Service
I find it vital to become a part of my community. In my last few years, ways in which I have done so include taking on a leadership role in a professional organization that is near and dear to me (SWE), being an active member of a group that encourages making connections and making the most of an Electrical and Computer Engineering graduate degree at Duke (EASE), co-founding and running an outreach program to allow high schoolers to better understand the opportunities that a degree in ECE could lead to (ECHO), and assistant coaching my local high school's track and field team (Eastern Alamance).
Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
As an undergraduate at MSOE, I was immensely involved in SWE. I served as the section Fundraising Chair, Vice President, and President. During my involvement, our section was recognized regionally and nationally for our professional development programs, membership retention, overall society-specific mission success, and mentorship programs.
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As a graduate student at Duke, I jumped at the opportunity to get involved when I discovered that a SWE regional conference (WE Local) was announced to be held in Raleigh, NC. Specifically, I was given the chance to serve as the WE Local Raleigh 2020 Marketing Subcommittee Liaison. I led the marketing efforts for this particular conference and got to have a voice in the overall conference management as a member of the general conference committee. This conference was successfully held in February of 2020, right before things shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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In addition to helping with WE Local Raleigh, I have made myself available to Duke's SWE section as they began to grow and get in good standing with SWE HQ. In the fall of 2021, I organized a Graduate School panel for the undergraduates of Duke SWE.
ECE Advocacy for Student Engagement (EASE)
At Duke, I have been involved in a graduate-led group that goes by the acronym EASE. This organization aims to build a community within the ECE department through hosting social, academic, wellbeing, and outreach events. It is through this group that I believe graduate students in our department can better build a supportive community to successfully navigate the stresses of completing their degree.
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Through EASE, I have participated as a mentor in their Mentorship program for two years. This role allowed me to connect with newer graduate students and provide any advice they may be seeking as they begin their studies.
ECE College-High School Opportunity (ECHO)
In my second year of graduate school, two other ECE graduate students and I proposed a new outreach program that came out of our department. I can't speak for all three of us, but I felt that as a high schooler I had accidentally found engineering even though it suits me and my strengths very well. Looking back, I wonder if others like me missed such a introduction to the field. Through our new program, we then hoped to minimize the risk of a missed introduction to engineering for high school students who are appropriately beginning to really put thought into what degrees they might pursue in college. After writing a proposal, being granted funding from the department, and working out many of the details, this program which is named the ECE College-High School Opportunity (ECHO) got postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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As time went on, it was clear that an in-person summer program was not going to be possible for a while, so we shifted gears and hosted a condensed, online, winter version of the program both in December of 2020 and January of 2022. This program was named ECHO Condensed. During the first year, we held informational lectures via Zoom to help share what a degree in ECE could lead to. In the second year, we used the platform Gather to make the experience more like an online academic conference where students could virtually attend informational sessions, talk to Duke ECE members, and view posters.
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This program has been an important project for me during my graduate career. It even gained some recognition from the university.
Assistant Track Coach at Eastern Alamance
Every year of my graduate career, I have found great joy in joining the coaching staff at Eastern Alamance High School in Mebane, NC to help student-athletes achieve their track-related goals. I primarily volunteer coach the team's hurdlers as my passion for track and field is strongest in this event.
I did run track in college. As an athlete, I managed to grab a few school records, conference championship titles, and make a couple of Academic All-American teams. After seeing what good coaching and hard, consistent work did for me, I found it natural to want to help others push their athletic limits in a similar fashion. As a coach, I have had many wonderful experiences that include coaching an NC state champion in the 300m hurdles and coaching an individual for their full four years with the program (dropping 3 seconds from her first race to her last in the 100m hurdles).