Purpose

The mission of this organization is to promote the graduate student experiences, both educationally and socially, in the Clark school by voicing student concerns, ideas, and goals with the Dean and administration of the Clark school and foster collaboration and communication among all engineering departments.

History

The constitution for the Engineering Graduate Student Society (EGSS) was written and ratified by a committee of graduate students representing most engineering departments during the summer of 2020.  During the Fall 2020 semester the organization was run by a transition council and primarily focused on organizing a virtual peer mentoring program for incoming engineering graduate students. The purpose of the program is to assist incoming graduate students in integrating into the A. James Clark Engineering School graduate community by organizing both social and professional development events. The first elections were held in Spring 2020, and each year since elections have been held to create a board of graduate students who facilitate the planning and running of events.  Professional development events have included Q&A panels of working industrial professionals, Q&A panels of current near-graduation engineering grad students, and providing practice space/audience for preparing presentations for conferences. These are balanced with community-building social events including UMD football and basketball games, happy hours, and a mid-semester BBQ! EGSS continues its goal of incorporating all engineering graduate students across all departments into a supportive community.