Future Meets Present: Mentoring the Next

Generation of Latinx in STEM

Sofia Dolce INTRODUCTION Figure 1: Water Bottle Rockets made
President of As a registered student organization, the goals of the Society of Hispanic
by teams of students tasked with
the UW Professional Engineers (SHPE) are to provide academic and professional
building aerodynamic structures.
Awards pictured here were laser-cut
Chapter of the resources for underrepresented students and increase the representation of by our club members.
Society of students receiving bachelor’s degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering,
Hispanic and Mathematics (STEM). Future Meets Present (FMP), a one-day
Professional conference for WA state high school students, engages underrepresented REFLECTION and IMPACT
and low-income students and encourages them to pursue post-secondary With a team of around a dozen Latino leaders in the UW STEM community,
Engineers this project taught me the importance of inspiring others and sharing
studies.
project responsibility. Officer teams were divided into prepping the Water
PARTNERS LEADERSHIP PROJECT Bottle Rocket Launch, advertising the event, and laser cutting awards. My
This project relied on support from the UW SHPE Executive The issue: Only 13% of students in the College of commitment to this project increased SHPE participation on campus and
Board, current and past officers, private donors, and the Puget fostered a welcoming community. As the recently elected President, I have
Engineering identify as underrepresented minorities.
Sound Professional Chapter of SHPE. As successful engineers, grown as a leader and intend to continue these ideals into the next year.
Of these, less than 4% identify as Latinx/Hispanic,
we are passionate about giving back to those with less privilege Our legacy of giving back to the Latinx community will grow each year
and UW SHPE failed to provide the conference for
or access to a higher education. We relied on the Office of thanks to the foundations set in place during FMP 2018. As a resourceful
high school students in previous years.
Minority Affairs and Diversity, public school teachers and leader with the perspective of being a queer Latina in Engineering, I intend
counselors from Eastern WA and the Greater Seattle are who to spark the change needed to bring more diversity of race, sexuality, and
My solution: Through student mentorship, gender into the College of Engineering by giving a platform to
helped us spread the word about FMP. By reinstating this event engineering challenges, and direct engagement with
and increasing participation by 50% compared to 2015, we hope underrepresented voices.
professional engineers, the SHPE community aims to
to leave a lasting impression in the Latinx community in promote equity and facilitate paths to STEM careers
Washington State. for underrepresented students. The opportunity to
attend a top-tier university such as UW seems
impossible for many students, and I saw a strong
need for a community of Latino leaders. While I led
the project, the leadership of each and every officer
resulted in the participation of over 65 students from
across the state. Their attendance during FMP
convinced many of them to apply to UW and pursue
STEM.

Figure 3 (left): High school students, SHPE members, and Professionals

Figure 2: Future Meets Present attendees gather around the most
impressive launch of the day: a water bottle rocket that flew 100 yards.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Personal LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sofiadolce
Personal E-mail: dolces@uw.edu
UW SHPE Website: students.washington.edu/shpe/drupal/
E-mail: shpe@uw.edu
Facebook: facebook.com/shpeuw/
Instagram: @shpeuw
Puget Sound SHPE Chapter Website: shpepsc.org
Figure 4 (above left): Farthest Distance award winners.
Figure 5 (above right): Hugo (Electrical Engineering student from Seattle Pacific
University) and I with our campus tour group. Many of them had never been to
Seattle before.
Supporting Organizations:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to Mary Gates Endowment for Students for supporting this leadership project. I would like to thank my mentor Dr. Patty
Buchanan for her constant support not just in my leadership endeavors but also in those of my peers in ISE. I am eternally grateful
for the visionary and financial support of the SHPE Puget Sound chapter, without whom this project could not have come to
fruition. The success of FMP would have been impossible without the care and attention of Gabby Preciado as well as the UW
SHPE Executive Team. To all the SHPE officers who spent their free time devoted to this event: thank you. Thank you to the
financial support of the Race and Equity Initiative for our Maple Hall reservation and to the Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity
for helping us reach students across the state. Lastly, thank you to my friends and family who supported me and believed in me
these last three years to pursue this project, and to my girlfriend for editing all versions of my Mary Gates Leadership Application