Simone Tselnik

Background in SWE:

I have played a major contributing role in SWE since the beginning of freshmen year. From the very first general meeting hosted during my undergraduate years up until my current director position, I have always had a passion for being intertwined with the incredible community of women in engineering here at UW. During my freshman year, I was part of the Corporate Relations branch’s graphics team where I designed most of the graphics for the CR event Instagram announcements as well as the primary logo used for the advertising of Evening with Industry. Currently, I hold the position as the Director of Corporate Relations of the Evening with Industry event. As a Corporate Relations director, I lead the organization and logistics of the largest industry networking event the club hosts every year for aspiring women engineers. Through this experience, I have attained skills in communicating with company representatives and club advisors, planning event logistics with my CR team and other club branches, leading a group of committee members in event planning, and dedicating numerous hours a week to meetings and planning of the event.

Describe a leadership experience that challenged you. What did you learn from it and how would it influence your work on the SWE executive board?

As the Director of Academic Affairs of my sorority, I track the academic progress of our 100+ members and hold scholarship meetings with members who have not met our minimum GPA requirement. This position provides a great mental challenge as I have to take a serious and professional tone with those who have become some of my closest friends, placing me in a position outside of my comfort zone where I have to ask about their hardships and academic struggles in the previous quarter. However, this position has allowed me to grow my confidence in an incredible way, where I am now able to be put in an uncomfortable position for the betterment of others and our organization. I have learned how to put my personal anxieties aside and present myself with confidence, especially in serious occasions where my commitment to my position comes first. This experience would greatly support the confidence required of one on the SWE executive board, where confrontation and professionalism in nervous situations is crucial in being an influential leader that puts personal conflicts aside when prioritizing their organization’s success.

What is one change or new initiative you would like to implement in SWE next year and why?

A new initiative that would greatly improve the UW SWE chapter is the implementation of a mentorship program between the upperclassmen and freshmen. My most memorable SWE memory was the immense support I had in my efforts for committee and position involvement with SWE during my freshman year. The support I had from upperclassmen I met through SWE during my applications for various positions was the true reason I kept pursuing more involvement and community within this club. With such an unforgettable experience, I would focus on creating such a support group for other new faces in SWE, as I wouldn’t be as confident in my own abilities without those with experience telling me that I do. Pairing seniors/juniors with experience in the engineering core classes with ENGRUDs with similar interests and focuses gives a support system for new students to fall back on, especially in such a large student population where creating tight friendships in the same academic circle can be a challenge. Encouraging these pairings to grab a coffee a few times a quarter or just share a study session has the potential to make not only friendships but also useful career connections that can last much past the college years.

What ideas do you have to increase member participation/retention and build stronger community within SWE?

To increase member participation and strengthen the SWE community, SWE should implement more low-pressure environments and activities that promote the forming of connections between members. As someone who has been on the member participation side of our annual sip & paint event as well as our Dawg Daze bracelet-making event, I have found these events to be incredibly helpful for finding new friends and familiar faces to see throughout my classes. I remember hoping to see more announcements for similar activity-bonding events, but was let down when they were extremely scarce. Hosting more similar activity-based events that prioritize members developing new connections, such as study sessions with treats or collage making, would encourage more casual environments that members could bond in away from the stressors of classes and careers. Having such environments where members get a treat or craft to bring home with them can create a more memorable and fun experience for them that can encourage their attendance for future, similar events.

What challenges do you think women in engineering still face today, and how can SWE help address them at our university?

Although the efforts for equality of women in engineering has come a long way in the past decades, there is still so much progress that can be done for greater visibility and career confidence for women in this field. SWE is incredibly large club of such intelligent and accomplished women, and it is crucial to spotlight them and their accomplishments more publicly to show the direct impacts that women have on the field. To support this goal, SWE can implement a monthly spotlight for various members on our social media, especially LinkedIn, where their achievements can not only be more celebrated to those within the club, but also highlighted to company representatives that can reach out with opportunities for those members. Additionally, to combat the lack of confidence that many women struggle with in the male-dominated of engineering, SWE can implement more workshops that support the emotional and mental growth of women in environments that can often bring them down. Bringing in industry representatives that have dealt with sexism in the past or psychologists that have the knowledge of how to stand up for yourself in difficult situations can greatly empower SWE members to be confident in themselves in uncomfortable situations, especially for those that can happen in the future of their career.

The SWE executive board works as a team to plan events and initiatives. How would you contribute to creating a positive and productive team environment?

Having a positive and productive team environment is crucial for the success of an executive board at a club as large as SWE. The key to encouraging such a setting is the development of trust and comfort of those in their respective positions. These roles carry quite a commitment, and being an engineering major with many other commitments can easily lead to burnout and the loss of passion. To prevent that, I would highlight the importance of exec members asking for help when needed. At the end of the day, we are all people with realistic limits in what we can and can’t do, and having the assistance of another person on a project can greatly increase the quality of events and communications that we are releasing to our members. It is important to remember that quality is much more effective than quantity in the opportunities we provide to our members, as having a successful event that provided numerous members with new connections is much more beneficial that many events that don’t further the development of our members. So, promoting an environment where it is okay to state “I am overwhelming and can’t complete a task on time” or “I have a personal situation that is preventing me from giving my all” will allow for our executive board to not only bond better through our support of each other, but also create a more enjoyable experience for our leaders that can directly reflect in their abilities and passion for their club contributions.

If you could plan any SWE event with unlimited resources, what would it be?

With unlimited resources, I would most definitely plan an all-expenses paid retreat at a major engineering city hub for SWE members, where private tours and hands-on experiences at some of the top engineering firms are an integral part of the trip. With the information heavy classes that our members are constantly taking, it can be difficult to envision the “end goal” of our academic efforts. Showing the members the incredible opportunities that are out there for them post-graduation can provide a new sense of motivation and interest that they might have not gotten before. This idea most definitely comes from a past personal experience of mine, where I toured a biomedical engineering company during my senior year of high school and I immediately fell in love with the field, knowing that this is where I want to focus my academic feats on. That day where I met the incredible engineers and researchers that create life-saving technologies for hospitals around the world created a click for me that I would have never gotten elsewhere. I was incredibly lucky to be able to experience this opportunity, but for those without the time or connections, it can be difficult to get this passion-igniting opportunity. So, with this SWE retreat to various famous engineering companies, I hope to create a similar spark that has driven me through my most academically challenging times for other SWE members with a bright future ahead of them.