Student Society of Women Engineers Honored
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10, 2005
CONTACT: Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260 Tonya Emerson,
Civil Engineering
530-898-5114
Student Society of Women Engineers Honored
The California State University, Chico student section of the Society of Women Engineer’s (SWE) has been awarded the 2005 Outstanding Student Section award for Region A. Region A covers northern California, northern Nevada and Hawaii and includes a total of 14 universities with engineering programs, including UC Davis, Stanford, UC Berkeley, University of Reno-Nevada and the University of Hawaii.
The award was based on the outstanding work of the student section during the 2004-2005 academic year. Some of their work this year included organizing and hosting the two-day Region A SWE Conference for professional and student members, developing mentoring relationships between lower-division and upper-division female engineering students, and participating in a large number of K-12 outreach events, which included a day of engineering for 65 local girl scouts to earn their Making it Matter badge.
The CSU, Chico SWE section’s main goal is the support of women as they pursue degrees in engineering and computer science. The club welcomes any member, male or female, who is supportive of women in technical degrees.
“This is an excellent achievement for our small section. They were competing against schools with student sections that are two to five times larger than ours, yet our students accomplished a huge amount of work this year, and the professional SWE members recognized that. These students are outstanding role models for all engineering students,” said Tonya Emerson, advisor to the SWE.
As women are still underrepresented in these fields, the SWE students also organize and participate in outreach events to excite young girls about science, technology, engineering and math. The past few years have seen a resurgence
in the efforts of SWE at CSU Chico. The students will be entering the national competition for Outstanding Student Section, which will be awarded at the National SWE Conference this October in Anaheim, Calif.