In a previous post, I shared about my early experiences with SWE during my career. After attending my 2nd Society conference in 1996 in Portland Oregon, my husband and I moved to France for his job and I transitioned to the status of spousal leave. It was an exciting time for our family to be moving to Europe. I became a SWE Member at Large (MAL) as there were no SWE sections outside the US. My SWE Network was very important to me in keeping me connected with engineering.
When we returned to the US in 1999, I joined the Chicago Regional Section (CRS) as we moved to the Chicago area. All the transitions that we experienced as a family and the new job (return to work after 3 years LOA), created a significant amount of stress for me. I had no idea how overwhelmed I was, until I went to a stress management seminar presented by the CRS. That PD Session helped shine the light on what I was experiencing in my life and gave me tools to assist with the stress management that I did not have before. SWE saved my sanity and helped me remain in engineering as I was ready to walk away from it all. I started to embrace my new design engineer positionand recognized that I could be successful as an electrical engineer in this mechanical engineering design role.
A few years later, I was asked to consider a new position that would take us back to Peoria. This job lead came from someone I knew through my SWE network. This was an important move for me, as this made me the lead spouse and my husband was the trailing spouse for the first time.
In the move and family transition to a new home, my focus was my family and supporting their needs. This is where I have to admit that I dropped my membership with SWE. After a few years of not participating in SWE, I realized how much I missed the activities and networking. So I renewed my membership and got back involved. I was leading Outreach activities with at-risk middle school students. It was very rewarding to see the young ladies excitement as they learned about STEM and what a career in engineering could mean to them.
After a few years, I was asked to serve as the Section Representative to the Region H Council, which increased my network to the SWE leaders in Region H. After a few years, in this role, I had the opportunity to serve as Region H Lt Governor and work with the Collegiates on the Collegiate Representative Council. I loved working with the collegiates and am still in contact with many of them today.
After 15 years in Peoria, my husband took a new job, which brought us here to Tucson. I am excited to be here serving in the current role and meeting the section members. I hope that my experiences with SWE will make an impact with the local section and provide meaningful programming to assist our membership.
I also hope that you will consider joining us for our membership brunch in January or some of the other events that we are planning for next year.
And if you have ideas or time to support our committees, please consider reaching out and volunteer to assist our section in support SWE’s mission, Aspire, Advance and Achieve.
Cheers,
Carol J Weber
SWE Tucson Section President FY19
When we returned to the US in 1999, I joined the Chicago Regional Section (CRS) as we moved to the Chicago area. All the transitions that we experienced as a family and the new job (return to work after 3 years LOA), created a significant amount of stress for me. I had no idea how overwhelmed I was, until I went to a stress management seminar presented by the CRS. That PD Session helped shine the light on what I was experiencing in my life and gave me tools to assist with the stress management that I did not have before. SWE saved my sanity and helped me remain in engineering as I was ready to walk away from it all. I started to embrace my new design engineer positionand recognized that I could be successful as an electrical engineer in this mechanical engineering design role.
A few years later, I was asked to consider a new position that would take us back to Peoria. This job lead came from someone I knew through my SWE network. This was an important move for me, as this made me the lead spouse and my husband was the trailing spouse for the first time.
In the move and family transition to a new home, my focus was my family and supporting their needs. This is where I have to admit that I dropped my membership with SWE. After a few years of not participating in SWE, I realized how much I missed the activities and networking. So I renewed my membership and got back involved. I was leading Outreach activities with at-risk middle school students. It was very rewarding to see the young ladies excitement as they learned about STEM and what a career in engineering could mean to them.
After a few years, I was asked to serve as the Section Representative to the Region H Council, which increased my network to the SWE leaders in Region H. After a few years, in this role, I had the opportunity to serve as Region H Lt Governor and work with the Collegiates on the Collegiate Representative Council. I loved working with the collegiates and am still in contact with many of them today.
After 15 years in Peoria, my husband took a new job, which brought us here to Tucson. I am excited to be here serving in the current role and meeting the section members. I hope that my experiences with SWE will make an impact with the local section and provide meaningful programming to assist our membership.
I also hope that you will consider joining us for our membership brunch in January or some of the other events that we are planning for next year.
And if you have ideas or time to support our committees, please consider reaching out and volunteer to assist our section in support SWE’s mission, Aspire, Advance and Achieve.
Cheers,
Carol J Weber
SWE Tucson Section President FY19
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