Annaliese Parker is a University of Utah SWE alum and former President of our Society of Women Engineers chapter. Before being elected President, she was also the Vice President of Corporate Affairs and before that, she participated in the Professional Development committee for SWE. She has always been involved with a variety of adventures and hobbies throughout her life. Annaliese is passionate about helping non-profits by donating as much time and expertise as she can to these organizations. Her love of adventure has taken her to have really unique experiences, which she enjoys capturing with photography. Though she lives in California, her love for the snow keeps her coming back to Utah! To discover more about Annaliese, read her Q&A below.
How did you first get involved with the Society of Women Engineers?
One of the girls in my entry level electronics class was a member of the professional development committee, and she invited me to a committee meeting. I volunteered to plan an event that day and the rest is history.
Describe your most significant college experiences.
Being a transfer student at the U made classes and other academic things a little more challenging at times. While most class groups progressed together, being a transfer student meant that you didn’t have the same schedule as almost anyone. But it also gave me a “do over” which helped me take advantage of what schools have to offer. Some of the things that significantly impacted my college experience was joining as many organizations as I had time for, getting to know my teachers really well, and always finding time to do things I enjoy. Finding teachers who cared about my success was both surprising to me and essential to me staying in my degree program. That is when I truly understood and appreciated the power of inspiration. Maybe not so relevant to school, but Utah is also where I fell in love with winter! I moved back to California and miss the snow every day. 🙂
Outside of classes and employment, what activity has been the most important in terms of your personal growth?
I am heavily involved in an organization called Venturing. It’s a coed division inside the Boy Scouts of America that I have been working with for over 12 years now. During high school and early college, I was heavily involved in leadership training and leading/representing groups as large as 200,000. Venturing allowed me to learn, train others and put into practice many important leadership skills that the majority of young people do not learn. Skills such as developing a vision, effectively communicating, when to use certain leadership styles and effectively building your teams has proved extremely valuable in my personal life, college experience, and my career.
What irrational fears have you faced in the past (or currently face), and what steps did you take to overcome them?
Anyone who knows me, also knows that I live for the weekend and my hobbies. When I graduated I was worried I would not have enough vacation days to volunteer for the non-profits I work with and enjoy my hobbies. I managed my fear by being selective about where I took a job. To me, the most important thing in my job is not necessarily the work itself but the person I work for. People quit their manager not their job. I found a manager who believes that people taking personal time is important and it allowed me to find a good balance of work and time off to volunteer.
Everyone is labeled by stereotypes at various points in their lives. How have you defied stereotypes that have been directed toward you?
Because of my personality and gender, people always assumed I was anything but an engineer. When I tell them what my degree is in or what I was studying, I would always get the response “Really?”, “I didn’t know you had it in you!”, or various other similar responses. My personal favorite was when I was taking an engineering business class and we were talking about people who identified their job as self-employed. The teacher asked out of 100 people, what percentage of those people had identified themselves as self-employed at some point in their careers. Everyone guessed fairly low percentages, and when the teacher said it was 52%, a male student piped up and asked “even the women?”. As the only girl in the class, I was quite literally speechless. I defy these stereotypes not by changing who I am, the way I dress, or how I interact with people. I defy stereotypes by bringing awareness to those who especially need it and by building a strong network of those labeled by the same stereotypes. In this case by having a career as a female engineer and volunteering to engage girls in STEM careers.
What's the title of the current chapter of your life?
My life feels like a Bruce Willis film mixed with an occasional Lego movie feature. All of these crazy things happening that sometimes make no sense, but kind of work out in the end. With of course a few natural disasters in the mix. This chapter of my life is fairly new as I closed the chapter of college, but it’s filled with adventure, career crossroads, excitement and of course…fun! Many people would like to title it “Does Annaliese have a job still?” because I finally had a little time to travel, go on adventures, and live my life. I guess I don’t post on social media about me working as much as I post about going out and exploring the world and the outdoors.
What is a dream that you have yet to achieve?
This is a hard question because there are so many to pick from. If I had to pick my top 5, flying and owning my own plane, becoming a scuba instructor, owning my own company, buying a house before I’m 30, and having a job that I could work from home a month at a time (so I could be anywhere in the world). I believe being a dreamer is important and it’s what motivates me on days when I need it.
If you see a puddle on the ground, do you walk around it or over it?
I walk through! Or drive through 🙂 Life is too short not to have fun.