Dr Sam Chu (Director of ASIS&T Chapter Assembly) interviewed Ms Jennifer Sunoo (Co-Chair for Simmons University’s Student Chapter of ASIS&T) and Professor Kyong Eun Oh, Co-Faculty Advisor for the Student Chapter.
Sam: Hello, everyone. Welcome to our interview for Simmons University - Student Chapter of ASIS&T. I am Sam Chu, Director of Chapter Assembly for ASIS&T. Today, We are happy to be able to interview two very important people in Simmons’ Student Chapter.
Sam: Ms Jennifer Sunoo. She's the current Co-Chair for the Student Chapter.
Sam: And we have Professor Kyong Eun Oh. She basically knows the Chapter inside out because she's been the Faculty Advisor for the Student Chapter since 2016. It's really wonderful to be able to interview both of them!
Sam: Jennifer, please say a few words to introduce yourself.
Jennifer: Sure. My name is Jennifer Sunoo. I'm currently a master's student in the Simmons Library Information Science program. I've been in the program for about two years as a part time student, I'm scheduled to graduate this May and I am an Information Science and Technology (IS&T) concentration student. And I'm currently Co-Chair of the Simmons Student Chapter of ASIS&T.
Jennifer: I'm actually also a student member of ASIS&T, and it's been great being part of the organization as a Student Chapter Co-Chair, as well as [as a member of] the organization as a whole since last fall.
Jennifer: I'm a part time student. I work full time at Simmons as the Operations Specialist for the Gwen Ifill College of Media, Arts, and Humanities at Simmons University. So I've had a great opportunity to use a lot of the data and information science technology skills I've learned from the program in my work as well as vice versa. Thank you Professor Chu for this opportunity to talk a little bit about our program today.
Sam: Thanks, Jennifer. It’s wonderful that you can be active in your Chapter, and also for ASIS&T as well!
Sam: Professor Oh, would you like to say a few words to introduce yourself please?
Professor Oh: Sure. Hi, my name is Kyong Eun Oh. I am an Associate Professor at Simmons University. I have been serving as the Faculty Advisor of Simmons’ ASIS&T Student Chapter since 2016 and starting from the last academic year, Professor Rong Tang also serves as a Co- Advisor for the Student Chapter. So currently I'm the Co-Faculty Advisor of the ASIS&T Student Chapter.
Sam: Wonderful. Thanks so much for letting us learn a bit about the two of you.
Sam: The ASIS&T Student Chapter of Simmons University won the Student Chapter of the Year Award at the last ASIS&T annual meeting in October 2020. That's really wonderful! So many people, of course, obviously would like to learn all the great things that your Chapter has done that led to winning the award. So they can learn from your good practices. If you don't mind, please share the secret of your success.
Professor Oh: It was really exciting news for Simmons University, and actually, this was not the first time that we won the Student Chapter of the Year Award. It's the 10th time as far as I know.
Professor Oh: I think one of the primary reasons [for our success] is the Simmons community, the School of Library and Information Science community. We are a very engaging community. Students are very proactive, especially the board members, including our current board members who show really great leadership. They come up with innovative ideas for the events and do a wonderful job in organizing those events. Faculty advisors also work closely with the student officers, not leaving the student alone and tell them to do everything on their own. We do it together. We want to be involved and we want to be supportive. We also have great alumni. For many of the events, we invite our alumni and they are always glad to be involved. They enjoy being connected with the current students and sharing their experiences. So, I think it's more about this community. When there are events, they are shared widely within the community, and many people join them and enjoy the events. So I think the biggest factor of our success is our Simmons SLIS (School of Library and Information Science) community and how engaging we are.
Professor Oh: Another thing is when we are organising the events, we try to balance between social and professional events. So, we have many social events where students can just come, relax, and get to know each other, like some fun events in the last semester - The Pet Parade where students, faculty members, and staff members with pets introduced their pets. Those who don't have pets like me also joined and enjoyed the event.
Professor Oh: And we also have professional activities. We have, for instance, the NE-ASIS&T conference, which we co-hosted with the New England Chapter of ASIS&T. There were other professional activities as well. In the past, we had workshops [like] “Intro to R” or “Intro to Python”. We also invited the alumni and had panel sessions regarding their career or data librarianship. So we try to have a variety of activities and events that can be useful and interesting to the students and the community. So I think that's another factor [for our success].
Jennifer: I agree with Professor Oh about the Simmons community being the secret to our success. I feel like we have a good collaboration between the students who are the officers, the alum, some of whom are previous years’ ASIS&T officers who do come back and speak about their career paths, as well as the faculty advisors. We all collaborate really well together among those three groups. And the combination of social events like The Pet Parade, the career panels, the professional training events, for example we're having a usability training workshop that's coming up soon. We also do a lot of collaborations within Simmons and also as Professor Oh mentioned the collaboration with New England ASIS&T Chapter for the recent conference that took place as a co-sponsor of the event. My fellow Co-Chair and I actually had the opportunity to moderate the Simmons’ sponsored sessions-- [it’s a] great opportunity. And the panelists were actually SLIS Ph.D. students, some of whom are IS&T concentration students as well.
Jennifer: And we also have the opportunity to have a lot of fun events for anyone in the Simmons community to join, as well as those in the IS&T community. We try to market the organization, ASIS&T Student Chapter, to the Simmons community as something that is open to anybody in the SLIS community and we have a lot of folks come ranging from attendance of maybe 15 to 25 people to 40 people depending on the event. And it's been really a joy just getting to know a lot of people in the community by serving on the board, and I think it's been a great opportunity to create community within Simmons through the work we do as well across the faculty, student, and alum populations.
Jennifer: I know that ASIS&T has sponsored the NE-ASIS&T conferences in the past years as well which I've been an attendee of which drew me to ASIS&T. It's a great opportunity for our organization and for Simmons to be involved with the LIS community in that way.
Sam: Your team has been so creative in coming up with The Pet Parade, and also being able to invite alumni to join many different events; that's really wonderful. So Jennifer, I would like you to say a few words about the other members in your team.
Jennifer: Sure. In terms of members of our executive board and our faculty advisors. If you look at the photos on the screen there's myself; I'm one of the co-chairs, and then Professor Rong Tang is one of our co-faculty advisors. And then, Andrew Schofield is the
other co-chair, and then Nick Bodanza is the NE-ASIS&T liaison; Jossel Franco is our webmaster and Vicki Crosson during fall semester was our secretary. And then Katherine Leonard on the bottom left is our communications officer and Professor Oh, is our other co-faculty advisor and Ashley Fishbein is our treasure so we make up the board, and the faculty advisors for the Simmons Chapter of ASIS&T.
Sam: That’s wonderful; you have a very strong team. I guess this perhaps is also one of the reasons for your success because some other chapters especially maybe students chapters, they may not have such a strong team, and also [have] very active or helpful advisors behind the student chapter.
Sam: Earlier, you mentioned that your Chapter always invites alumni to come back for a variety of activities and they do come back and join those activities actively. I assume, perhaps that is for a few purposes, maybe say, for their own learning. And for knowledge sharing since they've learned so much from Simmons and then they [also like to] help the current students of Simmons. And maybe a third reason perhaps is that they enjoy the innovative social activities like The Pet Parade. Am I right? Did I miss any other important reasons why the alumni were so keen on joining the events organized by your Chapter?
Jennifer: I think the only other thing I can think of is that it's also a great networking opportunity in the industry to meet with each other as well as future graduates of the SLIS program so they can make connections with other professionals in the field.
Professor Oh: I just want to mention one more time that we are also actively collaborating with other student associations at Simmons within SLIS. We often do joint activities, which I think is another great way to have networking opportunities, come up with some fun ideas, share ideas, and hold events. So I think that's another secret.
Sam: Okay, thanks so much for willingly sharing your secrets. Jennifer, anything else to add?
Jennifer: Since the Simmons Chapter has been around for many years, I think we as the current board, have been very fortunate to have the historical perspective of what the organization has done in the past to learn from and build upon. And, especially Professor Oh has been really helpful since she's been involved with the organization for a number of years, so we can learn from what past boards have done and build upon it and customize it to the current needs of the current student population in the SLIS community. And we feel really fortunate that we have a rich history as well as a very active current [student chapter] and we're very excited about the future.
Sam: That’s wonderful! Your Chapter has been so fortunate to always be so active and also always able to do so many wonderful things--that's why your Chapter has won this award 10 times. For some other chapters, they are not so fortunate. You may have heard that some other student chapters are actually closing down, or have been pretty inactive. So do you have any advice for other chapters (especially the student chapters) how they can revitalize their student chapters? And what may be some of the reasons why some other student chapters are not so active that they're thinking to close it down, or actually have already closed down?
Jennifer: One thing that comes to mind for me from my experience is [that] I feel like the faculty advisor role [is] an integral part of how the student organization functions. It's not a pure student-led organization in a traditional sense where the faculty advisors are just there by name. Professor Oh and Professor Tang are always available; we can bounce things off them, they come to meetings and they're strong partners in leading the organization. And I myself first considered joining ASIS&T when I was in Professor Oh’s class last year and she was like, “Have you thought about joining a student organization? ASIS&T might be something to consider.” So I thought about that. I don't know if I've ever told you this Professor Oh, but that's what’s kind of sitting in the back of my head when I thought about joining the organization. And I think, especially since Professor Oh has been doing a wonderful job - not just encouraging the students to be involved but also providing a support system to help the students be successful in leading the organization. That partnership is really integral to our success, and I think maybe other student chapters at other universities might not have as much. We're really lucky. I feel like we really appreciate it and benefited from that from Professor Oh and Professor Tang, from my experience it's been really wonderful.
Sam: I see, that’s excellent. Thank you, Jennifer. Of course, it’s very hard to imagine the problem of the other chapters and how we may help them. But since your chapter has been so active and also won ten awards, has there been a time that your Student Chapter has actually run into some challenges or crises? But then the faculty advisors or someone in your chapter did something, tried to improve the situation or revitalized the chapter, etc. So anything that you’d like to share with us?
Professor Oh: I've been serving as the faculty advisor since 2016 and we have been mostly active. We won the award last year, but last year actually wasn't particularly the most active year. We also had some ups and downs though I think we were mostly active.
Professor Oh: Jennifer emphasized the faculty role but I’d also like to emphasize that it's really a joint effort. What happened was, after the last academic year, all of the board members graduated, so we had to have brand new board members, and I was a little bit concerned in the beginning. What I tried to do was highlight and advertise to the student body what would be the benefits of joining this Student Chapter, what they can learn by being on the board members, and what opportunities and experience this will bring. So, I sent out invitations while highlighting the benefits of joining and serving on the board. Then, the students who were interested contacted me and asked questions. After all, we came up with these really amazing board members for this academic year, and now we are really active again. I think that may be one of the ways to revitalize a not so active student chapter.
Sam: Thank you, so one thing that I learned from you is that in order for the student chapter to be active, the faculty advisors need to do quite a lot of work. Since the Executive Board may change from year to year, it may be hard sometimes to continue their active participation.
Professor Oh: So what usually happens is when a student serves as a board member, the student often serves in another role on the board in the next year so that there's some kind of continuation. But last year was a little unique in that all of our board members graduated so we had to come up with the new board members. But now we have really amazing board members and also a great co-faculty advisor. It's a pleasure to work with them and it's really great to see how our Chapter is active again.
Sam: Okay, wonderful. Here are the goals of ASIS&T chapters, and obviously, the wonderful things that your Chapter has been doing are relating to some of these or all of the goals. So if you can share how some activities that your Chapter has done link to some of the goals, that would be wonderful!
Jennifer: In terms of the first goal - providing its members with a variety of channels of communication within and outside the profession, including meetings and publications - I feel that our Chapter is really active in terms of participating in meetings at the ASIS&T level and not just at the student chapter level. For example, our students have been involved as panelists at these events.
We also provide, for goal number two, social opportunities to meet with like minded individuals who are also interested in information science and technology, to meet each other to network and get to know each other. So we have opportunities to collaborate and we can discuss things that are academic in nature or personal in nature and it helps us with networking for our future after we graduate as well, as students. When we have our alums come back, many of whom have been part of ASIS&T before they graduated, as well as those who have not gotten a chance to know them, so we can have a networking opportunity with those within the student population and alum population as well.
Jennifer: In terms of the international, interdisciplinary and inter-organizational activities [3rd goal], I feel like we have the opportunity to intra-collaborate with Simmons’ Library and Information Science program, like our collaborations with User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA), one of our events that is coming up, the usability demonstration workshop, as well as collaborations with other organizations outside of Simmons (e.g., co-hosting conferences/events).
Jennifer: And for tailoring membership experience [goal number 4], one strength we have is that we have a pretty large board. Professor Oh correct me if I’m wrong, but we have a larger board than some of the other student organizations even at Simmons. Because everybody's very committed among the board members in which I really appreciate, and they all come with their ideas and are really ready to roll up their sleeves and get down to work to figure out how we can make our organization successful. We bring our own ideas and experiences of what we want to get out of the organization, and I think that benefits the Simmons community.
The grad students, PhD students, and the Inter-Professional Informationist (IPI) students participate in our events as well. We are very inclusive, and we're open to anybody in the Simmons, or the LIS community at Simmons, who are interested in learning more about ISMP. I feel that it helps tailor the experience with the field to the interests of our community, because when there's so many of us in the board who bring our preferences and interests that are representative of the variety of interests in our community.
And the other thing I want to mention is I feel like in the pandemic this year, there's been an opportunity for online students. I'm actually also an online student even though I live and work in the Boston area.
And I feel like there's been an opportunity for more online students to participate in our events and our organization, and we have members on our board who are not in Boston as well. And so it's a wonderful larger community outreach opportunity we've had; that we've taken advantage of that also reflects how we can serve the Simmons community, which has a large online contingent as well as on the ground in the master's program at Simmons for library science, in which I think we've been able to serve successfully which has been wonderful--once again tailoring the experience to meet people where they are. During these pandemic times, I feel like we've had a great opportunity to experience that, considering the circumstances, and I feel really happy about it.
Sam: That's wonderful Jennifer, Thank you. Professor Oh, would you like to add something?
Professor Oh: Sure. So for the first goal - providing members with a variety of channels of communication within and outside of the profession: Currently, we have a blog, in which we try to actively share our events and activities. We also have a Twitter account and a Facebook account, so we use social media very actively to communicate with others, to promote our events, and share some of the relevant experiences of not only our Chapter events, per se, but also when the ASIS&T annual meeting is happening and our faculty members or students are presenting, we actively share that information as well. So by sharing information via our blogs and other social media channels, and providing opportunities for people to meet socially and exchange information and experiences through various events.
Professor Oh: Another point, which is related to the question that you asked [earlier], is that I think it’s important to come up with events that are fun or useful to both the board members and the audience. It will make the board members be more involved in organizing the events and automatically attract other students to come to the events - to have fun or to learn. I think that's one of the things that we've been doing. In terms of representing the association in international, interdisciplinary, inter-organizing activities, I think Jennifer well-covered that one. For providing more tailored members experience within their own geographic and cultural context. Again, I’d like to highlight the collaboration. For instance, we hosted workshops or panel sessions by inviting people from other institutions nearby, such as Northeastern University, Tufts, Harvard, or MIT.
Professor Oh: So we often invite people who can easily come to our campus and share their experiences. I think that also has been wonderful, and with the NE-ASIS&T, we have been very active in collaborating with each other. I think it's really great for the students because they can connect with the professionals who are working in the New England area. The professionals also can have the opportunity to get to know the current students. So I think that has a very mutually beneficial relationship.
Sam: Wonderful, I've learned a lot regarding how you can build and run a very successful student chapter. So thank you both. I really don't have further questions, any last words that you’d like to share with our ASIS&T Chapter members?
Jennifer: I would say that I've really enjoyed being part of the ASIS&T community, and I would encourage other students who might have thought about joining a student organization, or joining an industry group like ASIS&T, to do it. Because I was hesitant at first. I was really busy but then when I started getting more involved, it became a really great experience that I would highly recommend for anybody out there to consider.
Sam: I want to ask a bit more regarding this industry group that you mentioned, first of all, which industry group did you join and what are the other industry groups available through your Chapter.
Jennifer: So we are a Student Chapter, and we’re part of the New England ASIS&T because of our geographical location, which is part of ASIS&T as a whole. And I think a lot of times when you’re a student, from my perspective, I would think maybe I'll join a student organization. But then, why stop there? Think about the context of how the student organization is part of the industry community. So in the information science and technology field, ASIS&T is one of the prominent organizations that a lot of opportunities to learn from and be involved with that, this has given me a taste of what ASIS&T does at the student level at Simmons that I'm very fortunate to have the opportunity to be connected with. And I would love to just continue the relationship to be involved with ASIS&T, at least as a member.
Jennifer: There are things I learned from people I've met and I think it's a great opportunity and we're very fortunate also that, Professor Naresh Agarwal, who is the President-Elect of ASIS&T currently, actually came and spoke at one of our earlier events as well, to share about ASIS&T with our student population. So we could share about what we do as a student chapter, what ASIS&T does, as well and how students can be involved with ASIS&T directly. So that was really a wonderful opportunity for us at Simmons that we have one of our professors in leadership at ASIS&T and it's a great way for our students to see those opportunities as well. And also, get to know a little bit more about what's out there, so after you graduate you know what's out in the industry as well that you could be involved with, so I think that's great.
Sam: I see, thanks a lot Jennifer, and Professor Oh, any last words you'd like to say?
Professor Oh: So I’d like to say that this can be a really great opportunity, both for the students and for the community - to get together, learn from each other, have some networking opportunities, have some fun times, and socialize. In the case of students, they can also have great leadership experience.
Sam: Thanks, Jennifer and Professor Oh. I hope to see you, not just online but maybe face to face, soon again in some of the ASIS&T events in the future. Professor Oh: Yes, I hope so, too. Thank you.
Jennifer: Very nice meeting you and thank you for the opportunity. Sam: Thank you, bye bye.