First Year Dean's Scholars:
Other than first year Dean's Scholars:
The Dean's Scholars Program is one of the main reasons I decided
to attend the University of Texas. In my opinion, it creates a
small college atmosphere at a large state university. The program
is an elite group of intellectuals brought together not only to
learn but to associate with others who are similar in capability
and interest. There are many advantages such as registering first,
immediate respect from professors, seminars, and good friends.
Each of these is an asset of the program which I believe should
be more publicized to those who might become willing to chose
a state school or those already here looking to find people like
themselves. With a governing body and more organization, we could
possibly recruit additional talented people to the program. Also,
the talents of the persons currently enrolled in the program should
be used to benefit others, such as the University itself and select
philanthropies. Throughout high school, I learned valuable skills
that would enable me to help organize such ideas. I was a member
of my school's Student Council for all four years. I served the
students by being elected to each office and eventually was elected
President of the student body my senior year. I am very organized,
a hard worker, and willing to listen to what the actual students
want this association to become. I would like the opportunity
to put these skills to the test as a member of the Dean's Scholars
Student Association.
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I believe the goal of the Dean Scholars Students Association should
be two fold. One is to serve the Dean Scholars Students themselves.
For example, currently the freshman are assigned a buddy. As an
expansion of this idea, the association could provide assistantship
to all the students not just the freshmen. Since the association
involves a number of people, a student who needs advice or help
can turn to a variety of people, not just one person. Paralleling
the Dean's Scholar's Program, the second purpose of the association
would be to help facilitate more ways the students can give something
back to the university/community. This could be done through programs
initiated by the association or joint programs with other campus
groups. The most important thing that I have to offer to this
association is time. Because I have no other great time commitments,
I will be able to put a lot time into helping start off and working
on any projects that the association wishes to initiate.
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I think that the association can be effective in working with
the faculty, community, and other students as the student representation
of the Dean's Scholars Program. It can be used to encourage programs
and develop events for DS students and to work with Dr. Cline
in attracting high caliber speakers for the program. I will bring
to the association a willingness to put in the time and effort
to make the organization effective and useful, as well as the
openness to listen to new ideas and support programs and events
that enrich DS students. I also bring to the organization experience
with working in leadership groups and coordinating with others
to arrange important and useful events.
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I, Elizabeth Weihe, would like to stand for election to the Dean's
Scholars Council. I feel that I uphold many of the principles
on which the Dean's Scholars Program was founded, and my love
for science and research grows daily. As a Dean Scholar, I would
like to become as active and committed to it as possible so that
it can benefit me as much as I plan to benefit it. Since I am
a first year member of the program, I am not sure of how exactly
to change it, but I do feel important work that the council should
address includes: delegating more responsibilities to students,
focusing on keeping members aware of current research discoveries
from around the world, as well as providing a forum for other
members to voice opinions and concerns with the program. To the
council, I would bring commitment, eagerness, and many fresh,
new ideas to enhance and possibly even improve the Dean's Scholar
Program. Once I begin something, I always try to see it through
because dedication is the underlying principle in order to make
anything successful. So, through hard work, hopefully, I can prove
as an attribute to such a council.
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Dean's Scholars is a good program with many benefits. Through the first-year seminars, new members are introduced to science research by a variety of different groups. After this period, many of the benefits (and also the responsibilities) of DS dwindle. I'd like to help get the DSSA Council started off as a forum for ideas about how the program could improve both the giving and taking aspects of being in DS. There are many little things that can be done (peer advising, research guidance, book exchange, etc.) which need guidance from active involvement from DS members (more than 'hey that's a good idea, maybe Cline can do that') which I think the council could do a good job of organizing.
I conceived of the Dean's Scholars Student Association to serve
three purposes: 1) Increase the participation of individual Dean's
Scholars; 2) Increase the visibility of the program on campus;
and 3) Provide a structure and a self-government to the program,
which is in the process of doubling in size. Basically, the DSSA
can be a powerful mechanism for accomplishing things which would
be too difficult for one or two students to accomplish by themselves.
Since we will be a coalition of 150 of the smartest science students
on campus, we will be a powerful campus organization. In conjunction
with other campus organizations, like the Natural Sciences Council,
we could accomplish even more. Since I have a lot of time and
effort already invested in the program just to get it off the
ground, I am very interested in seeing it succeed. I think it
can, and I'd like to help. With some work we can get this thing
running soon, and we can actually do something rather than just
talk about it.
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I'd like to represent the people in my seminar in the Dean's Scholars
committee. I want to help get the DSers organized so we can all
live in peace and harmony with our brothers and sisters.
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I'm a third-year Dean's Scholar. I love program, and I'm very
interested in making sure that it continues and prospers. If elected,
you can be sure that I will be an extremely committed and involved
representative.
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I would like to be on the Dean's Scholar's Student Association
Council because I would like to have a hand in making DS a more
service oriented organization. I'd like to help find ways to encourage
(not force) all DS to participate and give back more to the program.
I think this could best be done if DSSA offers DS with opportunities
that they would truly like to participate in.
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The purpose of the DSSA is to get more Deans Scholars involved.
My ideas for the best way to do that: -arrange more volunteer
activities other than MSEP- maybe those concerning health-related
fields since Im guessing a large percentage of DS are premeds.
-set up better advising. Emphasis on freshman, but for upperclassman
as well. Maybe compile a booklet about professors, classes to
take, etc.- seeing as how a lot of us take the same classes..
Included in this might be matching students with professors- however,
I personally think that that's largely an individual responsibility.
-have students get involved in the administrative aspects of DS-
like recruitment -Look into possible new trip sites, and come
up with some ideas for socials. Personally- I think camping would
be fun.. If we didn't want to- we wouldn't even have to set it
up- rec sports has pre-arranged programs.. What I have to offer-
I have a few years of past leadership experience in various organizations,
and I'm not afraid to voice my opinion. Also- time. I'm not technically
involved in any other organizations and I would like to be.. Thus
far most of the ones I've tried have seemed pretty impersonal-
this is a smaller group of people with closer interests- has the
potential not to be like that.
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My name is Justin Lee and I am a second year Dean Scholar. I am
running for the Student Association, because I feel that Dean
Scholars is and a great program with a tremendous amount of potential.
The program should be continually expanding, not only by accepting
more people, but by increasing our involvement with the university
as well as the Austin community. A few dedicated individuals could
really make this program run much more smoothly. To become a truly
well-known and respected organization, we really must earn it.
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I would like to help begin the Dean's Scholars Student Council.
I feel that the council will be a good way to organize the current
program and to promote the involvement of first year Dean's Scholars.
Particularly, I am interested in the recruitment of new Dean's
Scholars because I feel that although we are a very successful
program, many talented high school students do not know of our
program. As a member of the council, I would like to take on the
task of recruitment of new students into our program in these
next few years of expansion.
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What do I see as important? Well, I'm sure you've noticed in the
past three years that I get less than thrilled with people in
this organization who use the program as resume filler and nothing
more (ie. those people in my class, .for example, whom I haven't
seen since my freshman year). So finding ways to get people active
in the program is something I'd like to focus on. I also think
we've had some success getting science exposed to "general
population" through events like Science Fun Day and so forth,
so I could see us trying to expand on something like that. Given
that I've thought about this for about 17 seconds today, I'm sure
I could come up with some more ideas in the future. I'd like to
see what other people have to say, because to be honest, I'm a
little unclear as to what the focus and intent of this association
is going to be. What do I have to offer? 1) Responsibility. And
more importantly, 2) Being that there are so many new faces in
the program, and I feel more like an old veteran every day, I
feel like I can lead quietly, by example.
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I'm interested in the direction of the program. I would like to
see that the student association get off to a strong start. There
are several things it should accomplish -- better organization
of the enrichment program, orientation events, help with reviewing
applications, and particularly OVERALL STUDENT INVOLVEMENT.
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If elected, i would like to work with the other officers to plan
outings, like a camping trip etc, which would be a fun way for
us all to spend time together and get to know each other. I think
an important function of this association is to bring together
DS's who obviously share a lot of things in common. It would be
a good way to get more participants into our activities, like
the middle school program, science funday, IM sports and hopefully
some new activities thereby increasing our productivity. I would
really like to help organize all these events, get people in the
program to work closer together, get more done and have a lot
more fun.
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Hello, my name is Roni Talukdar and I'm a third year Dean's Scholar.
I believe the goal of the student organization should be to expand
the role of the program, both in the university and in the community.
There are a variety of ways to achieve this expansion; most depend
on student participation to succeed. If voted in, I hope to provide
a more structured framework for DS activities and also to increase
the scope of activities available. I've helped with the Dean's
Scholar's Middle School Enrichment program, Science Fun day, the
Icebreakers, and a few more activities so I feel that my experience
will be helpful for the program. If you feel I can help the program,
please vote for me for the DSSA council.
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