Iva Milisavljevic
Iva is a fifth-year PhD student in Ceramic Engineering at Alfred University. Her research is focused on the technique of solid-state growth of single crystals. She has been a SWE member since 2019. Since then, she has served on the WE Local Advisory Board (LAB) and Program Development Grants (PDG) committees and contributed to SWE by assisting as the judge for different society-level awards. Iva enjoys doing yoga and different outdoor activities in her free time, especially hiking.
Special guest blogger alert!! We asked Iva to share her experiences as a member of the FY22 WE Local Advisory Board (LAB)
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Serving at the WE Local Advisory Board (LAB) as a graduate student has been an amazing experience for me so far and I think everyone should consider joining this SWE committee!
I joined LAB in 2021. Before that, I had never held an active role in the Society; I was just a member. However, over the course of my grad student years, I recognized the need to find a community that would support and provide me with what I did not have in my grad program or school. Needless to say, I felt very secluded in my program and cut off from the “real world”. And this feeling became even stronger during the pandemic. This was when I decided to take the initiative and become a more active member of SWE. However, I had never met anyone who could tell me about the opportunities for getting involved in SWE. I really had an amazing time during the annual 2019 SWE conference, so I thought it would be great if I could get involved in organizing such kinds of events. Luckily, I found out about the activities of LAB and everything they do, so I realized that this committee was a perfect fit for what I was looking for, and it was the ideal place to start my participation in the SWE.
WE LAB provides the guidance to the strategy and programming of the three WE Local conferences around the US, which to me (someone without much experience in SWE) seemed less intimidating or overwhelming than organizing the annual SWE conference - just because of the scale of it. I learned later that the WE Local conferences provide the same quality of content and experience as the annual conference, just at a smaller scale and in a more intimate setting, which I found very enjoyable. At the same time, my experience of working side-by-side with an incredible team of brilliant women from the LAB committee was extremely rewarding! All the LAB members come from different backgrounds and stages in their careers and life; however, altogether, they comprise a great and devoted team, successful in organizing such important events as the WE Local conferences.
There are different positions within the LAB, but the Collegiate Competition subcommittee member role was a natural choice, considering that I was a grad student. Besides this, there are several other subcommittees focused on programming, community relations, strategy and continuous improvement, and social events planning at the WE Local conferences. Any of the subcommittees is an excellent choice, which can provide you with a different set of skills, opportunities, and experiences, which are crucial for every grad student looking for improving a broad range of skills, including leadership, communication, networking, to name a few. Moreover, LAB encourages every member to develop and set their SMART goals for the course of their term, with frequent follow-ups, ensuring that each member achieves them and, in that way, feels content about serving on LAB.
The application process for serving on the LAB is pretty much the same as for any other SWE committee. The applicant should log in to the SmarterSelect platform and provide a paragraph or two on their motivation for joining LAB and their expectations of serving on this committee. The deadline for submitting the application for an FY23 LAB committee member is May 1st, 2022.
As an FY22 Collegiate Competition subcommittee member, my responsibilities were to take notes during the meetings and provide a summary after the meeting. Of course, I was also actively engaged in the discussions and planning of the competitions and everything that came along with it, including finding the judges for submitted abstracts, following up with them, finding judges for the onsite competitions, etc. Finally, I also offered to be the moderator of both undergraduate and graduate student competitions at WE Local Buffalo, which was a fantastic experience! Overall, my role did not require a significant amount of my free time, and I was able to accommodate most of my responsibilities into my busy grad student schedule.
I am truly grateful for my time spent serving on the WE LAB committee. For a shy and introverted person like me, I think this was an incredible experience, which has provided me with an opportunity to learn a lot and gain some new skills while being in such a safe environment. Most of all, it made me confident about myself and provided me with the support I was looking for.
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You too can be a part of a committee- you can learn about the other committee members beyond being on the LAB here and apply here by May 1st 2022.
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Serving at the WE Local Advisory Board (LAB) as a graduate student has been an amazing experience for me so far and I think everyone should consider joining this SWE committee!
I joined LAB in 2021. Before that, I had never held an active role in the Society; I was just a member. However, over the course of my grad student years, I recognized the need to find a community that would support and provide me with what I did not have in my grad program or school. Needless to say, I felt very secluded in my program and cut off from the “real world”. And this feeling became even stronger during the pandemic. This was when I decided to take the initiative and become a more active member of SWE. However, I had never met anyone who could tell me about the opportunities for getting involved in SWE. I really had an amazing time during the annual 2019 SWE conference, so I thought it would be great if I could get involved in organizing such kinds of events. Luckily, I found out about the activities of LAB and everything they do, so I realized that this committee was a perfect fit for what I was looking for, and it was the ideal place to start my participation in the SWE.
WE LAB provides the guidance to the strategy and programming of the three WE Local conferences around the US, which to me (someone without much experience in SWE) seemed less intimidating or overwhelming than organizing the annual SWE conference - just because of the scale of it. I learned later that the WE Local conferences provide the same quality of content and experience as the annual conference, just at a smaller scale and in a more intimate setting, which I found very enjoyable. At the same time, my experience of working side-by-side with an incredible team of brilliant women from the LAB committee was extremely rewarding! All the LAB members come from different backgrounds and stages in their careers and life; however, altogether, they comprise a great and devoted team, successful in organizing such important events as the WE Local conferences.
There are different positions within the LAB, but the Collegiate Competition subcommittee member role was a natural choice, considering that I was a grad student. Besides this, there are several other subcommittees focused on programming, community relations, strategy and continuous improvement, and social events planning at the WE Local conferences. Any of the subcommittees is an excellent choice, which can provide you with a different set of skills, opportunities, and experiences, which are crucial for every grad student looking for improving a broad range of skills, including leadership, communication, networking, to name a few. Moreover, LAB encourages every member to develop and set their SMART goals for the course of their term, with frequent follow-ups, ensuring that each member achieves them and, in that way, feels content about serving on LAB.
The application process for serving on the LAB is pretty much the same as for any other SWE committee. The applicant should log in to the SmarterSelect platform and provide a paragraph or two on their motivation for joining LAB and their expectations of serving on this committee. The deadline for submitting the application for an FY23 LAB committee member is May 1st, 2022.
As an FY22 Collegiate Competition subcommittee member, my responsibilities were to take notes during the meetings and provide a summary after the meeting. Of course, I was also actively engaged in the discussions and planning of the competitions and everything that came along with it, including finding the judges for submitted abstracts, following up with them, finding judges for the onsite competitions, etc. Finally, I also offered to be the moderator of both undergraduate and graduate student competitions at WE Local Buffalo, which was a fantastic experience! Overall, my role did not require a significant amount of my free time, and I was able to accommodate most of my responsibilities into my busy grad student schedule.
I am truly grateful for my time spent serving on the WE LAB committee. For a shy and introverted person like me, I think this was an incredible experience, which has provided me with an opportunity to learn a lot and gain some new skills while being in such a safe environment. Most of all, it made me confident about myself and provided me with the support I was looking for.
-------------------------------------------
You too can be a part of a committee- you can learn about the other committee members beyond being on the LAB here and apply here by May 1st 2022.
