
The SWENext High School Leadership Academy (SHLA) is an engaging virtual program that builds self-confidence and resilience among pre-college students interested in engineering and technology degrees and provides multiple opportunities to network with peers, mentors, role models, and industry professionals. The program includes five essential core content tracks:
- Leadership development
- College preparation
- STEM pathway opportunities
- Self-development
- Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging
How to Apply
SHLA registration for FY24 is now closed. Please check back for registration for the FY25 SHLA program in the spring. To stay up to date on STEM opportunities and resources, join the SWENext program (it’s free!)
Here’s what past participants have said of their SHLA experience!
This project is based upon work partially supported by the generosity of a grant from Honda Foundation.

Become a SWENEXT Leadership Academy Ambassador
See what these students say about the experience — including how it helped them grow as leaders!
Have questions about becoming a SWENEXT Ambassadors? Email us at swenext@swe.org.
- Certificate of achievement
- Recognized as SHLA alumni online
- Free professional, virtual headshots
- Free SWE College to Career Membership
- Opportunity to submit a case study or video of their experience to share with others
Have questions about SHLA? Email us at swenext@swe.org.
How to Apply
SHLA registration is now open and will close on August 9th, 2021. In order to participate in the SHLA program, all participants are required to join SWENext. Join here for free.
SWENext TV provides access to past on-demand sessions. View past sessions today!
FY22 Summer Summit:
Gitanjali Rao was recognized as America’s Top Young Scientist and received an EPA Presidential award for inventing her device “Tethys”—an early lead detection tool. Gitanjali is also the inventor of “Epione”—a device for early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction using genetic engineering, and “Kindly”—an anti-cyberbullying service using AI and Natural Language processing.
She was honored as Forbes “30 Under 30 in Science” in 2019 and TIME’s “Top Young Innovator” and “Kid of the Year” for her innovations and STEM workshops she conducts globally, which has inspired over thirty-eight thousand students in the last two years across four continents. In her sessions, she shares her own process of innovation that can be used by students all over the world. She is an experienced TED speaker and often presents in global and corporate forums on innovation and the importance of STEM.
Gitanjali has her new book “Young Innovator’s Guide to STEM”, which was released on March 16th which guides students, educators, or teachers with a prescribed 5 step innovation process.
August 16, 2021 @ 6:00PM CT
Speaker: Jill Murfin, NXT Technical Program Manager at Nike & SWENext Programs Committee Chair
About Jill
Jill Murfin (’05) is a proud Portland State University graduate with a passion for motivating others. Her 16-year engineering career has included roles in Engineering Management, Factory Operations, Product Engineering, and Technical Program Management at both Intel and Nike.
View on-demand session here. Prior to joining the mainstream maker movement, Tamara spent a decade in corporate engineering where she was pivotal in creating Women in Leadership mentorship programs. During this time she noted a lack of women so, in 2015, she transitioned full-time to outreach in hopes of inspiring more young women to pursue S.T.E.M. careers. It was during this time that she was given the opportunity to battle it out for a chance to join the Mythbusters legacy where her life as a tinkerer and collector of skills landed her as the only female finalist and 2 x MVP winner. Since then has become one of the leading female science hosts and engineers on the Science Channel lending her talents to Scijinks with Johnny Galecki, Mythbusters 2.0 with Brian Louden and Jon Lung, and most recently on Mythbusters Jr. with Adam Savage.
With nearly two decades of experience working in some of the most exciting and demanding environments around the world, Dina is able to bring practical real-world experience to her coaching, mentoring, and speaking. It’s this fusion of the first-hand experience, personal anecdotes, and humor that enables her to connect so deeply with her audiences and create such inspiring and transformational talks.
Dina is a recognized expert and leader in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment. She regularly mentors and coaches women and girls to step into their power, without compromising who they are or what they are looking to create in the world. Her goal is to help women and girls get in touch with what sets their souls on fire.
View on-demand session here. Mary T. Zeis has a B.S. in Chemical Engineer from the University of Pittsburgh. She worked for 31 years for Procter & Gamble in Research & Development on consumer brands such as Tide, Dawn, Crest, and Pampers. Now retired, Mary is a SWE volunteer leader in STEM Outreach. It’s her way of “paying it forward” for all the opportunities and mentors she had through her college and working years. Encouraging more girls to consider engineering as a career is truly an avocation for her. Mary has personally participated in or led over 100 Outreach events. She loves to talk with girls to help them match up to their passions and interests with types of engineering.
Speakers: SWENext Connect Mentors
This “connect” session will provide an opportunity for students to connect online with peers and mentors in engineering, have conversations about careers in engineering and technology, get insight and advice from women in engineering. This session will focus on a variety of engineering disciplines.
Speakers: SHLA Ambassadors
FY22 Winter Summit:
Deysi Melgar came to the U.S. from Mexico at age 7 and developed a love for math. She also loved acting, singing, and dancing, and chose to attend a high school for performing arts, where she was drawn to the technical side of the theater. Deysi never considered a career in STEM, until her work on the PBS Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning TV series Design Squad. Deysi is a graduate of Wheaton College (Norton, MA) with a BA in Physics. Deysi works at Denver International Airport managing various airline ground operations. Her passion for aviation has led Deysi to obtain her private pilot’s certificate, with the end goal of one day flying private aircraft.
With a bold dream, Alena has become the youngest young girl of color to ever intern at NASA. She is also using her voice by launching The Brown STEM Girl and she is also the founder of The Brown STEM Girl Foundation. Through The Brown STEM Girl, Alena has received eight proclamations declaring April 30th as Brown STEM Girl STEM in the City Day Honoring Women of Color in STEM. This day is also set aside to engage girls of color, ages 10-17 in STEM activities and will be hosted all across the United States of America.
Alena has received international recognition through her features on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, Good Morning America, The Kelly and Ryan Show, Black Entertainment Television, and a host of news outlets throughout the world. In addition, she has also been honored by the Phoenix Mercury (WNBA) as part of their Believe in Women campaign. With a clear vision, Alena is on the path to knock down doors for other brown STEM girls, just like her!
Dr. Jessica Marquez is a human systems engineer at NASA Ames Research Center. She leads a team of researchers, user interface designers, and software developers, who focus on developing the next generation of planning, scheduling, and execution tools for space exploration.
Bri’Shae Anderson started with Turner in 2015 as a field engineer working in Charlotte, NC on a $90M project where she managed roughly 2M scope of work. Bri’Shae was recognized in 2015with the Emerging Leadership Award within Turner. In 2016, Bri’Shae was promoted to an Assistant Engineer in the Carolina Office along with a mentor of the Carolina’s Blueprint Group. During Bri’Shae’s mentor roles she had the pleasure of assisting new hires with becoming accustomed to working with the company and managing community service projects.
In 2019, Bri’Shae was promoted to Engineer on the International African American Museum in Charleston, SC. Along with mentoring young women in the Construction Management program at North Carolina A&T State University. She believes that we cannot be successful in life without helping the people coming up behind us.
Kelsey Ellis is the Procurement Manager for Turner Chicago; she leads the procurement department for the Chicago office awarding about $200M annually. In 2020, the Chicago office had over 850 contracts across 66 projects. She has worked at Turner for over nine years and worked on many high profile and complex projects including the San Diego New Central Library, Sempra Energy Headquarters, Ballpark Village, and the University of Chicago, Woodlawn Residential Commons, which varied from Commercial to Residential type projects.
Kelsey holds a degree in Structural Engineering, from University of California, San Diego. Kelsey currently leads Turner Habitat Chicago’s Women Build Team, which she has been participating in since 2017 building homes for women-lead households on the Southside of Chicago. She has a true passion for bringing more women into STEM and helping to develop younger female staff navigate their way through a career in construction and grow into future leaders.
Erica Shelton serves as Senior Cost Analyst for Turner’s Central Florida business unit, with overall responsibility for risk analysis and financial reporting. The projects that she is responsible for range from $1 Million to $1 Billion in revenue. As a Department Head of a four-member team, Erica works to supervise, evaluate, train, and further develop the department. In 2019, Erica led the successful training and implementation of SIE – a company-wide financial management initiative – across the Florida Business Unit.
Erica holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Construction Management from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She started her career as an engineer in the Chicago Business Unit at Turner and held several positions during her time there, including Project Manager, Superintendent, and Cost Analyst. Erica participated in a variety of projects, including but not limited to interior buildouts, K-12 schools, and commercial medical buildings. In 2017, Erica had the opportunity to transfer to the Orlando Business Unit, where she has held positions within the Finance and Procurement Departments. At Turner, Erica is actively involved in the Women Impacting Turner (WIT) Employee Resource Group.
Elise Nagy is an Engineer for Turner Construction. She currently is working on a $529 million dollar healthcare project in Cleveland, OH where she is managing the construction budget and multiple interiors subcontractors. Elise holds a Bachelors of Science in Construction Engineering from The University of Akron.
Sabrina Ransbarger is an Assistant Engineer at Turner Construction, and has been with the company for approximately three years. She started out with the Procurement group focusing on trade partner risk management and relationships, and quickly transitioned into the Operations side of the business in the Special Projects Division.
Sabrina’s passion for the construction industry started as a love for design and architecture growing up, leading her to pursue an undergraduate degree in Architectural Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In the last two years, Sabrina has worked on various projects spanning from community centers to high-end commercial interiors to unique opportunities such as renovations at the Dallas Museum of Art.
This session is supported by the generosity of Turner Construction
This “connect” session will provide an opportunity for students to connect online with peers and mentors in engineering, have conversations about careers in engineering and technology, get insight and advice from women in engineering. This session will focus on community work and leadership.
Tina Steele, The FAFSA Guru has 30 years of experience working in higher education with expertise in financial aid. She has her Master’s Degree in Higher Education and has worked at both the public and private college levels directly in the financial aid office. She also spent 10 years facilitating college planning and financial aid workshops across the state of Maine for a federally funded grant program. She delivers numerous workshops and presentations on the topic of financial aid for a variety of businesses, organizations, and educational institutions.
She founded The FAFSA Guru 5 years ago after seeing the gap between student and family needs when it came to financial aid assistance and the services that were available to assist them.
Speakers: SHLA Ambassadors
FY22 Spring Summit:
Speakers: SHLA Ambassadors
Emily Richard is a senior electrical engineering student at the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. Emily grew up just outside of Pittsburgh, PA in Robinson Township. Emily’s passion for engineering began in middle school after attending a summer STEM camp for girls at a local college campus. From there she went on to hone her interests and skills both in school and out. She competed in numerous high school competitions related to her STEAM interests. Most notably one of her team projects was chosen to be featured in the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) with her participant year being the topic of the Disney+ movie Science Fair.
Additionally, as a high schooler, she founded a SWENext club and upon graduating valedictorian of her class became a proud SWENext Alumni. Once on Pitt’s campus, Emily quickly became an active member of PittSWE. She has held several collegiate SWE officer positions including historian, elementary outreach chair, Vice President of Outreach, and currently serves as PittSWE President. Emily likes to trace her successful collegiate SWE career to her origin as a SWENexter and often reflects on her time as a SWENexter to allow PittSWE’s new initiatives to be more effective to younger audiences.
About Dina
With nearly two decades of experience working in some of the most exciting and demanding environments around the world, Dina is able to bring practical real-world experience to her coaching, mentoring, and speaking. It’s this fusion of the first-hand experience, personal anecdotes, and humor that enables her to connect so deeply with her audiences and create such inspiring and transformational talks.
Dina is a recognized expert and leader in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment. She regularly mentors and coaches women and girls to step into their power, without compromising who they are or what they are looking to create in the world. Her goal is to help women and girls get in touch with what sets their souls on fire.
This session is supported by the generosity of Turner Construction
This session is supported by the Raytheon Technologies
Speaker: Special Guest of SWE
The SHLA graduation ceremony is for students who successfully complete the program by completing at least ten (10) post event Takeaway Activity for live or on-demand sessions.
Have questions about SHLA? Email us at swenext@swe.org.
Why Join SWE as a Collegiate Member?
Getting an engineering degree can be isolating, but with a SWE membership you are not alone. Joining SWE
gives you an automatic network of colleagues with similar experiences, challenges, and goals. Many current SWE
members credit joining SWE in college as the reason they stuck with—and succeeded in—their STEM programs.
You’ll also have the opportunity to meet and network with practicing engineers who can provide advice, guidance, and real world career connections.
The Collegiate-to-Career membership at SWE offers many benefits. Individuals who participate in the SHLA program will have the chance to receive a Collegiate-to-Career membership free of charge. Learn more about the Collegiate-to-Career (C2C) program here.