Introduction
Hey SASE family! It’s been a little bit since we last spoke, and I hope that you all have been doing well. It feels like 2023 has been speeding by (we’re already two months in!), and I’m sure everyone has been having a wonderful Spring semester. The flowers are in bloom and the weather is warming up (along with the allergies unfortunately), which has been a great reflection of the warmth we’ve felt as you all have joined us at our events this semester. Let’s look back at some of these events and recount our great January and February to start the year off!
Career Fair Crash Course
Starting right away on the first week of the semester, we were off to the races as we held our Career Fair Crash Course event to help prepare our members for the upcoming Spring Career Showcase. We went over some key career fair, resume, and interview tips to ensure that our members were in tip top shape and poised to have the most beneficial experience at Showcase possible. Thank you so much to our president, Ian, as well as our vice presidents, Taise and Julia, for holding this event to set up our members for success!
Tech Workshop
Much of January was then spent on helping our members settle in before we started our events, beginning with Tech Workshop #1: 3D Printing. 3D printing is a super exciting technology because it allows you to print practically anything that you can imagine (and design in CAD of course). Our members were able to learn about different types of 3D printers, start designing parts in Onshape, and learn about the printing process on campus. Thank you so much to our technical chairs, Tam and Sharika, for holding this workshop to get our members on the road to designing parts for ourselves!
New Year Social
Next up was our wonderful Lunar New Year Social! This event was so much fun, and many of our members were able to come out and enjoy the fresh air with fellow members in the Plaza of the Americas to celebrate the beginning of the lunar new year. Members got to enjoy a variety of snacks and games, and the beautiful weather was the icing on the cake for this fun event. Thank you so much to our social chair, Bailey, for organizing this relaxing and joyful social!
SASE in the Plaza of the Americas at the Lunar New Year Social
GBM 1 + Mentor-Mentee Week
In the first full week of February, we held our biannual Mentor-Mentee week, which was a total blast. GBM #1: The SASEcret to Making Your Dreams Work started us off by providing many helpful tips about staying healthy so that we can achieve our dreams! That was followed by our Mentor-Mentee reveal, and the rest of the week was filled with spending time with our lovely mentors and mentees, both at the Movie and Board Game Night event as well as Dinner at Blaze on Friday night. M&M is always such an exciting and bustling time, and we hope that everyone was able to find a mentor or mentee who they can cherish! Thank you so much to our GBM #1 team and our internal vice president, Julia, for making this week such a success!
SASE GBM#1: the SASEcret to Making Your Dreams work
Trash Pickup Service Event
Right as M&M week ended, we held our (very popular!) trash pickup service event, and our members were able to help clean up SW 16th Ave in cooperation with Keep Alachua County Beautiful. This service event is always surprisingly enjoyable, and our members even got to enjoy an aftersocial after working hard to keep our streets clean. Thank you so much to our service chair, Kelly, for coordinating with KACB for providing our members the opportunity to give back to our community and keep our roads beautiful!
Members at the trash pickup service event
Jelly Fundraiser
We’re all about love and supporting others here at SASE, and when the Thai-Lao Student Association reached out to us for the chance to collaborate on a fundraiser with them, we simply couldn’t pass the offer up. The TLSA Thai Jelly fundraiser was a great way for our members to support our friends at TLSA, and we really enjoyed the tasty jellies in a variety of flavors ranging from watermelon and mango to specialty Thai sodas. (Psst… Don’t worry if you missed the event this year! Word on the street is that it’ll be happening again next year, but don’t quote me on that!). Thank you so much to our fundraising chair, Ian, and our TLSA contact, Ploy, for helping set up this collaboration!
Professional Events
With all the fun we had throughout the different events in February, professional development was still one of the most important things on our minds, and we had a number of different events and opportunities geared towards helping our members learn more about life as a professional in industry, improve resumes, and network with recruiters. From the Resume Review with BNSF Railway and Q&A Night with Professional Engineers to the Meet and Greet with Blue Origin as well as the Information Session with Edwards Lifesciences, our members got to hear about a variety of different industry experiences and took away some great tips and tricks to navigate the professional world. Thank you so much to our external vice president, Taise, for working with all of these different companies to offer these invaluable experiences to our members!
Project Makeover Service Event
One of our last events of February, and our biggest service event of the year, Project Makeover Weekend allowed our members to join many other volunteers and travel to Glen Springs Elementary to get to work improving many different aspects of the grounds. From planting new plants in hand-built plant troughs to giving buildings a new coat of paint, Project Makeover works to reinvigorate schools across Gainesville, and this was a great opportunity for us to give back to our community in a tangible and lasting fashion. Our members worked extremely hard to breathe new life into the school grounds, and the fruits of our labor will be felt every day by the children who get to experience the lively new environment that we built for them. Thank you so much to our service chair, Kelly, for organizing our participation in this amazing event that both we at SASE and the schoolchildren look forward to every single year!
SASE helps out Project Makeover Weekend
Conclusion
Phew, that was a busy couple of months! Now that we’re halfway through the semester, though, it is my sincerest hope that you all are achieving your goals and enjoying the semester as it progresses. Remember, we at SASE are here for you, and if you ever want to reach out to any of your SASE family for anything, don’t ever feel shy. We want you to succeed, and we’re happy to be there every step of the way! With the arrival of March means even more SASE events, and we hope to see all your lovely faces at our exciting events coming soon. Stay tuned for what’s coming up through our socials and discord to make sure you don’t miss out on all the fun! Thank you so much for reading. I look forward to seeing you all at our upcoming events, and I’ll see you back here next month!
Your Secretary,
Meer Mahfuz
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