CANDIDATES:
President, ISA and ICC (one position; one candidate):
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1)Mengqiu Ye
Citizenship: China
Major: M.S., Civil Engineering
Entered the program: Fall 2014
Anticipated graduation date: Summer 2016
First of all, I really like working with people. Second, I can improve my communication and leadership skill. In addition, I can make new friends while working at ICC. I am willing to devote my time to ICC and ISA and I will enjoy the time with my colleagues to build a better atmosphere for all international students.
Other positions with the International Student Association (ISA)
Vice President (one position; one candidate):
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1)Jason Diedjomahor
Citizenship: Nigeria
Major: B.S., Chemical Engineering
Entered the program: Fall 2012
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2017
I am a 3rd year student at LSU but I have only met a handful of other international students apart from the ones I came to LSU with. I want to be a guide for the international students who desire to get involved at LSU and volunteer/network with others in their community. I believe that as the President or Vice President of the ISA/ICC I will have a broader radar for aspiring students & opportunities for such students and I will act as a bridge to link the two together.
Treasurer (one position; one candidate):
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1)David Kekejian
Citizenship: Syria
Major: Ph.D., Physics
Entered the program: Spring 2015
Anticipated graduation date: 2020
Since I was a child, I was intrigued by the world surrounding me. Asking questions about how nature functions led me to pursue a career in Physics.
Along this long road, I gained a lot of knowledge and information not only on how to tackle current problems efficiently but to estimate and predict future ones too. For example, In my high school years, I served as the treasurer of the 12th grade. My job was to calculate the number of markers needed per class and to watch out that we never run out of markers. In my undergraduate institution, I served as the president of SSS (Student Scientific Society) of the department of Physics where I developed methods on how to organize an event per day including but not limited to seminars, scientific talks, trip to national labs, organizing physics competitions and finally teaching. Besides those, I was responsible for the actions of every member and the reputation of our society.
In 2013, I joined the DAP (Develop Armenia Program) which takes students from different disciplines and sends them across Armenia to do volunteer work. During the three weeks of the program we accomplished amazing things ranging from doing actual field work like planting trees to organizing chess and bicycle competitions. We had a team leader who put us in group discussions to plan our goals and actually achieve them. The valuable experience for me was that I learned what teamwork really means and how to think and act as a whole instead of one.
LSU being a distinguished institution is home to international students from more than 100 countries. By joining ISA and serving as its Treasurer, I hope to meet people from different cultures, learn how they think and act and more importantly introduce them to my culture and thinking by serving them in every way possible. I am sure that the experience and knowledge gained at ISA would be extremely beneficial for me to overcome future challenges.
Member At Large (three positions; four candidates):
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1)Juma Mlawa
Citizenship: Tanzania
Major: B.S., Petroleum Engineering
Entered the program: Summer 2013
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2016
In my two years at LSU I have been a part of the society of petroleum engineers, and attended most of the meetings in that time period. This has enabled me to gain a greater understanding of my major however, college is not all about academics. It is also about building friendships and meeting people from an array of back grounds. ISA, provides a great platform tomeet new people and build lasting friendships. Additionally, it will provide an opportunity for me to be more familiar how organizations are run. I believe given the opportunity to serve as a member at large will help me help other International students navigate through college in a fun manner.
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2)Yasaswi Gudipudi
Citizenship: India
Major: M.S., Mechanical Engineering
Entered the program: Spring 2015
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2017
I know most of you guys and I really like being with you people. So, I thought I could be involved more and support ISA more if I am a part of ISA. As this is my first semester, I am not going to leave this college anytime soon.
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3)Abigail Maxwell
Citizenship: Trinidad and Tobago
Major: M.S., Geophysics
Entered the program: 2014
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2016
Studying in a foreign country is one of the hardest tasks that a person can do. Not only will they have to deal with the regular stresses of school, and being away from relatives, but they also have to adjust to a new environment, new culture, new food (often, and even sometimes a new language. Having studied in the US for my undergraduate and now as a graduate student I understand the need for a support system for someone who is from a foreign country. Being a part of the International Student Association for this semester, has enabled me to be a part of the planning and support for international students at LSU. I would like to be able to continue and assist in ensuring that many activities are available for international students to network with other international students and that there are forums for them to showcase there forum. I am a very committed person and a hard worker. I would like to be a Member at large so that I can fall in to any role that I am needed to assist in. I would like the opportunity to continue to put in the time, creativity and passion for planning events and ensuring that run smoothly.
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4)Nabila Nur Hanifah
Citizenship: Indonesia
Major: B.S., Petroleum Engineering
Entered the program: 2015
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2018
After being in the states for one and a half year, I understand how the struggle that International Students had experienced from the beginning, and I understand the struggle because for my first time coming to the states it was pretty hard and I needed time to adjust the culture shock and home-sick-ness. I have been wanting to be a part of a team who could gather international students and create a bond which will make an environment that can make them feel like home, in addition, a community that on the same page as them being international. Back in my college before I transferred to LSU, I engaged with International student by doing community service and volunteers from different clubs. Now, by joining ISA, I will be able to contribute more to International students to make them feel like home, by giving my ideas and creativity, I will help ISA’s programs to engage international students; moreover, I will be able to increase my social skill and communication skill through being an officer in ISA.
Active Member and Volunteer at Edmonds Community College’s Global Volunteer Club, Indonesian Club, Service Learning and CSEL (Student Engagement and Leadership’s volunteer).
Positions with the International Cultural Center (ICC)
Vice President, Programs (one position; three candidates):
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1)Weiqi Chen
Citizenship: China
Major: Ph.D., Department of geography & anthropology
Entered the program: 2013
Anticipated graduation date: 2017
I have constant interests in developing my leadership skills through different studying or working experiences and I see my potential as a great leader as well. While I used to work as team leader in China, I was surprised to see how important a role the leader can play in building or restructuring a team towards the common goal of team development and project success. I learnt a lot from my working experience over there and also I have been looking for such a chance to contribute to the community here around LSU and Baton Rouge, as well as to develop myself and shape me into a great worker, leader, and person.
The position I am applying for is the Vice President of Programs in ICC, which would serve to develop and implement programs for the benefit of international student community. This fits my expectation for a position that will explore and develop my leadership skills, and it would allow me to have the chance to serve the international community with people from different background. I always enjoyed communicating with people from all over, and this has changed me to the person who I am, and I believe this position will give me more chances to do that. I believe that as an international student myself, I can serve this community to the best of my knowledge since many of their situations and needs are probably what I went through before. I’d like to use this chance to give back to the community as well since I also received some help from it during my stay here. I have passion of being a real ‘global citizen ‘ and so far, my efforts are going towards the right direction and I am looking forward to embracing any challenge and chance that’s ahead of me.
While I worked in China I have leadership experience as a team leader in Augur IT company in Guangzhou, China, and our team won the contract with Mars for South China region for the following year.
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2)Archana Nittala
Citizenship: India
Major: Industrial Engineering
Entered the program: 2014
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2016
Every day of the past one and a half year has been extremely challenging for me, as I moved from my family, my country, from everything I was used to. First thing I did after I got down my flight at Baton Rouge was, check if I had enough money to buy a ticket back home in the very next flight. When I see myself today, it gives me a sense of accomplishment for having stayed back, for making new friends, for eating hundreds of new things and for making little-to-life-changing decisions all by myself.
I believe all of this was possible because of the hope I got when I spoke to that Spanish lady, while I was waiting for my tiger card or making a small talk with that girl at the panda express. I have come to a point in life where I want to do new things and be part of organization that would help me find shades of me that I did not know existed and also fulfill the promise I made myself to learn at least two new languages. I see this as an opportunity I would take full advantage of by learning a whole lot about different cultures and facts. Whilst being a part of the organization to organize a lot more successful events in the future. Although, I have been part of student organizations back home, I would account this as a new experience, as this would mean working with different people, from different parts of the world, who are not very different at heart.
I would love to be a part of the ICC as the vice president, programs as I believe I can give back to the organization, the amount of experience and confidence I would get by being a part of it. I am an Industrial engineering graduate student, who intends to be a Project Manager when I graduate. So, I would like to believe I would do good contribution to the organization as it would be my first shot at being able to manage programs, people, situations and also chaos.
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3)Nutifafa Adotey
Citizenship: Ghana
Major: Ph.D., Agronomy at the School of Plant, Environment and Soil Science
Entered the program: Fall 2013
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2017
I have been motivated to apply for the position of vice president (International cultural center) due to a host of reasons. It is no gainsaying that the international student community at Louisiana State University in every way exemplify the very parameters, which culminated in its establishment: innovation, collaboration, enjoyment, excellence, integrity, and trust. Being in a position to serve such a community will be a great honour.
First, in line with the international student office goal to increase international student enrolment, I intend to encourage correspondence between current students and prospects in home countries. My intent is to assist in organize live video discussion among students from different countries to share their experiences and thoughts about LSU with prospects through Education USA.
Besides, the excellent work by the current administration in branding the international student community to attract foreign students, I believe there is still room to engage more students. My goal is to actively absorb graduate students participation in meetings, activities and events.
Finally, Louisiana State University is the citadel for foreigners from many parts of the world. Hence provide an avenue to help interact, share and exchange ideas with students, experts and professionals from the various countries with different backgrounds and cultures.
This position provides a platform to enable me contribute my quota towards sustaining and ensure the success of the international community at LSU.
Vice President, Finance (one position; one candidate):
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1)Yen Ta Tan
Citizenship: Malaysia
Major: Finance
Entered the program: Fall 2014
Anticipated graduation date: Spring 2017
I am interested in this position because I am a finance major with experience in managing and budgeting funds in the past. I was the elected Chairman of the School Anniversary Events and Fund Raising Board for two consecutive year in high school. That includes budgeting and managing granted funds from the school. I would like to have a chance to serve the international community and be a part of it.
