Although the Institute has more graduate students than undergraduate students, it can often be quite challenging to find a graduate student at Institute events and football games. However, Will Pavlick, Ph.D ECE and Graduate SGA President, and Dr. Luoluo Hong, Vice President for Student Engagement and Well-Being, sought to help graduate students feel more connected to the Institute last Friday, August 22, at the annual Grad Welcome Picnic.
The event, hosted in the Mary R. and John F. Brock Football Practice Facility, lasted almost three hours and consisted of a variety of free shirts and food for the students, as well as different yard games, such as cornhole and a massive Jenga set.
While most students initially flocked to the free food, the line also allowed students to start talking to the people near them. The other students either sat at the tables talking or played one of the many yard games.
The cornhole games in particular were quite popular: each cornhole game had about 10 people, with five members on each side. Pavlick also joined the games as he went around trying to talk to everyone.
“We have something special where we take all of these different colleges, all of these different schools, and bring them together with food, music and games,” Pavlick said.
While the undergraduate class is quite diverse, many students are in-state and come to the Institute with high school friends, but this is much rarer for graduate students, since a larger portion of graduate students come from out-of-state or are international when compared to the undergraduate population. This dynamic can make it challenging for new graduate students to find a community on campus quickly, but it also makes the graduate population even more diverse than their undergraduate counterparts.
To showcase this diversity, Hong listed each of the six inhabited continents from the stage and asked students to cheer when they heard the name of the continent where they were from. For each continent, there were more than a handful of cheers emanating from the crowd.
Due to the wide range of backgrounds, it might be hard for many graduate students to relate to each other, but the picnic and other events for graduate students can help them adjust to the Institute and Atlanta as they continue their research and studies.
“I did my undergrad at Rutgers and came to Atlanta for grad school, so that’s why I like these events to see some familiar faces and also some new ones,” said Swarnima Roychowdhury, Ph.D BME.
The event was hosted on a practice football field, which gave it a grand feel, thanks to its size. The large venue also allowed people to spread out more easily, enabling the diverse social crowd to stay comfortable at the event while still socializing with their friends.
“[Hosting here] gives students a chance to explore buildings on campus they haven’t before,” added James Black, Director of Student and Academic Affairs. Having so many students from different programs provided an opportunity for people to interact with departments they might never have met before.
“I just don’t interact with too many students from other departments, and we all have our own things we are working on, so it can be a little difficult to know where to start,” said Manuel Coates, Ph.D CE.
The graduate students who attended the event found it to be very enjoyable, with many stating that it was not their first time attending the welcome picnic, and they would return with more of their friends.
“If I knew so many people were going to come, I would have told more of my friends to come. I’ll tell them to come with me next year,” said Francisco Polo Salinas-Fiesco, first-year M.S. SEEM.
While classes at the Institute can be challenging and fast-paced, comfort can always be found with other students here, whether new or old. There are plans for more graduate events both within the different schools and with the Institute as a whole.