9/12/13

FIRST MEETING

    This semester, we have a lot of changes. Our previous president, and most officers, either transferred or cannot attend the meetings. This semester, Ricardo Valle is the new president of SHPE Southwestern College. This morning, we had our first chapter meeting with the new organization.

    If you are a new reader and you’re wondering what is SHPE, then let me illustrate. The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers is a non-profit organization originally founded in Los Angeles, CA. by a group of engineers. By becoming a member, you get a chance to participate in challenges, conferences, access to internships, and most importantly, networking. It’s very important to let yourself be known in the professional environment. This will introduce you to the people who are interested in hiring new engineers.

    In our first meeting, we talked about SHPE and the upcoming events. The “Walk on Water competition” is the one coming up. Also, in October, the SHPE National conference is taking place in Indianapolis, Indiana. For more info on the conference please looks at the link on the right sidebar.

    The ”Walk on Water competition” will take place in our main campus. Teams build shoe-sized boats out of mostly recyclable materials with the goal of walking from one end of the SWC pool to the other. There are several prizes, judged by speed, creativity, and best use of recycled materials. We organized 3 teams in the first meeting. If you are interested, contact us at shpe.swc@gmail.com so that we can have one or two teams and good representation in this important competition.  

    The Indianapolis trip, which costs $250, if you register by 09/25/13, includes hotel, food, and transportation to the venue. You also need to add transportation cost to Indianapolis. Depending on the circumstances, you may get the $250 refund. In the conference you’ll attend several workshops, networking events, and spend 4 days in the beautiful city of Indianapolis. It is worth the experience.

     Professional meetings are a big part of SHPE. The first professional body meeting of this fall semester, hosted by the County of San Diego, is where you get to meet professionals and other SHPE students around the county.  You’ll get a chance to network, get a tour around the facilities, and wear elegant clothes for a few hours.