Hello again everyone. The Annual MEGA election is here! The only positions with multiple nominees are the Treasurer and Intramural Sports Coordinator, so I will post those bios first for those of you voting now. The election form is here, and you will have until Monday night (September 19) to fill it out! Please note you must be signed into your UD email account to access the form!
Treasurer Bios: Chinmay Burgul, Raghu Krishna Soudri
Chinmay Burgul‘s Statement
MEGA board was of huge help during my transition to UD. I got their support throughout my first year journey and passing qualifiers. I enjoy attending all the MEGA events and socializing with the peer students. I appreciate their helping culture and creating a vibrant grad community. This made me interested to give back to the community. Last year, I got an opportunity to be part of the MEGA’s board as a 1st year representative. I tried to bring first year’s issues to the MEGA board, help them with resources for preparing for Qualifiers and make their overall journey smoother. I want to continue helping this wonderful community in a bigger way this year.
On electing, I plan to work on requesting a bigger budget to organize events better and planning events considering a more diverse background.
Raghu Krishna Soudri’s Statement
I have a experience for managing the finances as I was made to learn from my family business.
Intramural Sports Coordinator Bios: Raja Patel, Subrata Saha
Raja Patel’s Statement
Sports has been an integral part of my life. With this position, I can help other in the department to engage more into intramural activities. In my opinion, one of the best way to engage within the department and make new friends.
Subrata Saha‘s Statement
I organized different sports events during my undergrad at Khulna University of Engineering & Technology (KUET), Bangladesh. During my undergrad, I organized various interdepartmental sports events like football, cricket, chess, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, etc. Being a class representative of my class and sports secretary of the Mechanical Engineering Association (MEA), I arranged multiple sports events and personally attended many of them throughout my undergrad time. I was presented as the best sports organizer by the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 2010. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I joined a reputed manufacturing company in Bangladesh. There I played the almost same role of organizing sports events but not so frequently. Still, every year our company organized a mandatory central badminton tournament and a football/cricket tournament. I actively participated in the organizing committee to successfully organize those events. I believe I can play a vital and active role if I can be selected for this position. Eventually if not selected, please inform me of any kind of contribution. I’ll happily do that.
President Candidate: Kyra Twohy
The support of MEGA and the graduate community has been integral to my success at UD. I joined MEGA as the First Year Rep to help maintain and build this community for future students, as it was so beneficial to me. I hope to take the skills I’ve learned, both as the current Treasurer and previously as the First Year Rep, and apply them as MEGA President for this academic year. As President I will oversee both the social and advocacy duties of MEGA. My goal is to focus on building connections in our graduate community by creating welcoming spaces, organizing fun community events, and hosting plenty of Coffee Hours. As we move to more normal interactions following the pandemic, I think facilitating these social events is important to maintaining a thriving grad community. As for advocacy, I aim to listen to any issues students are having and be a voice for grad student interests to the department.
Vice President Candidate: Jan Calalo
I currently serve as the MEGA Vice President. This past year, I feel like MEGA has made large strides in advocating for the Graduate Students as well as strengthening our community. As vice president, I would continue this important work we do for the graduate community. My personal goal is to make sure that each and everyone of us is content and feels part of our Graduate community.
Social Chair Candidate: Annie Porter
I served on the MEGA board the previous year as intramural sports coordinator, and would like to continue to serve as Social Chair.