Academic and Professional Development
Co-Chairs: Sara Kakatkar & Will Gottsegen
Employer Relations Director: Forrest Sun
The Academic Opportunities and Professional Development committee works to expand the Echols Brand to the professional community and connects scholars to the diverse alumni network. This committee also organizes workshops and events to guide Echols Scholars in enhancing their professional skills and provides and avenue for scholars to explore their career interests.
The Social and Community Events committee works to create and implement social activities and community service events to foster a sense of community amongst the Echols Scholars. For the upcoming year, the committee hopes to provide Echols Scholars with as many opportunities as possible to interact with and learn from their colleagues. We plan to send out surveys periodically to hear from the Scholars themselves about what kind of events they would like to see happening. In addition to creating a sense of community amongst the Echols Scholars as a whole, we are hoping to plan events in collaboration with members of other members to further the goals of the Council.
The Mentorship Committee oversees all of the Echols peer mentors as well as the mentees who are involved in the program. Our committee is responsible for recruiting potential mentors to the program and pairing them with each incoming first year Echols scholar, making sure that the best match is made based on interests, personality, and everything in between. Throughout the semester the mentorship committee works to put on events for the our mentor/mentee pairs; these include coffee chats, sunset insiders, movie nights, and food on the lawn. For the upcoming year, we hope to continue all of the best events from last year while adding new ones that we haven't done before. We are focused on establishing a bond between each mentor and mentee that goes beyond this program, and sustaining it throughout their experience here at UVA!
Fireside Chats
Chair: Lane VanderVoort
Inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt's "Fireside Chats" from 1933-1944, the mission of this program is to facilitate intellectual curiosity by connecting students with professors directly. The Fireside Chats Committee organizes the Fireside Chat Speaker Series, which is a series of small round-table discussions led by University Professors and Echols scholars. Fireside chats are held on a variety of topics, and in the past they have included: Fair Trade and Globalization, Measuring Brain Synchrony, Circumstances of Inequality, and Do you think you know Dracula?
Public Relations
Co-Chairs: Isabelle Engel & Morgan Weber
The Public Relations committee manages internal and external communications and marketing for Echols Council. This committee manages all social media accounts of Echols Council as well as the website. The Public Relations committee also sends out the weekly Echols newsletter publicizing events and opportunities for Echols Scholars. For the upcoming year, we hope to bring the Echols community together by increasing our social media presence and keeping our website up-to-date on all the exciting events taking place in the Echols community. Overall, we hope to engage with the scholars more frequently, and create a more interactive digital space.
Equity and Outreach
Chair: Naomi Shumpert
The Equity and Outreach committee seeks to ensure that Echols Council’s engagements and operations are inclusive of all abilities, ages, ethnicities, genders, races, religions, sexual orientations, and other categories of difference by working closely with all other committees and officers of Council. The committee will initiate outreach to Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities and other underrepresented communities on Grounds, especially for recruitment and admissions. We seek to make the Echols Program more equitable for and representative of the increasingly diverse student body at the University.