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Hello and welcome to another episode of Undercooled. Today, we're going to hear from some, one of our material science undergraduates, and I am really excited about this episode. So, Tim, why don't you introduce Alexa? Sure. It's so good to have a student on the show instead of just old people sitting around and having opinions. So, this is Alexa.
I will ask her to talk a little bit about herself, but the first thing I'll spoil is that she is the president of our student society and materials, the Michigan Material Society. So, I've done a lot of work with her in that role over the last couple of years, just getting our students being part of a community. So, we're here to get all her secrets about how to make that happen. Yeah, Alexa, welcome to the show. Hi. Happy to be here. I have a student perspective.
Yeah. Well, let's start just by hearing a little bit about you. Tell us about yourself. Why did you become an MSE major? Where did you come from? Why are you here? Yeah. So, I think my journey into MSE was not the typical journey, so to speak. I actually started out in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. I transferred into the School of Engineering after my freshman year of college. I went to high school in Denver, Colorado. I'm originally from there.
In high school, I always knew I liked math, I liked science, particularly chemistry and physics, were my favorite types of science. I know I didn't want to do something like bio or psychology, but I also was really interested in doing things with people. So, something like law or policy was really interesting to me because I really liked doing a research style reading. I liked reading a lot of things and then making analysis on those readings and talking about my findings in that way.
And so, when I first came to college, I was like, okay, I'm probably going to try to do this law thing. But I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do. So, I was like, okay, maybe econ is a math type law thing. So, I was taking calculus and chemistry, as well as some LSA classes, and in conjunction with that, as well as with COVID and everything happening my freshman year, I realized that I didn't actually want to take the law and policy classes that I was taking.
I took Orgo, it was actually one of my favorite classes. And I thought math and doing that type of problem solving was really something that I was good at. And so, I decided to transfer into the School of Engineering. I don't know, engineering was never really something that I had considered. I just kind of fell into place. I originally thought I wanted to do chemical engineering. So, when I transferred, I started in chemical engineering. - Of course.
- I feel like that's a pretty typical sentiment from the material scientists, because I was like, I like Orgo, I like chemistry, this is probably what I'm going to like doing. So, my first semester in the College of Engineering, I took engineering 101 and then Mat Sci 220. And I remember thinking that my professor wasn't great. We didn't really click. - We won't name names. - No, but then I was like, I actually really liked what I'm learning.
And so, because I don't like the professor, but I'm actually still so interested in what I'm learning, like I think this is what I want to study. So, it was like a good giveaway. And I just didn't end up even taking any chemical engineering classes. And so, yeah, I just ended up in material science. It was like end of my sophomore year when I had like fully declared. And yeah, so it was kind of a last minute decision, but I'm happy to be here. - And you've been one of us ever since.
- Yeah. - So, glad to have you on the team. Yeah, you know, that's something we hear, I think quite a lot from students is, I liked chemistry in high school. So, I became a chemical engineer, and then I found out I wasn't doing chemistry in chemical engineering. And so, some of them find their way here. - Chemical. (indistinct) - So, as I spoiled earlier, one of your many roles in the department is being the MMS president.
And can you also give the audience a little bit of background on what student life is like here in MSE for that matter, but particularly in MMS, what students in MMS are doing right now and how that connects into plans that you have for what the organization might do next. - Yeah, so I think particularly the material science and engineering department at the University of Michigan is super tight knit. I think MMS is a big part of that.
We obviously have a really small major and everybody kind of gets to know everyone, especially junior year when people are taking thermodynamics, kinetics, and then the two lab classes, everyone's taking them all at the same time. And so, MMS is kind of like the social pairing to that.
We do a lot of different social events and then as well as weekly luncheons so people can kind of take their classroom learning and hear from industry speakers, kind of as an idea of like, okay, I'm getting this MSE degree, like what the heck do I do with it after I graduate? It's a really good perspective for students.
So I would say that generally is what MMS is there for and kind of the reason that I chose to get involved is when I joined MSE my sophomore year, I really was deciding that I wanted to fully commit to this new community that I was a part of and I thought if I ran for a board position, that would be a really good way to get involved. My junior year I was the outreach chair of MMS and then I ended up becoming president this year, my senior year.
And so after joining MMS, seeing like the way that it run and understanding kind of the role that it has in students' lives, again, being like a social outlet so people can know each other, not just in a classroom setting, but also in a social setting and then also like being kind of one of the key ways to connect classroom learning to real life. I decided to like take those things and I was like, okay, how can we create things?
How can we create different offerings to students that are going to enhance the reasons that a student might wanna join MMS? - That's great and I really, I tried as much as I can to go to MMS lunch and I really enjoy it, but I'm very impressed with the speakers that you've been bringing in this year. You bring in many people from industry, most of them are usually alums and sometimes you even bring alums who aren't gonna hire people but just have really interesting stories.
So maybe you can talk about some of the people that you've brought in that you're kind of the most proud of. - Yeah, I'm definitely very proud of a lot of the speakers we've had. It's hard because there's just been so many. Yeah, we've brought in several alums. Recently we had Rossalyn Quaye and she has had like such a cool career. She does law and policy in the utility industry after completing dance schooling.
So that is so cool and just such a unique path that I thought students could really learn from because we've had a lot of industry speakers in as well. So we've had General Motors and General Electric. - And General Mills, just to finish out the general trilogy. - General Mills, General Mills, my 482 project sponsor. - Nice. - Yeah. - And you have a tape company coming in tomorrow. - We do.
So I thought that would be kind of interesting for people to get more in the consumer goods because we haven't done a lot of that. We have NASA coming this semester. They haven't come in like years. So that's really exciting. People are really excited for that. And Apple also is coming. Nike. We do try to like hit the big name brands and then like obviously some smaller things too. We had like a couple of like heat treatment or we've got Medtronic coming in.
So like kind of the medical devices as well. Yeah, just all sorts of things. We also had like our department chair, Professor Holm, she came in and like gave a talk about counterfeit money. And so that was really cool because she's brand new to the department and we wanted to give her an opportunity to like speak to the student body. And so that was a cool luncheon as well. - Yeah, a lot of students get internships just by going to MMS lunch and staying after and talking to the people.
So I think it's like every week is another job fair and material science. And it's all because of the hard work that you've done and the rest of your team. And so, as a faculty member, as the advisor, I am very, very grateful that our students are getting more and more opportunities for, you know, summer internships beyond just our regular job fairs. But we also have our own MSE job fair that I think you guys run as well. Is that right?
- So the MSE career fair is run by MMS students, but it's not particularly like a board opportunity. This past year, Haley Whelan and Sabrina both planned it. - Yeah. So there's so much great stuff that we get to enjoy on the receiving side of MMS. Here's these speakers, here's these lunches, here's these professional development opportunities. But on the inside, I'm sure you've had to do some heavy lifting to make this happen.
So, you know, without getting too into the weeds, I guess, were there any particular challenges that you've experienced as a student leader in this sort of setting? Because I'm sure anyone out there who's tried to organize more than two people has found out that that's not always easy. So what are some of those situations that have come up in MMS and how did you handle those? - Well, I think that the first thing that I realized was I really need to trust my board.
My initial thought process about running a board was like, oh, I wanna be really chill and I want it to be low activation energy to do the work. And then I realized that's actually not what I want at all. Like this is a community that I really care about.
And so the first week that I was president, I had each person write a one page document to me saying all of the goals that they wanna accomplish the year, things that they need from me, what they think their idea of success is within their role and specifically what they want MMS to work towards, like what they think that our goals should be towards. And then from there, I really give them autonomy because they know what their goals are, they know what they wanna accomplish.
And then it just really lets me like trust my board. Like it's consistent. Like I know the weekly email will go out every week. Like I know Laura is doing like outreach stuff. I know like someone's gonna be at the open house. I know that things are gonna get taken care of. And so that could only ever happen by having a board that I trust, that I let feel like they have the opportunity to make a difference in the way they wanna make a difference.
And also that by extension, like they can bring things up to me. I'll take it, I'll listen to it, I'll kind of adjust what I'm doing based on feedback that they have. And so that initially definitely helped when it came to coming across issues. But of course, like as a board, there's also been a lot of issue, like just things come up in general, it always will if you're trying to run a student org.
So like for example, we tried to plan like a pretty big DEI event and there was like a lot of issues with the room reservations. We got a bunch of speakers first semester and the room didn't work and following up, we couldn't figure out how to exactly target who we wanted. We wanted like freshmen engineering students, but we didn't have like high signup. And so we had to move it virtual like two days before.
And that just was really frustrating because it just didn't quite turn out the way I wanted to. But it was something where like, when I just really was stuck and I was like still marketing it and still like trying my best. Like it was like my board members who were like, okay, like let me give a suggestion, let's do it virtual. Let's do this. We can move to make an in-person experience like next semester or next year.
Like I think just having those people to rely on is really helpful because it's like, they know how much I care about things. They know I would never ask them to do something that I wouldn't do myself. And so like that also kind of builds trust there too. - Yeah, it sounds like the internal dynamic is really productive, really good. Everyone having a role, everyone having ways to contribute. Is MMS doing anything externally with other student societies?
Is there any like collaboration there that gives you opportunities to reach a broader audience? - So we've had a couple of social events with some of the other student orgs on campus. We had a volleyball tournament for semester with three other student orgs that are kind of like the MMS equivalent for some of the other departments. We participate in the SWE engineering games. So that was kind of a way to meet a lot of other student orgs and participate in their event.
And then additionally, there's been a lot of stuff behind the scenes. So we've reached out to student orgs like BME and SWE, and we've talked to them about doing things, but it's just kind of like building those relationships and then we'll just see what kind of comes from it. - Very good. - Yeah, so you also are planning trips to industry. You also have incredible social gatherings like your bar crawls, and you also go to some national conferences. Can you talk about some of those things?
- Yes, absolutely. So we're doing a trip to the Cleveland Cliffs Steel Mill in March in Dearborn, and we're getting funding through AIST, which is one of the national organizations. And that's really exciting because I actually got to pair with one of our faculty, Professor Marquis, and she's making it a requirement for her class. So we're gonna have really good attendance. - 470?
- Yes. - Good. - But I've also, before I planned it, I really was like, "I don't wanna plan this if people don't wanna do it." So I asked my board members, I was like, "Would you guys go to this?" I pulled some of the juniors. I was like, "Is this something that people "would actually go to?" And I got a lot of feedback that they would. And so we're working on transportation and food for that now. So that's kind of exciting.
And then kind of in terms of some of the other things you mentioned, our social events, we had a food progressive Thursday night, a couple of weeks ago, and actually the following luncheon the next day was the highest attendance luncheon we'd ever had. - Great. - So we were all out super late at the food progressive together, and then we all were there the next day at the luncheon. - Managed to wake up by noon and show up for lunch.
- Yeah, I think something about like, you being like, "Oh my gosh, everyone, "thanks for coming, welcome to my house. "Such a fun time getting to know everyone, "and I will see you all tomorrow." And it worked. So that was pretty good. And then, yeah, like social events, the industry tour is different. Something also new that we did this year was the MSC undergraduate orientation.
So we did that in fall and winter where all of the new declares from the past semester got together, we gave them food, talked to them a little bit about MSC, the insider perspective, so to speak. These are the electives you could take, like these are the classes you could consider. This is what you might wanna consider for your career. Prospects, we got feedback first semester, directly implemented it into the second semester orientation.
And it's been a good way, like the sophomores have been coming more to the luncheon. They've been interacting more with the juniors, who have been interacting more with the seniors. I've seen a lot more interaction between the classes, and then I've had more attendance at the luncheon by extension from those two groups as well. - That's fantastic.
I do have to ask off script here, but as part of the food prog, were people required to apply the structure processing properties paradigm to their culinary creations? - Not a requirement, but highly encouraged. - Okay, well, we'll work on that for next year. - On the other hand, I think that one of their next events, you have to come dressed as your favorite element. - Yes, the bar crawl coming up, dressed as your favorite element, wigs are encouraged.
- I'll have to figure out what a molybdenum wig looks like. All right, yeah, of course. - So what about actually going to national conferences? Because I know we've been able to send a lot of people. I even saw you at MS&T. - I was able to attend MS&T. I was able to present my research. Actually, the coolest part about MS&T is I went to the chapter officer workshop and I got contacts for the other material advantage chapters.
We haven't really touched on this, but MMS is also a material advantage chapter. So I'm technically the chair for Michigan Material Advantage. But I got to meet people from other schools and figure out what they'd been doing. And we got to talk to them about things we had been working on, the way that they get funding, the events that they put on. And so that was really cool. Plus the ability to present research. And yeah, MMS has funding to do that.
And we're also sending one student to TMS in Orlando. I believe it's Orlando. - Orlando. - Yeah, this semester. So yeah, we really have, I'm so grateful. Like we have the connections that we do in the department and with again, the different societies, ASM, TMS, all of them. So yeah, that allows us to get funding. And then on top of that, you know, COE, the like SOFC, which is the student funding through COE. But yeah.
- And I think a lot of our alums also contribute to be able to send students to conferences. - It's a super great opportunity. I think conferences, like obviously they're kind of coming back new off of COVID. So I would say like the attendance at the conference aren't as high. Like I remember going to MS&T and like, there were some schools that brought like 20 plus students. - Wow. - Yeah, it's crazy. - So this is actually a perfect segue to my next question.
As your, as students are going to these conferences, meeting more people in MSE from other schools and in professional societies, you start to get a sense of what is special about MSE as a field, as a community. And I'm wondering if there's anything on the student organization side that you think is special about MMS as a group of MSE students that makes it different in some way from maybe more generic or more broadly reaching student orgs.
- So are you talking about MMS in comparison to other material science student orgs or just student orgs in general? - Just in general, like you've mentioned working with SWE, for example, and they have this huge umbrella, for all engineers essentially, whereas MMS I think is a lot more focused in who it's trying to reach. And so I'm curious if you think there's something different in that experience of having a more like narrow audience in a way. - I feel like we have a stronger community.
I think SWE, like the way that they get a lot of attendance is they have to incentivize people with points and with kind of flashy things. Whereas like a lot of the MSC people I've talked to, they're like, I'll be there. Like it doesn't need to be, like obviously we offer food, we offer like things, but people will just be there because their friends will be there because their community will be there.
And I think particularly our student organization is really good at being like, I don't know, building each other up. We're not competitive with each other. We're all super, super helpful to each other. Like Steve was talking about the luncheons are, you can literally find an internship, going to the conferences, there are so many talks by different professors.
If you were looking for a PhD person to be your PI, if you were to pursue a PhD, there's just that culture of support and that culture of like, we're all taking the same classes, we're all in this together. We're not competing for jobs. You can do anything with an MSE degree. There's no competition. There's no, we are competing for a grade or for a job. We're all just trying to help each other. And people, I guess, showing up to the MMS events is like kind of a way to do that.
And so I think that's a super unique thing about our department that, yeah, is not the same as other student orgs at our school or other schools. - That's really great to hear from the student perspective. It's something that I want to believe that I'm seeing from the faculty perspective, but I want to see it. So is it real? It's really great to hear students feel like they're having that experience of we're building each other up together.
- That's certainly one of my priorities when I teach is how to be as inclusive as possible. And the best way to be inclusive is to work with the students so they help each other. How can you get even more inclusive than that? So it is awesome that all of our faculty are also, have all bought into this idea. We don't grade on curves. We want everybody to get an A if they possibly can.
And so there shouldn't be any competition and it is really wonderful to hear from you that you don't feel like there's competition because there should not be competition in our program. This is all about helping everybody be the most they possibly can. - Absolutely. - Definitely not. It's so collaborative. Honestly, like MSE is like Michigan's best kept secret. Like people are so, so collaborative and so helpful and so friendly.
The community is just, that is the best part about this department for sure. - All right. Well, hopefully we blow the lid off that secret and get some more faces around here. As we move into the second half of the show, I want to switch gears a little bit. Now that you are a person with experience, almost done with school, congratulations.
You probably have some perspective on the last couple of years and what you've learned, but also I think there's some really good advice that you could have to offer different people in the audience just based on the experiences you've had. So first, we'll go straight to the most spicy question. Faculty are not always necessarily entirely aware of what student life and student perspective is like. So if you could choose just one message to get across, what's that one?
I wish faculty knew that this aspect of student life is what it's like so that we can understand better what you're experiencing and where you're coming from. - I do think the biggest thing is I wish faculty kept the student perspective in mind when, designing curriculum, assigning homework. Students want things that will encourage them to learn.
They want to feel like, you have to remember the reason they signed up for the class in the first place because they thought that this topic was interesting and they probably want to hear about the topic in the context of what they can do with it after they graduate. And they want to learn about the topic in the context of a really cool research paper or a really cool way you can apply it. That's maybe not something you would think of initially.
And then that goes the same with homework and assignments. It's like everything should have a purpose. I think that's like the biggest thing. Like every group assignment, every like homework assignment, like the goal should be, I want them to learn this concept from this. I want them to understand like this aspect of group work from this.
And I think like when you have a purpose like that to like what you're doing, what you're teaching, it's a lot easier to get the students excited about what you're teaching them and what you're assigning them to do because they can see beyond the grade, beyond the class. - That's wonderful. Takes me back to good old days of some of our physics problems of, now we're going to solve the hydrogen atom. Why? Because it can be done.
And because I solved the hydrogen atom, so now you're going to solve the hydrogen atom. - Yes, but you're glad that they had you do that instead of the helium atom because that's very, very much harder to do. - Yeah, that's a story for another day. - Yes. - On the other side of the experience continuum, what would you say to like a freshman or a sophomore? You know, someone who's closer to the start of the college journey and it's the classic sort of, if you could talk to freshman you, right?
What do you wish she had known that you could pass on to someone who's just getting started? - I think that freshman year, the most important thing is to take care of yourself first. Make sure that you're making time to do things that will keep you in check. Save time to study and to do your laundry and to make friends and don't overwhelm yourself. Don't feel like you have to do it all at once. And make sure you're keeping the end goal in mind.
So like for me, I knew I really wanted to do research in college and that was something I knew I really wanted to do. And so I got involved in UROP and then I didn't love it. And then when I joined MSE, like I got involved in research but it wasn't like, I felt like I had to do everything all at once. I mean, I kind of did, but that mindset just like didn't help me. I felt like I was behind or like, I just had to do everything. It's not like high school, you can't do everything.
Like it's much better to prioritize things that make you happy to make sure that you have like things in your life. Like everything has a specific thing you're leaning towards because college is again, not like high school. You can do everything. There's so many opportunities for you. So you really have to like be introspective and understand what's important to you and how to spend your time because yeah, like college can go by really fast.
And so you need to know what skills you want to gain and what specific experiences are most important and prioritize those. - That's great advice. I should apply that to my own life. We'll see if that helps me out with a few things. - So I was wondering, I've been experimenting with using instructional aids and it's actually given me great insight into our undergrads because I get to experience them in a very different way than when they're in my class.
And I've been absolutely amazed at how smart and how passionate our students are for material science. And I'd like to try to get more students involved in being in IA where we actually pay you 18 bucks an hour for doing something. It was probably the first time in these students' lives that they're actually getting paid for what we just taught them. So it's a little payback. And so does that sound like something? Am I only seeing a tiny part of the student body?
Or is this something that students would like a wider access to? More students being able to do it? - I think, I guess first of all, I think instructional aids are a great way to get your students interested in MSE because like you said, these are the people that recently went through it. They're getting to very newly apply what they learned to teach others. And that's a good way to, I guess, get involvement or gain interest in the department.
And then by extension, I think a lot of people who are my age, like upperclassmen, are excited to share their experiences with the underclassmen because we like our department. We are very proud to be part of the community. We like what we're learning. And so I think that is a fun experience. I'm an engineering 110 department ambassador, which just means I teach a discussion section. And I feel like I get to do that. And I love talking about MSE.
Like I joined the SWE University Showcase Subcommittee because I just wanted to represent MSE to the high school students. That's why I was originally outreach chair. Like I just liked doing outreach and I feel like I've heard a common sentiment among a lot of other students. - One of the other things about the casting a wide net for IAs that's so important to remember is, some students will have this perspective of, oh, I didn't get an A plus in the class. I don't know anything.
I'm not qualified to do this. And for us, on the instructional side to say, it's usually the B students who are the best teachers, they know the struggle. They actually understand why this stuff is hard. They had to work for it. That can really make a difference when connecting with someone who's trying to learn this for the first time. - I've had some of my best IAs where B minus or even C plus students because they really understood what was difficult.
But, you know, A students are good too because they know the material. And I think it's good to have a mix so that one IA isn't responsible for just one set of students, but we rotate around. And they get to see, you know, it's nice for the students who are learning, but I think it seemed better for the students who are the IAs because they start to realize that they actually know the material in a deeper way than they probably never even realized.
I didn't get that experience until after I graduated from college. I thought when I got my first job, oh no, I'm gonna get my butt kicked. And I go into my job and then I was just unbelievably appalled at how dumb the other people were. And I'm like, oh wow, I must have gotten a good education because I wasn't any smarter than those people, but I was better prepared because I went to a school that cared.
And so I think that happens when people become IAs, they become much more self-aware that they really did actually learn something. And I think that's a wonderful thing so much so that I almost wonder if we shouldn't be able to give any student who wants to have an activity like this the opportunity to do it.
I don't think we need to mandate it, but what you're saying being an ambassador to Engine 110 or any of this, you'll get the same experience that, wow, I actually understand some of this stuff. I just think that's a very important thing to happen along your way while you're learning.
- Yep. As long as we're congratulating each other on everything that we know and have learned, on the student org's front, Alexa, you've, as you said, learned a lot of things through trials and tribulations of leadership. But if there's someone out there who maybe is at an institution that doesn't have an MMS, doesn't have a MSE student society, what could you offer them for tips, tricks, advice to get something like that started?
If you wanted to build this from the ground up, how would you get students to rally around the concept and make it happen? - I think a lot of the reason that we can do what we do is we have such strong department support. So I think the first thing would be to figure out who is on your side in your corner and would support you to do something like this. Because we have Kristin who helps us with picnics, a lot of the department stuff. Tim, obviously you're our advisor.
Obviously our department chair came and spoke at our luncheon, Patty helps reserve rooms, which is so, so helpful. Those types of connections are invaluable for starting a student org. So I think you need to start talking to some of your professors, seeing who would be interested in helping back you for this. And then also we have a pretty big presence at the undergraduate committee meetings, so we can advocate for ourselves to the faculty. And so having that avenues first and foremost.
And then the second thing is once you're actually starting the student organization, I think you have to actually look for problems. You have to look for something where it's, you don't realize like it's a huge problem because you don't have it, but you could see a need for it. Like for example, my junior year, I realized, I was just thinking like about it by talking to a lot of my friends in engineering.
And I realized we were one of the few departments that doesn't have like T-shirts for new declares. And so like I emailed Katie the next day and I was like, can we do this? And so now we have free T-shirts for all like the new declared students. And like, that was the same with like the MSE undergraduate orientation. I was like, we don't have a way for like the sophomores to meet each other really until like junior year when they're all in the same classes.
And so like, it was something I was like, is this even possible? I'm going to email people. I'm going to see what happened. Like for every situation that I'm telling you to, there were like three situations that I thought there was need for. And I tried, but like I just realized it wasn't feasible.
And so you just need to like, really like not everything's going to work out, but like it's important to kind of see what resources you have, see who on your team would support you in doing these things. Like I, before I do anything like this, I bring it up to the board meeting. I'm like, would people be interested in this? Would anyone be willing to help me? Is anyone really passionate about like starting this? And again, just realizing who's in your corner because it's, it's a lot of work.
You can't do it alone. - That is great advice. Steve, did you have any last questions you wanted to ask before we start to wrap things up? - No, I, but what's, I think I know some of what's on tap for the rest of this term, but what's going to happen near the end of the term? Any, any wild, crazy things to, for the, your, your last. - I would, I would like to do some sort of like graduation event, like a graduation picnic or a seniors, do some sort of like casting or pictures or I don't know.
So that's kind of in the works, but in terms of the rest of the semester, we've got, you know, some social events, obviously our industry tour. We're doing our first ever MMS formal. So that'll be really exciting. - That's exciting. - Yeah. It's, it's very exciting.
It's kind of like, instead of the bar crawl, this will be a way to like include the underclassmen because you don't have to be 21 to go to a formal, but you can still like have fun and make a night out of it, as opposed to a lot of the other events we've been limited. So that's really exciting. And then obviously when it comes to wrapping up my term as president, I'm really, really, really focused on continuity of the organization.
So I'm going to have all of the board members rewrite their transition documents or at least add things to update their current positions, because there's a lot of things in the transition documents that just don't really apply anymore. We've all kind of taken our roles and like added things to them. Like for example, Laura being outreach and doing merch, that's not necessarily in her role on the transition document, but that's like a really big part of her role.
And then like a lot of things don't apply anymore. So like right now the treasurer is technically in, technically in charge of like napkins and plates, but our secretary is in charge of the silverware. So Andy just does all of that anyway. So we just, we really want to make sure continuity is important. I've been really trying to do that just in general. I've been taking notes at every luncheon on how many people we have, how much the food costs.
I've been writing down all the emails of every single speaker, the dates I contacted them, the dates they got back to me and notes on whether or not the speaker was good, which is something new I implemented because I was looking back at Katie's stuff and I was like, there's nothing that says whether or not these speakers were even good. And I've got a lot of feedback that, oh, this speaker wasn't that good.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, like the next year's president would probably want to know that, like to not invite them back. So yeah, that's kind of my thought process when it comes to wrapping everything up. That's great. And I just want to say how much I'm impressed by what our students do collectively. Of course, it's you, your board and all the other students. Incredible imagination, innovation and awesome organization. And it keeps getting better every single year.
And I think Tim deserves some credit too for very little. Alexa's the heavy lift. I'm just hiding in the background, but it's really impressive what you've been able to do. And hopefully potential employers, people you're interested in working for are going to listen to this. And see how incredible you are. Not only as a material scientist and a researcher, but as a organizer and somebody who really knows how to get things done, solve problems. And that's worth a lot. Thank you, Steve.
Yeah, couldn't say it better myself on that note. We always like to give our guests a minute or two at the end, just for shameless self-promotion. So if you have anything at all you want to plug, whether it's availability on the job market or how amazing the MMS formal is going to be, whatever it is, this is your chance to say what's happening next and what to look forward to.
I mean, of course, the MMS formal, I would say in terms of job stuff, I do have a job that I'm planning on doing, but obviously I have no idea where my career is going to take me. So I would say in terms of self-promotion, I think my personal best skills is I really try to advocate for people. I really care about understanding what it is that people want.
And then advocating for it, I consider myself like a problem solver and someone who likes to relate to others, sees opportunities and then tries to do something about it. So I think that's my my biggest self-plug. But yeah, I'm graduating. It's going to be crazy. I'm excited and nervous about what comes next. But yeah, I'm really grateful to the material science department.
And I feel really proud to close this chapter because I feel like I've accomplished a lot in college and I feel like I've grown a lot as a person and I've learned a lot. And I feel like I'm leaving a mark on this department. And I feel really proud of that, too. I completely agree. It's it will be sad to see you go, but you've really built something excellent with MMS the last couple of years. It's much stronger, I feel, than it used to be.
So let's do a good job with elections coming soon and make sure the next batch of officers keeps the, you know, the train going and getting even better than it already is. Yeah. So thank you so much for being on our podcast with us. I've really enjoyed hearing hearing you talk about all of this. And it's just great. So thank you very, very much. Thank you very much. Such a pleasure. All right. All right. Into the audience out there. We'll see you next time on the next episode of Undercooled.