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[MUSIC]
Hello and welcome to
another episode of Undercooled.
Today, we're going to hear from some,
one of our material
science undergraduates,
and I am really
excited about this episode.
So, Tim, why don't you introduce Alexa?
Sure. It's so good to have a
student on the show instead of
just old people sitting
around and having opinions.
So, this is Alexa.
I will ask her to talk a
little bit about herself,
but the first thing
I'll spoil is that she is
the president of our
student society and materials,
the Michigan Material Society.
So, I've done a lot of work with her in
that role over the last couple of years,
just getting our students
being part of a community.
So, we're here to get all her secrets
about how to make that happen.
Yeah, Alexa, welcome to the show.
Hi. Happy to be here.
I have a student perspective.
Yeah. Well, let's start just by
hearing a little bit about you.
Tell us about yourself.
Why did you become an MSE major?
Where did you come
from? Why are you here?
Yeah. So, I think my
journey into MSE was not
the typical journey, so to speak.
I actually started out in the College of
Literature, Science, and the Arts.
I transferred into the
School of Engineering
after my freshman year of college.
I went to high school
in Denver, Colorado.
I'm originally from there.
In high school, I
always knew I liked math,
I liked science,
particularly chemistry and physics,
were my favorite types of science.
I know I didn't want to do something like
bio or psychology, but I also was really
interested in doing things with people.
So, something like
law or policy was really
interesting to me because I really
liked doing a research style reading.
I liked reading a lot of things and then
making analysis on
those readings and talking
about my findings in that way.
And so, when I first
came to college, I was like,
okay, I'm probably going
to try to do this law thing.
But I didn't know
exactly what I wanted to do.
So, I was like, okay, maybe econ is a
math type law thing.
So, I was taking calculus and chemistry,
as well as some LSA
classes, and in conjunction
with that, as well as with COVID and
everything happening
my freshman year, I
realized that I didn't actually
want to take the law and
policy classes that I was taking.
I took Orgo, it was actually
one of my favorite classes.
And I thought math and doing
that type of problem solving
was really something that I was good at.
And so, I decided to transfer into the
School of Engineering.
I don't know, engineering
was never really something
that I had considered.
I just kind of fell into place.
I originally thought I wanted to do
chemical engineering.
So, when I transferred, I started in
chemical engineering.
- Of course.
- I feel like that's a
pretty typical sentiment
from the material
scientists, because I was like,
I like Orgo, I like chemistry,
this is probably what
I'm going to like doing.
So, my first semester in
the College of Engineering,
I took engineering 101
and then Mat Sci 220.
And I remember thinking
that my professor wasn't great.
We didn't really click.
- We won't name names.
- No, but then I was like,
I actually really
liked what I'm learning.
And so, because I
don't like the professor,
but I'm actually still so
interested in what I'm learning,
like I think this is
what I want to study.
So, it was like a good giveaway.
And I just didn't end up even taking
any chemical engineering classes.
And so, yeah, I just
ended up in material science.
It was like end of my sophomore year
when I had like fully declared.
And yeah, so it was kind
of a last minute decision,
but I'm happy to be here.
- And you've been one of us ever since.
- Yeah.
- So, glad to have you on the team.
Yeah, you know, that's something we hear,
I think quite a lot from students is,
I liked chemistry in high school.
So, I became a chemical engineer,
and then I found out I
wasn't doing chemistry
in chemical engineering.
And so, some of them find their way here.
- Chemical.
(indistinct)
- So, as I spoiled earlier,
one of your many roles in the department
is being the MMS president.
And can you also give the audience
a little bit of
background on what student life
is like here in MSE for that matter,
but particularly in MMS,
what students in MMS are doing right now
and how that connects
into plans that you have
for what the organization might do next.
- Yeah, so I think
particularly the material science
and engineering department at the
University of Michigan
is super tight knit.
I think MMS is a big part of that.
We obviously have a really small major
and everybody kind of
gets to know everyone,
especially junior year
when people are taking
thermodynamics, kinetics,
and then the two lab classes,
everyone's taking them
all at the same time.
And so, MMS is kind of like
the social pairing to that.
We do a lot of different social events
and then as well as weekly luncheons
so people can kind of
take their classroom learning
and hear from industry speakers,
kind of as an idea of like,
okay, I'm getting this MSE degree,
like what the heck do I do
with it after I graduate?
It's a really good
perspective for students.
So I would say that
generally is what MMS is there for
and kind of the reason
that I chose to get involved
is when I joined MSE my sophomore year,
I really was deciding
that I wanted to fully commit
to this new community
that I was a part of
and I thought if I ran
for a board position,
that would be a really
good way to get involved.
My junior year I was
the outreach chair of MMS
and then I ended up
becoming president this year,
my senior year.
And so after joining MMS,
seeing like the way that it run
and understanding kind of the role
that it has in students' lives,
again, being like a social outlet
so people can know each other,
not just in a classroom setting,
but also in a social setting
and then also like being
kind of one of the key ways
to connect classroom
learning to real life.
I decided to like take those things
and I was like, okay,
how can we create things?
How can we create
different offerings to students
that are going to enhance the reasons
that a student might wanna join MMS?
- That's great and I really,
I tried as much as I
can to go to MMS lunch
and I really enjoy it,
but I'm very impressed with the speakers
that you've been bringing in this year.
You bring in many people from industry,
most of them are usually alums
and sometimes you even bring alums
who aren't gonna hire people
but just have really interesting stories.
So maybe you can talk
about some of the people
that you've brought in
that you're kind of the most proud of.
- Yeah, I'm definitely very proud
of a lot of the speakers we've had.
It's hard because
there's just been so many.
Yeah, we've brought in several alums.
Recently we had Rossalyn Quaye
and she has had like such a cool career.
She does law and policy
in the utility industry
after completing dance schooling.
So that is so cool and
just such a unique path
that I thought students
could really learn from
because we've had a lot of industry
speakers in as well.
So we've had General
Motors and General Electric.
- And General Mills,
just to finish out the general trilogy.
- General Mills, General
Mills, my 482 project sponsor.
- Nice.
- Yeah.
- And you have a tape
company coming in tomorrow.
- We do.
So I thought that would
be kind of interesting
for people to get more
in the consumer goods
because we haven't done a lot of that.
We have NASA coming this semester.
They haven't come in like years.
So that's really exciting.
People are really excited for that.
And Apple also is coming.
Nike.
We do try to like hit the big name brands
and then like obviously
some smaller things too.
We had like a couple
of like heat treatment
or we've got Medtronic coming in.
So like kind of the
medical devices as well.
Yeah, just all sorts of things.
We also had like our department chair,
Professor Holm, she came
in and like gave a talk
about counterfeit money.
And so that was really cool
because she's brand new to the department
and we wanted to give her an opportunity
to like speak to the student body.
And so that was a cool luncheon as well.
- Yeah, a lot of students get internships
just by going to MMS
lunch and staying after
and talking to the people.
So I think it's like
every week is another job fair
and material science.
And it's all because of the
hard work that you've done
and the rest of your team.
And so, as a faculty
member, as the advisor,
I am very, very
grateful that our students
are getting more and
more opportunities for,
you know, summer internships
beyond just our regular job fairs.
But we also have our own MSE job fair
that I think you guys run as well.
Is that right?
- So the MSE career fair
is run by MMS students,
but it's not particularly
like a board opportunity.
This past year, Haley Whelan
and Sabrina both planned it.
- Yeah.
So there's so much great
stuff that we get to enjoy
on the receiving side of MMS.
Here's these speakers,
here's these lunches,
here's these professional
development opportunities.
But on the inside, I'm
sure you've had to do
some heavy lifting to make this happen.
So, you know, without getting
too into the weeds, I guess,
were there any particular challenges
that you've
experienced as a student leader
in this sort of setting?
Because I'm sure anyone out there
who's tried to
organize more than two people
has found out that
that's not always easy.
So what are some of those situations
that have come up in MMS
and how did you handle those?
- Well, I think that the
first thing that I realized was
I really need to trust my board.
My initial thought process
about running a board was like,
oh, I wanna be really chill
and I want it to be low activation energy
to do the work.
And then I realized that's actually
not what I want at all.
Like this is a community
that I really care about.
And so the first week
that I was president,
I had each person write
a one page document to me
saying all of the goals
that they wanna accomplish
the year, things that they need from me,
what they think their idea of
success is within their role
and specifically what they
want MMS to work towards,
like what they think that
our goals should be towards.
And then from there, I
really give them autonomy
because they know what their goals are,
they know what they wanna accomplish.
And then it just really
lets me like trust my board.
Like it's consistent.
Like I know the weekly
email will go out every week.
Like I know Laura is
doing like outreach stuff.
I know like someone's
gonna be at the open house.
I know that things are
gonna get taken care of.
And so that could only
ever happen by having a board
that I trust, that I
let feel like they have
the opportunity to make a difference
in the way they wanna make a difference.
And also that by extension,
like they can bring things up to me.
I'll take it, I'll listen to it,
I'll kind of adjust what I'm doing
based on feedback that they have.
And so that initially definitely helped
when it came to coming across issues.
But of course, like as a board,
there's also been a lot of issue,
like just things come up
in general, it always will
if you're trying to run a student org.
So like for example, we tried to plan
like a pretty big DEI event
and there was like a lot of issues
with the room reservations.
We got a bunch of speakers first semester
and the room didn't
work and following up,
we couldn't figure out how to exactly
target who we wanted.
We wanted like
freshmen engineering students,
but we didn't have like high signup.
And so we had to move it
virtual like two days before.
And that just was really frustrating
because it just didn't quite
turn out the way I wanted to.
But it was something where like,
when I just really
was stuck and I was like
still marketing it and
still like trying my best.
Like it was like my
board members who were like,
okay, like let me give a suggestion,
let's do it virtual.
Let's do this.
We can move to make
an in-person experience
like next semester or next year.
Like I think just having
those people to rely on
is really helpful because it's like,
they know how much I care about things.
They know I would never
ask them to do something
that I wouldn't do myself.
And so like that also kind
of builds trust there too.
- Yeah, it sounds
like the internal dynamic
is really productive, really good.
Everyone having a role,
everyone having ways to contribute.
Is MMS doing anything externally
with other student societies?
Is there any like collaboration there
that gives you opportunities
to reach a broader audience?
- So we've had a couple of social events
with some of the other
student orgs on campus.
We had a volleyball
tournament for semester
with three other student orgs
that are kind of like the MMS equivalent
for some of the other departments.
We participate in the
SWE engineering games.
So that was kind of a way to meet a lot
of other student orgs
and participate in their event.
And then additionally,
there's been a lot of
stuff behind the scenes.
So we've reached out to
student orgs like BME and SWE,
and we've talked to
them about doing things,
but it's just kind of like
building those relationships
and then we'll just see
what kind of comes from it.
- Very good.
- Yeah, so you also are
planning trips to industry.
You also have
incredible social gatherings
like your bar crawls,
and you also go to
some national conferences.
Can you talk about some of those things?
- Yes, absolutely.
So we're doing a trip to the
Cleveland Cliffs Steel Mill
in March in Dearborn,
and we're getting funding through AIST,
which is one of the
national organizations.
And that's really exciting
because I actually got to
pair with one of our faculty,
Professor Marquis,
and she's making it a
requirement for her class.
So we're gonna have
really good attendance.
- 470?
- Yes. - Good.
- But I've also, before I planned it,
I really was like,
"I don't wanna plan this if
people don't wanna do it."
So I asked my board members,
I was like, "Would you guys go to this?"
I pulled some of the juniors.
I was like, "Is this
something that people
"would actually go to?"
And I got a lot of
feedback that they would.
And so we're working on transportation
and food for that now.
So that's kind of exciting.
And then kind of in terms
of some of the other things
you mentioned, our social events,
we had a food progressive Thursday night,
a couple of weeks ago,
and actually the
following luncheon the next day
was the highest
attendance luncheon we'd ever had.
- Great.
- So we were all out super late
at the food progressive together,
and then we all were there
the next day at the luncheon.
- Managed to wake up by
noon and show up for lunch.
- Yeah, I think something about like,
you being like, "Oh my gosh, everyone,
"thanks for coming, welcome to my house.
"Such a fun time
getting to know everyone,
"and I will see you all tomorrow."
And it worked.
So that was pretty good.
And then, yeah, like social events,
the industry tour is different.
Something also new that we did this year
was the MSC undergraduate orientation.
So we did that in fall and winter
where all of the new
declares from the past semester
got together, we gave them food,
talked to them a little bit about MSC,
the insider perspective, so to speak.
These are the electives you could take,
like these are the
classes you could consider.
This is what you might
wanna consider for your career.
Prospects, we got
feedback first semester,
directly implemented it into the second
semester orientation.
And it's been a good way,
like the sophomores have been
coming more to the luncheon.
They've been
interacting more with the juniors,
who have been
interacting more with the seniors.
I've seen a lot more
interaction between the classes,
and then I've had more
attendance at the luncheon
by extension from
those two groups as well.
- That's fantastic.
I do have to ask off script here,
but as part of the food prog,
were people required to apply
the structure
processing properties paradigm
to their culinary creations?
- Not a requirement,
but highly encouraged.
- Okay, well, we'll
work on that for next year.
- On the other hand,
I think that one of their next events,
you have to come dressed
as your favorite element.
- Yes, the bar crawl coming up,
dressed as your favorite element,
wigs are encouraged.
- I'll have to figure out what a
molybdenum wig looks like.
All right, yeah, of course.
- So what about actually going to
national conferences?
Because I know we've been
able to send a lot of people.
I even saw you at MS&T.
- I was able to attend MS&T.
I was able to present my research.
Actually, the coolest part about MS&T
is I went to the chapter officer workshop
and I got contacts for the
other material advantage chapters.
We haven't really touched on this,
but MMS is also a
material advantage chapter.
So I'm technically the chair
for Michigan Material Advantage.
But I got to meet
people from other schools
and figure out what they'd been doing.
And we got to talk to them about
things we had been working on,
the way that they get funding,
the events that they put on.
And so that was really cool.
Plus the ability to present research.
And yeah, MMS has funding to do that.
And we're also sending one
student to TMS in Orlando.
I believe it's Orlando.
- Orlando.
- Yeah, this semester.
So yeah, we really have, I'm so grateful.
Like we have the connections
that we do in the department
and with again, the
different societies, ASM, TMS,
all of them.
So yeah, that allows us to get funding.
And then on top of that, you know, COE,
the like SOFC, which is the student
funding through COE.
But yeah.
- And I think a lot of
our alums also contribute
to be able to send
students to conferences.
- It's a super great opportunity.
I think conferences, like obviously
they're kind of coming
back new off of COVID.
So I would say like the
attendance at the conference
aren't as high.
Like I remember going
to MS&T and like,
there were some schools that
brought like 20 plus students.
- Wow.
- Yeah, it's crazy.
- So this is actually a
perfect segue to my next question.
As your, as students are
going to these conferences,
meeting more people in
MSE from other schools
and in professional societies,
you start to get a sense
of what is special about MSE
as a field, as a community.
And I'm wondering if there's anything
on the student organization
side that you think is special
about MMS as a group of MSE
students that makes it different
in some way from maybe more generic
or more broadly reaching student orgs.
- So are you talking
about MMS in comparison
to other material science student orgs
or just student orgs in general?
- Just in general, like
you've mentioned working with SWE,
for example, and they
have this huge umbrella,
for all engineers essentially,
whereas MMS I think is a lot more focused
in who it's trying to reach.
And so I'm curious if you
think there's something different
in that experience of having a more
like narrow audience in a way.
- I feel like we have
a stronger community.
I think SWE, like the way
that they get a lot of attendance
is they have to
incentivize people with points
and with kind of flashy things.
Whereas like a lot of the
MSC people I've talked to,
they're like, I'll be there.
Like it doesn't need to be,
like obviously we offer
food, we offer like things,
but people will just be there
because their friends will be there
because their community will be there.
And I think particularly
our student organization
is really good at
being like, I don't know,
building each other up.
We're not competitive with each other.
We're all super, super
helpful to each other.
Like Steve was talking
about the luncheons are,
you can literally find an internship,
going to the conferences,
there are so many talks
by different professors.
If you were looking for a
PhD person to be your PI,
if you were to pursue a PhD,
there's just that culture of support
and that culture of like,
we're all taking the same classes,
we're all in this together.
We're not competing for jobs.
You can do anything with an MSE degree.
There's no competition.
There's no, we are
competing for a grade or for a job.
We're all just trying to help each other.
And people, I guess,
showing up to the MMS events
is like kind of a way to do that.
And so I think that's
a super unique thing
about our department that, yeah,
is not the same as other student orgs
at our school or other schools.
- That's really great to hear from the
student perspective.
It's something that I want
to believe that I'm seeing
from the faculty
perspective, but I want to see it.
So is it real?
It's really great to
hear students feel like
they're having that experience
of we're building each other up together.
- That's certainly one of
my priorities when I teach
is how to be as inclusive as possible.
And the best way to
be inclusive is to work
with the students so
they help each other.
How can you get even
more inclusive than that?
So it is awesome that all
of our faculty are also,
have all bought into this idea.
We don't grade on curves.
We want everybody to get
an A if they possibly can.
And so there shouldn't be any competition
and it is really
wonderful to hear from you
that you don't feel
like there's competition
because there should not be
competition in our program.
This is all about helping everybody
be the most they possibly can.
- Absolutely.
- Definitely not.
It's so collaborative.
Honestly, like MSE is like
Michigan's best kept secret.
Like people are so, so
collaborative and so helpful
and so friendly.
The community is just,
that is the best part about this
department for sure.
- All right.
Well, hopefully we blow
the lid off that secret
and get some more faces around here.
As we move into the
second half of the show,
I want to switch gears a little bit.
Now that you are a
person with experience,
almost done with school, congratulations.
You probably have some perspective
on the last couple of
years and what you've learned,
but also I think there's
some really good advice
that you could have to
offer different people
in the audience just based on the
experiences you've had.
So first, we'll go straight
to the most spicy question.
Faculty are not always
necessarily entirely aware
of what student life and student
perspective is like.
So if you could choose just
one message to get across,
what's that one?
I wish faculty knew that
this aspect of student life
is what it's like so that
we can understand better
what you're experiencing
and where you're coming from.
- I do think the biggest
thing is I wish faculty
kept the student
perspective in mind when,
designing curriculum, assigning homework.
Students want things that
will encourage them to learn.
They want to feel like,
you have to remember
the reason they signed up
for the class in the first place
because they thought that
this topic was interesting
and they probably want
to hear about the topic
in the context of
what they can do with it
after they graduate.
And they want to learn about the topic
in the context of a
really cool research paper
or a really cool way you can apply it.
That's maybe not something
you would think of initially.
And then that goes the same
with homework and assignments.
It's like everything
should have a purpose.
I think that's like the biggest thing.
Like every group assignment, every like
homework assignment,
like the goal should be,
I want them to learn
this concept from this.
I want them to
understand like this aspect
of group work from this.
And I think like when you
have a purpose like that
to like what you're
doing, what you're teaching,
it's a lot easier to
get the students excited
about what you're teaching them
and what you're assigning them to do
because they can see beyond
the grade, beyond the class.
- That's wonderful.
Takes me back to good old days
of some of our physics problems of,
now we're going to
solve the hydrogen atom.
Why?
Because it can be done.
And because I solved the hydrogen atom,
so now you're going to
solve the hydrogen atom.
- Yes, but you're glad
that they had you do that
instead of the helium atom
because that's very,
very much harder to do.
- Yeah, that's a story for another day.
- Yes.
- On the other side of
the experience continuum,
what would you say to like
a freshman or a sophomore?
You know, someone
who's closer to the start
of the college journey and
it's the classic sort of,
if you could talk to freshman you, right?
What do you wish she had known
that you could pass on to someone
who's just getting started?
- I think that freshman year,
the most important thing is
to take care of yourself first.
Make sure that you're
making time to do things
that will keep you in check.
Save time to study and to do your laundry
and to make friends and
don't overwhelm yourself.
Don't feel like you
have to do it all at once.
And make sure you're
keeping the end goal in mind.
So like for me, I knew I really wanted
to do research in college
and that was something I
knew I really wanted to do.
And so I got involved in
UROP and then I didn't love it.
And then when I joined MSE, like I got
involved in research
but it wasn't like, I felt like I had
to do everything all at once.
I mean, I kind of did, but that mindset
just like didn't help me.
I felt like I was behind or like,
I just had to do everything.
It's not like high
school, you can't do everything.
Like it's much better
to prioritize things
that make you happy to make sure
that you have like things in your life.
Like everything has a specific thing
you're leaning towards
because college is
again, not like high school.
You can do everything.
There's so many opportunities for you.
So you really have to
like be introspective
and understand what's important to you
and how to spend your time because yeah,
like college can go by really fast.
And so you need to know
what skills you want to gain
and what specific
experiences are most important
and prioritize those.
- That's great advice.
I should apply that to my own life.
We'll see if that helps
me out with a few things.
- So I was wondering,
I've been experimenting
with using instructional aids
and it's actually given me great insight
into our undergrads
because I get to experience them
in a very different way
than when they're in my class.
And I've been
absolutely amazed at how smart
and how passionate our
students are for material science.
And I'd like to try to
get more students involved
in being in IA where we
actually pay you 18 bucks an hour
for doing something.
It was probably the first
time in these students' lives
that they're actually getting paid
for what we just taught them.
So it's a little payback.
And so does that sound like something?
Am I only seeing a tiny
part of the student body?
Or is this something that students
would like a wider access to?
More students being able to do it?
- I think, I guess first of all,
I think instructional
aids are a great way
to get your students interested in MSE
because like you said,
these are the people that
recently went through it.
They're getting to very
newly apply what they learned
to teach others.
And that's a good way to,
I guess, get involvement
or gain interest in the department.
And then by extension,
I think a lot of people who are my age,
like upperclassmen,
are excited to share their experiences
with the underclassmen
because we like our department.
We are very proud to be
part of the community.
We like what we're learning.
And so I think that is a fun experience.
I'm an engineering 110
department ambassador,
which just means I
teach a discussion section.
And I feel like I get to do that.
And I love talking about MSE.
Like I joined the SWE
University Showcase Subcommittee
because I just wanted to represent MSE
to the high school students.
That's why I was
originally outreach chair.
Like I just liked doing outreach
and I feel like I've
heard a common sentiment
among a lot of other students.
- One of the other things
about the casting a wide net
for IAs that's so
important to remember is,
some students will
have this perspective of,
oh, I didn't get an A plus in the class.
I don't know anything.
I'm not qualified to do this.
And for us, on the
instructional side to say,
it's usually the B students
who are the best teachers,
they know the struggle.
They actually understand
why this stuff is hard.
They had to work for it.
That can really make a difference
when connecting with
someone who's trying to learn this
for the first time.
- I've had some of my best IAs
where B minus or even C plus students
because they really understood
what was difficult.
But, you know, A students are good too
because they know the material.
And I think it's good to have a mix
so that one IA isn't responsible
for just one set of
students, but we rotate around.
And they get to see, you know,
it's nice for the
students who are learning,
but I think it seemed
better for the students
who are the IAs
because they start to realize
that they actually know the material
in a deeper way than they
probably never even realized.
I didn't get that experience
until after I graduated from college.
I thought when I got my first job, oh no,
I'm gonna get my butt kicked.
And I go into my job and then I was just
unbelievably appalled
at how dumb the other people were.
And I'm like, oh wow, I must
have gotten a good education
because I wasn't any
smarter than those people,
but I was better prepared
because I went to a school that cared.
And so I think that
happens when people become IAs,
they become much more self-aware
that they really did
actually learn something.
And I think that's a
wonderful thing so much so
that I almost wonder if we
shouldn't be able to give
any student who wants to
have an activity like this
the opportunity to do it.
I don't think we need to mandate it,
but what you're saying being an
ambassador to Engine 110
or any of this, you'll get
the same experience that,
wow, I actually
understand some of this stuff.
I just think that's a very
important thing to happen
along your way while you're learning.
- Yep.
As long as we're
congratulating each other
on everything that we
know and have learned,
on the student org's front, Alexa,
you've, as you said,
learned a lot of things through trials
and tribulations of leadership.
But if there's someone
out there who maybe is at an
institution that doesn't have an MMS,
doesn't have a MSE student society,
what could you offer them
for tips, tricks, advice
to get something like that started?
If you wanted to build
this from the ground up,
how would you get students
to rally around the concept
and make it happen?
- I think a lot of the
reason that we can do what we do
is we have such
strong department support.
So I think the first thing
would be to figure out who
is on your side in your
corner and would support you
to do something like this.
Because we have Kristin
who helps us with picnics,
a lot of the department stuff.
Tim, obviously you're our advisor.
Obviously our department
chair came and spoke at our
luncheon, Patty helps reserve rooms,
which is so, so helpful.
Those types of connections are invaluable
for starting a student org.
So I think you need to
start talking to some of your
professors, seeing who would be
interested in helping
back you for this.
And then also we have a
pretty big presence at the
undergraduate committee
meetings, so we can advocate
for ourselves to the faculty.
And so having that
avenues first and foremost.
And then the second thing is
once you're actually starting
the student organization, I
think you have to actually
look for problems.
You have to look for
something where it's, you don't
realize like it's a huge
problem because you don't have it,
but you could see a need for it.
Like for example, my
junior year, I realized,
I was just thinking like about it by
talking to a lot of my
friends in engineering.
And I realized we were one
of the few departments that
doesn't have like
T-shirts for new declares.
And so like I emailed Katie
the next day and I was like,
can we do this?
And so now we have free
T-shirts for all like the new
declared students.
And like, that was the
same with like the MSE
undergraduate orientation.
I was like, we don't have a
way for like the sophomores to
meet each other really until
like junior year when they're
all in the same classes.
And so like, it was
something I was like, is this even
possible? I'm going to email people.
I'm going to see what happened.
Like for every situation
that I'm telling you to,
there were like three
situations that I thought there
was need for. And I tried,
but like I just
realized it wasn't feasible.
And so you just need to like,
really like not everything's
going to work out,
but like it's important to
kind of see what resources you
have, see who on your team
would support you in doing these
things.
Like I, before I do anything like this,
I bring it up to the board meeting.
I'm like, would people
be interested in this?
Would anyone be willing to help me?
Is anyone really
passionate about like starting this?
And again,
just realizing who's in
your corner because it's,
it's a lot of work.
You can't do it alone.
- That is great advice.
Steve, did you have any last
questions you wanted to ask
before we start to wrap things up?
- No, I, but what's,
I think I know some of
what's on tap for the rest of this
term, but what's going to
happen near the end of the term?
Any, any wild, crazy things to,
for the, your, your last.
- I would,
I would like to do some
sort of like graduation event,
like a graduation picnic or a seniors,
do some sort of like casting
or pictures or I don't know.
So that's kind of in the works,
but in terms of the rest of the semester,
we've got, you know, some social events,
obviously our industry tour.
We're doing our first ever MMS formal.
So that'll be really exciting.
- That's exciting.
- Yeah. It's, it's very exciting.
It's kind of like,
instead of the bar crawl,
this will be a way to like
include the underclassmen
because you don't have to
be 21 to go to a formal,
but you can still like have
fun and make a night out of it,
as opposed to a lot of the
other events we've been limited.
So that's really exciting.
And then obviously when it comes to
wrapping up my term as
president, I'm really, really,
really focused on
continuity of the organization.
So I'm going to have all of the board
members rewrite their
transition documents or at least add
things to update their
current positions,
because there's a lot of things in the
transition documents
that just don't really apply anymore.
We've all kind of taken our roles and
like added things to
them. Like for example,
Laura being outreach and doing merch,
that's not necessarily in
her role on the transition
document, but that's like a
really big part of her role.
And then like a lot of
things don't apply anymore.
So like right now the
treasurer is technically in,
technically in charge of
like napkins and plates,
but our secretary is in
charge of the silverware.
So Andy just does all of that anyway.
So we just, we really want to make sure
continuity is important.
I've been really trying
to do that just in general.
I've been taking notes at every luncheon
on how many people we have,
how much the food costs.
I've been writing down all the emails of
every single speaker,
the dates I contacted them,
the dates they got back to me and notes
on whether or not the speaker was
good,
which is something new I implemented
because I was looking back at Katie's
stuff and I was like,
there's nothing that says whether or not
these speakers were even good.
And I've got a lot of feedback that, oh,
this speaker wasn't that good.
And I'm like, oh my gosh,
like the next year's president would
probably want to know that,
like to not invite them back.
So yeah,
that's kind of my thought process when it
comes to wrapping everything up.
That's great.
And I just want to say how much I'm
impressed by what our students
do collectively.
Of course, it's you,
your board and all the other students.
Incredible imagination,
innovation and awesome organization.
And it keeps getting
better every single year.
And I think Tim
deserves some credit too for
very little.
Alexa's the heavy lift.
I'm just hiding in the background,
but it's really impressive
what you've been able to do.
And
hopefully potential employers,
people you're interested in working for
are going to listen to this.
And see how incredible you are.
Not only as a material
scientist and a researcher,
but as a organizer and somebody who
really knows how to get things done,
solve problems.
And that's worth a lot.
Thank you, Steve.
Yeah, couldn't say it
better myself on that note.
We always like to give our guests a
minute or two at the end,
just for shameless self-promotion.
So if you have anything
at all you want to plug,
whether it's
availability on the job market or
how amazing the MMS
formal is going to be,
whatever it is,
this is your chance to say what's
happening next and
what to look forward to.
I mean, of course, the MMS formal,
I would say in terms of job stuff,
I do have a job that
I'm planning on doing,
but obviously I have no idea where my
career is going to take me.
So I would say in
terms of self-promotion,
I think my personal best skills is I
really try to advocate for people.
I really care about understanding what it
is that people want.
And then advocating for it,
I consider myself like a problem solver
and someone who likes
to relate to others,
sees opportunities and then
tries to do something about it.
So I think that's my
my biggest self-plug.
But yeah, I'm graduating.
It's going to be crazy.
I'm excited and nervous
about what comes next.
But yeah, I'm really grateful to the
material science department.
And I feel really
proud to close this chapter
because I feel like I've
accomplished a lot in college
and I feel like I've grown a lot as a
person and I've learned a lot.
And I feel like I'm leaving
a mark on this department.
And I feel really proud of that, too.
I completely agree.
It's it will be sad to see you go,
but you've really built something
excellent with MMS the
last couple of years.
It's much stronger, I
feel, than it used to be.
So let's do a good job
with elections coming soon
and make sure the next batch of officers
keeps the, you know,
the train going and getting
even better than it already is.
Yeah. So thank you so much for being on
our podcast with us.
I've really enjoyed hearing hearing you
talk about all of this.
And it's just great. So
thank you very, very much.
Thank you very much.
Such a pleasure. All right.
All right.
Into the audience out there.
We'll see you next time on the next
episode of Undercooled.