SASE, You’re Worth It
By Amberly Ngo and Celine Wong, University of California, San Diego
How many hours would you be willing to commit to SASE on a weekly basis? Many interviewees for our chapter’s intern program would answer five to six hours. In reality, the amount on average cuts closer to fifteen to twenty hours depending on the schedule of events. SASE demands high dedication and effort from everyone on the team to fully succeed at its events. The basic job descriptions of each position only tell so much about the obstacles that need to be overcome in order to have a successful organization. The amount of labor put into planning for professional events allows for the officer and intern teams’ leadership growth. Officers provide guidance for their interns as interns learn to take on roles that require more leadership skills. As a result, both benefit from the symbiotic relationship.
As a pre-professional organization, one of the key goals of SASE is to help prepare scientists and engineers for the global business world. As such, our SASE chapter’s intern program was created in interest of helping potential candidates develop professionally by actively participating as more than just a team member. The interns, chosen through an extensive interview process, are given the chance to not only participate in development of events, but also experience leadership opportunities. Our intern program allows a more personal and meaningful relationship between the officers and interns as it facilitates bonding through working and striving towards similar goals. Though commitment to an organization is no doubt tiring and mentally exhausting, it is one of the best opportunities to develop growth in character. The intern program allows for an intimate experience where the officer can guide interns. In turn, the interns will eventually take on larger responsibilities like leading planning committees.
One of the biggest professional events that the UCSD SASE chapter hosts every year is Dining with Professionals (DWP). DWP gives students a unique opportunity to dine with professionals from industry, research, and academia in a more intimate dinner setting. As a professional event, SASE emphasizes on the formality of such occasions such as establishing dress code, organizing networking sessions, and encouraging proactivity. As an annual event, our SASE chapter takes pride in organization and execution of DWP. To fully prepare for the affair, our chapter starts planning preemptively in the summer in order to ensure the event’s quality. Though intern candidates are not selected until the middle of Fall quarter, there are still many tasks to do from beginning to end. While interns do help with planning for the event, the intern program encourages pre-professional development and thus supports interns in participating in the event while the more experienced officers run the back scenes and help mediate the event.
Our past week in SASE has been one of the busiest:
- Wednesday: Officer Meeting 6 PM — 8 PM
- Thursday: SASE Cultural Dinner 6:30 PM — 9:00 PM
- Friday: SASE Officer/Intern Retreat 12 PM — 8 PM
- Saturday: First Lego League Volunteering 8 AM — 4 PM
- Sunday: Qualcomm Fundraising 8 AM — 6 PM
- Tuesday: General Body Meeting 8 PM — 10 PM
Behind each SASE event is additional hours of planning. We simultaneously juggle planning for our smaller events as well as our bigger events such as DWP and Regional Conference. All funding for our professional events come mostly from our own account. Though our resources are limited, we are not deterred, but rather determined to make ends meet and strive to go beyond expectations.
So with all the prior information on the amount of effort put into SASE, what makes it all worth it? We’d answer, it is the mutual understanding, the shared tiredness, the inside jokes, the community that we foster, and the compassion amongst each of us. We inspire each other to fully better ourselves and support each other in times of need. We share our goals and hopes and create new ones together. We were all members first and share the same sentiments on inclusion and participation in a welcoming community. As one of the SASE missions is to celebrate the diversity of our campuses, our chapter aims to include people of all backgrounds. We believe that inclusivity should apply to everybody regardless of culture and heritage.
We are extremely grateful to be awarded the Strongest Overall Chapter award. It was not only our endeavors as a chapter, but also through the support of other regional and national representatives and managers that we won the award. In addition, the achievements from other regional and national chapters have given UCSD SASE’s chapter inspiration and motivation to always look for improvement. We hope that we have instilled a similar enthusiasm in other chapters as well. In our upcoming West Regional Conference, we hope to see all the chapters of the west coast there and to collaborate on ideas to further the growth of SASE.
SASE UCSD Chapter was awarded the 2016 Overall Strongest Chapter award at the 2016 SASE National Conference in Dallas, TX.
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Originally published at www.saseconnect.org.
