Student Chapters Need Your Help to Meet Goals for 2017-18
- Posted by Brian Hagopian
- On August 16, 2017
The Chapter’s Student Development Committee held a strategic planning meeting in early August to review progress and plot a strategic direction for the upcoming year. This annual event brings together student leaders, faculty advisors, committee members and other interested volunteers to brainstorm ways to strengthen support for our Student Chapters, which now number 13 throughout New England. The ultimate goal is to keep the “best and brightest” working in our region’s life sciences industry following graduation.
This is a great time to get involved with the Student Development Committee as they look ahead to the coming 2017-2018 membership year.
Successful efforts from past years were reviewed as were things that didn’t work so well. On the bright side, ISPE student members now have more opportunities than ever, including:
- free admission and transportation to the Annual Product Show,
- $25,000 per year in scholarship awards to qualified applicants,
- an annual Career Workshop to prepare students for the job hunt,
- free attendance at the Chapter’s educational programs,
- plant tours of working biopharma facilities, and
- an Annual Poster Contest where participants can win cash prizes and prestige.
An interactive brainstorming session produced a number of valuable “take-aways,” including the need to increase ISPE’s visibility on campus and the desire for students to learn some basic technical information about introductory level topics in order to be better prepared for job interviews. Several people suggested a “competition” between Student Chapters that could bring students with differing backgrounds together to solve a challenging problem.
To help achieve these goals, the group agreed to form of three subcommittees:
- Promotional Materials Subcommittee to work on ways to get the ISPE name out and visible on college campuses;
- Speaker Bureau Subcommittee to work with local ISPE technical experts and Student Chapters to organize presentations, webinars, etc; and
- Competition Subcommittee to develop a technical and fun competitive activity to unify students as they compete for prizes and recognition.
The Student Development Committee is actively seeking volunteers to serve on these important subcommittees. Your involvement could be the key to our success, so please choose to get involved and get in touch. We could surely use your help!
brian@clear-water-consulting.com
paige.kane@merck.com
office@ispeboston.org
