Undergraduate BE Board:Elections

Elections for the 2013 BE Undergraduate Board are today at the end of semester study break on Wednesday December 12th.

Positions

• President:

Faculty go-to person, runs the board and bi-weekly BE meetings

Jenny Van & Jonathan Chien

We're Jenny and Jonathan, and we're running as co-Presidents for the BE board! We've both helped run the FPOP the past two years; Jenny has served as Vice President and experience in BE-BMES, and Jonathan is also majoring in Course 6, so we both have ideas of how to improve Course 20 from both inside and outside the major. We're planning to bring you more study breaks, solicit student feedback of how to improve the Course 20 experience, and make sure your board is efficient and active.

Jenny and Jon

• Vice President:

A little of everything, responsible for coordinating FPOP

Denise Neibloom

My name is Denise (Nikki) Neibloom and I would like to be the next Vice President of the BE Board. The duties of the Vice President primarily center around the FPOP. After participating in Discover Biological Engineering as an incoming freshmen and then subsequently serving as an FPOP counselor my sophomore year, I would like to take a more active role in planning and running the FPOP. The goal of the event is to get incoming freshmen excited about biological engineering, whether it is to show incoming MIT students how interesting Course 20 can be or to retain those freshmen who come into MIT already interested in the biological engineering field. I am always willing to help the President out in any way possible and look forward to helping plan study break for Course 20 undergraduates. I want to be part of the BE board in order to become more active in the Course 20 undergraduate community and connect with other students in my major.

Samantha Alvarez

Hello, my name is Samantha Alvarez and I am running for the Vice President position in the BE Undergraduate Board. Now that I’m a junior I find that I am invested in the BE major (there’s no turning back after surviving the 20.320/20.109 combination) and really want to make course 20 a more involved major here at MIT. The easiest way to improve this is to make the undergraduate board more unified and connected to the undergraduate population. I want to take the cobwebs out of our wiki page, spruce up the bi-weekly meetings, and actually involve all of you, the students, including myself. I believe in creating a more close-knit course 20 family because let’s face it, we’re all in this together. In unison with the rest of the board I want to seal the gaps between the classes and create an environment that fosters interaction, community, involvement, and above all, fun. When I first arrived on campus as a freshman the first experience I ever had in biological engineering was the FPOP and that got me pumped for the major. If offered this position I look forward to coordinating the FPOP program for the next class and for the growth of course 20 to come. Plus I’m pretty responsible, reliable, and enthusiastic. What more could you ask for? Happy voting and good luck with finals, -Sam

Edgar Aranda-Michel

Hey guys,

My name is Edgar Aranda-Michel and im interested in running for VP. I really enjoy course 20 and want to make more of a difference in the course here at MIT. Apart from this, the main reason i want to be VP is to organize the FPOP. I took the FPOP when i was just a frosh here and then i was a counselor here last year. And just enjoyed the whole expereince. I have seen the program progress and improve just in the short time ive been involved and i want to be a main driving force behind it improving even more.

I am quite good at organizing events, managing time, and havning a good time. Also im all about getting as many people interested in course 20 and to take an active part in course 20. I feel that VP is the best way at this point for me to do that.

• Secretary:

Takes minutes, adds notes to wiki, reserves rooms for meetings

Katie Bodner

Hi Course 20! My name is Katie Bodner, and I'm a sophomore running for Secretary of the BEUB.

Currently on campus, I UROP in the Weiss Lab in the Synthetic Biology center, and I was a part of MIT's 2012 iGEM team. This experience has tremendously helped me develop both leadership skills and teamwork skills as well as learn how to manage my time effectively. Additionally, I just ended my term as Maseeh's freshmen representative on Maseeh's Exec board and am currently an Associate Advisor for freshmen. I have a passion for helping people and for making a difference, and I put my full effort into everything I do. In my short time on campus so far, I have learned a lot about how to work with a group to set and achieve goals. I'm very interested in and excited about the future of course 20, as it is still a new major, and I have many ideas. I would like to see us come together more as a major, for upperclassmen to get to know underclassmen, to get more freshmen interested early on for the right reasons and in general, to get more people excited about BE! I would also like to help more student feedback reach the faculty, so that we can all have the opportunity to develop our major, since it is still so new. Of course, these are only a few things out of many that we could accomplish, and I would always be open to suggestion. I'm very organized, and for the reasons stated above, I think I'd make a great secretary on the BE Undergrad Board.

Thank you for your time.

• Treasurer:

Orders food, budgets events, handles merchandise, all other pecuniary needs

Matthew Hung

Hello, Course 20! My name is Matthew Hung, and I’m running for treasurer of the BE Undergraduate Board. This past year I have served as the treasurer for the Board, student research chair of BE-BMES, and I have come to embrace Course 20 even further as an associate advisor. For those of you who have been in Course 20 long enough, I’m sure you noticed there has been a dramatic increase in the number of study breaks once I took on those responsibilities. I wish to continue managing the budget and feeding your bellies with Chipotle and Chinese food with an even greater frequency in the upcoming year :) As always, you can count on me to be responsible and fulfill my duties. I hope to ease your academic life with noms in the upcoming year :D

• Campus Relations

Responsible for communicating with the student body, emails, and publicizing events

Mira Moufarrej

Publicizing events and helping plan them is something I've always enjoyed. In high school, I helped plan junior prom at a hotel and subsequently advertise for it by decorating the school, making invitations, and making a video to play in the hallway. Senior year I planned and publicized bonding events in a similar fashion. I love planning events and making them be a success and publicizing has a lot to do with that. I'm willing to work hard and I'd love to get involved with the department. :)

Karinna Vivanco

I am running for Campus Relations because I would really like to get more involved in the MIT BE community and help represent student interests to the department. As for qualifications, in the past year, I was elected to Next House Exec and served as the Vice President of Relations. In addition to helping run all dorm events, I managed 8 student groups and room reservations within the dorm. I also moderated dorm-wide house meetings once a month, preparing discussion agendas and ordering food. I am currently the logistics captain of MIT Constructs, a popping dance group, where I help encourage and support my fellow dancers, as well as organize practices and group trips. My experiences have taught me team-building skills as well as event planning. I would be honored if given an opportunity to serve on the BEUB. Thanks!