Imperial College London President's PhD Scholars Newsletter - Welcome from the Student Representatives

*2016/17 Student Committee Members

Welcome

Many congratulations to all of you for attaining this prestigious award and a warm welcome to all Year 1 President’s PhD Scholars. We hope you have had a great start here at Imperial!

You are now a part of the President’s Scholars Community, a group of the best and brightest people from all across the word. We would like to introduce ourselves as student representatives and provide a brief overview of the programme of activities on offer to you throughout the year. We hope that you make the most of these extra-curricular opportunities, designed to make your time at Imperial more enjoyable and rewarding.

Meet the Student Representatives

Year 1 Representative - Richard Kong

I am a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry studying catalysis. I’m incredibly excited to be the new student representative and look forward to bringing our diverse cultures and experiences together to enrich our time here. Hope to see you soon!

Year 2 Representative – Amit Krishna Dwivedi

I am a year 2 PhD student registered within the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. I enjoy the role of rep because it provides a great opportunity to network and learn from scholars from different socio-cultural backgrounds, as well as gaining skills which will be helpful in my academic life and beyond.

Year 3 Representative – Abellona U

I am a year 3 PhD student registered within the Department of Surgery and Cancer. The scholars scheme is great because we are such a unique bunch of people from different cultures, background, research interest bound together by the scholarship scheme. I have learnt so much from connecting the fellow scholars.

Year 4 Representative – Maria Anna Chatzopoulou

I am a year 4 PhD student from the Department of Chemical Engineering. Coming to the end of my studies, I feel that by being the Rep of my cohort for the past 3 years, has given me the opportunity to meet, collaborate and work alongside great people from diverse backgrounds, develop my interpersonal skills while having lots of fun.

Scholars Committee Members

We are looking for passionate and enthusiastic scholars to join the team – this is a perfect opportunity to meet other students whilst enhancing your transferable skills and doing something creative. This is the place to be if you are interested in finding out more about volunteering alongside your studies. Take a break from the lab and the library, give something back to the cohort by helping to organise some of the activities and events.

No previous experience is necessary, all we need are enthusiastic and willing volunteers who want to get involved. These are just some of the perks of joining our team:

Enhancing your communication skills and networking with a large number of students
Improving your organisational skills by helping to coordinate events such as the Year 4 Leavers Event, the Summer Symposium, Cohort and Research Community Activities, like those detailed in Abellona’s blog post
The opportunity to attend a thank you dinner, exclusively for committee members, to reward the hard work undertaken in organising the symposium
The chance to transfer your hours volunteering into an Institute of Leadership & Management endorsed certificate via the Imperial PLUS scheme
Opportunity to attend the Graduate School’s Postgraduate Professional Development Committee (PPDC) meeting in June to raise any queries or concerns with College Leaders (for Year Representatives only)

Please fill this form to register your interest and nominate yourself to be part of the committee. Roles will be provided on a first-come-first-served basis.

Programme of Activities

There are various social and networking events on offer to you throughout your time here at Imperial College. Some of these events, such as the Year 4 President’s PhD Scholars Farewell Event and IC President’s PhD Scholars Symposium, are endorsed by the Graduate School. These events are open to all scholars across all years. There is also a programme of special activities and workshops run by the Graduate School exclusively for you. To find out more, please visit the website and click on the link to your year group. These will be advertised via email to you in due course, giving you the chance to sign up.

*For more information about the symposium please check out the website and read the blog

Below is a list of additional, cohort building events organised by the committee in last year:

Ice skating at NHM
President’s Scholars Christmas dinner
Queen's Tower Tour
Potluck Socials
Chinese New Year celebration
Day Trips around London & the UK

Look out for the following upcoming events,

Christmas Dinner & New Year Celebration | Date/Time & Venue to be confirmed – A celebratory meal to end the autumn term. This is a fantastic opportunity to meet students from across all year groups. The cost of this dinner will be subsidised by the Graduate School.
Weekend Retreat – This will be an exciting opportunity to explore nearby places with the Scholars!

We would like to thank the Graduate School for their support in funding the majority of the activities/events on offer to you, which we hope will help you make the most of your time here.

Social Media

Connect with us and others from your group via our Facebook page (Note: you will need to have joined the official Imperial College community using your @ic.ac.uk before joining this group) or our WhatsApp group. If you have something to ask, we are happy to answer. Feel free to share your ideas/suggestions and we will be happy to raise your voice.

We would like to encourage you all to participate in the upcoming events and to take advantage of every opportunity on offer to you; this is a unique programme, we hope you will enjoy every aspect of it!

Best wishes,

Amit, Abellona and Maria
Year Reps & President's PhD Scholars Committee Members