Mechanical Engineering
Vishal Shah
Please describe any relevant past experience
I have served as the Executive Head for students chapter of Indian Society of Technical Education for one year. Also i was in the Executive board committee for organizing World Model Youth UN (WYMUN). I have been also been part of the core committee of Mechanical Engineering Students Association (MESA), a student's chapter in Nirma University. Thus, i have a wide experience in organizing, managing and executing events.
What are your goals/vision for your committees of choice? How do you think you can contribute to them?
To be a part of any of those committees, i will try to organize and think of events which involves a lot of interaction between students from other departments and even other school. There can be few events which involves different students working together as a team, so that they benefit with the knowledge of other departments and schools and also mix along with someone outside of their class.
Ju Feng
Please describe any relevant past experience
Worked in the Student Union Office for 2 years when I was an undergraduate student, Coordinated activities organized by different departments Used to be Class Cadre, organized activities for classmates Have intern experience in operational management department, communicated with foreign companies and local government
What are your goals/vision for your committees of choice? How do you think you can contribute to them?
I'd like to contribute my talent in communication and logistic planning to make every event more efficient and raise up the participation for those events.
Any other relevant information you would like to share
I'm also good at exerting some office software such as wps, microsoft office and so on. cooperating with a group is quite suit for me as well.
Iden Kurtaliaj
Please describe any relevant past experience
I’m Iden Kurtaliaj, a first year M.S Student. I completed my undergraduate at Drexel University where I majored in Biomedical Engineering. I’m planning on running as an department representative since during my undergraduate I have served similar roles in the organizations I was involved. I served as an academic and social chair in AOE, a professional and social sorority, chapter that I founded as an alpha member at Drexel University. I planned events with other greek and professional organizations on campus and also faculty talks. I was also a student leader and student coordinator for the REACH Center at Drexel, a pilot program to bring cardiovascular health awareness into the community. My role at the reach center was to coordinate all the individual projects while I also run my own project. My project was to provide free CPR training for all Drexel students in collaboration with the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel.
What are your goals/vision for your committees of choice? How do you think you can contribute to them?
As a department representative I will attend department meetings regularly and communicate the needs of the graduate students to the Division/Department or with the Faculty Board representatives, as appropriate. In addition, I will bring up student issues in these meeting and share feedback with students about relevant discussions held at the Council meetings. As part of the academic affair committee, I can contribute in fostering the connections with the administration and raise student concerns to the appropriate authorities. I can recruit associate members to join comities and assist and participate in council events and functions. In addition, I can assist in the planning of the annual Town Hall meeting and plan and conduct the annual student survey. My vision in this committee would be to partner with academic units to provide international and underrepresented minority support in the efficiency of their graduate studies. To provide opportunities through funding to support student to enhance and further their education. In addition, I think it is really important to share and provide information within the graduate education community and raise student concerns to the proper authorities. As part of the social events committee, my contribution will be in planning and organizing one time or reoccurring events that will bring the graduate students together. In addition, I plan on organizing and volunteering in EGSC happy hours and advertise these events through flyers and social media. I think that these social events are really important in fostering communication between students and alumni and also students and faculty members. As part of the career development committee I plan on creating/updating a database that keeps all the contact information of the graduating engineering alumni. I plan on organizing and planning events with the Alumni Association and career services such as resume developing and Tech talks that will promote the professional development of the students. In addition, I believe that regular communication between SEAS office and CEAA, CEYA and the Center for Career Education is crucial in order to make the planning of these events more including and better advertised.
Any other relevant information you would like to share
I'd like to give a more detailed information on what I have done to give back to the community during my undergraduate studies. Community Service: The REACH center I am a leader and the coordinator for the REACH center, a project that has started in February 2014. REACH Center is a pilot program established by Dr. Alisa Clyne to bring cardiovascular health awareness into the community. My role at the REACH center is to launch and establish the outreach aspect of the program. As a student leader, I had the opportunity to take my passion for giving back to the community, my skills, knowledge, and innovative thinking to a higher level. Here, I closely worked with other student leaders along with Dr. Clyne to establish a High School Student Heart Health Program - a newly developed outreach program to increase cardiovascular health awareness in local high school students. I played an important role in leading a team of 12 passionate student volunteers from diverse backgrounds, establishing connections with various schools and community organizations, as well as instituting the program to be implemented. Since April 2015, I am in charge of leading and coordinating all other student leaders and their respective projects. There are two main projects that are being implemented: the Laughter Yoga and the CPR training. The Laughter Yoga is a weekly program of laughter yoga sessions for Drexel students. It uses laughter yoga techniques to reduce stress, strengthen the immune system and improve heart health. The CPR training project is being implemented to provide free CPR training for Drexel students. Since cardiac arrest in one of leading causes of death in the Unites States, performing CPR in time can save lives. We are promoting the benefits of being CPR trained and offering training for free by collaborating with the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University. As I continue to face roadblocks in successfully implementing the program, this experience has given me a deeper insight into understanding what it takes to make an effective contribution to the community. Through this experience, I uncovered the lack of awareness in our community for different kinds of medical issues. Moreover, it has allowed me to explore my own strengths as a leader and as an individual working in a team. Volunteering Experience I volunteered at Cooper Hospital for over a year from September 2014 to September 2015. Cooper Hospital is located in Camden, NJ, one of the cities with the highest rate of crime in the US. I chose to be part of the Cooper Emergency Department Academic Associate Program because I wanted to assist others in need and demonstrate my commitment and interest in the undeserved. During this program, I enrolled patients present in the Emergency Department in several studies, obtained informed consent and assisted them in completing a questionnaire and additional documentation. This experience gave me a whole new prospective on how emergency departments function and what can be done to better the system. I was in continuous contact with the doctors, attendings, nurses, techs and various patients, some of which were in pain, unable to talk or could not speak English. My main role was to serve as an academic associate and enroll patients in several studies. At first, since I had access to the hospital database, I screened all the patients eligible for the study and then I consulted with their attendings whether I could go and speak to them. I was part of several studies that included various age groups. One study was about the risks and knowledge of pediatric poisoning, which involved patients from the ages of 2 to 10 years old. For this study I interacted with the child's parent and asked them to fill a short survey. Another study was on the use of tablets for patients above 65 years old. In this study, I directly talked to the patients, who had to use a tablet. At first I had to explain them what the study was about and ask them if they agreed to be part of it. As easy as this may sound, it was often a struggle to make a point about the study and it's consequences on the patient itself. In addition, if I had free time, I tried to convince patients to quit smoking, if they expressed interest. I decided to volunteer because I wanted to make a change and give back to the community. I realize that my contribution is small, but I love helping others in any way I can. Working with patients can be difficult sometimes, but it is crucial to understand what they are going through and be patient. Most importantly, I learned that the quality of care we provide to them is what matters the most and what can really make an impact on the community.