By Annabelle Ng
Despite the long flight to Salt Lake City from Singapore, the conference proved to be a memorable and meaningful experience. The conference events were very useful in developing our skills and leadership abilities as chemical engineers. During the Student Chapter Leadership Session, I had a discussion with a group of other international chapter leaders, which was useful as international chapters that have just started out, such as our chapter, face similar challenges.
The talk regarding networking was also interesting and the speaker provided good material which we could share with the students back home about the importance of networking. A talk by speakers from a chemical company was also useful in helping us understand what companies are looking for in prospective employees. One of the speaker's role was to work with universities to ensure that graduates have the skills the industry requires, and this was also particularly interesting as each university should also be interested in knowing how they can better partner with industry to produce graduates with the skills industry needs most.
The conference provided rare opportunities for me to get in touch with chemical engineering students from other countries...
The opening brunch was another event I really enjoyed. We had learnt about Allan McDonald from our engineering ethics class and hearing him speak live about the Challenger disaster was really exciting. Besides attending the main events, the conference provided rare opportunities for me to get in touch with chemical engineering students from other countries as well as renowned people from the chemical engineering field. I had many opportunities to interact with the other travel grant awardees, making many friends, and also spending an afternoon with our sister chapter's leaders from Purdue University.
During my stay there, I also had the chance to meet many people who have contributed much to the field of chemical engineering and AIChE. It was inspiring seeing so many like-minded staff and volunteers for AIChE and working to make it better even though it took much effort and time outside of their work. It also opened my eyes to the numerous opportunities we have to work with the other chapters and to get help from them, should the need arise. Furthermore, attending the conference helped us build relationships with other chemical engineers, AIChE staff and students for future collaboration. Speaking to those with experience also helped us glean wisdom from the advice they gave us and the stories they shared. It was really enjoyable getting to speak to them at length and seeing their sincerity in wanting to get to know us better too.
Last but not least, the AIChE staff members who planned our trip were extremely warm and helpful in welcoming us to the US. They made our stay all the more wonderful and I am grateful for everyone who has made this trip possible.
