11 Skills and Attributes: Leading Change

Leadership Objective: Guide my committee members' visions into fruition

Activity: Promoting Undergraduate Research in Engineering (PURE) Committee Coordinator (2009)

Evidence: PURE Committee Meeting Minutes Emails (2009)

After participating in the PURE Committee in Spring 2009 and successfully executing the Research Presentations Workshop that I envisioned, the committee coordinator at the time met with me personally to prepare me to assume his position after his graduation. Being the PURE Committee Coordinator would enable me to lead the direction of an emergent undergraduate research program. I took on the position after knowing that I would have help.

A large number of students were interested in joining the committee for the 2009-2010 year. An assistant coordinator and I looked through the committee applicants and selected only a few candidates whom we believed to have a vision for PURE and the ability to commit to those visions. We met personally with each of the applicants we selected to help formulate a vision that he or she could realize within the semester with some help from other committee members. This committee format gave each member a goal to be held accountable to and loosely bound them to help other members.

As the Committee Coordinator, I set the format for the PURE Committee meetings and helped committee members share responsibilities while holding them accountable to their visions. The sharing of responsibilities included helping another committee member out when his or her schedule was too hectic and constructively criticizing each other's visions. Our committee accomplished many improvements to PURE with this synergy, despite the backing out of my assistant coordinator. Among the most notable visions realized by the PURE Committee 2009-2010 year were:

  • Expansion of PURE to the Department of Computer Science
  • Enhancement and transitioning of the Research Presentations Workshop for PURE mentees
  • Assessment of mentor and mentee feedback after each semester
  • Development of an interactive, informative, quick, and laissez-faire PURE wiki
  • Holding a session each semester for PURE mentees to have their presentations evaluated by a graduate student PURE Committee member before the PURE Symposium