Applications for International Student Chapter Leadership Development Travel Grants are now being accepted for the 2016 Annual Student Conference. The deadline is June 30. This award is intended to help international student chapter members grow as leaders to be come future global leaders. Up to eight travel grants will be awarded, thanks to the generous support of The AIChE Foundation. Learn more about this opportunity and submit your application. Following, Nesma Selim shares her experiences as a recipient last year.
The AIChE Annual Conference was a turning point in my life. It has sort of re-invented my passion for chemical engineering. I now feel that I am part of a bigger family, where each member of this family is somehow working to make the world a better place to live. I am really honored to have met people like John O'Connell and Allan McDonald. The experiences at the conference gave me a fresh perspective on how diverse chemical engineering is.
The conference kicked off with a keynote brunch where Allan McDonald gave a brief talk titled “Ethics Lessons Learned from the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster.” Seeing such a prominent and important personality was truly thrilling.
We were fortunate enough to be granted special access to a reception for AIChE leaders and leading staff. Hearing positive comments and appreciation from the board members and leaders in the field of chemical engineering at a reception at the Marriott was truly a confidence booster. I luckily got a chance to talk to Dr. John O'Connell for about an hour. All his advice and guidance are something I will treasure for a lifetime.
I seized every opportunity that the conference had to offer, whether it was talking to a professor doing some groundbreaking research, or attending workshops or seminars.
Moreover, the leadership session was truly amazing. It featured a talk by Alaina G. Levine, the author of the book entitled “Networking for Nerds.” This session made me realize the value of “proper networking” in STEM fields.
Furthermore, I enjoyed interacting with students from colleges all around the world. There were different workshops and forums organized for students. The energy and enthusiasm in these forums were commendable. The participants in these gatherings were confident in expressing their views and showed real professionalism in their personality, in addition to deep erudition in their subject matter areas. I admired their personality traits and wanted to emulate them.
I seized every opportunity that the conference had to offer, whether it was talking to a professor doing some groundbreaking research, or attending workshops or seminars. The graduate recruiting fair was a wonderful opportunity to talk to university representatives. Luckily most of the representatives were either postdocs or PhD candidates. I always had doubts, whether to pursue a PhD or not. Getting firsthand experience from PhD students was very helpful and helped me make a list of potential grad schools where I will apply.
The AIChE Annual Conference was a forum for understanding cultural difference where students would seek to compromise their differences and synergize their similarities and, finally, understand that changing the world is not just an exaggeration anymore.
Finally, I would like to thank the AIChE staff members for organizing the most amazing trip for travel grant winners. It truly was the trip of a lifetime! Everything went like clockwork, from check-in to arrival and then to departure. Thank you all for making it such a memorable experience for us all.
Also see the recent interview with Omeir as ChEnected's featured student for May 2016.