2024 SWE Mission Recognition, Silver

The FY2024 awards process was updated to be the SWE Recognition Program. The Society of Women Engineers strives to advance and honor the contributions of women at all stages of their careers and recognize the successes of SWE members and individuals who enhance the engineering profession through contributions to the industry, education, and the community. The Mission award application process focused on highlighting key events completed by the SWE group that support SWE’s mission.

Learn more about the 2024 RMS Key Events

SWE Strategic Goal 1 – Advocacy & Collaboration

Outreach – RMS held the 37th annual Great Women in Engineering and Science Essay Contest for sixth grade students at schools in Colorado and Wyoming. The goal is to foster an interest in science, engineering, and technology in middle school students and introduce students to female role models who have achieved significant success in areas of science and engineering. The competition was fierce with 38 entries from 9 schools, a 23% increase from FY23. Prizes included cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place; distribution of 8 science kits; and distribution of 9 women in science books. Schools with 20% or more participation received a science book for outstanding participation. The first place winner is in an intervention English class for her low writing skills, and she worked very hard and had multiple teachers and family members proofread. Her grandpa even offered to match anything she won!

Public Policy – RMS was invited to send a representative to the 39th Space Symposium to participate in the Education to Workforce Focus program, featuring several discussions with high level educational leadership. The RMS President attended, introducing SWE Rocky Mountain Section’s mission to the COO of Space Symposium and educators that represented local community colleges, high schools, and corporations. Programming included the Industry Panel: Industry Innovators Championing Inclusive Futures featuring representatives from leading space companies; the University Leadership Panel: Preparing the Workforce to Meet the Needs of the Space Industry featuring leaders from community colleges and universities; and the International Panel: Multilateral Collaboration on Capacity Building of Education to Workforce featuring international representation of space companies and universities.

Partnerships with Collegiates, Professionals, Industry, Academia, Other Organization – RMS co-hosted and financially sponsored the 5th Annual Building Bridges to the Future, a special event designed to bring together local women in STEM to network and engage fellow members of the STEM community. The event was co-hosted with Denver IEEE WiE, University of Denver, and the DU SWE group. Featured speakers for the event include Patrick Miller, CEO of Ampere Industrial Security, and Alicia Harvey, transition compliance coordinator at Xcel Energy. Attendees spanned both SWE members and non-SWE members from industry and local collegiate sections, with approximately 15% being collegiates. The event successfully enabled networking across various industries and age groups while remaining one of the flagship opportunities to continue connecting to a local community of women in STEM in Denver.

SWE Strategic Goal 2 – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging (DEI&B)

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging – SWE RMS hosts a book club approximately every other month. The participants vote on the book about a month before and have read a diverse lists of authors and genres. The books range from fictional tales exploring being a woman to non-fiction self help or engineering stories. The book club has about 8 participants that attend every meeting and a few other drop in participants each meeting. This year the book club has read books by both female and male authors and many different ethnicities. The book club helps to stimulate discussion around DE&I topics such as navigating engineering as a woman and minority. It also fosters a sense of belonging amongst members who attend and are able to build deeper connections with the diverse group of attendees. It is a popular, ongoing piece of the SWE RMS section and receives high praise every year.

SWE Resource Promotion – RMS was a booth sponsor and partner for the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Cities of the Future Denver Red Carpet Movie Premier, held at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The goal is to inspire K-12 youth to consider a future in engineering and to show the local community the impact of civil engineering infrastructure on our daily lives. Cities of the Future centers on major engineering challenges facing our changing world. The experience follows a team of middle schoolers participating in the international Future Cities Competition that challenges 60,000 students to engineer their own future city. RMS sponsored a SWENext booth with promotional materials and used popsicle sticks to demonstrate the strength of bridge trusses (triangles vs rectangular shapes). The event sold out at 390 tickets sold and had approximately 30 volunteers.

Membership Retention & Engagement – Every year the SWE RMS section hosts a winter celebration in December. This event is meant for members to connect to each other and engage in fun activites together. It allows for deeper connections to be made amongst members in a low stress environment which in turn boosts our retention of members. This year the event had cocoa, cookies and music as well as activities. The activites included making paper snowflakes and decorating cookies. 30 SWE members attended and 2 volunteers organized the event. The part recieved high praise and is a favorite amongst members for a yearly event! Many people said they come every year and enjoy being engaged in an event that is just for fun.

SWE Strategic Goal 3: Global Community

Global & Multicultural – Allegro Coffee partnered with RMS for International Women’s Day with Allegro Coffee. The idea of co-hosting a joint event was originally fostered during the RMS Strategic Planning meeting, where both of the event coordinators participated. RMS advertised the event through an email newsletter and social media. Attendees registered with a simple RSVP email. The event was a blend of a professional development event and social that included a factory tour of the Allegro Coffee Company, a producer of sustainably delicious coffees, teas, and spices. The event also included a coffee tasting of coffee sourced from women owned farms in Peru. Information about the coffee farms was shared. The chilly day was brightened by light roasted coffees, social connections and women celebrating women.

Communication – RMS requested SWE’s new WordPress website platform to create and launch a new website with a new domain name. To prepare for developing the new website, the RMS webmaster attended SWE’s WordPress training session and included the website content as a tactical initiative topic during the RMS FY24 Strategic Planning session. With a wish list and goals defined during the strategic planning session, the webmaster built a new website from scratch, leaning in to the SWE branding guidelines and supplemental RMS Marketing & Branding Strategy guide. The goal was to format the website to be visually appealing, improve mobile access, make it easy for newcomers to learn about RMS; easily share information with RMS members; and highlight all social media platforms of RMS. The blog was revamped and includes regular posts that highlight RMS and member accomplishments and more.

Mentoring – Spurring from a conversation between the North Alabama Section (NAL) President and an RMS leader at 2023 WE Local Seattle, NAL and RMS formed a mentoring relationship. RMS has held an ongoing essay contest for 39 years and had a depth of experience to mentor NAL on their endeavor to create a new essay contest. Former RMS VP of Outreach provided content examples for the brochure, website information, contest announcements, and entry forms for NAL to leverage. NAL launched their essay contest with hopes to provide greater STEM outreach impact in local northern Alabama. RMS’ mentorship helped NAL host their first annual North Alabama STEM Essay Contest on describing a feature that you would add to a car. The final surge of contest entries hit with 9 entries, enough to share all the prizes. The NAL President thanked RMS for our help and support throughout the establishment of their new program.

SWE Strategic Goal 4: Growth & Excellence

Professional Development – The Women in X, Women in Med Tech event was a panel featuring women from different areas of medical technology speaking on their experiences. It was cohosted with Medtronic, a local company in the RMS area, and was a huge success. 52 professionals and 6 collegiates attended and the event received high praise from both groups of attendees.

Awards and Recognition – RMS holds the annual Summit Awards to recognize members, teams, or collegiates who have made outstanding contribution within RMS during the fiscal year. Nominations were submitted and varied from individuals to groups whose contributions aligned with one or more of the following award areas and SWE core values: outreach, professional development, membership, fund development, communicator, newcomer, superior supporter. 5 individuals and 1 group were recognized, including members of the professional and local collegiate sections and a nonmember recognized as a superior supporter. Additionally, RMS awarded 6 scholarships: 3 to graduating high school seniors and 3 endowed scholarships to continuing or re-entry collegiates. These scholarships are meant to help students continue to excel and reach their educational goals.

Leadership Development Within Group or SWE – In September of 2023, RMS, in partnership with MPWR, a local company women’s ERG, hosted a hybrid in-person/virtual event. The event, “Women Rising: A Conversation on Ascending to Executive Roles” featured prominent leaders in our industry discussing their personal journeys to rise to executive roles. Speaker Lisa M. Robert serves as the COO of RS&H and is passionate and outspoken about furthering DEI efforts and serves as the executive sponsor for RS&H’s Ignite Women’s Leadership Network. Speaker Tamara J. Johnson is the 6th president and first woman president in Merrick’s 68-year history. Tammy is the executive sponsor for the Merrick Professional Women’s Roundtable and is dedicated to championing DEI efforts. Topics included imposter syndrome, inspiring your team and workforce as an executive leader, staying on top of industry trends, and more.