow me to do what I loved and see my impact on the world each and every day.