Jessica Swenson is a SWE RMS member and is a water management engineer at Encana. Recently she chatted with me about the Benevity program at her work that allows her to make direct donations to SWE RMS on an on-going, tax exempt basis. In her case, she has put funds towards SWE RMS, every month, for close to the last year. The funds add up over time - enabling our section to provide more events to members, higher quality speakers and better supported outreach programs like GESTEM and Girls Lead The Way.
Here, Jessica shares with us how the program works and what has motivated her to be involved with SWE RMS in this way. If you have a Benevity program at your work, check it out as a way to support your favorite projects of SWE RMS!
Thanks for chatting with me, Jessica! Tell me a little more about yourself and what brought you to SWE RMS.
I grew up in Colorado, and went to school at University of Kansas, got my degree in ChemE and graduated in 2015. I was adamant in coming back to Denver and my family when applying for jobs. I also ride horses - that is my thing! I ride a few times a week, and compete in Dressage and have kind of gotten into Western Dressage over the last year or so. If anyone wants to ride horses, hit me up!
What did your employer say about this donation program that inspired you to set it up to donate to SWE RMS?
It's a specific program at Encana, called Encana Cares, but the "platform name" is Benevity, and the key is that the company matches the donation. It immediately doubles your efforts! For the entire month of October, they do a lot of "donate" activities and promotional work to get people to sign up for this program. It's pretty awesome - a shout out to them for being supportive of their communities! Engineering has completely changed my life so I wanted to give some support to a group that was active in reaching out to young girls and teaching them about engineering! I have also really enjoyed my collective wisdom group - it's great to have some fellow engineering friends that aren't in the same industry.
Encana also has a program where you can donate your volunteer hours as money to the place you volunteered to. (Note: Ball Aerospace also offers this kind of perk, as do several other companies along the Front Range)
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, you set it up for the following year, by telling them how much money you want to donate for the entirety of the year. Once you pick that amount, they deduct it from your paycheck each month. You don't even have to think about it, it's like your 401K. You can keep track of it on your paycheck as a running total, and it will automatically be put on your tax records at the end of the year. Encana doubles my donation, but I claim what I donate. Also you can choose to do a one-time donation instead, or submit a record of a donation you made and they will match it.
It says a lot for the leadership of the company of what they value that they do this program.
How much time does it take you to maintain the donations?
It took me probably 15 minutes. Encana has a portal online, (benevity.org), and they have a running list of every non-profit any employee of Encana has ever donated to, so it's easy to pick if it's already in there. You can also add a company. It was really easy - I searched, found SWE RMS, and set it up! It's a really great program. (Note: we go through a vetting process as SWE RMS to be in Benevity, so you can find us by looking up Society of Women Engineers Rocky Mountain Section.
What would you say to someone who has this program available at their work?
I would say, you are missing out if you're not taking advantage of it. Because if you're going to donate anyway, it doubles what you're giving and that's pretty powerful.
What inspired you to become an engineer?
I actually grew up not wanting to be an engineer. My dad's an engineer and I always thought he was really nerdy, he just made everything really complicated. I stumbled into it because of my interest - I was really into science, and wanted to go into Biomedical Engineering, and my counselor recommended it. I went to school and fell in love with it. It was luck, I guess? But my family made me confident that I could do it: I knew someone who did it, and so I knew I could do it.
What kinds of projects do you work on currently?
I worked in water management at an oil company for the last two years. This included all of the aspects - from buying water to selling water to recycling water. We just finished a really big project in Texas where we have the capability of recycling 100% of our water in that field. This reduces fresh water use and it also eliminates any waste water disposal. We are moving forward with these kind of plans so that we make sure we are being environmentally conscious, saving money, and supporting the company's development plans by providing flexible solutions to our water needs. I'm in the process of rotating into a new job, and that position is on the drilling team, working to plan all of the wells that we drill. I will work with the drilling engineers, rigs and third party directional drilling companies to make sure that we are understanding where the wells are underground. I will be gathering data on wells nearby and the targets we are trying to drill into, and then performing error analysis on that so we can be confident about where the drill bit is at any point in time. We want to make sure we drill into the places geology needs us to be and that we don't hit any other wells while getting there.
Is your workplace supportive of your work with SWE?
Yes, definitely! Both with the matching gifts and in general, they are supportive of involvement with many professional organizations. At this point, I don't know if I would get funding for going to SWE conferences, but they are supportive of me going and taking time off to do so.
Are there any other thoughts you'd like to share about this program?
Take advantage if your company has something, and if you don't know if they do to support non-profits like SWE, investigate and they might have something you can use. Stay involved!
What SWE activities will people find you at?
I try to go to Regional Conferences and hikes and local socials in the Denver area.
What is your favorite part of being a member of SWE RMS?
My favorite part has definitely been having a sense of community beyond my industry. I'm in one of the Collective Wisdom groups and it's been AWESOME. I really really love it - it's been great to meet women who have a similar level of experience in their jobs but we all have different backgrounds. We have a sense of community that's not just the little world of my industry. You can be really open with how you are feeling. If for some reason I feel down, I can see there is a whole network of people who will help me step up and take opportunities.
Here, Jessica shares with us how the program works and what has motivated her to be involved with SWE RMS in this way. If you have a Benevity program at your work, check it out as a way to support your favorite projects of SWE RMS!
Thanks for chatting with me, Jessica! Tell me a little more about yourself and what brought you to SWE RMS.
I grew up in Colorado, and went to school at University of Kansas, got my degree in ChemE and graduated in 2015. I was adamant in coming back to Denver and my family when applying for jobs. I also ride horses - that is my thing! I ride a few times a week, and compete in Dressage and have kind of gotten into Western Dressage over the last year or so. If anyone wants to ride horses, hit me up!
What did your employer say about this donation program that inspired you to set it up to donate to SWE RMS?
It's a specific program at Encana, called Encana Cares, but the "platform name" is Benevity, and the key is that the company matches the donation. It immediately doubles your efforts! For the entire month of October, they do a lot of "donate" activities and promotional work to get people to sign up for this program. It's pretty awesome - a shout out to them for being supportive of their communities! Engineering has completely changed my life so I wanted to give some support to a group that was active in reaching out to young girls and teaching them about engineering! I have also really enjoyed my collective wisdom group - it's great to have some fellow engineering friends that aren't in the same industry.
Encana also has a program where you can donate your volunteer hours as money to the place you volunteered to. (Note: Ball Aerospace also offers this kind of perk, as do several other companies along the Front Range)
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, you set it up for the following year, by telling them how much money you want to donate for the entirety of the year. Once you pick that amount, they deduct it from your paycheck each month. You don't even have to think about it, it's like your 401K. You can keep track of it on your paycheck as a running total, and it will automatically be put on your tax records at the end of the year. Encana doubles my donation, but I claim what I donate. Also you can choose to do a one-time donation instead, or submit a record of a donation you made and they will match it.
It says a lot for the leadership of the company of what they value that they do this program.
How much time does it take you to maintain the donations?
It took me probably 15 minutes. Encana has a portal online, (benevity.org), and they have a running list of every non-profit any employee of Encana has ever donated to, so it's easy to pick if it's already in there. You can also add a company. It was really easy - I searched, found SWE RMS, and set it up! It's a really great program. (Note: we go through a vetting process as SWE RMS to be in Benevity, so you can find us by looking up Society of Women Engineers Rocky Mountain Section.
What would you say to someone who has this program available at their work?
I would say, you are missing out if you're not taking advantage of it. Because if you're going to donate anyway, it doubles what you're giving and that's pretty powerful.
What inspired you to become an engineer?
I actually grew up not wanting to be an engineer. My dad's an engineer and I always thought he was really nerdy, he just made everything really complicated. I stumbled into it because of my interest - I was really into science, and wanted to go into Biomedical Engineering, and my counselor recommended it. I went to school and fell in love with it. It was luck, I guess? But my family made me confident that I could do it: I knew someone who did it, and so I knew I could do it.
What kinds of projects do you work on currently?
I worked in water management at an oil company for the last two years. This included all of the aspects - from buying water to selling water to recycling water. We just finished a really big project in Texas where we have the capability of recycling 100% of our water in that field. This reduces fresh water use and it also eliminates any waste water disposal. We are moving forward with these kind of plans so that we make sure we are being environmentally conscious, saving money, and supporting the company's development plans by providing flexible solutions to our water needs. I'm in the process of rotating into a new job, and that position is on the drilling team, working to plan all of the wells that we drill. I will work with the drilling engineers, rigs and third party directional drilling companies to make sure that we are understanding where the wells are underground. I will be gathering data on wells nearby and the targets we are trying to drill into, and then performing error analysis on that so we can be confident about where the drill bit is at any point in time. We want to make sure we drill into the places geology needs us to be and that we don't hit any other wells while getting there.
Is your workplace supportive of your work with SWE?
Yes, definitely! Both with the matching gifts and in general, they are supportive of involvement with many professional organizations. At this point, I don't know if I would get funding for going to SWE conferences, but they are supportive of me going and taking time off to do so.
Are there any other thoughts you'd like to share about this program?
Take advantage if your company has something, and if you don't know if they do to support non-profits like SWE, investigate and they might have something you can use. Stay involved!
What SWE activities will people find you at?
I try to go to Regional Conferences and hikes and local socials in the Denver area.
What is your favorite part of being a member of SWE RMS?
My favorite part has definitely been having a sense of community beyond my industry. I'm in one of the Collective Wisdom groups and it's been AWESOME. I really really love it - it's been great to meet women who have a similar level of experience in their jobs but we all have different backgrounds. We have a sense of community that's not just the little world of my industry. You can be really open with how you are feeling. If for some reason I feel down, I can see there is a whole network of people who will help me step up and take opportunities.
Thank you for your ongoing financial and volunteer support of SWE RMS! We appreciate you and Encana for making this an easy way to support the Rocky Mountain section.
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