Congressional Outreach Days 2020
On March 11th-12th, six UC Berkeley SWE members traveled to Washington, D.C. for the annual Congressional Outreach Event, where SWE National Members from across the country came together to receive training on advocacy strategies and meet with members of Congress to lobby for certain STEM legislation. The theme for this year’s event was “Diversity and Inclusion Fuels Innovation in STEM.”
This year, the chosen UC Berkeley SWE advocates were Francesca Tinga (ChemE ‘21), Megan Handley (BioE ‘20), Natasha Lethaby (ChemE ‘20), and Zoe Husted (EECS ‘21), led by Advocacy Directors Chelsea Lo (EECS ’22) and Farhat Alam (MSE ‘21).
This trip began at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, before the shelter-in-place orders were announced, so all participants chose to attend with precaution. Due to this situation, some aspects of the event were compromised, including meetings with the Senators and Representatives.
On the first day, the attendees heard from SWE leaders on the state of women in engineering, discussed policies related to women in STEM, received tips on speaking with elected officials, and met other professional and collegiate SWE members.
During the second day, all six advocates met with the Legislative Assistants of California Senators Kamala Harris and Diane Feinstein, and they were each individually assigned to the Representatives of their hometown districts. Chelsea met with the Office of Congresswoman Jackie Speier (CA-14), Farhat met with the Office of Congresswoman Judy Chu (CA-27), Natasha and Megan met with the Office of Congressman Salud Carbajal (CA-24).
During their meetings, the women advocated for legislation and explained why these issues were important to them personally. They shared stories about how they were first introduced to STEM, through trips to the museum, Girls Who Code, Girls Scouts, and an engineering academy program. Some of the bills they lobbied for included:
- 21st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act (HR 1591/S 1299) to provide grants to provide STEM tutoring, after school activities, and summer programs.
- Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act (HR 36/S 1067) to fund sexual harassment research and efforts to prevent sexual harassment in STEM fields.
- Paycheck Fairness Act (HR 7/S 270) to prohibit pay discrimination by requiring the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to collect employer data
They also presented a list of appropriations requests for the President’s Budget of the Fiscal Year 2021:
- Every Student Succeeds Act funded in FY 20 but eliminated in FY 21
- Supporting Minority STEM Student to Career Act (HR 5784) a $137M increase from FY 20
- Higher Education Act Reauthorization ensure students have access to high quality STEM educators
In addition to engineering, Zoe and Francesca are also studying Public Policy, so they were able to apply what they learned in their classes for the first time on Capitol Hill. They had the opportunity to attend the Coronavirus Response and Preparedness Hearing led by the House Oversight Committee. Elected officials, including Representative Katie Porter (CA-45), met with Dr. Anthony Fauci (Director of NIAID) and Dr. Robert Redfield (Director of CDC) to discuss ways to protect the health and safety of their constituents. It was an incredible experience for them to witness firsthand how policies were being developed in these critical times.
For many on this trip, this event was their first real experience in lobbying for legislation on the federal level. A few key lessons that everyone took away from this trip was the impact individuals could have by sharing their personal stories and the powerful combination of STEM and politics in spearheading positive change. They came on this trip with a strong passion for STEM advocacy and a desire to bring what they learned back to UC Berkeley to share how anyone, including college students, can get involved in government. After this trip, they plan to keep in touch with their local representatives, continue supporting organizations for women in STEM, and serve as mentors for female and minority youth entering this field.
If you are interested in participating in next year’s Congressional Outreach trip, subscribe to SWEMail and like our Facebook page to get notified when applications are released next spring!
