Department Action Team aims to build and improve undergraduate community and success
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Oprah Winfrey said, “Education is the way to move mountains, to build bridges, to change the world.”
Chemical engineering department faculty hope to bring change from the bottom up through the Department Action Team, a group of faculty, staff members, and students who aim to create sustainable change to undergraduate education and make meaningful change in the department.
“If you want to start bottom-up change, looking from an outsider perspective only doesn’t work, you have to get others involved who have an insider perspective,” said Clinical Associate Professor Betul Bilgin.
Bilgin is working with Clinical Assistant Professor Korosh Torabi, Assistant Professor Ezinne Achinivu, Laboratory and Computers Manager Jan Sagun, undergraduate student Emily Seriruk, and graduate student Nadia Nikolova.
The group also hopes to increase student belonging and build community. They aim to bring students together by providing them with both professional development events and a social circle to talk about things that aren’t related to chemical engineering.
Nikolova, who also completed her undergraduate degree at UIC, shared that sometimes students tend to stick within their own groups, whether organizations, social, or major-related. She hopes that the Department Action Team’s efforts will expand their events to include commuter students, more first-year students, and transfer students.
“Having a space for students is important, whether it’s just hanging out or working on class materials, there’s a lack of space for these students to develop into a cohesive cohort,” Seriruk said. “Students tend to stay in their clicks during classes and then as soon as class is over, everyone heads home or goes their separate ways. So, we’re hoping that with these events that will be at the same time every week or every other week, we will give them a space to get together and get to know each other outside of lectures.”
Bilgin said that the faculty and staff appreciate how much these students contribute, enriching their conversations with many different perspectives.
Seriruk agreed, saying that there’s a mutuality that exists within the group.
“We’re not in the background; faculty and staff are constantly asking ‘what do you think as undergrads?’ and they truly value students’ opinions,” she said.