National Council Bio: Sara DaSilva, VPAA

We continue the series of profiles of our National Council Members. These letters were written to the membership to help you get to know us better as your governing council.  This letter is from Sara DaSilva, Vice President of Alumnae Affairs.

Hello everyone!

My name is Sara DaSilva, and I am the National Vice President of Alumnae Affairs for Phi Sigma Rho. I am 29 years old and live in a town called Pottstown, not too far from Philadelphia. I got married in 2007 to my husband Marco, and we have two dachshunds named Coco and Bear. I work as a Six Sigma Black Belt for Praxair, Inc., an industrial gases manufacturer. I am a chemical engineer who
went to Pittsburgh-Zeta, and I also have my MBA.

I grew up in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and went to Catholic grade school and public high school. It was a huge switch going from a class of 19 to 650! My parents were transplants to Minnesota (my Mom is from Wausau, WI and my dad is from Cleveland) but have lived there ever since they got married. I have a younger brother named Dave, but unfortunately ladies, he is no longer single.

I had some great science teachers in high school who really made science challenging and fun. I am definitely a logical, analytical person, so I think engineering made sense for me at the time. But I also always enjoyed English and Music classes. I decided to go to Pitt in the fall of 1998 after looking at
several schools—we went there on a really beautiful day for the campus tour and I think that is what locked it in for me! Little did I know how gray it usually is in Pittsburgh.

All kidding aside, I loved Pittsburgh and my experience there. I really struggled at times with school, and I was never going to win any merit scholarships! But again I had teachers who cared whether I learned what they were teaching me, and they helped me make it. During school I co-oped at two different places: OSRAM Sylvania in Towanda, PA, and Honeywell Performance Fibers in Hopewell, VA. Neither of them were hiring when I graduated in April 2003, though. I wasn’t sure where I would want to live, so I would take anything that seemed right. I interviewed with lots of places but ultimately it came down to two companies that were supposed to make me job offers within the same week: GM and Praxair.

I found out about a program for Leadership Training at Praxair through another Pitt grad. For my interview with Praxair I was a mess! It was in Houston in May and it was about 95 degrees. There I was in my nice suit, eager to get the job--and my flight got cancelled! I showed up late to the interview and consequently had to be interviewed by a couple of the teams put together—there were 8 people interviewing me at once! But I got the job and definitely credit my ability to adapt to difficult situations in helping me make it through that situation and many others since then.

I started my leadership program in July 2003 in Suffield, CT. I got to travel all over the country and learn about the various parts of Praxair’s business. After about a year and a half I was transferred to my first permanent position as Facility Superintendent of a production plant in Hatfield, PA. At this time Marco came to live with me. We started dating in 2001 (and we met at a sorority party!). It was very nerve-wracking at first (I was worried he would get sick of my clutter and I wouldn’t be able to stand his neatness) but it did lead us to marriage! And the neatness and clutter is definitely an issue—but it’s worth it being married!

I have encountered a lot of tough situations in my job as I worked in a place with no other women and I was always the youngest person by at least 10 years—usually by about 30! I transitioned into my current role as a Black Belt in April 2009 and I have been very happy with it. It was a big shift from being a manager of about 20 people (now I work at home) but both work environments have their
advantages.

Because I have struggled both through school and in my jobs, I have always appreciated the bond of sisterhood. I have found it so hard to make friends once I moved new places, but Phi Sigma Rho has this terrific network of women who at least share one thing in common: something drove us to at
least attempt an engineering or science-related field! I have been able to meet some terrific women in the Philadelphia area that get together about once a month. We’re all from different chapters but it’s funny how much we have in common! And it’s wonderful to have some friends to lean on in those tough times.

I’ve often said that PSR means even more to me as an adult than it did while I was in school. I was an Alpha class member at Pitt, and I am so proud of my Charcoal Gray family (it’s very prolific!). I am also proud of what my chapter has become. I remember a semester when we only had 8 girls active, and now Pitt is one of the biggest chapters. When I was in school I held lots of different positions, but I loved being Vice President. When I graduated I decided to stay involved and I became the RFD for UConn-Theta. Then in my second year, Rutgers-Xi was added to my territory. I also became involved with the beginning stages of the Foundation at that time and ultimately decided to run for a National Council Position.

I ran for National VP of Alumnae Affairs in 2005, and was lucky to be elected. It was a learning curve at first, but there is always a mix of experienced and new people on Council, so I was able to catch up quickly. I enjoyed my two-year term and decided to run for President for the 11th National Council. I was elected again and spent an eye-opening two years as President. I learned to delegate and trust
people, and to use my management skills to maintain an effective and productive board. I decided one more term would be fun, so I ran for VPAA again, and that’s where I am now!

I’m very passionate about the alumnae experience and want other sisters to experience the benefits I have stumbled upon by meeting other great alums and networking and just connecting. Phi Rhos have enriched my life beyond what I could have expected. I talk to Phi Rhos about deciding whether and when to have kids, how to deal with bosses who think you should be more like a man, dealing with people at work who think you are too pretty to be smart, how to manage a dual-earner partnership with your spouse, but also what books are good, where to find good coupons, and where our next girls trip will be!

I will leave you with a few tidbits from my PSR experience. My best friend in the world is a Phi Rho. Seeing her be able to manage having a child, a husband, and a job made me realize I can do it too. At my little’s wedding last August, we actually sang the Phi Rho Round and circled around her. My chapter’s alumnae welcome the new alums every semester by taking them to a piano bar and having them go on stage. I would consider myself an honorary member of at least two other chapters where I’ve gotten to know some of the alums very well. We are proud that we are an engineering sorority. Penguin Perks and snaps to all of my Phi Rho friends!!

Phi Rho Love,

Sara DaSilva
National VP of Alumnae Affairs
Sara.engel.phirho@gmail.com

National Council Bio: Stephanie Gagliardi, VPE

As you may know, Phi Sigma Rho National Council has been undertaking a National Awareness Campaign for the last few years. We want National Council to be more transparent to our membership and to allow you to get to know us, even if it is virtually! 

We would like to share National Council bios with all of you. You may have seen some of these before, but we like to take advantage of all the social networking options available to us!

Introducing: Stephanie Gagliardi, the VP of Expansion! (Written in July 2010)

Dear Sisters,

My name is Stephanie Gagliardi and I am the new National Vice President of Expansion. It is my first day back in the “real world” after a great weekend full of Phi Rho love at LEAP Conference 2010 in Cleveland, OH. I had a wonderful time meeting many of you for the first time, as well as reconnecting with some familiar faces. I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself and share some details about my background.

I was born in New Haven, Connecticut and have lived in East Haven, Connecticut for the past 23 years. In High School I applied to college as an undecided major, but by the middle of my senior year, I planned to attend college to pursue English and Political Science, but boy was I ever wrong about that! I attended a technology exposition with my Computer Graphics class, and participated in a demonstration given by a Chemical Engineering professor. Being enrolled in AP Chemistry at the time, I was able to answer all of his questions and actively participate in his demonstration. Given my strong math and science background, suddenly I was hooked on the possibility of becoming an engineer.

I attended the University of Connecticut, Go Huskies! (I am an especially big fan of the women’s basketball team), along and ended up majoring in Materials Science in Engineering, after switching back and forth between MSE and CHEG a couple of times. I rushed Phi Rho in the spring of my freshman year and became a member of the Theta Chapter Kappa Class. Phi Rho helped me to figure out who I was and to find my niche. I had always wanted to be in a sorority and Phi Sigma Rho seemed like the perfect fit for me. Unlike most engineering students, I did not have an internship during college (which I deeply regret and strongly encourage all of you to pursue). I was however fortunate enough to gain some research experience with wear and fatigue testing of materials. 

Post graduation I frantically utilized monster.com to find a job in industry. This proved to be rather difficult given the economy, no one seemed to be hiring. Finally, I was granted an interview with an engineering outsourcing company, and the hiring manager, was none other than a Phi Sigma Rho alumna from the Theta chapter! I was hired, and have been working ever since, starting out supporting Pratt and Whitney as a Project Engineer and Cost Reduction Team Lead, and now supporting Hamilton Sundstrand as a Materials Engineer/Failure Analyst, both of which are divisions of United Technologies Corporation (UTC). There are now 4 Theta Chapter Phi Rho’s working at my company, and some other alumnae working at the companies we support.

In addition to my full-time engineering job, I am a Daisy Girl Scout leader in East Haven, CT, a part-time employee at Weight Watchers, a member of my local SWE professional section, and of course a Phi Sigma Rho volunteer! I also spend a lot of my free time exercising with Zumba classes, boot camp classes (6-7am before work 3 times a week! Check out the video on my facebook!), Jillian Michaels DVDs, and running 5Ks. I am also a HUGE country music fan (especially Keith Urban) and love attending concerts!

After making many great memories and gaining friendships, motivation, and inspiration from the Penn State Regional Conference in 2007, LEAP Conference 2008, and Convention 2009, I knew immediately upon graduation that I wanted to continue to stay as involved as possible because I wanted to give back to the sisterhood all that it had given to me and more. I wanted the opportunity to make a difference in future of the sorority, meet more sisters from across the nation, and share my ideas and opinions. 

At LEAP Conference 2010, it was said “You only have 4 years to be an active sister of Phi Sigma Rho, but the rest of your life as an alumna”, and I wanted to make the most of that opportunity. I joined the LEAP Committee and became the Alumnae Programming Director, which was a very rewarding experience and offered me the freedom to explore a lot of new ideas and programs. After serving for about a year in that role, I was selected to become the new VP of Expansion on the 12th National Council.

As VP of Expansion it is my responsibility to coordinate and implement expansion efforts. This includes providing support to interest groups and colonies throughout the process to become a chapter, as well as seeking out new campuses that Phi Rho would like to become a part of. Some of my current goals include: updating the colony educator manual, revamping and creating sorority promotional materials, and creating a strategic expansion plan. I hope to create a more solid foundation and standardized expansion process to lay the groundwork for achieving “30 chapters in 30 years” by 2014, while ensuring that the current needs of our colonies and interest groups are adequately met.

3 Random Facts About Me

1. I’ve hugged a beluga whale.

2. I once ate 24 Wendy’s Chicken Nuggets in 3 minutes (AEPi philanthropy event)

3. I’ve seen Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Montgomery Gentry, Sugarland, and Kenny Chesney front row in concert!

PRL!

Stephanie Gagliardi

VP of Expansion

vpofexpansion@phisigmarho.org 

Guest Blog: Elishka Jackson, Washington-Mu Alumna

Here is our next installment in the guest blog series from one of our alumnae, Elishka Jackson, from the Washington-Mu chapter!


When I was asked to write a guest entry for the PSR blog, I thought about what to write. Should I talk about my experiences with Phi Sigma Rho? Or where Phi Rho will be in the future? Or a variety of other topics that went through my mind? Nothing struck a chord with me, so I mulled it over for a bit. Actually, to be precise, my brain has been churning for a few months.







However, inspiration finally struck me! As I was at work the other day, I realized that my four-year work anniversary is quickly sneaking up on me. And it dawned on me what to write about. I am in that point of my career where I’ve been around enough to understand the working world, but still new enough out of school to remember what it’s like at your first real engineering job. I thought some of my experiences and observations might help those of you that have just graduated and are entering the business world. These might not apply to every situation, but from talking to my fellow graduates I think they’re fairly common across engineering companies.






(Just some background on myself so you know where I’m coming from with all this: I graduated in 2006 from the University of Washington with a BS in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering. Since then, I’ve worked at Raytheon in Tucson, Arizona as a systems engineer in the guidance, navigation and controls department. In my time here, I’ve been lucky enough to have worked on a whole variety of different projects, with an array of different people. Currently, I’m also a student as well, working on my MS in Astronautical Engineering through USC’s Distance Education Program. In between work and school, I keep pretty busy planning my wedding for next May and attempting to teach some doggie manners to a couple of goofy basset hounds.)






The “Real World” isn’t School: I know you’re thinking “well duh, Elishka,” but I think it’s important to remember that distinction. Besides the obvious getting-paid-to-do-work instead of paying-to-do-work thing, there are a whole mess of other differences you’ll need to adapt to. Behavior, attitudes and appearances that were acceptable for the classroom environment won’t cut it in the professional world. Again, you probably think I’m stating the obvious – I remember my professors and advisors telling us the same thing as we were graduation, but you would be surprised by what some people do. I recently attended a meeting with some very high individuals in our business unit of the company. A recent hire was sitting two seats down from me, and spent the entire meeting doing sudoku puzzles in her notebook. I wasn’t the only person in the room to notice, I saw several others frowning her way. Now, as an undergrad, I remember passing many spacecraft design classes with the New York Times crossword puzzle being passed around the back of the room – we’ve all been there. But it’s not really the best way to make a first impression, especially when you’re starting out. Don’t give someone the opportunity to make a snap judgment about you before you even have a chance to impress them with your job skills.






Keep a Positive Attitude: When I first started, I met several fellow new hires that seriously thought that someone was going to hand them a design project their first day, and just let them go. At least at larger companies (which is what I can speak to from my experience), this is far from the case. A lot of times, especially when you’re just starting out, you’ll be given tasks and projects that might seem mundane, or like “grunt work”. Well guess what, that’s pretty much what it is! Try to approach these duties with a positive attitude – look at them as an opportunity to show your supervisor your talents and skills. You won’t be low man (or woman) on the totem pole forever, but this is a period where you can at least show your management that you’re motivated to get the job done, even the unpleasant ones.






Be Flexible and Always Ready to Learn: You may, depending on your work situation, at some time be asked to work on something outside your experience base. Unless it’s something you really don’t feel comfortable working with (and don’t feel bad speaking up about your strengths and weakness, we all have them – I am horrible at anything related to structural engineering and have made that abundantly clear), look at this as a chance to improve your knowledge base. Just because you’ve left the college campus doesn’t mean you get to stop learning. There will always be new things to learn, and ways to improve oneself. Be open to them and it will show your dedication to the job.






Find Work-Life Balance: I’ve been known to say that “All work and no play makes Elishka crazy,” and it’s true (just ask my fiancé about that one). I know it’s difficult coming off of school, where it seems like life is sitting in classes, homework and exams, but remember that the professional world isn’t school (see, I’m tying that back to the first tip. Fancy, I know). Don’t work every hour of every day; otherwise, you’ll burn out. It’s true that every now and then you may work some extra hour here or there, or have to work a weekend or off day to meet a deadline, but don’t make a habit of it. Your company doesn’t want you to burn out either.






One word that kept popping up when I was writing this blog was “opportunity”. Always be on the lookout for opportunities, and ways to showcase your knowledge, skills, talents and abilities. Not to be cliché, but you own your career. You can look to others for guidance and direction, but in the end, you have to seize opportunities and be willing to take charge of your work situation so you end up where you want to be!

Guest Blog: Mary McWilliams, Ohio State-Beta Alumna

Enjoy the latest installment in the guest blog series from Mary McWilliams, a Beta Alumna!

I was so surprised to receive an email from Sara DaSilva requesting a blog post from me. It is nice when others think about you.  Well, the Beta chapter of Phi Sigma Rho has certainly changed since 1988.  I am really blessed and grateful to see the sorority and prosper after all these years.  It seems like it was only yesterday when I was part of the chartering process instead of 22 years ago.  There were the four of us, trying to get to know each other, establishing a cause that was bigger than any one of us individually.  Looking back, we were all from different backgrounds—having nothing in common than the fact that we were women engineering students.  Actually, I did not know the other young women before we journeyed on this path together.  But, look at the legacy we have in place today!  I am so excited about the future and longevity of Phi Sigma Rho’s Beta chapter. 

What I would like to see in the future would be that we continue to reach out to other engineering women and share with them the sisterhood of Phi Sigma Rho.  That is really the only way we can grow, evolve and learn from each other.  Actually, we have more in common than our physical differences. At some point, hopefully, we will all face the life’s transition of becoming a mother, wife and technical professional.  I am going to challenge each active sister to approach a potential sister about Phi Sigma Rho, but that young woman cannot look like them; I think everyone knows what I mean. 

To have sisters my choice and not by blood is an experience I totally enjoy.  Being the “senior” and founding sister in the room when I meet with the Beta chapter is a totally awesome experience. It is funny too, because I am able to show them what mid-40s look like!  And from where I sit, it looks good! I also learned how to play corn hole this year.  When I asked what that was, they were amazed that I didn’t know what that game was!  Well, they taught me how to play corn hole and we had fun laughing at each other.  They learn from me and I learn from them—and that in itself is what makes Phi Rho rewarding to me.


I look forward to seeing how we meet this challenge.  I will be watching and cheering you on from the sidelines!

Mary J. McWilliams
Phi Sigma Rho, Beta Chapter
Alpha Class

Hello from Cleveland!

National Leadership Conference 2010 is officially underway! We got our weekend started enjoying some Girl Scout cookies and touring the Phi Sigma Rho house at Case Western at the President's Reception. We then moved on to share and discuss the National Council 2010-2014 Strategic Plan and Foundation goals.  After the discussions, we enjoyed dinner and fun with games and spent the rest of the night networking.

Tomorrow, the leadership training really gets kicked off!

Calling all "Nerd Girls"

For those of you who may not have heard of them, the Nerd Girls are a group of college age women, originating at Tufts University, who are breaking the stereotypes of women in the so-called male dominated fields of science and engineering. They promote science and engineering to young women and work on engineering projects including the design and construction of a solar car.

Check out this video to see more about them!

http://www.nerdgirls.org/video/nerdgirlstrailershort.mov

The cool thing is that there is a Nerd Girls reality show casting call going on right now! If you are between the ages of 18-23, and are interested in becoming a Nerd Girl, check out their website and apply!! The deadline is August 1. This is an incredible opportunity and all of the details, rules and guidelines for applying can be found at:

http://www.nerdgirls.com

Triangle 2010 Herbert Scobie Leadership School

You might have heard us talk about some areas where PSR is collaborating with Triangle. I just wanted to share an opportunity I have that's coming up this week. A few months ago, I was honored to be asked to be a facilitator at Triangle's 2010 Herbert Scobie Leadership School next week in Indianapolis, IN by their Executive Director, Brian Tenclinger! I will be spending July 7-11th with the guys and another Phi Rho alumna, Nicole Bylsma, and I am looking forward to seeing what we can learn from Triangle here. I'm not quite sure what I'm in for, but I will be sure to share some of my experiences with you guys when I get back.  And I'm sure it will get me even more excited to spend the following weekend with my Phi Rhos!
PRL,
Nikki