The "Meet Your Student Leaders" series provides graduate students and postdoctoral fellows an opportunity to get to know the students who run the various graduate student organizations at UAB.
Q: What is your name, age and program of study?
A: “I am Nathalia Melo, 23, and a doctoral student in GBS BSSB.”
Q: What is your role within the organization?
A: “Chief of Staff.”
Q: What responsibilities does that role entail?
A: “Making sure the program stays organized and people are doing the jobs they signed up to do!”
Q: How are you benefitting from this leadership position? How will it help you achieve your future career goals? What are you learning from this role?
A: “This is helping me find new ways to stay organized and be able to approach people about issues in a productive manner. Being organized is key to any career so I’m excited to be learning techniques that will carry over throughout my future.”
Q: Why should graduate students get involved in student organizations?
A: “Being involved in student organizations is a great way to get to know people! I've loved being able to meet graduate students from different programs and learn more about UAB as a whole.”
Q: Why should graduate students get involved in leadership positions within those student organizations?
A: “All careers require some sort of leadership. Learning how to be a good leader can really set you apart from several of the other candidates trying to get your dream job.”
Q: How do you balance being a graduate student with the responsibilities that come from this leadership position?
A: “I balance being a graduate student and being chief of staff by time management. At the beginning of each day I organize my time and estimate how much time I should be spending on each task. That way I don't spend my entire day doing just one task, I know I have a time crunch to get things done. Setting personal deadlines is a great way to motivate yourself!”
Q: What else do you do?
A: “I’m involved with graduate school recruitment.”