During my years as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I held roles in the Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers, my department's representative group for its own graduate students; the Graduate Student Council, which represented graduate students across the institute; and on Institute Committees. Please see the below for more details on select positions.

Select roles held are:

  • Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition, Co-Organizer

  • Stipend Committee 2016, graduate student member

  • Graduate Student Housing Working Group, Implementation Team (Institute Committee)

  • Peer counselor, Department of Mechanical Engineering

 
 
 

Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition - Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers

Co-organizer, 2016

The Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition (MERE) is an annual event for MIT Mechanical Engineering Department students to showcase their work to other students, faculty and alumni.

  • The goals of MERE is to strengthen department community and sense of unity. In addition to three rounds of presenters, this event also featured a scavenger for first year graduate students and culminated in a keynote speech by John Hirschtick, founder and former CEO of Solidworks, founder and CEO of Onshape.

    • Collarated with co-chairs to determine milestones for 7-month timeline

    • Delegated tasks to group members according to interests and commitments

    • Developed budget (> $25k). Presented budget at a department faculty meeting, where I explained specific line items, justifications, and constraints.

    • Regularly met with faculty mentor to provide updates committee progress

    • Spearheaded effort to develop ideas that increase the non-monetary value of the exhibition to department faculty, student presenters, and audience members.

Graduate Student Representative

Graduate Student Housing Working Group and Implementation Team, MIT

August 2017 - September 2019, Graduate Student member

  • The goal of the working group, as described in the August 2018 Final Report:

    In August 2017, Chancellor Cynthia Barnhart charged the Graduate Student Housing Working Group (the “working group”) with assessing how housing availability and graduate student housing needs have changed since the completion of the 2014 Clay Report. Based on this, the group was asked to explore options for matching graduate student housing demand with different housing types, locations, costs, and timelines for bringing new units online. The exploration considered expected costs and benefits to graduate students and to MIT, while also taking into account the 250-net new graduate student units under construction in Kendall Square.

  • My responsibility as a graduate student representative was to 1) represent the graduate student body's views during meetings and negotiations and 2) contribute to the housing data collection process and analysis work. To this end, some of my contributions were:

    • Examined student housing feedback. Presented summary of feedback to the group showing the relative importance of needs. Summary used to develop graduate housing expansion recommendations that addressed student needs and reduced housing operations revenue shortfalls

    • Participated in focus group studies to understand graduate student priorities when selecting housing

    • Collaborated successfully with leadership in MIT Housing administration and leadership in several graduate student dorms to pilot housing strategies that improved student satisfaction while increasing the occupancy rate. and an increased occupancy rate in existing residences.

  • Interim Report - October 13, 2017

    Final Report - August 2018

    MIT News: MIT builds new apartment-style residence

 

Graduate Student Peer Counseler, REFS - Resources for Easing Friction and Stress

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jan 2019 - August 2021

Website for ME REFS

Peer Counselor for graduate students in Department of Mechanical Engineering. Provided confidential conflict and stress management support to a Mechanical Engineering graduate community of >500 students. Completed 40-hour course in conflict management, coaching and formal mediation training.

 

Other

Graduate Association of Mechanical Engineers (GAME)

  • Coffee Chair - 2014 - 2015

  • Industry Liason Chair - 2014 - 2015

  • GAME representative on Graduate Student Council 2014 - 2018

Graduate Student Council

  • Stipend Committee 2016