Activities
During my 3L year at Columbia, I’ll be serving as managing editor for the Columbia Science and Technology Law Review. My primary responsibilities are recruiting new staff, managing our finances, arranging all event logistics, and developing and maintaining relationships with publishers, alumni, sponsors, and other student groups.
During my 2L year I worked with the Columbia Tenants’ Rights Project..
Here are the activities I participated in during college:
Penn State Mac User Group (PSUMUG). I served as President of the group for 2005-06. PSUMUG is a student-run organization designed to build and maintain a community around my favorite computing platform. Along with the other members of the executive team, I put together meetings with great guest speakers, Mac news analysis, new technology demonstrations, and lessons on the finer points of Mac geekery. This was the second year of the club’s existence. We developed a great new Web site with a CMS/blog system, Wiki, and photo gallery, all designed with the goal of creating a true sense of community between the group members.
IST Future Forum. In Fall 2003 I began planning for the IST Future Forum, an event designed to bring together students, faculty, and company representatives for the purpose of exploring the future of IT. I worked with other students (I led a committee of about 15), faculty, and staff members to plan the event, create the registration system, contact company representatives and sponsors, handle logistics, order food and prizes, etc. The conference’s events, on April 23-24, 2004, were discussion panels, company information booths, a student consulting contest, a keynote address, and mock interviews. We drew an outstanding turnout – over 500 students!
I continued my work with the Future Forum for the 2005 event, which was even bigger, and filled nearly the entire IST building with 30 company tables and 14 panel sessions. Much more detail is available at the Web site listed above.
The Daily Collegian. In Fall 2002, I was a candidate for the Science and Health Staff of The Daily Collegian, Penn State’s student-run newspaper. Becoming a candidate involved passing a qualification test and having an interview with current staffers. While in the candidate program, I attended weekly sessions on various topics related to newspaper writing (ethics, style, libelous statements, etc.) and wrote articles for the Science and Health Section of the newspaper.
In Spring 2003 I returned as a full staff reporter. Being a writer for the paper is very time-intensive. The sci/health staff has meetings on Sunday night, planning ahead for the next several newspapers. I usually have one week to prepare my story before our section is printed every Tuesday. I interview at least two or three sources (professors, experts in the field, or even students) for every story that I write.
In Fall 2003 I returned yet again to the newspaper as a sci/health writer. This time I was the most experienced writer on the staff and really enjoyed being a Collegian “veteran.”
In Spring 2005 I changed my role, becoming a columnist. Each week I shared my opinions on technology current events, trends, strengths, and weaknesses. I have always loved writing, and I have always loved science, health, and technology, so this job was a perfect fit for me. It allowed me to stay abreast of the latest scientific developments, and was another way for me to network with people at Penn State.
Archives of my work can be found on my Articles page.
IST Student Government. This organization represents students in the College of Information Sciences and Technology. In Fall 2002 and Spring 2003, I served as Co-Chairman of the Ad-Hoc Constitutional Review Committee. The goal of our five-person committee was to completely re-write the government’s constitution, and we held bi-weekly writing sessions. I also served as a member of the Academic Committee, a forum for IST students to voice concerns about classes and make suggestions for the future. We would then relay student comments to the Dean of the College of IST, James Thomas.