CHICAGO – Nov. 2, 2009 – The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) is pleased to announce the General Electric (GE) Women’s Network as the FY09 President’s Award recipient. The award was presented October 16 at the WE09 Awards Banquet, part of the Society’s Annual Conference.

SWE selected the GE Women’s Network as the award recipient for generous and continued support of SWE scholarships and women engineers worldwide.

“The Society of Women Engineers is honored to recognize the Women’s Network for their exceptional efforts helping women engineers acquire the resources to begin and advance their careers,” says Virginia Connolly, SWE immediate past president. “In addition to professional development, the Women’s Network also supports local communities and organizations, including sponsoring SWE’s collegiate scholarship program.”

Founded in 1997, the Women’s Network was created to assist women at GE advance their careers and develop leadership skills. Through workshops, speaker engagements, mentoring and networking activities, it continually provides professional development opportunities. Today, the Women’s Network is a rapidly-growing, worldwide organization of over 150 Hubs (Chapters) in 43 countries.

The Women’s Network also reaches into communities where they operate, partnering with local organizations to contribute physical and financial resources for those less fortunate. They support SWE’s collegiate scholarship program, which moves more women into the engineering pipeline without a financial barrier. In the past four years, the Women’s Network raised $250,000 in support of SWE scholarships, and awarded 15 this year, each valued at $5,000.

“To solve the world’s toughest challenges, GE recognizes the need for great engineers with diverse backgrounds – diversity is a differentiator, helping us find the best technical solutions for our customers and the environment," says Jeanne Rosario, vice president, Engineering, GE Aviation. "To foster this, the GE Women’s Network is proud to sponsor top female technical talent in their engineering education endeavors. We hope to see these young women taking leadership roles in our business someday.”

Established in 2008, the President’s Award was created to ensure that individuals and organizations that make significant contributions to women in engineering receive special recognition.

About SWE
The Society of Women Engineers (SWE), founded in 1950, is a not-for-profit educational and service organization. SWE is the driving force that establishes engineering as a highly desirable career aspiration for women. SWE empowers women to succeed and advance in those aspirations and receive the recognition and credit for their life-changing contributions and achievements as engineers and leaders. For more information about the Society please visit www.swe.org or call (312) 596-5223.

# # #