The Astronomy Club has been something that I've been passionate about for the past year and a half, bringing it back up from scratch, and making others passionate about the topic as well! This past year, I was in my second year as president, and I decided to make this an honors experience as a motivation to grow it further than it already is.
I became involved with astronomy club my freshman year. I often went to meetings when my schedule allowed because I loved the topic and wanted to learn more about it. As the year progressed, I became more and more busy, but I still managed to go for meetings occasionally. At the end of my freshman year, I had had a small stint as the VP of the American Society of Safety Engineers, and I wanted to get in leadership for Astronomy Club as well. I ran for VP, but to my surprise, I was the only person to run for a leadership position at all! I kind of became president by default, and realized that since the club was kind of unsuccessful, it was up to me to build it back up from scratch.
I was a SOL that next summer, and I was able to use my new connections and knowledge to find friends to help me build the club up, resources to use the TUC cinema, and get connections with the Cincinnati Astronomical Society! However, the leadership, and the club in general was still a bit shaky, as it's a hard club to get people to keep coming back to! .....
In the spring semester that year, I got a co op in Chong Qing, China, with UC's sister university. See the link here to learn more about it: Chong Qing Co op
However, this meant that I had to run a club from overseas. Two of the other three exec members also were unable to continue their duties, so I had to find replacements for them! From emailing people overseas for club stuff, to making powerpoints just in time, to having the other exec members run meetings, it was not doing well still.
I realized since I would be on campus the whole next year (between summer classes, a fall research co op, spring classes, and the same research co op the next summer), I should stay with the club and try to build it up again. I had a couple exec members who were eager to help, and I decided to implement a mentorship program to keep interested folks involved! Although it was hard to get people to stick around, as always, club events like stargazing nights, and Astro Night helped get our name out there!
This year had the most events of any, with a stargazing trip, a trip to the observatory, meetings held in conjunction with other clubs, 4 guest speakers, a spring break trip to Red River Gorge (which only happened due to the help of some friends!) and an Astro Night. The mentorship program was amazing, and retained some great people who are eager to see the club grow next year as well! It's been bittersweet knowing my time was coming to an end, but the new exec still want me to help around and stick around!
My third academic year (in terms of fall and spring) is completely over now, and so is my time as president of Astronomy Club. Although it's bittersweet, I know that it had to be done. Eventually, I would graduate and move on, and I needed the club to be in good hands. The mentorship program was a rousing success, allowing us to usher in new leaders for next year by keeping them involved in the decision making process all year long.
I have the journal of the experience below. To connect my experience with those of others, I read the book "The Promise of a Pencil". I talked about it in the journal a few times (albeit calling it the name of the charity by accident) , but I will go into more detail here.
In the book, Adam Braun details his journey of how he started his non-profit called Pencils of Promise. I chose this book to parallel my own experiences, because even though I didn't start the club, I had to build it back up almost from scratch when I got it.
The main thematic areas of the book that stood out to me were:
1. "Why be Normal?"
2. "Know that you have a purpose"
3. "Big dreams start with small, unreasonable acts"
4. "Practice humility over hubris"
5. "Find the impossible ones"
6. "Focus on one person in every room"
7. "You can not fake authenticity"
8. "Surround yourself with those who make you better"
9. "Vulnerability is vital"
10. "If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough"
Some of these connect to each other in obvious ways. However, all of them connected to my leadership potential, personal growth, or both!
Why be normal, indeed? If I have the motivation, passion, and talents, why go with the flow instead of leaving a ripple? Although agreeing to run a club was highly unreasonable, I am proud of how it turned out overall. That was one of my purposes the past couple years, and it was a pleasure to do so.
However, this past semester humbled me as I realized that there is indeed a lot of things that I don't know. As I reduced my behavior of this and practiced "humility over hubris", I, in turn, became more authentic. Although not a lot of people stick with the club, me not being afraid to show my vulnerability attracted those who value authenticity, and who really love astronomy, creating an amazing group of members to stick with it.
Through both authenticity, and the mentorship program, I was able to surround myself (and the club) with those who made me better. I partially achieved this by focusing on the people who showed a real passion and love of the subject, and focusing my efforts in a highly efficient way.
Finally, this gave me the courage to follow the dreams that scared me. I realized how much I do love astronomy and space ventures, so after talking with my honors advisor, and several other professors, I've decided to try to go for astronautical engineering in grad school. We'll see what the future brings me, but I'm excited and terrified of what might happen!
A few pictures are below of the past year!
My journal of my Astronomy Club Experience is at the bottom of this page!
-It's a bit of a doozy, at 13 pages, but it has a lot of info, and if you are interested in a particular meeting, there are captions there as well! Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!
I became involved with astronomy club my freshman year. I often went to meetings when my schedule allowed because I loved the topic and wanted to learn more about it. As the year progressed, I became more and more busy, but I still managed to go for meetings occasionally. At the end of my freshman year, I had had a small stint as the VP of the American Society of Safety Engineers, and I wanted to get in leadership for Astronomy Club as well. I ran for VP, but to my surprise, I was the only person to run for a leadership position at all! I kind of became president by default, and realized that since the club was kind of unsuccessful, it was up to me to build it back up from scratch.
I was a SOL that next summer, and I was able to use my new connections and knowledge to find friends to help me build the club up, resources to use the TUC cinema, and get connections with the Cincinnati Astronomical Society! However, the leadership, and the club in general was still a bit shaky, as it's a hard club to get people to keep coming back to! .....
In the spring semester that year, I got a co op in Chong Qing, China, with UC's sister university. See the link here to learn more about it: Chong Qing Co op
However, this meant that I had to run a club from overseas. Two of the other three exec members also were unable to continue their duties, so I had to find replacements for them! From emailing people overseas for club stuff, to making powerpoints just in time, to having the other exec members run meetings, it was not doing well still.
I realized since I would be on campus the whole next year (between summer classes, a fall research co op, spring classes, and the same research co op the next summer), I should stay with the club and try to build it up again. I had a couple exec members who were eager to help, and I decided to implement a mentorship program to keep interested folks involved! Although it was hard to get people to stick around, as always, club events like stargazing nights, and Astro Night helped get our name out there!
This year had the most events of any, with a stargazing trip, a trip to the observatory, meetings held in conjunction with other clubs, 4 guest speakers, a spring break trip to Red River Gorge (which only happened due to the help of some friends!) and an Astro Night. The mentorship program was amazing, and retained some great people who are eager to see the club grow next year as well! It's been bittersweet knowing my time was coming to an end, but the new exec still want me to help around and stick around!
My third academic year (in terms of fall and spring) is completely over now, and so is my time as president of Astronomy Club. Although it's bittersweet, I know that it had to be done. Eventually, I would graduate and move on, and I needed the club to be in good hands. The mentorship program was a rousing success, allowing us to usher in new leaders for next year by keeping them involved in the decision making process all year long.
I have the journal of the experience below. To connect my experience with those of others, I read the book "The Promise of a Pencil". I talked about it in the journal a few times (albeit calling it the name of the charity by accident) , but I will go into more detail here.
In the book, Adam Braun details his journey of how he started his non-profit called Pencils of Promise. I chose this book to parallel my own experiences, because even though I didn't start the club, I had to build it back up almost from scratch when I got it.
The main thematic areas of the book that stood out to me were:
1. "Why be Normal?"
2. "Know that you have a purpose"
3. "Big dreams start with small, unreasonable acts"
4. "Practice humility over hubris"
5. "Find the impossible ones"
6. "Focus on one person in every room"
7. "You can not fake authenticity"
8. "Surround yourself with those who make you better"
9. "Vulnerability is vital"
10. "If your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough"
Some of these connect to each other in obvious ways. However, all of them connected to my leadership potential, personal growth, or both!
Why be normal, indeed? If I have the motivation, passion, and talents, why go with the flow instead of leaving a ripple? Although agreeing to run a club was highly unreasonable, I am proud of how it turned out overall. That was one of my purposes the past couple years, and it was a pleasure to do so.
However, this past semester humbled me as I realized that there is indeed a lot of things that I don't know. As I reduced my behavior of this and practiced "humility over hubris", I, in turn, became more authentic. Although not a lot of people stick with the club, me not being afraid to show my vulnerability attracted those who value authenticity, and who really love astronomy, creating an amazing group of members to stick with it.
Through both authenticity, and the mentorship program, I was able to surround myself (and the club) with those who made me better. I partially achieved this by focusing on the people who showed a real passion and love of the subject, and focusing my efforts in a highly efficient way.
Finally, this gave me the courage to follow the dreams that scared me. I realized how much I do love astronomy and space ventures, so after talking with my honors advisor, and several other professors, I've decided to try to go for astronautical engineering in grad school. We'll see what the future brings me, but I'm excited and terrified of what might happen!
A few pictures are below of the past year!
My journal of my Astronomy Club Experience is at the bottom of this page!
-It's a bit of a doozy, at 13 pages, but it has a lot of info, and if you are interested in a particular meeting, there are captions there as well! Enjoy, and let me know if you have any questions!
Images of top two rows going across from left!
1. telescope seen in the Cincinnati Observatory trip we took in November
2. Astronomy club members and visitors in our time travel meeting hosted jointly with Hyperloop UC
3. Picture taken at Cracker Barrel as we headed down for our spring break trip at Red River Gorge
4. Attendees at Astronomy Night
5. Me, Bruno, and Jerome representing Astronomy Club at the celebration of student involvement dinner
6. Our last meeting of the 2018-2019 academic year!
Bottom row: pictures from the Red River Gorge trip!
1. telescope seen in the Cincinnati Observatory trip we took in November
2. Astronomy club members and visitors in our time travel meeting hosted jointly with Hyperloop UC
3. Picture taken at Cracker Barrel as we headed down for our spring break trip at Red River Gorge
4. Attendees at Astronomy Night
5. Me, Bruno, and Jerome representing Astronomy Club at the celebration of student involvement dinner
6. Our last meeting of the 2018-2019 academic year!
Bottom row: pictures from the Red River Gorge trip!