I started representing my department at the Graduate Council in 2009, when I subbed for our representative at the time, and then came on board as the representative full time in 2010.

In 2009-2010, I was elected representative-at-large of the GSC at the Campus Life Advisory Board (the GSC runs on calendar years).

The following year, in 2011-2012, I was elected to serve in the internal committee of Social Events, and to be representative-at-large of the GSC at the Brown University Community Council.

In 2012, I was elected to the position of Vice President for Social Events, which became, under my leadership, Vice President for Social Events and Students Life. I stayed in that position for two years, additionally serving as an interim Vice President for the Fall semester of 2013, during the rollout of President Paxson’s new strategic plan, Building on Distinction. 

During my tenure in the GSC as an officer, I was point person on a variety of projects, amongst which:

  • The drive to make the Ombudsperson accessible to graduate students. GSC President ’13 Matthew J. Lyddon and I worked on writing and presenting a motion to the general meeting of the Council.
  • In the Summer of 2013, I worked on streamlining the GSC’s role in Orientation by: adding a new flyer and pens to our communication packages, changing our lecture-style peer mentoring session to a one-hour small group session with a peer mentor in each group, reformatting the traditional campus tour to a historically-oriented tour presenting Brown but also its neighborhood, and preparing topic suggestions for officers and peers present at Orientation;
  • In Fall 2013, Secretary’13 John Mulligan and I assembled a team of ten representatives to respond to the Strategic Plan President Paxson had just released;
  • In Fall 2013, as part of the delegation sent by the GSC to the Ivy Plus Summit of GSCs, I co-presented a workshop on administration relationship and crisis management communication;
  • During my two years as VP Social Events and Student Life, I co-organized two Winter Formals, two Spring Balls, two smaller socials (Mad Hatter and Carnival Escape), and two Welcome Back socials. I also staffed and co-organized the first ever Wellness Fair for graduate students;
  • As a VP, I streamlined the nominations of approximately 45 at-large representatives;
  • As a co-chair of Communications in the GSC, I also pioneered the social and student life content of our website, with a series of portraits of staff members who were helpful to the graduate students community.

I would be happy to discuss more projects through email as those are just some amongst the many issues that the GSC worked on during the two years of my tenure.

Over the course of my years at the GSC, we made a systematic effort to coordinate a campaign for graduate education visibility and to increase funding to graduate student life events. The Brown Daily Herald covered several of our efforts on the new Brown University provost search and the graduate students mentoring efforts.