In my ENT3976 course, we were challenged to create a visual resume. This is mine.
What do you think?
Category: ENT3976
Mission Statement:
A Menagerie of Organizations
As a college student, it is common to join organizations. Some of them are for professional development, some of them are for fun.
In this post, I will write about all of the different organizations I am in and even a few I am not. We will look at the benefits of each, the time commitment, how they help me in my pursuit for higher education in Optics, and more.
Here we go!
Professional Organizations
Professional Organizations are organizations that extend beyond your college campus and work to provide you with an easy lead into the professional world. Often they are national or international with both collegiate and professional chapters. They carry long names condensed into a short acronym or initialism. Often, these organizations have membership fees, but you get a lot of mileage for those dollars.
SPIE: The International Society for Optics and Photonics
Membership Status: Student
Member since: January 2010
Cost: $20.00 annually
As an Optics student, SPIE is a great organization to join. They have a wealth of optics information on their website and a lot of scholarships available for students. Similar to SPIE, is the OSA (Optical Society of America). Both of these orgs are dedicated to advancement of Photonic technology. At Michigan Tech, I am a general member of SPIE. We educate local schools about light, run information sessions for incoming students, and many photonics-related on the side. Check out the Paulding Lights story for a cool project we did. Also look at the MTU Chapter and official SPIE pages.
IEEE: The Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers
Membership Status: Student
Member since: September 2009
Cost: $30.00 annually
IEEE is great because of the breadth and depth of the organization. Originally founded in 1884 as the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, AIEE later merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers in 1963 to form the IEEE. Now, IEEE has over 395,000 members in 160 countries. As a student, IEEE offers many excellent resources. IEEE Spectrum magazine is a wonderful technological read and IEEE Xplore is a fantastic database site. It is my first stop for anything technological. At Michigan Tech, the IEEE has some of the best lab space on campus and is a great place to finish up lab projects.
SWE: Society of Women Engineers
Membership Status: Student
Member since: September 2008
Cost: $20.00 annually
Out of all of my professional organizations, SWE provides the most networking opportunities for college students. SWE is broken into regions which meet annually. By having regional meetings, it is much easier to meet and network than trying to travel to national conferences. SWE also has an annual national conference. This year, We11 is going to be in Chicago. At the national conference, it is possible to volunteer and really get to know the organization. With it being only 8 hours from Michigan Tech, a few of us are already registered as volunteers and are going to carpool. It is going to be awesome. Check back in October for an update on how it goes.
NSPE: National Society of Professional Engineers
Membership Status: Student
Member since: November 2009
Cost: FREE
National Society of Professional Engineers in a great society to be in if you desire to be a professional engineer. It is free for students to join. Also, they send you excellent engineering news updates and have great scholarships for incoming Junior students. I was fortunate enough to win the Steinman Award last year. Although most optics professions do not currently require professionals to be licensed as “Professional Engineers,” it is only a matter of time. My advice, take the F.E. exam now as a college student (I am!) when you still remember everything. Check back in the Spring for tales of studying for the FE.
HKN: Eta Kappa Nu Electrical & Computer Engineering Honor Society
Membership Status: Student
Member since: March 2011
Cost: $50.00 once
HKN is the newest of the organizations that I am involved in. Actually, I just got inducted last Tuesday and was nominated to be President the same night. I joined HKN because I wanted to be a part of a group of scholars who understood the demands of Electrical Engineering. Trust me, these people do. HKN is dedicated to encouraging and recognizing excellence in the electrical and computer engineering field. The Michigan Tech chapter (beta-gamma) was founded on June 6, 1936. In recent years, the presence of HKN at Michigan Tech has dwindled, but the new group of inductees have high hopes of success. Although HKN doesn’t participate in many optics specific activites, it is still very useful to be in a broader Electrical Engineering group.
Community Organizations
Community organizations come in many flavors. They can be local groups dedicated to improving your community or international groups dedicated to improving the world. Some examples are Kiwanis, Knights of Columbus, Red Cross, or Unicef.
American Cancer Society: Relay For Life
Involved since: February 2006
Relay for Life is the premier fundraising event of the American Cancer Society. What is Relay? Just a fantastic 24-hr fundraising event that you spend with awesome people walking around a track and raising money to fight cancer. My involvement started back in High School and I became hooked on Relay. I joined a team as a Freshman and then went on to captain a team for the next three years. When I got up to Michigan Tech, I spent a year as Co-chair of Team Development. Now, I have cut back a little bit and now am just a team member on the Society of Women Engineers team. Check out my team here.
Campus Organizations
Now, campus organizations are a breed of their own. They are wacky, zany, and sometimes out-right outrageous group of people who bond over a common topic. At Michigan Tech, there are many campus organizations to choose from. If you like dancing, you can join Swing Club. If you like smoking hookah, there is a hookah club. There is even a club dedicated to being a “permanent floating riot.” I have no idea what they do. I do, however, know about the ones I am involved in.
Huskies Pep Band
Involved since: August 2008
Instrument: Accordion
The Huskies Pep Band is “The Cream of the Keweenaw, The Pride of Pastyland, The Second Best Feeling in the World.” In short, we are utterly and totally obnoxious and amazing. We parade around in vertically striped, engineer overalls in wacky hats while playing music very very loudly. Our school, teams, and fans love us. Our opponents, small children, and Northern Michigan University fear us. We are the home field advantage. We can change the mood of a stadium with a couple of cheers. In the Huskies Pep Band, I play Accordion. Yes, you just read that right, Accordion. Originally, I was going to play Bass Clarinet, but decided that the Accordion was a much better pep band instrument. On Accordion, I play Tuba music. It was the only music in the key of C besides Flutes, ‘Bones, and Bells. The ‘bones didn’t want a misfit instrument and flute;/bell music was way too fast. Thus, the accordion sub-section was born. There are now 3 accordionists in the Pep Band. Look for us at the next game!
Superior Wind Symphony
Involved since: January 2010
Instrument: Bb Clarinet
The Superior Wind Symphony is the symphonic band at Michigan Tech. Led my Nick Enz, we play a wide variety of concert music. I joined last Spring when I began to miss playing concert music on my clarinet. Now, I absolutely love it. Although we meet late at night on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, it is nice to have a musical release. : )
Well, that about sums it up. Reading over this, I cannot believe how much I am or have been involved it at Michigan Tech. I’m only a Junior! Most days, I don’t know how I even manage to balance it all.
My Brand Promise
To be innovative, dedicated, and authentic. To always deliver on what I promise, exceed expectations, and never accept anything less than my best.
Learn more about my brand and about me:
About Me: Click Here
My Passion: Optics
Twitter: www.twitter.com/efcloos
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/efcloos
My Involvement: Blue Marble Security, Huskies Pep Band, Society of Women Engineers, SPIE, IEEE , Superior Wind Symphony
Passion
Passion. It is essential to life. It is what gets you up in the morning and it is what keeps you going throughout the day. Without it life is just plain boring. But, what exactly is passion? How do you find it? Passion is something that you would do if you were not paid or receive any acknowledgment. Painters paint, musicians play, and singers sing. Teachers teach, poets write, and mothers raise their children. Yes, you don’t have to be paid to love your passion, but if you can find someone to pay you to do it, then you will never have to work a day in your life.
Here are some of my passions:
- Optics. I love light and how it interacts with the world. It transmits, reflects, refracts, absorbs, diverges, and converges. Light is why we can see and can see in color. It illuminates the world, transmits our data, and entertains the masses. One of the most intersting things about light is that we still don’t know exactly what it is. It acts both as a wave and as a particle (This is known as Wave-Particle Duality of Light), but isn’t either. We are also just beginning to harness it effictively. Sure, we now have Lasers and Solar Cells, but the best is yet to come. Since the 20th century was revolutionized by the Electron, the 21st century is going to dominated by the Photon.
- Music.
Author, 2008 I absolutely love playing my Clarinet and Accordion. On a nice summers day, it is so wonderful to be able to sit on my front porch and play my Accordion for hours. As the bellows move back and forth, the mellow notes take to the gentle summers breeze and can be heard for acres. The melodies and counter-melodies move the soul to feel things that could never be expressed in any other words. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a song is worth a thousand pictures.
- People. I like people. People are so interesting and everyone has a unique story to tell. I enjoy helping people and volunteering in the community. When you give back to the community, you really are the one who wins.
- Language. Currently, I am fluent in English and moderately conversational in Spanish. Before I die, I want to be fluent in Spanish, conversational in Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin-Chinese, and be able to read Latin. This passion goes along with my affnity for people and inter-personal connection. So much gets lost in translation that meanings often get distorted or totally changed. I want to be able to read the bible in Latin, Antonio Machado in Spanish, and listen to Tchaikovsky in Russian.
Essentially, I am passionate about life and all it contains. A life without passion is a life not worth living.
What is your passion?
All about me
In order to maintain a proper online presence, it is very important to have a written biography prepared. That way, whenever some one asks for a short blurb about you, you can deliver in little time. Similiar to an elevator speech, it needs to be concise, but informative. There are two standard sizes: 1 paragraph and 120 characters.
So, here are mine:
Paragraph:
Elizabeth Cloos is a 3rd year Electrical Engineering major at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, MI. She is a very active student with many interests. Cloos is a student member of IEEE, SPIE, SWE, and HKN. On campus, she plays Clarinet in the Superior Wind Symphony and Accordion in the Huskies Pep Band. She also coaches students in basic electrical engineering concepts in the Electrical & Computer Engineering Learning Center. Cloos has a passion for engineering, optics, and people. Her passion for engineering is evident in her 5 semester involvement in Blue Marble Security Enterprise, where she is currently President. Cloos’ long-term goals include pursuing a PhD in the optics field, obtaining her P.E. license, and traveling the world.
and
120 Character “Twitter Length”:
3rd year Electrical Engineering student at Michigan Tech. Passionate about Optics, music, people, and language.
Want to learn more about me?
Twitter: www.twitter.com/efcloos
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/efcloos
Linked-In: An optics student prospective
LinkedIn. I’m sure that most of you have heard of this professional networking site. It began in 2003 with only 350 people, but has grown to over 40 MILLION professionals just waiting to become connected[1]. If you are not on it yet, you are majorly missing out on a great opportunity. In this blog I will break down the importance of using LinkedIn and how it can specifically benefit students and professionals in the optics field.
General benefits:
LinkedIn is amazing no matter what your profession. Whether you are a school teacher networking with other teachers or a marketing manager connecting to thousands of prospective clients, LinkedIn can work for you. Here’s how:
- Connections: Connections are people. They are who you know. However, unlike Facebook’s ‘friends’, LinkedIn shows you who you are connected to and everyone who you have the potential to connect with. This is done with degrees. Say, you are an optical engineer who wants to start desigining waveguides for IBM. If you search IBM on LinkedIn, it will tell you who you know who works for IBM. If you don’t know anyone directly it will tell you within the 3rd degree who you know. Any contact is better than no contact.
- Groups: Groups enable you to connect with people of like interest without actually connecting with them. Groups often have job listings and discussions.
- Languages: ¿Habla usted español? or Sprechen Sie Deutsch? LinkedIn lets you post your profile in multiple languages. That way, if your amiga from Spain is hiring people, she can read your profile without a translation service. Your profile will come up more often in foreign language search engines.
Optics:
LinkedIn can work well if you are an optics professional or student. Here are some of the things to know:
- SPIE group: If you are a member of SPIE and on LinkedIn, then you better be a part of the SPIE LinkedIn group. Although SPIE is a closed group (meaning that you must be approved before you can join), it provides a lot of opportunity. You can see everyone who is a member of SPIE and find people who are withing your network. Also, the job tab is a very nice feature.
- Applications: On your profile you can add applications. For optics people, the best are Twitter (make sure you follow @SPIEstudents), Box.net where you can upload files such as resumes and papers, and SlideShare enables the sharing of presentations in realtime.
- Company Pages: Just like individual profiles, Companies can have pages too. You can follow companies and get updates from them. If they post jobs on LinkedIn, you will know. For optics people, check out Del Mar Photonics, Gentex Corporation, or Edmund Optics.
- Keywords: Keywords enable your profile to come up more often in search engines. If you want to be shown to be related to optics, include optics related words in your profile. Show, don’t tell, what you have done related to the field.
This is by no means a complete guide to LinkedIn. For more helpful info check out[2]: https://help.linkedin.com/ or other blogs. Look for keywords related to ENT3976 and Michigan Tech for other student prospectives on LinkedIn.
Thanks for reading!
Sources:
Elizabeth F. C. Dreyer 