Turner Infosession

On November 19th, SWE hosted an inforsession with Turner. Melissa Yee, a UCLA alum, Vince Quinones and Brent Nikolin gave a brief presentation on projects that Turner has recently been involved in, including many schools, sports coliseums, and some of the tallest buildings in the world. After they each shared from their personal work experience with the company which involved all difference perspectives from a newly graduated collegiate entering into the working world to a senior vice-president who has been with the company for over two decades. For the large turnout of students that attended, they received great advice about how to approach company representatives at career fairs and what interviewers are looking for. As an added bonus, Turner had a surprise raffle at the end to introduce their new bio friendly, bamboo USB flash drives! To learn more about the company, check out the posted meeting minutes from the night.

Renee Lau
Secretary

Put Your Skills to the Test: Gingerbread House-Making

This year's gingerbread social was very successful with over 30 old and new members attending. The event took place November 17, 2009 during week 8, which gave those who attended the social a relaxing break from studying for midterms. While competing to see who could make the sturdiest, prettiest, or largest gingerbread house, attendees appeased their sweet tooth and indulged in the pounds of candy that used to decorate the houses. There was a good mix of upper classmen and lower classmen, which was another plus because the upper classmen were able to give the lower classmen advice in what classes to take next quarter. We were also able to recruit some new members into SWE, which was a goal of ours in hosting this event. Overall, the gingerbread social seemed to uplift people's spirits from a gloomy and stressful week of midterms and provided a central location where everyone could enjoy each other's company.

Debbie Duan
Social Chair

Wow! That’s Engineering!

On November 7, 2009 SWE-UCLA and SWE-LA chapters hosted one of the SWE's signature three "Wow! That's Engineering!" events in the country. Thanks to joined forces of SWE-LA professionals and SWE collegiate members from UCLA, Cal Poly Pomona, and CSULA, over 130 young girls, ages 12-14, and 40 adults were introduced to the exciting world of engineering. Wow! That's Engineering! was a half day event, during which attendees were able to participate in some exciting hands-on activities, like building an electric circuit, plane, or solar panel car, which allowed them not only to practice their creativity, but also explore what it truly means to be an engineer. Parents and educators who participated in the adult program during our event, had a chance to satisfy their curiosity by having their various questions answered by engineering students and professionals as part of an informational panel. The event was concluded with the keynote address by Robert Silverstein, a professor of introductory engineering classes at UCLA. All the participants left the event with new knowledge about engineering, new skills, and a goodie bag filled with gifts and materials encouraging them to continue exploring the vast field of engineering.

Aleksandra Mstowska
Outreach Director

Engineering Awards Dinner

The Annual UCLA Engineering Awards Dinner was held this year on Friday, November 6th. This event takes place every year in the beautiful Beverely Wilshire hotel. Due to our reputation as a very professional student group, SWE is the only engineering student organization that is asked to help out at the event every year. It is a most prestigious gala with tickets at $300 a person, so it is a great honor for SWE to always be involved.

Volunteers arrive early to help greet attendees and register people. Everyone is dressed in fine cocktail attire while volunteers are required to wear conservative yet dressy clothing. As volunteers, we were also invited to stay for dinner after our pre-event duties were fulfilled. There were many professors and alumni, as well as company representatives and UCLA sponsers. Before the event officially began, people socialized at the open bar and were served hors d'oeuvres such as bite-sized spring rolls and steak pasteries.

Finally, the five-course dinner started at 7pm. On the menu was a pear and walnut salad, creamy mushroom soup, a fish fillet and steak entree, as well as coffee and a rich chocolate dessert. After dinner, awards were presented and there were a variety of speakers including Engineering Dean, Vijay Dhir, and UCLA Chancellor, Gene Block. Also, a special guest was NASA Astronaut, Megan McArthur, a UCLA alumnus from the class of 1993.

The evening finally wound down at around 10pm, and everyone headed home after a long night.

Jackie Koo

Historian

Schlumberger Resume and Interview Workshop

On November 5, 2009, SWE-UCLA hosted a Schlumberger infosession. The star of the night was Angela Morris, who has been with Schlumberger for 6 years. Angela briefly went over the company history, services, and people. She also showed a video where the audience got to see a little bit of Schlumberger's operations. Afterwards, Angela went into resume and interview tips. There were several tips that would hopefully help out the underclassmen in the audience. Things like how to approach recruiters at career fairs, what to say and what not to say are all important because that's the recruiter's first impression of you. As for the resume portion, I learned that it is important to put specific details into the work experience section instead of just listing the job. Some of the information might seem obvious, but there are things that people just don't think about, and that's what made this infosession so useful.

Andy Kung
Mentorship Chair