Post ECMSS feelings

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to co-chair the Environmental Chemistry and Microbiology Student Symposium (ECMSS) 2018. ECMSS is an annual symposium at Penn State fully organized by graduate students that is free to attend. As an ECMSS co-chair, I worked along side the other co-chair to plan the symposium, find funding for the symposium, delegate necessary jobs to other committee members, and organize the committees. 

While at the symposium this past weekend, I was asked by a member of my dissertation committee, what I had learned by organizing the symposium. I felt a little puzzled by this question. Rather than seeing this position as an opportunity to grow and learn, I simply thought of it as something good to put on my CV. Honestly, on the way home that night I felt embarrassed that I was so naive and realized that I needed to change my perspective. Since I have been a PhD student at Penn State, I have had several reminders that a change in perspective can change your world. 

So, now I can say that by co-chairing ECMSS I learned that 1) I really like to organize events. I am really good at planning things and I like staying busy. 2) I am good at delegating to others. 3) I work well with others. I especially enjoy working with groups to find solutions to problems. 4) It is hard to introduce keynote speakers- you want to be professional but you also want to engage with the audience- you do not want to forget to tell the audience something important about the speaker but you don't want to have to read off of a notecard- it is quite stressful. 5) I would do it again in a heartbeat. I got to meet some of my academic idols. We were able to host a lunch workshop by Dr. Michael Alley, who talked to us about making presentations that are memorable and award worthy. I had so much fun and attendees were so kind and supportive. It was truly a wonderful experience.