Hello, wonderful Waterloo engineering students!
I’m Anson Chen, from Civil 2017 and I’m running to be your next Vice-President Education. I’m going to get right to the point, and tell you that there are 3 things I want to get done in this role:
1. Ongoing Representation. The Engineering Society’s VP-Education sits on no fewer than 6 university committees and councils. These groups are made up of faculty members, CECA representatives and elected students at the FEDS level. They meet on a bi-weekly to monthly basis to discuss and vote on decisions related to things like curriculum, courses, calendar, and co-operative education. It’s actually a lot of decisive meetings. It is important that you have someone informed and reliable to represent the engineering undergraduate population at these meetings, because changes to curriculum, courses and co-op do affect YOU directly.
2. Active Communication. Did you know that Civil, Environmental and Geological Engineering are receiving brand new curriculums, starting in Fall 2015? If you answered “no” – don’t worry, I did too, and I’m IN Civil. The important message is that engineering students can and should be informed about significant academic changes like these. As VP-Education I will actively communicate information regarding course, curriculum, schedule and co-op changes using the mailing list, EngSoc website and class rep system. Communication goes two ways: I will also use these methods as well as feedback surveys to gather your opinion on issues and decisions before representing you at meetings.
3. Improve Co-op and PD in whatever way I can. Two of the councils that the VP-Education sits on are the Feds Coop Students Council and the WatPD-Engineering Curriculum Committee. The co-op system, as I think we all agree on, is very important to undergraduate students and something that should be continually improved upon. As well, I don’t think I am by any means alone among engineering undergraduates in having some mildly opinionated views on the current PD system. If there is anything I can do at these meetings to change PD for the better, and to make it more useful and valuable to engineering students, I will do it. This is something I will play by ear as I start attending the meetings, but you will hear more about it from me as I transition into the role.
Do those 3 points sound agreeable to you? They do? Great! Here’s the experience I have to back up my candidacy:
– From 2013-2014, I was Vice-President Communications on the Engineering Student Societies’ Council of Ontario (ESSCO). In this role I became familiar with social media, tools for mass-communication and feedback-gathering methods.
– I have been Commissioner twice for Waterloo EngSoc (Student Life and Communications) as well as director twice (TalEng and Canada Day)
– I am academic rep for my class, and am familiar with midterm-scheduling and facilitating professor-class feedback.
For more information on my campaign, go to www.facebook.com/whyanson
Thank you for reading this far. I truly appreciate it. In fact, this is the first Iron Warrior article I have ever written – I hope to see you again soon, as your new VP Education! Remember to vote online on Saturday, January 31st.
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