Ben and Alonna

Tag: swe

  • What I’ve Been Up To in April

    Here’s a few random things I’ve been up to lately…

    HP Ski Day at Bogus – Cross Country Skiing with my co-workers Soumya and Theresa:

    april_01.jpg
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  • SWE Conference

    I’m back in Boise after a long weekend in Baltimore for the Society of Women Engineers Conference.  The conference was great!  Here’s some photos from the weekend…

    HP Recruiting on Thursday night:

    HP Group - SWE Conference 2008
    Linda, Peggy, Alonna - SWE Conference 2008

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  • Society of Women Engineers

    Today I traveled to Baltimore, Maryland to attend a National SWE Conference.   I have been a member of the Society of Women Engineers, or SWE (pronounced “sw-ee”) since college.  SWE is a national non-profit organization which encourages women to enter and succeed in the engineering field.  I’m President of our local Southwest Idaho SWE Section, and I was lucky enough to get HP to fund my trip!

    Sunset from my flight:

    flight.jpg

    For some background on me & engineering, here is a profile I wrote for a SWE newsletter last year.

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  • Christmas Blog

    Christmas Letter
    I decided that this year, instead of doing a Christmas letter, I’ll do a Christmas
    blog.  Then nobody is obligated to read it and I’ll save on postage. Everybody
    wins.  So, what should I tell you about this past year?  If you want to know
    about any of me and Ben’s vacations this year, well, you can already find all
    of that on the rest of this website.  So maybe I’ll tell you some other things
    we’ve been doing.

    Keeping Busy Outside of Work
    Although I do my fair share of lounging, TV watching (Chuck is my new
    favorite show this season), and gaming (Guitar Hero anyone?),  I also like to
    keep busy with other activities.  I’ve been playing soccer and volleyball
    almost continuously since coming to Boise.  My soccer team is a lot of fun;
    the best thing about our team is that everyone tries really hard.  You wouldn’t
    believe how much difference that makes in a game – we’ve beatan plenty of teams
    who may outskill us, but we outplay them.  Volleyball is fun because a bunch of
    my friends at work also play.  In the summer we play in the sand at HP on an
    organized league, which is nice for getting out of the office for a couple
    hours during the day.

    Besides sports, I’ve also taken the role of President this year for our
    local Society of Women Engineers section (Southwest Idaho SWE).
    I’ve been involved with SWE since college because I enjoy networking with
    other women engineers and encouraging young girls to consider engineering
    for their career.  Unfortunately, I think there is a social pressure for
    young girls to shy away from math and science. Until that changes, I think
    it is important to provide positive role models for girls, tell them what
    engineering is and encourage them to try it. I’m not in SWE because I think
    women are better or worse engineers then men.  I just think that women bring
    a diversity of ideas and skills to the workplace and they should not be
    discouraged from entering a profession dominated by men. So, this year I’m
    the section president and although it’s keeping me busy, I am really
    enjoying it.

    Ben has also been busy with side projects outside of work, which you would
    know if you saw our living and dining room – currently full of wires, resistors,
    and other miscellaneous electronics.  And, although mountain biking season is
    over, we’re excited for the upcoming snowboarding season – let it snow, let it
    snow, let it snow!

    Ben’s New Job
    This fall Ben took a new job with HP.  That’s right, now we both work at the
    same company.  We work in different areas though – I do hardware design for
    LaserJet printers, and he’s doing software design for a color and imaging
    group.  Confused?  What I do is make the little black chip that goes inside
    your printer.  Ben basically writes programs that run on that chip.  See,
    totally different 🙂  Anyway, so far we’re both really happy with the move.
    I like having a carpool companion, and he likes the challenges of his new job.

    Happy Holidays
    From traveling to my dream location of Machu Picchu, to spending holidays and
    vacations with family and friends – Ben and I have had another amazing year.  I
    hope that all of you are happy and in good health.  Have a Merry Christmas and
    a very happy New Year!

    With Love,
    Alonna and Ben