Gabi Laurenz

Why are you running for this executive position?

I am running for VP Community Outreach because I have been heavily involved in the Community Outreach branch of SWE since my freshman year of college. Between beginning my freshman year as SWE’s Mentor-Mentee Relations Manager to then becoming one of the High School Outreach Directors my sophomore year, I feel like I have gained much experience when it comes to delegating a team as well as understanding what it takes to make our community outreach branches successful. I am very passionate when it comes to working with young women who are interested in pursuing a STEM/engineering career, and I know that as SWE’s VP Community Outreach I would use my organizational and team leadership skills to bring SWE to as many students as we can! I am also running for Secretary of SWE because I want to use my leadership and organizational skills to help run an efficient group of leaders as we continue to grow and improve SWE. From working with different officers and branches of SWE over the past two years I feel that I have a good grasp of what every branch of SWE needs in order to be successful. I am very organized whether it be my classes, work, sorority commitments, or my job as an officer of SWE. I would continue to use these organizational skills in the position of Secretary which is needed in order to manage emails, team communication channels, and anything else necessary to prove successful for SWE as a whole. SWE has been my biggest passion and favorite group that I have joined in college, and it’s all I want to be able to give back and help serve the community that has brought me so many opportunities and friendships so far in college.

What is your past involvement with SWE at UW?

I have been involved with the Society of Women Engineers since my freshman year of college. As a freshman, I was the Mentor-Mentee Relations Manager for our Community Outreach branch where I was able to train a team of UW students to be mentors for local high schools. From this, we were able to connect with two local high schools where we met with students bi-weekly, and talked to them about life as a student and an engineering major. This year as a sophomore, I have been one of our co-high school outreach directors where I’ve had the opportunity to work with an amazing team to create content and host online panels where students have had a chance to come and ask us college-related questions. We’ve participated in many SWE tabling events, engineering RSO’s events, and are looking forward to participating in the upcoming Engineering Discovery Days where we will be guiding students through a hands-on engineering demonstrations. What I’m most excited for is our potential partnership with local Mountlake Terrace High School where we will hopefully be able to bring a more involved mentorship program to their high school students. From my leadership experiences through SWE I’ve gained not only valuable volunteer and work experience, but more importantly friendships that I know will last throughout the rest of my time at college. I’m very excited to continue my leadership path in SWE and hopefully take on more responsibility as an executive officer this upcoming year!