I'm extremely interested in serving on a University Committee this year, for several reasons. As an undergrad, I became aware of how much decisions at the university level affect student life in significant ways--from basketball tickets to eprint stations to regulations regarding recognition of student organizations to student fee changes. As the president of the Society of Physics students at my undergraduate institution, I saw how changes in those policies affected both the students I knew, and most other students on campus as well. Thus, when I came to grad school, I was determined to get even more involved. Last year (my first year in graduate school here at Duke), I attended all the GPSC meetings and got involved as much as I could--I assisted the Communication Coordinator where I could, I served on the President's special committee, the GPSC Green Team, where we successfully managed to lobby administration and get a donation of 100 recycle bins for graduate students to use in their offices. I also was an active member of the GPSC Community Outreach committee, and attended several events and organized getting GPSC CO t shirts. Finally, I traveled to DC and lobbied for the rights of graduate students nationwide during the NAGPS Legislative Action Days conference in DC.

All of the above GPSC experience should help me be an effective GPSC representative on the Duke University Alumni Board. Also, as a resident of Chapel Hill for years, a UNC-CH grad, and a future Duke alum, I'm already connected to several Duke alumni, and feel like I can understand their concerns. Furthermore, as indicated above, I already have some experience with talking to legislators and Duke administrators, so I think I can effectively lobby on student's behalf.

I intend to continue serving on the GPSC Green Team, and continue to try to find ways to improve and help sustainability efforts on campus. However, if I could serve on the Environmental Management Advisory Committee, this would allow me to pursue this in an even more effective fashion--with my knowledge that I can draw on from both experiences, I'll be able to better evaluate the feasibility of sustainability measures, and better advocate these measures to the relevant people within the Duke administration.

Finally, I have a good understanding of technology issues--I was a physics major as an undergraduate, so I was exposed to a fair amount of computer programming there. After graduation, I worked at IBM for a year and a half, in a major web hosting organization within IBM. Thus, I got to appreciate some of the complexities of the operation of a major IT organization. If I could serve on the Information Technology Council, this understanding of technology related issues should help me represent Graduate student interests well.

No, I did not sit on a university committee last year.

-President of Society of Physics Students at undergraduate institution

-Am current GPSC Rep, and attended all GPSC meetings last year as well

-Member of GPSC Green Team, which managed to implement a recycling program in which 100 recycle bins were donated to graduate students.

-Assisted GPSC Communications Coordinator last year

-Active member of GPSC Community Outreach committee.

-Lobbied for rights of graduate students at NAGPS Legislative Action Days in Washington, DC last year.

During the October meeting, the head of the committee laid out goals for this year and the members were asked to pick a sub-committee to serve on.

I wanted to serve on the water conservation sub-committee but haven't had any responses from the administration despite many efforts.