This article originally appeared on the ANS Nuclear Cafe

I am the new student director for the American Nuclear Society. I will be representing students on the ANS Board of Directors for the next two years.

Here’s a little bit about me—I’m a first-year graduate student in Nuclear Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I recently received my Bachelors in Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering from the University of Illinois. I have held several official positions in the Illinois ANS student section, including president in 2015-2016.

I sit on the Local Sections Committee, am an ex-officio member of the Student Sections Committee, and I am working on becoming more involved in the Fuel Cycle and Waste Management Division and Young Members Group in the coming years.

As the student director, it is my privilege and responsibility to be the voice of all student members at the Board of Directors meetings. And although the student director is only voted on by student members of ANS national, this position does have equal voice and voting rights on the Board of Directors.Therefore, I want to extend an open invitation to all students to send me your comments.

Does your student section lack resources? Are you unsure how to get involved with ANS national? Do you want to share an exciting event your student section held/participated in? I want to hear it!

I have created a simple anonymous form to leave me comments, feedback, questions. You do NOT have to be a student to send me feedback, and you are welcome to leave your contact information for me to follow up if you wish.

Prefer to email me directly? I can be contacted through ANS collaborate.

Finally, I want to encourage all students to become ANS national members (and remember to renew your membership too) in conjunction with becoming a members of your school’s student section. Joining your student section is not the same as joining ANS national, so I encourage you all to become a national member of the Society, now! And keep in mind that you must be a part of the national Society to take advantage of the benefits offered.

Becoming an ANS national member gives you access to cheaper rates for ANS meetings, allows you to have division and committee memberships, and offers incredible networking opportunities. While joining your student sections provides the chance to build leadership skills and impact your community on a local level, joining ANS national allows the opportunity to let your voice be heard in the entire nuclear community. One new and cool perk offers you an opportunity to grace the social media for ANS. It is allows you to become pretty visible within our Society, trust me… I know. But this offering is only open to ANS national members.

Honestly? Both national and student section memberships are extremely valuable, and neither can replace the other, but be sure to maintain your student AND national memberships every year!

Thank you again to all the students who voted in the election and I look forward to serving you on the board of directors until June 2019!