Mission Statement

SHPE promotes the development of Hispanics in engineering, science and other technical professions to achieve educational excellence, economic opportunity and social equity

Values

We are brought together by heritage, social responsibility and desire to improve the equality of all people with science and technology. We value excellence in education, professional pursuits and leadership. We obtain excellence through integrity, empowerment, achievement, diversity and continued improvement.

SHPE SWC Student Chapter

SHPE has been officially chartered as a Southwestern College (SWC) student club since the fall of 1983 with 18 members. We are proud to declare that Michael Cruz, our current National Region II Vice President, was directly involved in extending the SHPE family to our school.

            Mike, as we commonly call him, had the social liaison position on the first board of officers. Now, 23 years later, Mike is still a constant element, not just of our chapter development where he has an "unofficial" role as advisor, but through his involvement with the entire Region II development as well.

            Just as in any form of business or government where a change in leadership exhibits a normal pattern of "slow start" behavior, a similar point of view can be taken from our chapter describing our recent history involving officer rotation - to include the chapter president.

            Many of the SHPE officers and members back from spring 2005 transferred during the summer. However, there was poor organization between the ending and starting board of officers during the transition process. The situation, added to a lack of membership, caused an unpredicted deceleration of club activities and performance, ultimately disconnecting Southwestern College from our local San Diego SHPE Professional Chapter. 

            The immediate solution to overcome the circumstances was to talk and eventually merge SHPE with the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). The main reasons for this action were due to SWE's similar struggles regarding membership, and also because SHPE and SWE both aim for a similar goal: to promote professional and academic excellence as well as community service, while working toward the growth and development of a minority group in science and engineering.

            Ever since this decision was made, the merged SHPE-SWE organization has been on the uprising with no end in sight. Membership went up from 11 members during fall 2005 to 32 members for spring 2006. At least three members have attended and represented Southwestern College at SHPE's National and Regional conferences, and we have reestablished all responsibilities of ensuring our school is represented such as attending the SHPE Professional Chapter monthly meetings and events.

           

Promoting and Planning Engineering Events

 

            For the past 4 years, SHPE Southwestern College has promoted two main events, one held in the fall semester and the other in the spring.

            The fall event is the "Walk on Water Competition" where the participants work in teams whose goal is to assemble recycled-material shoes that will allow one of the team members to walk on water across the SWC pool. Local colleges and high schools are welcome to compete as long as they cover the requirements stated for the shoes.

            The spring activity is our "Science and Engineering Day" at Granger Junior High. The main goal of this event is to encourage the students to pursue post-high school education. Furthermore, the event is specifically targeted to the exposure and promotion of engineering and science fields as possible career opportunities.

SHPE National

The Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) was founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1974 by a group of engineers employed by the city of Los Angeles. Their objective was to form a national organization of professional engineers to serve as role models in the Hispanic community. The concept of Networking was the key basis for the organization. SHPE quickly established two student chapters to begin the network that would grow to encompass the nation as well as reach countries outside the United States. Today, SHPE enjoys a strong but independent network of professional and student chapters throughout the nation.

2008-2009 School Year SHPE Officers