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GUEST SPEAKER 1:
So hi, everyone.

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My name's Nicole.

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I'm here with Elaine.

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And both of us are part of the
Society of Women Engineers.

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So we both just wanted to give
you a little bit of background

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on ourselves, and then talk
about some of the opportunities

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that SWE has.

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So I actually didn't
know anything about SWE

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when I was in high
school, either.

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I learned about it
during my senior year.

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So SWE has multiple
scholarships.

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We give away thousands
and thousands of dollars

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to support girls who
are excited about STEM

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and about engineering and
getting involved in those

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fields.

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So when I [AUDIO OUT] had
no idea what I wanted to do.

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I really liked doing the
engineering side of things.

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So I'd worked in a lab
for a couple summers

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at UCLA in a bioengineering lab.

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But I also really liked
the business side.

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So I was part of a floral
arrangement business, actually,

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that was run by my school.

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And so we did everything
from marketing

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to sales to actually putting the
flower arrangements together.

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So that was really cool.

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I went to Penn for college.

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And what's really
neat is they have

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a program called the Management
and Technology Program.

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And so you get a degree
from their business school

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and a degree from their
engineering school.

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So I ended up going to do
entrepreneurial management

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and bioengineering as my
bachelor's, and the chemical

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engineering for my master's.

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So I just want to
share a little bit

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of how SWE was able to
affect my college experience.

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It was amazing.

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I think the thing that really
impresses me most about SWE

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is that it really touches
on three different aspects.

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So you have the
outreach part of it-- so

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getting to speak
you guys, getting

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to engage with K
through 12 students,

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and really get them excited
about STEM and show them

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what's possible.

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The second part is with the
professional development.

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So being able to look at
resumes, do mock interviews,

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just grow yourself personally
and professionally I think

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is so important no matter what
fields you end up going into.

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And then third, just the fun,
social aspect-- so the fact

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that you guys are going to
have lunch here right now.

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Getting to engage with people
at different socials and things

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like that is just really fun.

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So I have in the upper
left-hand corner,

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it's a picture of the
SWE Boston group here.

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So everyone in the Boston
area can be part of that.

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I was on the board of
directors, actually, for SWE

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during my senior year--
super senior year

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when I was doing my master's,
which is really cool-- so

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getting to interact with people
from all around the world,

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and really move the
strategy of SWE forward.

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And then just a couple
fun pictures-- one

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from my collegiate section at
Penn, with our Engineering Chip

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t-shirts, and then a
fun photo booth at one

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of our annual conferences.

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So Elaine, if you want to tell
a little bit about yourself?

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GUEST SPEAKER 2: Yeah.

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So how many of you
people like math classes?

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Quite a few.

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[LAUGHTER]

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What about science classes?

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Just about everybody, right?

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How many of you like English?

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Still a lot of people, right?

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How about writing?

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So I will tell you
right now that when

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I started high
school, I actually

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hated my science classes.

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And so I'm here to tell
you about my journey

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from being an English major
to becoming an engineer.

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And so when I was
in high school,

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I actually hated science
class because all we did was

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fill-in-the-blank worksheets.

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We didn't do anything
like take apart cameras,

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like you guys are doing today.

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And so I was really
bored with science,

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even though I was
really good at it.

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So when I applied
to college-- I went

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to Rice University-- I decided
to become an English major.

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And at the end of
my freshman year, I

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applied for an internship in
writing at the Texas Heart

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Institute.

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And so basically, what
they did there was they

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took all the writing
that any of the surgeons

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did on all the
surgeries that they

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did-- well, all the science
research that they do--

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and they sent it to us.

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So that way, we can
actually put it into a form

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that everybody else can read.

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And so while sitting
there-- and they wanted me

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because they wanted me to
be [INAUDIBLE] their English

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or make sure that the
ideas flowed well.

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But while I was reading
all these things,

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I had no idea what
they were saying.

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I didn't know what was going on.

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There's a lot of
disconnect that people

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say that scientists don't
know how to explain things

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to everybody else.

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And so that was the
problem that I was seeing,

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and I didn't know
what was going on.

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So I asked my boss,
can I go see a surgery?

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I don't know what
they're talking about.

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And while I was in that
surgery room, the surgery I saw

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was on a cow that had had a
mechanical valve implanted

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into the heart.

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And this valve had failed.

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Now, that's really
disappointing, right?

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But there are a lot of things
that we can learn from failure.

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And so everything that they were
doing as they were taking out

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the valve, running
tests through the cow,

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and figuring out what went
wrong, I started to see, wow,

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there are these real
applications of science

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that can be really fascinating.

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And so as I was working
my way through the summer,

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I thought more and more
about these experiences

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and the things that I
was seeing in the science

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realm and the research realm.

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And I was like, OK, maybe
I can go back to school

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and check out a
bioengineering class.

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And I have to tell
you that I loved it.

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So when I went to
graduate school,

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because I had seen
all these failures

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with these mechanical valves and
with all these heart devices,

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I thought maybe
tissue engineering

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would be a better way to go.

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Does anybody here know
what tissue engineering is?

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Would you like to tell us?

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AUDIENCE: [INAUDIBLE]

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GUEST SPEAKER 2:
No, that was fine.

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So for people who are not
aware of tissue engineering,

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tissue engineering
is figuring out

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how we can use
cells from the body,

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and figuring out how we can
implant them and put them

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into repair for our tissues.

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So that way, we can not
use mechanical devices.

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And the problem with
that is that a lot

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of things that-- it's
very hard to get our cells

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to do what we want them to do.

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We don't know enough about them.

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And so when I became
a graduate student

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in biomedical
engineering, I decided

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I wanted to work
with stem cells.

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They can turn into any
different potential cell type.

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So the thing that
was fascinating

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is I knew a lot
about stem cells,

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and I was trying to
tell all these people.

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But it was really difficult
for people to understand that.

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And so as I was going
through my journey

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and trying to tell people
this is interesting,

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this is fascinating, this
is why you should learn it,

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I realized more and
more people need

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to understand that they need
to have an English background

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and need to have a writing
background, as well.

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And so my love in English
and writing came back.

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And now the two have merged.

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And so right now, I
am applying for a lot

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of positions in general editing
as an editor for Nature,

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or Science.

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I'm sure you've heard of
some of these journals.

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And basically, what
I'm going to do

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is going to be combining my
love of science and engineering,

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and turning it into writing that
everybody else can understand.

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And so that way, we can get
even more people excited.

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[APPLAUSE]

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GUEST SPEAKER 1:
So we just wanted

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to share a few
different opportunities

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that you can look into, no
matter what grade you're in.

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And I think it's really
cool to just kind of keep

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these on the back of your
mind because you never

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know what might get you really
excited about something.

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So one program
that's really neat

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and is run by the society
as a whole is SWENext.

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Next.

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So this is for girls who are
up to the age of 18, I believe.

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And so what you
can do is there's

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tons of different activities
that are through the program.

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You can learn about scholarships
that are available to you.

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They do quarterly webinars
so that you can kind of

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interact with the rest of
the community around you,

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and just get to
see other girls who

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are really excited about it.

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So definitely look into that.

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It's a really great thing that
we launched either last year

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or a couple years ago, and
it's really been exploding.

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The other thing that I would
say, since I assume most of you

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are based in the
Boston area, look

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into some of the events that
are hosted by SWE sections.

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So us from SWE
Boston-- we host things

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as a professional section.

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This is a taste of
some of the activities

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that we did this year.

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And so you can see we
partnered with the Girl Scouts.

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We partnered with a
lot of organizations--

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partnered with Kristen
for the Girls Who Build.

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And we also get to interact with
a lot of the community events--

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so the Cambridge
Science Festival,

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for instance, which happened
a couple months ago.

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The other thing I
would say is also

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look into some of the
collegiate SWE events.

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I know MIT has a huge presence
with their SWE section,

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and they do a lot of outreach
opportunities for high school

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girls.

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And a lot of the other
SWE sections in the area

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do that, as well.

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And I think just the biggest
takeaway is that you never

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know what might excite you.

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I certainly did not imagine that
I would be working at Microsoft

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now with my background
being bioengineering,

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mechanical engineering.

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But as long as you're
passionate about something--

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and as Elaine said, you can
go from English into science,

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as well-- there's just really
so much potential for you.

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So if you want to get in touch
with us, I put my contact here,

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and then the SWE Boston
section contacts, as well.

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So if you have any
questions about some

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of the outreach event
things that we do,

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feel free to get
in touch with us.

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Cool.

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Thank you very much.

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[APPLAUSE]