I am not saving the world over spring break, and that’s okay. Come March 16, you will probably find me either catching up on hours at my part-time internship or catching up on “This Is Us” with my mom.

Many of my friends will travel to Mexico to build houses for those in need. Other Tech students have the opportunity to go on an alternative service break or a number of other short-term service activities. While I do admire them for dedicating the one extended break of their semester to compassion on those in need, I also believe that choosing to rest is an equally viable option.

On one hand, there is little evidence that short term service trips truly benefit the people you are going to serve. A lot of literature promotes short term volunteerism for increasing cultural awareness, flexibility, empathy and in some cases, a propensity to volunteer more in the future. All of these traits, while admirable, center more around the people helping then around those being helped.  

You may have heard of “the white savior complex,” a self-serving assumption among those from developed nations that other nations need saving. This often leads to foreign volunteers doing work in less sustainable ways, work that could be done through local leadership. Problematic themes include oversimplification of complicated societal dynamics or exploitation through tourism industries.

Is saying the place you visited was “so poor but happy” accurate or empowering to that community? Is buying souvenirs for mere pennies each actually a bargain? Do these interactions instill dignity to others or feed your own ego? I pose these questions not to guilt anyone taking a service trip. The money and time it costs to serve is a sacrifice, and your intentions are very worthy. Through a team effort, lives are capable of transformation, even over just a few days.

If you still feel called to serve over break, consider doing local service. I spent one break serving at an Atlanta homeless shelter packing toiletries. Others I have volunteered tutoring refugees in Clarkston, a few miles outside the city.  These are not the most glamourous of occasions. I won’t get to experience another culture or take pictures with my friends in a new city. However, these opportunities help me to give back within the community I live in.

Finally, be sure to remember one often neglected area of service — yourself. Tech semesters can be brutal. Juggling course loads, midterm schedules, extracurriculars and trying to have a social life can leave little time for self-care. And once the break is over, finals season quickly approaches, and registration will already be underway for summer and fall. Perhaps the most productive time spent over break will be doing what needs done to pause, rest and recharge. I see this spring break as the one opportunity I have to recommit to mental health practices. It’s not exciting to hope to get eight hours of sleep, catch up on doctors’ appointments and maybe work out a few times over my one week off. However, this rest will grant me the health to be able to serve my community in the future.

So whether you are spending your break doing construction in Latin America or doing absolutely nothing constructive on your parents’ couch, I hope you find rest and fulfillment during your spring break in the midst of a busy school semester. 

With tax credits up to 30% and the productions of major films, including Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and the Madea series, the city of Atlanta has served an increasingly pivotal role in the film industry. 

The over 15  commercial production houses within walking distance of campus signal that Tech’s role in the film industry has also been on the rise. 

The School of Literature, Media, and Communication’s Cinema@Tech offers insight into this industry to give interested students an in to one of the most competitive and fast-growing markets in Atlanta. The program offers both classes on film theory and film production. 

The Technique sat down with Cinema faculty John Thornton to gain more insight into the program. Thorton works on the hands-on production side to help students hone practical filmmaking skills through academic classes, student clubs and experience on professional projects that he oversees. He teaches courses related to film production, instructing students on all phases of production from script writing to post-production.

“At Cinema@Tech, we try to provide students the opportunity to learn the art of filmmaking and then showcase work on and off campus,” Thorton explained.

Within the program, Thorton currently teaches Advanced Video Production. Students in the class must complete three major projects over the semester. The projects include producing a commercial, working on a short film that students write the script for and finally producing a “Bill Nye-esque” educational video to showcase the School of Nuclear
Energy at Tech.

“Their objectives are to rethink the model,” Thornton said when describing the process of creating science videos about Nuclear energy projects. “They are going to try to develop videos that incoming freshmen would be
interested in watching.”

Thornton also discussed his own career with filmmaking. He shared that although he always had a passion for film, his career path was both circuitous and challenging.

“Initially my interest was in secondary education,” he shared. “I had a passion for film and theater, and I had an opportunity to pursue theater in a couple of graduate schools for free… but I wasn’t at a point in my life where I was prepared to pack up and leave.” 

After graduation, Thornton spent five years teaching middle and high school. The film industry never left his horizon, and he eventually went back to school at the Savannah College of Art and Design to get his Masters in Fine Arts in film.

Thorton noted the differences between the film industry of today with the scene he eventually entered into upon graduation. 

“At the time, Atlanta wasn’t booming like it is now. I didn’t know anybody. Very few people could break in without background training.”  

And train he did: Thornton studied all kinds of film from episodic television to features and even reality television. To break into the film industry, Thornton explained the process of starting out as a production assistant until eventually specializing and committing to one department. 

“I thrive better when I am in control over what my days look like,” he said. “In the film industry it’s a fantastic place to be, but a lot of times if you’re not a content creator, if you’re not producing or directing, you are one of many people in an army who are trying to achieve a vision.”  

He described the feeling of working in the industry as being trapped in a machine, not using his creative skills to their full potential. 

“I made a decision. I really want to be a Content Creator, and being on a machine isn’t going to get me there any faster.” 

He took the risk to leave the film industry and join the world of academia when he joined the faculty at Tech in 2011. Alongside the demands of teaching, Thorton is also currently producing a documentary series called Spaceships &Dope Shit.

“That title arose because I was watching a bunch of futuristic shows and television series, and I didn’t really see a lot of people of color contributing to the future, and it bothered me,” he said. 

“I’m not a scholar in the way we are portrayed in the future, but I am very interested in science and technology and time travel. It did take some time to identify who’s writing this kind of stuff, who are the key players contributing to the conversation.” 

Thorton explained the lengthy process of his research into any topic surrounding people of color who are actively contributing towards the future. 

Most of the initial footage for Spaceships ended up coming from cosplay conventions, which Thorton championed for the visual interest of the conventions and sometimes even the controversy that surrounds them. 

“The reason I moved into the documentary space is because it made more sense time-wise and money-wise. I would love to shoot a feature or film, but that requires more time and more people. It just makes sense instead of waiting to use what I have and seeing if that opens doors.” 

The quirky documentary series will follow several individuals from these conventions across the Southeast, as the cast includes gamers and cosplayers, comic book creators and even a customized tennis shoe artist. Thorton is currently working on condensing between 100 and 150 hours of footage into  short episodes. 

In an increasingly globalized workforce, it is not just technical skills that employers seek in candidates, but also knowledgeability on diversity and inclusion. 

On Feb. 13, an all-female panel from diverse career backgrounds gathered at the Scheller College of Business to discuss how these tenants of diversity and inclusion impact the current workforce. 

“Diversity and inclusion isn’t just the right thing to do from social perspectives, but it makes sense from a business perspective,” said Scheller dean Maryam Alavi in the introduction, citing research on the increasing globalization of business markets and how diversity increases innovation on teams. 

For the three panelists, diversity is not just any other attribute of their career — it is their career.

After graduating with a B.S. in Physics, Dr. Nicole Cabrera Salazar earned a Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Her experience as a female Latina astronomer in academia left her wanting more, so she started her own company. Her company, Movement Consulting, currently works to support marginalized scientists. 

“When I walk into the doorway, it’s like I’m walking through a cutout of the person I’m supposed to be,” she said of her previous academic career. “It’s not just something I can take on or assimilate to. It’s scraping away at my flesh. And that is just to do science.”

“The number one reason marginalized people leave STEM is lack of belonging. I am bringing humanity back into STEM,” shared Cabrera Salazar. 

The second panelist Nicole Jones oversees Delta’s Global Innovation Center in Atlanta. She manages a team that seeks to include all types of employees to help improve Delta’s customer experience. 

Jones also noted that diversity does not just include a variety of ethnicities but also encompasses ages and types of experience as well, from high school interns to executives. 

Jones even encourages employees to leave and join different departments, or sometimes even different career paths. This turnover allows room for new employees with a fresh look into their operations.

“Success starts with being intentional about measuring diversity and inclusion,” Jones said. 

The final panelist, Emma Hind, further stressed the importance of diversity when it comes to success. As a director at Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG) she measures success not by filling quotas of certain types of employees but by asking questions.

“Do you feel encouraged? Listened to?” She said as examples of what  she asks her colleagues. 

Hind started her work with IHG in housekeeping for hotel rooms after dropping out of college. She now serves as a director of Global Revenue Strategy Enablement and pilots a program that allows employees from minority groups to form resource groups.

 From a lack of representation on corporate boards to the motivations for corporations to strive for diversity, the panelists discussed a variety of other issues concerning diversity and inclusion in the business world. They ended the panel with applicable tips, such as encouraging those entering a career to look for companies that value diversity.

“Go where you’re celebrated, not tolerated,” Hind advised. 

The panelists further recommended for students to conduct research, use social media and network with other minority leaders when searching for jobs and other career opportunities. 

They panelists also offered advice for students looking into companies that are currently lacking in diversity. They advocated for taking an active role in increasing awareness of inclusion and leading others to follow by example — or, as Jones put it, “being the change.”

The event was attended by current Tech students and faculty as well as by potential MBA students from other colleges. With many from the audience swarming to the panelists after the event in order to express their appreciation, the excitement seemed to hint at the coming of a more diverse educational and corporate world in the near future.

Hello, I’m Lane Elder, and I’m an Enneagram Type Four.

The Enneagram personality test is often relegated to mystic-spiritual types or cutesy Instagram accounts, not taken seriously. Psychologists like the OCEAN personality inventory, while employers use the DISC test. Some swear by the Myers-Briggs. Still others will claim that personality theories are just constructs meant to label our behaviors in some fruitless organization effort that has no bearing on behavioral outcomes. 

The Enneagram is an underutilized tool when it comes to self-awareness and interacting with others. For background, the Enneagram is a personality framework with nine unique types, stemming from traditions of mystical Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism, Buddhism and ancient Greek philosophy. The nine personality types can be visually arranged around a nine-pointed star with lines between the different types to show how they relate to each other. 

Each type, one through nine, has distinct characteristics. Type Ones are principled and perfectionist. Type Twos will lend a hand; they are generally warm, caring, and aim to please. Type Threes are nicknamed the “achievers,” pragmatic and image conscious. This continues all the way up to Nines, the conflict-averse peacemakers. There are online tests that you can take to determine which of the nine types you are, or just do some research and label yourself.

Many people have heard of personality terms like introversion and extraversion. However, most people’s innate personality traits end up somewhere in the middle of a spectrum. Applying a label has been shown to excuse a behavior instead of describing tendencies. For example, imagine a test result tells you that you are introverted, even if you are truly borderline. The mere designation of “I am an introvert” may cause you to rethink your Friday night plans. It gets even more sinister when you consider that some employers actually use trait-based personality tests in selection processes. 

Enter the Enneagram.

The Enneagram helps give a more nuanced view of how people’s personalities differ. The core of each Enneagram type has to do with underlying motivation. Knowing your type can help you pinpoint personal strengths and weaknesses and show you certain behavioral patterns in both times of stress and times of growth.

A few years ago I remained very reluctant to confine myself into one of the nine types when my aunt lent me a book on the Enneagram. Surely this was just another trite framework that was interesting enough but didn’t mean anything. 

I took an online test and learned my type. A click on a link later and I learned that Fours wanted to express themselves and create beauty but would sometimes dwell on their own melancholy emotions to make that reality more significant. That hit home. It was an uncomfortable truth, but gave me a look into how the things I hated most about myself could be turned into positives. 

Living life through the lens of the Enneagram has made me more compassionate to both myself and others. A couple of my closest friends are Types One and Two. I have learned that my Type Two roommate will always be down to give me a ride, but that may be because saying no is so difficult for her. 

I know that I can go to my Type One friend for everything from advice to proofreading, and I will be there for her if she ever needs a reminder of what a good person she is and inspires me to be. Obviously this is just a surface layer of my friends’ personalities. If the Enneagram provides me just a bit more insight into and how I can better communicate and relate to others though, then I consider it a success.

I highly encourage you to dig in and learn a bit more about which of the nine types you identify with on the Enneagram. Ask your friends if they know their Enneagram type and learn what drives them. The world needs more empathy and celebration of diversity, including diversity in personality. Doing the research is worth the time. 

Even if you don’t come to any life-changing realizations about yourself, you at least have something new to talk about a cocktail party one day. 

Ask an RA why they chose to work in a residence hall and they may just say, “free housing!” with a laugh, as did fourth-year BA Megan Koh. Jokes aside, the community that these staff members strive to create for their residents is worth far more than the cost of housing.

“Community is a place that just feels like home,” shared fourth-year ME Corey Beasley. “It’s not foreign to you. When you come back, you feel like you have something there and you feel comfortable living in this space.

 “It shouldn’t feel like, ‘Oh I’m going to a building with a bunch of people I don’t know.’ It should be like, ‘I’m going back to some place where I have people who I have some sort of connection with, where I have a level of comfort established in that place.’”

The Department of Housing employs over 200 students to create communities in residence halls across campus. Freshman-specific student staff members (SSMs) are called Peer Leaders, or PLs for short. Upperclassmen housing hosts are RAs, resident advisors. Occasionally, students end up working as both during their time at Tech. The two positions are similar in responsibilities but different in the independence levels of residents.

“I feel like the freshman really looked toward you to guide them through their first year of university, but when you work with upperclassmen they know what’s going on a little bit more,” said Beasley. “They have their friend groups, their lives together a little bit more. They have their schedules, so they’re a lot more hands off.”

In order to connect with their residents, SSMs hold the responsibility for planning events that cater to their specific needs, which can greatly differ from one student group to the next. Beasley spoke of hosting a soccer event while working as a PL on east campus that drew 20 students, but estimated that only one or two people would show up if he held one in his current placement at the Graduate Living Center.

Koh, who works with upperclassmen residents of Eighth Street East, agreed that a student staff member must be flexible in catering events to serve residents. 

“If you’re an extrovert and you’re going out all the time and you’re happy and not involved on your floor, that’s okay,” said Koh. 

“Residents should be able to do that without being pressured to come to floor events, and RAs and PLs should know this about their residents and have the judiciousness to reach out to people who are not yet connected and connect them. But it shouldn’t be ‘we must do six events a semester with x amount of creativity.’”

One of Koh’s most successful events as an RA has been making homemade boba tea for her entire building. 

Another RA, Alex Flack,  first-year INTA grad, also draws out residents with the tempting allure of food. 

It is not just food Flack offers, but an avenue for discussion as well. “Donuts for Diversity” and “Taco Bout Sex” have been popular and useful to residents.

“I always like doing those types of events,” shared Flack. “We’ve got international students, students from all around the US, people of different ethnicities, races, religions and this could be the first time they spend time near or around people of wildly different life stories. If I can play a part in making that a positive experience, then I think it’s a success.”

Flack has also worked as a PL in the first-year Honors dorms of Hefner-Armstrong, where he created a non-food-related incentive to build community on the hall. He set up a slow-motion monopoly game, where a different property was velcroed to each door across the hall. Residents received “money” to start and got one roll a day to travel and buy property.

“In theory, it got people to move around the hall at least once a day. We encouraged them to knock on the door they landed on and say hello,” said Flack. “It was designed for community development.”

But what about all the responsibilities besides hall events? SSMs are in charge of hall decorations, taking inventory of the furniture in dorms and apartments, fire safety checks, weekly staff meetings and rigorous training. 

To become an RA or PL, SSMs must arrive on campus two weeks before the fall semester begins and again a few days before spring semester for a training program. 

“It’s a brutal week of information,” remembered Flack.

They receive information not just on hall protocol but also on diversity, health and well-being, active shooter training and mental health resources. All staff go through QPR training, a suicide prevention certification that follows the “question, persuade, respond format.” RAs can then choose to supplement with other courses and presentations during the training week. For example, Flack elected to get Safe Space Trained for LGTBQIA support while Koh led presentations for her peers on bulletin board design and psychological safety in dealing with managers.

According to Koh, the latter presentation is necessary, since working in Housing is “not as chipper as it seems.” The Department is currently overseen by interim assistant director Sheree Gibson, with layers of managers underneath that trickle down to the RAs. 

Koh has experienced many roadblocks to serving her residents, such as getting chastised for having too many food-themed events even though she was following the request of her residents.

“A lot of it is very policy-driven. You get robbed of your creativity and autonomy. There’s a lot of micromanaging and lack of trust. That’s the biggest challenge …empowering RAs and PLs to do what’s actually best,” shared Koh.

Politics aside, the leadership role among peers as an RA or PL lends the job a certain gravitas. RAs and PLs are required to hold themselves to a high standard (“There’s a saying you live in a fishbowl as an RA” laughed Flack). They also have to be ready to deal with challenging situations, sometimes into late hours of the night for those who are “on duty.”

“It can be straining sometimes to have to support thirty-something students, especially for some floors that get more of those emotionally-deeper concerning crises, so having each other to support each other is really important,” said Flack, giving a nod to his co-student staff members.

“Housing attracts some of Tech’s best because it’s a job that requires a lot of social interaction, a lot of expression and you really have to care about people,” said Koh. 

“The first year I applied, the suicide rate was really bad … I wanted to be involved in some capacity because our mental health [at Tech] was so bad and we needed someone on the front line who cared. It was an effort I wanted to be a part of.”

Beasley’s involvement with Housing was inspired by his freshman year PL who he admired. He also recognized difficult situations and wanted to help incoming freshman. 

“I like mentoring people. If you’ve been through something and you can help people not fall for the same mistakes, that’s amazing,” he said.

Flack has worked in housing for two and a half years, and while he admits to challenges, he truly sees value in helping people. 

“RAs and PLs are doing this because they really want to help,” Flack said.  “One of the most rewarding things as an RA is to see and hear the impact you’re having, even though you don’t do it for the recognition. 

“[The RA] will be there for you when things get hard. It’s their job yes, but they’re there because they fundamentally care about you.”

“My residents are my pride and joy. I love them so much,” shared Koh. “I love seeing them go out and succeed. … We are all here for our residents.”

After Stacey Abrams ran in Georgia’s previous gubernatorial election, she continues to use her platform. Despite not winning in 2018, she has founded organizations to champion voters’ rights, a fair 2020 census and progressive policies. Her efforts include partnering with university students to instill change. 

“I believe that you run for office to do the work, not to have the title. The title just helps you get the work done. And so I thought about what work could I do that would be the most effective and have the highest impact, even if I didn’t have the title of Governor,” Abrams said in an interview with the Technique.

Abrams currently leads Fair Fight, an organization to promote fair elections. Fair Fight has chapters on college campuses across Georgia, including one on Tech’s campus. On Sunday, Jan. 19, student leaders from these campuses met to work personally with Abrams. Twelve of them gathered in a conference room, and Abrams led a question and answer session on how to involve students in efforts for voter education and voter mobilization.

Fair Fight is not the first effort in which Abrams has involved the Georgia Tech student community. Abrams volunteered as a speaker in last fall’s HackGT competition. She also included student interns in her campaign for Governor in 2018.

“The next election I’m interested in is coming, but I didn’t have the right to sit out waiting for the next election,” said Abrams. 

“Either I believe in the work or I don’t, and I believe in the work, so I do it.”

Abram’s first step after the election was to file litigation that would change how voters are treated in future gubernatorial elections. 

The lawsuit seeks to “bail in” the state of Georgia, putting the state back under purview of the Voting Rights Act, which was created in 1965 to combat racial discrimination.

“We believe if we are bailed in it will absolutely improve life for Georgia voters,” promised Abrams. According to Fair Fight, multiple issues hindered voter turnout and ultimately impacted the outcome of the 2018 election. 

Their website states that more than 53,000 voter registrations were left pending leading up to the election, 80% percent of which were from voters of color. Additionally, there were approximately “100,000 votes missing from the 2018 Lieutenant Governor’s race. Because of faulty voting machines, voters — especially in communities of color — had their votes go unrecorded.” 

In a broken system, Abrams knows that many students are unmotivated to get involved, or even to simply vote.

 “I was young once, not that long ago, and the sense of disassociation and the lack of faith and trust is not new,” she said. “I’m not an optimist — I’m a realist. The reality is very little happens when you give up.

The most insidious part of voter suppression is that it is designed to compel you to just abandon the process. But if the process didn’t matter — if your voices didn’t matter — they wouldn’t be working so hard to stop them from being heard.” 

Abrams ended with a reminder that in a democracy, active participation is necessary to not become victims of the system. She wants young people to vote because she believes older voters “need the help” to enforce justice in society. They can help by joining the conversation.

“Regardless of their status, race, gender or ethnicity in our body politic right now, [young] voices are a minority voice,” said Abrams. “The louder their voices are, the more change happens. Young voices matter the most when they actually pick people to represent people in government who are willing to actuate change.”

The Saturday of Homecoming was filled with festivities, from marching band’s early morning reveille to the Freshmen Cake Race. 

Just a few blocks away, nearly one hundred women participated in the Homecoming festivities by performing a line routine to a funky hip hop beat in celebration of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s (AKA) 40th anniversary at Tech. 

Keisha Wilson Tanner, a ChemE ‘95 and a member of the Nu Beta chapter of AKA, explained the significance of this celebration that commemorates the first black Greek sorority on Tech’s campus. 

“We’re practicing our stroll,” explained Tanner, decked out in AKA pink and green like her fellow sisters. 

“There’s a work hard, play hard mentality. When we stroll, we play hard.”

Tanner epitomizes the organization’s culture of both working and playing hard. After having grown up in the small town of Coffee County in rural Georgia, Tanner now works for BP as a recruiter. A highlight of her job? It gives her a chance to frequently visit her alma mater.

“Once we graduate, we keep serving,” Tanner said. “No matter what university or city we end up in.”

Tanner also took her skills from dancing on the Georgia Tech Dance Line to becoming a professional cheerleader for the Atlanta Falcons and winning Miss Atlanta. She was even inducted into The Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni.

Tanner was far from the only one enjoying the stroll as the women continued their performance at their Homecoming tailgate. 

The tailgate featured not only a presentation but plenty of free food and fun as well. Preparations for this special 40th anniversary began back in January. 

Of the 200 chapter members who have come through Tech in the past forty years, 105 of the sisters registered to come back for this significant anniversary.

“It’s indicative of women at Tech. These women have busy professional lives but are coming across the country,” said Maria Bailey Benson, IE ’92 and MSIE ’94, who served as chair of the event.  

Francine McCarley, IE ’79 and one of the members of the original charter line dived into the history of Nu Beta that allowed for the formation of the group on campus. 

McCarley explained the lack of minority representation at Tech within Greek life, especially in comparison to the surrounding schools of  Clark University, Morris Brown and Spelman. 

Having grown up with AKAs as role models — her mother serving as significant one — McCarley knew she wanted to bring the organization to Tech.  After McCarley found two other undergraduate women at Tech interested in AKA, McCarley and the new interests pledged with Spelman in 1978.  

To charter Tech’s chapter, they first needed to find a minimum of 20 members for an initial charter line and to also work within the Tech, chapter and National Panhellenic Council guidelines.

As early Technique coverage demonstrates, many at  Tech were ignorant of Alpha Kappa Alpha’s national standing since 1908. In fact, the early Technique coverage revealed that Georgia Tech Panhellenic had mistakenly thought that McCarley and her two friends picked a name at random and tried to merge AKA with another organization. It was not until April 14, 1979 that the Nu Beta chapter was finally chartered.

“The reason I went through all of that to try to start a chapter was because there was a void,” said McCarley. 

At the time, the Georgia Tech African American Association (currently known as the African American Student Union) was the only organization for minority students.

“The sorority became my support system,” McCarley continued. “That support system is absent when you’re not a majority. It was, as they say in politics, my base within GTAAA. It was the foundation for everything else we accomplished.”

Around a decade later, Benson faced both the same challenges  and support as her sorority sisters did. 

“We formed a bond at Tech that I don’t think other women formed,” she said. 

“Georgia Tech was not inclusive or inviting. I needed refuge at Tech. If it wasn’t for Nu Beta, I would have dropped out.”

Members of Nu Beta continue to inspire historic and present changes across campus. 

McCarley went on to lead the Minority Affairs Task force to start the minority affairs office of OMED at Tech. The office offers financial, social and academic support to the almost 15,000 minority students currently enrolled on campus.  

Another original Nu Beta charter line member, Sonya Rush, ChemE ’81, applied her Nu Beta leadership to life after graduation. In fact, Rush served as the first African American female to serve on the Executive Committee of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees. She also helped to start the Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organization. 

Rush attributed her involvement with AKA to the success she found in her career. 

“It helped me to find my voice,” Rush said. “I was a sophomore, and I wasn’t involved in anything I was passionate about.” 

“I found more confidence and a support system. I became less of an introvert. For the first time, I felt I could contribute to something beyond academics. The sorority brought me out of my shell,” Rush continued.

Rush smiled and looked over at her friends as they wrapped up stroll practice. Older and younger members alike gathered in for pictures.

“They’re my sisters,” she said. “Like familial sisters, we have good times and points of difference. Both are good.”

The Technique also discussed AKA with the chapter’s current leadership to look into the chapter’s development. President Aliyah Hill, fifth-year MGT, discussed the way in which AKA influenced her from an early age, as her aunt had joined her chapter. 

“She was a role model in how she embraced service in her community. I wanted to be a strong woman like her.”

Hill now helps to carry out the chapter’s mission of sisterhood, scholarship and service.

The sorority promotes women’s health and wellness, economic legacy, global impact and the arts. The sorority also works with NBCU For Life, an organization that exposes high school students to nationally black colleges and universities. 

Most recently, the sisters participated in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in which they exceeded their fundraising goal and raised $1500 for breast cancer research. 

This year, the Nu Beta chapter also commissioned twin paintings to hang on the sixth floor of Crosland Tower. The paintings will be designed by African American artist Tracy Murrell and will incorporate both Tech white and gold as well as AKA pink and green. Benson noted the art will “commemorate the legacy we’ve created at Tech.”

Lithonia, Ga. — a small town with a population of just 2300 that is due east of Atlanta — will host a mayoral election that could elect Tech alumna Cindy Thomas, who graduated in 2008 with a MGT degree that focused on marketing and entrepreneurship. 

Thomas’ dream for Lithonia? To not only decrease the poverty rate that currently affects over a third of the population there, but to also make this small town the “jewel of Georgia.”

In order to find out more about her vision, the Technique discussed politics — as well as life — with Thomas. 

“My main goal and purpose is to increase the quality of life of all residents of Lithonia,” said Thomas.

“What that means is to grow and develop not just our land and businesses, but also our schools.”

Sometimes it takes a step back to your roots in order to make the next step forward in your career. Thomas found this to be true while winding along the path from an undergraduate Scheller student to local politics.

“I didn’t plan on being a politician,” she said with a laugh. In fact, she prefers the term “public servant.”

Thomas grew up in Lithonia and went to Lithonia schools. She participated in Lithonia’s local girl scout troop, volunteered and shopped in local
Lithonian businesses.

At Tech, Thomas continued to show leadership in a plethora of student organizations. 

“What I found is that there were certain years when I was very involved with different activities, and there were some that were less. When I have more going on, I’m better at time management. I get more done, and I get it done at a high level,” said Thomas. 

The first club she was drawn into by an older friend while she was still a freshman was Gifted Gospel choir. Thomas also participated in the African American Student Union, OMED educational services, and The Society for Black Engineers. She used her graphic design skills to design flyers and posters for many of the African American clubs on campus. 

Thomas also continued to volunteer with younger students.  In Jumpstart, she tutored elementary school students, and in CIESMC, she mentored high schoolers. As if that was not enough, she also founded the first ever fashion club on campus, Avant Garde.

“When at Tech, you are in a bubble,” laughed Thomas. “It is all about classes, school, tests and clubs as well as personal stuff going on because you are an adult.” 

Although the bubble comes with its unique set of pros and cons, Thomas credits Tech for shaping her career and work ethic. 

“Tech is a great school because it teaches you how to think quickly, how to analyze … it really just builds you into a hard worker.”

One thing that she wished she had done more of as a student was taking time for herself to reflect or journal, a practice that “keeps you going forward, keeps you centered.”

After receiving her diploma, Thomas was still searching for something to center her, despite her multiple offers, from traveling internationally to working for Google.

“There was a moment where I said, ‘Okay God, I’ve had this great life. I’ve had some great jobs, great opportunities, but I felt like there’s more.’ I asked what my purpose was. I wanted to walk in my purpose, so I started to volunteer downtown in the heart of Lithonia.”

Thomas’s work in Lithonia included helping a friend start up a local art center, which then opened the door to local civic engagement. Since then, she has completed over 2000 volunteer hours in the city all while working as a consultant for Willpower South.

She works on many boards across the city and took it upon herself to learn as much as possible about Lithonia — from history to plans and more.

“What does it take to grow a small city like ours?” Thomas asked. “We are a place that is low income. So how do you grow a city without replacing people who are already here?”

Thomas’s struggle to answer this question is what inspired her to run for public office on the current mayor’s recommendation. 

“A lot of times people will go overseas to give and to volunteer,” she said. “However, we have people in our own neighborhood that are in need.

 “And what I found in the heart of Lithonia is that we are the last place in the entire DeKalb County that we still have projects. And they haven’t been upgraded in decades. I spend time with people here, and there is a big need.”

Thomas has chosen to focus on the basics: education, job opportunities and mental health. The campaign has combined every part of Lithonia’s small-town culture, as Thomas has talked to everyone from youth to seniors, and from educators to those in the business sector.

“It’s tough,” admitted Thomas, “but I love it. It’s the first thing that I’ve done in my life where I use all of my talents and skills.”

Surprisingly, Thomas refused to acknowledge her competitors for the mayoral race. 

“I’ve seen people be cut-throat. I’ve seen people being negative,” Thomas explained. 

“We focus more and more and more on positive. We focus on what actually matters to our people.

“You have to stay focused and you have to run the race and compete against yourself. That’s how you make it to the finish line.”

As Thomas reflected on her unexpected path to politics, she offered encouragement to the students of her alma mater. 

“The highlights [of my career] are moments like this, where I’m able to connect with someone like you,” Thomas told the Technique. “Someone who is at a school that I went to and is able to share my experiences. I was you, and I’m here now. This is a place I didn’t plan to be. It’s a blessing.”

This semester, the Student Government Association (SGA) has brought back the “Revolutionaries” speaker series for a second year.

“Revolutionaries” highlights outstanding faculty at Tech from diverse departments and backgrounds and gives these select professors a chance “to talk not just about boring class stuff,” according to Saif Kabariti, 4th year ME and chair of the Student Faculty Development Committee with SGA.

“Our goal is to inspire Tech students and show what the revolutionaries have done and the difficulties they’ve faced,” said Kabariti.

“We want to look at how we can learn from them and extrapolate from there.”

Dr. David Hu, Fluid Dynamics instructor for the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, gave the first talk of the series on Oct. 1.

Even to students whose eyes would glaze over at the words “fluid dynamics” and “engineering” found themselves enjoying Hu’s talk, which he started off by dedicating his presentation to his mom, who was working on her Ph.D. when he was born.

“I am not a revolutionary. But my mom is a real revolutionary,” he said with a laugh.

Dr. Hu received multiple degrees from MIT where he studied animals from an engineering perspective.

“When I was young, I was interested in animal movement, but just for curiosity’s sake,” he explained. “But my parents are scientists. They always encouraged me to not just enjoy things but to ask questions on how
things worked.”

At MIT, Hu’s main influences were Ig Nobel prize winners, the group of researchers whose studies invoke its students to laugh first and then think. He later on won a coveted Ig Nobel prize himself by studying the hydrodynamics of mammal urination, studying under professors who research phenomena like ponytail bounciness and teapot dribblings from a scientific perspective.

“When I saw him, I thought, this person just looks like they’re playing their entire life. I thought that was a really good path,” he said about the professor who advised him in his research.

Hu’s main research was inspired by his childhood interest in animals, specifically the waterbug.How do these waterbugs walk on water, Hu often wondered.

Using high-speed cameras, he observed how only a portion of the leg hair goes underwater so as not to break the surface tension. He described waterbugs as moving across the water “like a trampoline.”

“It’s all because their bodies are the hairiest surface in the world,” Hu explained. “Their legs are the thickness of a human hair but each leg is coated with 10,000 hairs per square millimeter.”

During the course of his talk, Hu showed clips of waterbugs and other animals who move across the water using inertia and surface tension. Then he addressed the audience’s most pressing question: of whether humans could walk on water.

Hu thought it could be possible, but only if a human had a foot with the area of a square meter and an exoskeleton.
“It seems reasonable, like a foot the size of a big garbage lid,” he told the audience.

Additionally, Hu shared about some current projects from his time at Tech, like a patent-pending flexible hairbrush designed based on a 3-D model of a cat tongue. L’Oréal has expressed interest in the project too, but, to the dismay of many in the audience, Hu shared it is not likely the hairbrush will be available in stores anytime soon.

“I learned from this a couple things,” shared Hu at the end of his presentation. “That following your curiosity to its utmost limits is actually a lot of fun, you can build really cool devices just from following things that look interesting, and lastly, teamwork.”

Kabariti, who helped found “Revolutionaries” with SGA in 2018, is one example of a student who has been inspired by the revolutionary faculty at Tech. In fact, he dreams of becoming a professor himself.

“They’re people just like us,” Kabariti said. “They’ve faced imposter syndrome too. Everyone has a chance to be just as great.”

This past spring, the Turner Foundation granted $40,000 to Georgia Tech’s Serve-Learn-Sustain program (SLS) in conjunction with the RCE Greater Atlanta youth sustainability network.

The network will be using the grant funding to create online training modules for the United Nations (UN) on globally-recognized sustainable development goals.

“We are very appreciative of the opportunity, since the RCE isn’t a non-profit,” said Isabella Stubbs, 4th-year ENVE and intern with Serve-Learn-Sustain.

“We’re still developing, so we are very thankful to even get to apply for the grant and get to put the money towards such valuable projects like the Unitar education program.”

The RCE, or Regional Center of Wxpertise, is a UN affiliated program that aims to implement sustainability practices into everyday life through educating young adults. The program stems from many Atlanta-based universities, including affiliation at Tech.

Although it used to mainly operate through an email newsletter of resources and local opportunities, the Turner Grant has introduced a chance for RCE members to extend their impact.

With the new source of funding, 14 RCE members have been selected to craft online sustainability modules that explain the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through local Atlanta cases as well as through research abroad.

The project will create seven 90 minute lessons on topics ranging from infrastructure to climate to social goals like zero poverty and hunger. The fellows interview community partners, corporate partners and international initiatives to gather information relevant to the SDGs. The fellows then add examples of how the RCE and local campuses engage with each SDG.

The research is finally sent to the United Nations affiliated service Unitar. Once the information is received by Unitar, it will be programmed into an online course complete with graphics, videos and even a certificate of completion for viewers.

Cara McClain, a 4th-year ALIS, explained the significance of these videos that she helped to create in terms of outreach.

“Rights that people are granted vary in many ways across the globe and I believe that sustainability education (whether that is through the SDGs or through another platform) is a step closer to ensuring that all people are granted human rights across the world,” McClain said.

Although conducting this research will impact many of the youth in Atlanta, Stubbs shared other ways in which Tech students can help achieve the SDGs. “SDG3 Saturdays” serve as one such way to get involved.

“SDG3 is about good health and wellbeing,” Stubbs said. “So basically just hanging out at Piedmont Park. You can jog if you want, or work out if you want, and then we’ll go to the Green Market.

“We’re just trying to put SDG3 into practice and have some more fun together.”

The network does a lot more than just social activities with like-minded friends. An email update newsletter circulates to RCE Greater Atlanta members and highlights many opportunities from guest speakers, volunteering events, and local tours. Another program matches college age members with a sustainability expert working in a similar industry to their major.

“Since we’re in Atlanta, and we have these different community groups, we want to have more of a grassroots movement,” said Stubbs.

“It’s not just academia; it’s also industry, non-profits, government offices like The Office of Resilience and The Office of Agriculture. There’s a lot happening in Atlanta.”

Stubbs encourages all students interested to join the network, no matter what their experience with sustainability.

When she first started working with the SLS program in 2018, Stubbs was still processing how to even define buzzwords like “sustainability.”

“Sustainability — an unachievable goal,” she offered with a laugh. “There’s lots of official definitions. But think about daily life … I do believe the SDGs can be applied to daily life, when you look at things like quality education. Help tutor someone – that’s contributing to that.”

“These sustainable goals are really hard to achieve. ‘No poverty’. ‘No hunger.’ How will we achieve that globally?” Stubbs asked. “We just have to think small, within ourselves. Even small initiatives on Tech’s campus help contribute to that.”