Sadly, my second term as ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) president of the University of Iowa student chapter is coming to an end. The last two years Tyler Jensen, the vice-president, and I worked hard to regularly schedule entertaining meetings, drive to the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana’s computing conference, host Iowa’s annual computing conference and host the Hawkeye Challenge, the annual high school programming competition. I feel very fortunate to have lead such a great organization!

I joined the ACM my freshman year and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. A lot of my good fortune stemmed from being involved with the ACM. I made friends, I found role models and it helped me land some amazing internships and job offers.

I once heard that 20% of people in an organization do about 80% of the work. As an ACM leader I learned that is true. It’s challenging to be a leader because it’s hard to recruit members. It’s hard to to speak in front of not-so-lively crowds. It’s hard to turn an unenthusiastic crowds into exuberant crowds, but it’s possible. 🙂 On the bright side, it’s rewarding to see new students sign up as members. It’s rewarding to get to know the students that regularly show up to events. It’s rewarding to see people enjoy and support the organization I lead. Leadership has its challenges but it has amazing rewards that are worth all of the effort, too!