Thank you to all of our donors! Our campaign is officially closed. We raised $4,235, enough to send 11 people to conference. This is more people than we could ever sponsor before. WE16 here we come!

We want to thank everyone who has donated to our campaign so far! Because of your help we can send 10 girls to conference this fall. We still have 4 days left and hope to be able to send even more girls to conference (since it is only in Philly next year), so please share this with your friends and family.

Thank you,

Becky Glucksman

Pitt SWE President

"I attended the Society of Women Engineers' National Conference in October of last year.  The most rewarding part of the conference was volunteering at their Invent it Build it event for young girls.  I feel that it is important to reach out to young students and teach them the importance of engineering.  To show these young ladies that anyone, including them, could work hard and become an engineer was extremely rewarding.  Being included in this event alone was enough to make the trip to conference worth it and life changing." -Brooke Arnold

"Going to WE15 last year was a valuable opportunity for me because it allowed me to network with companies and peers. Unlike many career fairs held at your own college, the huge career fair at the conference offered a huge range of job opportunities for locations all over the country and even the world. Although I was not looking for a job at the time, the career fair was awesome because it gave me a lot of practice being in front of potential employers for when the time comes. Hopefully, I will get to go to conference during my senior year when it will finally be time for the job hunt!" -Casey Kinol

"Hi, my name's Becca Lasky. I am currently the Vice President of the Pitt SWE chapter and was previously the meeting coordinator. I also planned and coordinated two events, Diversity Dinnerview and SWEvening, for the past two years. SWE has helped me in so many ways over the past couple of years. I've grown more confident and I would consider myself to be a good leader. At WE15, last year's national conference, I attended many of the sessions dealing with my transition from collegiate to professional. I was also able to speak to many different women in different industries. It's inspiring to be surrounded by successful women, get their advice, and hear them speak about their journeys. Even though I will no longer be a part of Pitt SWE next year, I fully intend on attending the societal conference in Philadelphia and strongly believe it's an important learning experience at any age. Because of SWE and especially societal conference, I feel confident transitioning into my professional engineering career."

"After attending my first conference in Baltimore in 2013, I was able to see the understand SWE on the societal level better. I left the conference feeling proud to be a woman in engineering and was motivated to not only make our section better but also to inspire other girls to pursue engineering. That weekend, I met so many inspirational women figures. I learned a lot about what technologies were happening in the field (from listening to Lightning Talks) and learned how to improve myself professionally.

Since that first conference, I've been hooked on SWE. I have gotten more and more involved, taking on larger leadership roles. Pitt SWE has really helped me to develop my leadership skills and give me the confidence I needed in my abilities. 

This past year at conference, we volunteered at the societal SWE's outreach event, "Invent it Build it." We liked the format so much that we decided to model our outreach events like theirs so that we can potentially expand the number of students that can attend our events in future years." -Becky Glucksmann

"My name is Kaleigh Smith, and I am very excited to take on the role of Pitt SWE's treasurer next year! As I am transitioning into my new position, I realize the great responsibility I am taking on. The progressive development of our organization would not be possible without funding and proper allocations of that funding. I am certain that societal conference is the most important and worth-while expense that we will make all year. Your support will go a long way as these skills will stay through collegiate to professional careers! So far, I have only been to the regional SWE conference. Based off of the success of that and what I learned from there, I can only imagine how beneficial the societal conference, WE16 will be."

Summer Jiries is currently a junior chemical engineering student and the treasurer of Pitt's Society of Women in Engineering. Her responsibilities include managing funds and club finances. She is also an active member in organizing many events such as the Elementary Engineering Extravaganza (E3)."My favorite part about SWE is encouraging younger girls to join engineering fields. The National Conference helped me improve our outreach events by having several workshops that I attended." Events such as E3 have been a great success at the University of Pittsburgh by recruiting young girls, and boys, to pursue interests in STEM fields. Attending the conference will allow her to gain inspiration for new events and ideas for her new role as Vice President, as well as networking opportunities for after graduation.

"My name is Kylie Zeis, and I am a junior at the University of Pittsburgh majoring in industrial engineering. I am the current secretary of Pitt Society of Women Engineers and have been elected as president for the next fiscal year!  SWE has helped me in so many ways through my time here at Pitt. One great benefit of SWE is the societal conference each year! I've attended 2 societal conferences: one in Los Angeles and one in Nashville. These conferences have provided so many great workshops and networking opportunities; however, the best part was the career fair at conference. During my first conference, I went to the career fair, interviewed with companies, and received 2 job offers for summer internships! I accepted one of the offers, which was a tremendous experience. Without the societal SWE conference, none of this would have been possible!"