Ashika Palacharla

Why are you running for this executive position?

As part of the executive team, I hope to advance my past experiences and passion for SWE UW’s mission to foster strong relationships across the club and with other groups to then create enriching, innovative opportunities that increase the presence of minority groups in STEM careers. Facilitating well-organized networking events will allow me to assert our club’s capabilities by directly connecting members with like-minded companies who can help execute our specific visions. Creating this strong connection early in our careers will plant the seed to continue pursuing diverse initiatives throughout our career trajectory, therefore allowing the mission and values asserted by SWE UW to continue onwards. As the Business Lead of my highschool robotics team, I have experience maintaining a strong level of professionalism while arranging sponsorship and events with large corporations, such as Qualcomm, Northrop Grumman, and NVIDIA. In the VP of Corporate Relations role, I will be strongly aided by previous communication efforts to create compelling sponsorship proposals that offer financial benefits to the club alongside opportunities for companies to showcase their support for our club’s brand and accomplishments towards inclusivity without borders. Further, in this role, I plan to champion the importance of personal and professional development throughout our SWE community, which will empower Corporate team members to explore collective strengths and new skills, to then overcome challenges and drive results. I am excited about the prospect of working closely with the team to creatively couple corporate partners’ missions with SWE UW’s values. With stronger connections to other companies/RSOs that share our mission, we can take advantage of more resources to spread the benefits of individuals who bring diverse perspectives to the table to a much larger audience––thus directly having a hand in transforming engineering fields to illuminate minority voices.

What is your past involvement with SWE at UW?

My past involvement with UW SWE is as a general member. Through each of the general meetings I attended, where I gained insights into the mission of the club, I felt like an integral part of a community of like-minded individuals who shared similar career aspirations and social goals. This provided me with a sense of belonging and inspiration, which motivated me to apply to the Executive Team with the goal of bringing this same sense of community to a new group of female/non-binary engineers. Being a general member of UW SWE provides me with the chance to pursue my interests in inspiring the next generation of engineers, while joining the Executive Team as the VP of Corporate Relations allows me to practice my personal interests in the business field by taking actionable steps towards spreading the mission of SWE through advantaging industry connections and resources. Staying engaged with the club’s activities throughout this past year has shown me the importance of providing a platform early-on for engineers with privilege to advocate for prospective engineers that have limited access to resources. I am eager to apply the lessons learned from my experiences as a Business Lead on my highschool robotics team and past involvement with SWE to empower current members to connect with industry leaders, gain financial benefits for the club, and advance professional skills––to ultimately drive positive change and support the advancement of women in engineering.