Welcome to Cedar Valley Society of Women Engineers
Our Mission
Encourage women to achieve full potential in careers as engineers and leaders, expand the image of STEM professions as a positive force in improving the quality of life, and demonstrate the value of diversity.
The Cedar Valley consists of six counties – Black Hawk, Buchanan, Bremer, Butler, Chickasaw, and Grundy
The Cedar Valley section of SWE was first dreamed to life by Kari Zache in 2009 after she moved to the Cedar Valley (Cedar Falls and Waterloo, Iowa) for her first job following graduation. Since beginning work in 2008, Kari felt a longing for the SWE ‘family’ she had fallen in love with in college. On March 16, 2009, she held the section’s very first meeting at the Cedar Falls Public Library with 29 other female engineers. From this initial meeting, the section has blossomed to an 82 member section in its fifth year.
Our section aims to provide its members opportunities to network and support each other as engineers, by connecting women from across local businesses, such as John Deere, Nestle, ConAgra, Viking Pump, and many more! A large focus of the Cedar Valley section is STEM Outreach, including events with Girl Scouts, Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day, Expanding Your Horizons Conference and local STEM Mentoring at local Elementary, Middle, and High Schools.
Our Awards
2021
Cedar Valley SWE is proud to receive the “SWE WE Local 2021 Membership Retention Award” which recognizes the top 20 sections / affiliates with the highest retention scores. It is noteworthy that this award is a special one, in that it was received virtually, since the 2021 WE Locals in North America have been postponed until 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020
Cedar Valley SWE received TWO SWE Mission Awards at the WE20 Annual Conference. We are very proud of the effort put forth to achieve this level of success and recognition for the following:
- SWE Mission Award Silver – Professional – This is the second highest overall award level for the SWE Mission Award structure and recognized our section’s commitment to SWE’s Core Values and Strategic Goals based on results from our activities across 7 categories.
- SWE Mission Best Practice – Mentoring – This is a category-specific award for our development of women engineers at all stages of their personal and professional lives
- Cedar Valley SWE also received the “SWE WE Local 2020 Membership Retention Award” which recognizes the top 20 sections/affiliates with the highest retention scores.
2019
- Received the “SWE WE Local 2019 Membership Retention Award” which recognizes the top 21 sections/affiliates with the highest retention scores whom have demonstrated exceptional membership retention over the past year.
2017
Cedar Valley SWE received FOUR SWE Mission Awards at the WE17 Celebrate SWE banquet. This was an entirely new award criteria and submission process, and we are very proud of the effort put forth to achieve this level of success and recognition for the following:
- SWE Mission Award Gold – Professional – This is the highest overall award level for the new SWE Mission Award structure and recognized our section’s commitment to SWE’s Core Values and Strategic Goals based on results from our activities across 10 categories.
- SWE Mission Best Practice – Professional Development – This is a category-specific award for our development of women engineers at all stages of their personal and professional lives through our recent co-sponsored events with ASABE, ASME, SME, and SAE for the Iowa-based Joint Section Meeting, presentations on the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge Replacement, and hosting a hand-on Beer 101 class.
- SWE Mission Best Practice – Membership Retention & Engagement – This is a category-specific award for promoting diversity and inclusion and serving women engineers wherever they are. We’ve certainly grown from our 29 members back in 2009; we like to keep everyone engaged through our annual events such as Art & Wine and the Family Picnic!
- SWE Mission Best Practice – SWE Resource Promotion – This is a category-specific award for our sharing of SWENext promotional materials at outreach events, like the “Be That Engineer” poster and the “Constance and Nano” comic book, in addition to hosting events to view and discuss various SWE Collegiate Webinars with local interns.
2015
Cedar Valley SWE received THREE awards for FY15 at the Region-H Conference. We would like to thank our FY15 Executive Board and all of our wonderful members for joining CVSWE and staying with us!
- Membership Retention Award (Medium Section)
- Membership Growth Award (Medium Section)
- Membership Net Growth Award (Medium Section)
2013
Cedar Valley SWE was recognized with two Region-H awards for FY13 and we would like to thank our FY13 Executive Board and members for all their hard work towards these great achievements!
- Professional Membership Retention Award (Medium Section)
- Governor’s Choice Award for “Creative Event Combinations”
2012
- Received the “Creative Event Combinations” for our November Girl Scout Badge Day / Vendor Fair for combining outreach and fundraising
2010
- Received the “Outreach MOU Partnership” Award (Small Section) which recognizes Professional Sections that have an outstanding program targeted for the outreach organizations that SWE has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with: FIRST, Girls Incorporated, and Girl Scouts of the USA.
