Women in Engineering Day

On Thursday, November 29th, I will host a day at ICC for high school girls interested in careers in engineering. The day will consist of the girls attending 3 workshops hosted by women engineers. The workshops will be hands on and will include insights from the engineers as to why a high school girl would consider this path.

Do you have any suggestions as to projects that the girls could do? I have 3 planned, but am looking for ideas for 3 more.

Do you have any insights I should be sure to have shared with the girls?

If you are a woman, would you be interested in coming to help? Or are there any women in your company who might want to come and help?

Thanks!

Ron

Vacation

The Bottom Line is that it is Deer Season. For the first time since 1998 I am taking personal leave from my job to take some time off to spend with my son and my Dad in the woods for a week. Ok... I can hear people saying, wait a minute didn't he have two sabbatical leaves in that time period... well yeah... and doesn't he have June July and August... well yeah... and Christmas break, Spring break, yeah..yeah..yeah.. I get it! I rarely ever work. But none-the-less I am going hunting for the next 7 days.

For those of you who hunt, be safe and good luck. For those who don't, I'll post again late next week.

Making a List

Part Two:

Did you do it? Here is mine:

1. Now that our kids are fleeing from home, I want to spend more time doing things with Angie.

2. Increase my time spent volunteering.

3. Enter an Engineering Education Doctorate program.

4. Go to Australia.

5. Shoot a trophy buck.

Now that we have our lists, the key is to identify the steps that need to be taken to enable the achievement of the goals...Something to think about in the deerstand.

Make a List

Part one:

Make a list of 5 things you want to accomplish in the next five years.

Have at least one thing be professional, one thing be personal, and one place you would like to go.

Job Opportunity

Anyone graduating in December (or in the first couple of years of their career) who is interested in working in industry in Grand Rapids, contact me soon.

Community Involvement

One of the things expected by most companies is that their technical professionals are active in the external community. This is often a question in performance reviews or in interviews as you look to move from one company to another. There are many different avenues you may choose. You can serve on community boards, volunteer your time in local schools, become a member of Engineers Without Borders, become active in professional societies. I know it is hard to be a young professional and balance personal life with work life, but I do recommend finding ways to be active outside of your workplace.

Whew!

I again apologize for being a little slow in posting. This has been a hectic week. The wedding was awesome. Everything went well, the party and dancing were great, the new family is kind and fun. Here is a picture of Katie, Colin, and their flower girl.



We arrived home late Sunday evening. At 5:30 Monday morning I headed to school to catch a motor coach back to North Dakota. 40 students and I went to NDSU, Phoenix Insdustries, UND, and Team Industries. Four great tours over two days. We arrived back in town at 6:00 PM Tuesday just in time to race to McGregor for Ronnie's playoff football game.

Anyhow, posts should be more regular now (until deer season).