Megan, Liana and Brooke struggled to find a community in their predominantly male field of engineering at Auburn University. That’s until they learned about the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). SWE is an organization that gives women engineers a unique place and voice in the industry.
They met through SWE, followed each other‘s footsteps to become presidents of Auburn University’s SWE organization and are now engineers at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
During their time at Auburn University, Megan, Liana and Brooke each recognized that, as women in engineering, they were minorities in their field. SWE filled the piece they were missing in the classroom: camaraderie.
“I had finished my freshman year and started to feel the gap in connectedness,” Liana shared. “After talking with Megan, who was the current president, I decided I really wanted to be a part of the SWE community.”
During each of their presidencies, they had the common goal of bolstering a sense of community within the group of women. They helped build an organization with events that grew both hard and soft skills, bridging members with career opportunities. Whether or not they realized it at the time, they were instilling values and a space of inclusion for themselves and their members that would travel well into their careers.
Brooke is project engineer within ADP at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
About Brooke: After completing two internships with the ADP material and process team in 2020 and 2021, she was thrilled to join the team full time in June. Recently she was offered a role on the LMents community service committee and looks forward to her new way of being active within the company.
Megan is a low-observable material and process engineer for Advanced Development Programs (ADP) at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
About Megan: She joined the team full time in June 2021 after completing an internship with the company while studying chemical engineering at Auburn University. She continues to support others in engineering as a lead for the Signature Directorate Early Career Engage and Develop Program and remains an active SWE and 100+ Women Strong member.
Liana joined the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics team in June 2022 as a systems engineer supporting F-35 air system technical management.
About Liana: Liana's outstanding academics and participation in SWE and 100+ Women Strong won her the well-deserved 2022 University President’s Award at Auburn University as the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering Outstanding Graduate, the 2022 Industrial and Systems Engineering Outstanding Student of the Year, and the 2022 100+ Women Strong Undergraduate Leadership.
Megan, Liana and Brooke were able to find a home and community at Lockheed Martin. The correlations between the SWE and Lockheed Martin engineering culture combined with being among like-minded women created a sense of belonging.
“The feeling of connectedness when you picked up your whole life and took a leap of faith makes it so much less scary,” Liana said. “I felt like I had a community that would take care of me after I left my home for Lockheed Martin.”
The three continue to recognize the importance of camaraderie they learned from SWE. Together, they encourage and foster that camaraderie in daily interactions with other female coworkers.
“Meeting other women that work at Lockheed Martin helped highlight the importance of women’s role in the field. I feel like women are breaking barriers when I see what we have done in the past at Lockheed Martin and knowing we will be a part of even more women being impactful in the future,” Brooke said.
Megan shared how she learned the importance of a strong network at SWE and its power in helping her persevere through the personal and professional challenges of an engineering major. The same support she found in her SWE network has been present at Lockheed Martin and encouraged her success and happiness.
Megan, Liana and Brooke remain active members of the SWE alumni base and implement their experiences to encourage comradery in teammates at Lockheed Martin every day.
Memories from the 2023 SWE Conference
