COVID has thrown quite the wrench on everyone's plans for 2020 - but one thing has not changed - SWE Detroit’s commitment to STEM, especially our Teachers!  On this Giving Tuesday, please support us in raising funds for our Rewald/Perazza Torch Award.

This award was created to honor two SWE Detroit members who we lost in 2016 - Josie Rewald and Lisa Perazza - who had a passion for mentoring and supporting women in technology.

The Torch Award is symbolic in allowing us to continue Lisa and Josie’s love of “passing the torch” to future generations.  After one year of interest, the endowment would provide $1,000 (annually) to fund the recognition program, which would be split amongst two teachers who are focused on mentoring young women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The recognition would enable continued support of their mission in the form of engineering kits for the awarded teachers, who might not otherwise be able to obtain such resources.  

Help us light the torch and support our teachers.  Any amount helps.​

To donate via credit card or paypal, please visit http://www.swedetroit.org, scroll to the bottom left and click the yellow Donate button.  Under the optional drop down menu, please select “Scholarship - Torch Award”.  To donate via check, please add “Torch Award” in the memo and mail to SWE Detroit, PO Box 2978, Southfield, MI 48037-2978. 

Kelly is currently a Body Design Engineer at Toyota working on exterior and body shell components. She graduated from University of Missouri with a BS in Mechanical Engineering. After graduation Kelly worked in Houston for a while before moving to Michigan to earn her MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. She joined SWE Detroit in 2017 and has held the Historian chair position in FY18, FY19, FY20.  She also has held the Blog and Instagram chair position in FY20. As part of the communications team, she organizes photos from different events in Google Photos and uses the photos to spice up the Instagram page to get word out about these events. In FY20, she started SWE Detroit’s Twitter account and worked to update the website and all social media platforms with upcoming events and news. 
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​The Treasurer Award, presented to a SWE-Detroit Section member or company who has made an outstanding contribution to finances within SWE-Detroit during the fiscal year, is awarded to Michelle Pascual.

Michelle is a Design Release Engineer for General Motors, where she coordinates with suppliers to execute robust designs of weatherseals and greenhouse moldings. She has been active in the Society of Women Engineers since joining at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor while completing her Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering.  Michelle has been involved with the COMPES Professional Development Conference for the past five years, and served as a co-chair for two.  She supported SWE Detroit as the Treasurer for fiscal year 2019 and 2020.  Outside of work and SWE, she enjoys reading, baking, and traveling.
For fiscal year 2020, she has enjoyed supporting the section in the Treasurer role, and helping the Society continue to progress towards its fundraising goals.  As Treasurer she implemented an updated donation receipt system following Society level guidelines, and worked with the section to update the Paypal donation link to help donators identify what program(s) they wanted their contribution directed toward. Working with the executive committee and chairs she looks forward to continuing to grow the Detroit SWE section. 

​The Outreach Savvy Award, presented to a SWE-Detroit Section member who has made an outstanding contribution to Outreach Services within SWE-Detroit during the fiscal year, is awarded to Nicole Anklam.

Nicole moved to Detroit in 2016 to work for Ford after graduating with a BS in Electrical Engineering from Rochester Institute of Technology. She was heavily involved in various outreach programs with SWE at RIT, and took on College Relations and Maker Faire Chair after joining SWE Detroit. She enjoys crafting, gardening, and volunteering at the DIA and Creature Conservancy in her free time.

 As part of her outreach efforts, Nicole planned the SWE Detroit squishy circuits booth at the Maker Faire in 2019, organized information sessions at both University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and University of Michigan-Flint for preparing for career fairs and general College to Career Transitions, and would have hosted a Collegiate to Career luncheon if COVID-19 group gathering restrictions had not forced its cancellation. In addition, Nicole planned a small outreach event at WE20 through SWE at Ford.

​Ambyr Cook is a recipient of the SWE-Detroit Josie Rewald Memorial scholarship this year.  Ambyr is pursuing a Pre-Engineering Associates degree at Washtenaw Community College on her way to a Computer Science program.

​In order to adhere to social distancing practices, the in-person scholarship judging events on March 23rd and March 25th have been cancelled.


In their place, we need remote judges.  Please email lisa.c.purvis@gmail.com if you can help.

Volunteers are needed to judge SWE-Detroit scholarship applications!  There are three ways to help.

1. Remotely.  Please contact Lisa Purvis at lisa.c.purvis@gmail.com to receive a set of applications over email.

2. In-person judging event #1
Monday, March 23rd from 6:00-8:00 pm
Panera, 20140 Haggerty Rd, Livonia, MI 48152  

3. In-person judging event #2
Wednesday, March 25th from 6:00-8:00 pm
Panera, 823 E Big Beaver Rd, Troy, MI 48084  

RSVP to Lisa Purvis at lisa.c.purvis@gmail.com.

These events are for our traditional scholarship program, look for the Rewald scholarship judging coming up soon!

​SWE 4 Life Fiscal Year 2020 Status: $2000 out of $2500 goal
Still need: ~$3,000 to meet final program goal of $25,000 for endowed scholarship.
#SWE4Life
CLICK HERE to DONATE NOW! Enter in “SWE 4 Life” in the “Instructions to Seller” or comments box, go to www.swedetroit.org and Click on the PayPal Donate Button, or mail a check to Society of Women Engineers – Detroit, PO Box 2978, Southfield, MI 48037.
 
Happy New Year! We had a wonderful response so far in FY20. Many thanks again to our wonderful Life Members in Detroit! We are now $500 away from getting the full match and reaching our goal for establishing the Detroit Section’s SWE 4 Life Endowed Scholarship. Please consider one of our endowed programs when thinking about your next donation. Our program is a great candidate for any extra funds you may receive from tax returns or bonuses. We are $500 away from a lifetime of supporting the engineering pipeline and diversity in the workforce. In the shorter term, this means providing $1000 to a STEMinst at the Detroit Section’s 69th section anniversary instead of our 70th!
 
As usual, if you know any of the SWE Detroit Life Members, please help us communicate to them.
 
Not a Life Member? No problem, anyone can donate to the fund (some have already). Every little bit helps, so we encourage you to donate if you can. Your donation is tax deductible.
 
The program will be tracked separately from the Member Solicitation Program and have its own levels:
                        Diamond            $1000 +                                   
                        Sapphire            $ 500 to $ 999
                        Emerald             $ 250 to $ 499
                        Quartz                $  50 to $249                          
 
Contributions will be tracked yearly and the level will be determined based on accumulated contributions received by SWE Detroit.
 
To donate online to any of our programs, go to www.swedetroit.org and look for the Donate Button on the site for Paypal.  After you submit your information and input your donation amount, you will have the opportunity to designate your donation. Please input in the text field to allow it to be allocated appropriately: “SWE 4 Life Endowed Scholarship or Life Members Endowed Scholarship”, “Josie E. Rewald Memorial Scholarship”, “Torch Award”, “Past Presidents Scholarship”, specify another program, or the general fund.
 
HUGE THANK YOU to our supporters who have donated so far to our programs (updated as of 1/23/20):
SWE 4 Life Scholarship (Goal: $25,000)
Diamond
Jessica Mattis
Laurie Ramsay
Dawn Tilbury
 
Sapphire Level
Brooke Voto
Ally (company match in honor of Brooke Voto)
Tina Poquette
Birgit Sorgenfrei
Jenny & Robert Morikawa (in honor of Josie Rewald, gifted $100 in honor of friend Cheryl Williams)
 
Emerald Level
Lisa & Christopher Rewald (in honor of Josie Rewald)
Michele Marion
Susan Cischke
Lisa Henn
Kristine Lott
Terri Shipp
Jessica Swan
 
Quartz Level
Miriam Breslauer
Katie Amelio
Lisa Purvis
Cathi Kohn
Barabara Ferry (in honor of Josie Rewald)
Katherine Hillberg (in honor of Josie Rewald)
Kristine Barnes
Rosa Abani
 
If you have any questions, are interested in supporting the SWE Detroit SWE 4 Life Program, or creating your own endowed program to build a pipeline or legacy to benefit SWE Detroit Programs, please contact Lisa Purvis, Michelle Pascual, Anne Kamenju, Jessica Swan, or Jennifer Morikawa at swe_detroit@swe.org. 

We are just over half way to our goal for the endowed Rewald/Perazza Torch Award as previously introduced in this blog post.

This award was created to honor two SWE Detroit members who we lost in 2016 - Josie Rewald and Lisa Perazza - who had a passion for mentoring and supporting women in technology.

The Torch Award is symbolic in allowing us to continue Lisa and Josie’s love of “passing the torch” to future generations.  After one year of interest, the endowment would provide $1,000 (annually) to fund the recognition program, which would be split amongst two teachers who are focused on mentoring young women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). The recognition would enable continued support of their mission in the form of engineering kits for the awarded teachers, who might not otherwise be able to obtain such resources.  
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