Bioengineering Student Alumni Ambassadors generate Illini spirit from home

Student Alumni Ambassadors (SAA), like many student organizations at the University of Illinois and across the country, are on hold for the moment.

With most students back in their family homes and not quite two weeks into the new normal of online classes, extracurricular activities like SAA also are dormant. However, planning still is underway and two upcoming SAA signature events still are expected to happen although virtually instead of in person. The Senior 100 Honorary banquet usually is held in late April for 100 of the campus’ most accomplished seniors who excel in academics, leadership and volunteer service, and the end-of-year GradFest traditionally celebrates all graduating seniors on campus with free food, giveaways and a festive atmosphere.

Student Alumni Ambassador Berat Gulecyuz, a junior and in Bioengineering and a Cancer Scholar, said, “Senior 100 and GradFest will hopefully both be virtual this year! Senior 100 [has been] accepting applicants, and they will be honored at a virtual event … Gradfest still is undetermined, but SAA [members] are working very hard to make it happen!”

Created at Illinois in 1976, SAA is a registered student organization sponsored by the UI Alumni Association. Members are volunteers engaged in various activities that allow them to give back to the university, make positive connections with other students and alumni, plan and carry out celebration events, foster school spirit, make lifelong friends, and participate in service, leadership, and professional networking opportunities.

Ambassador Drashti Sikligar, a sophomore in Bioengineering, said she originally became interested in SAA because, “I got really involved with EOH [Engineering Open House] and BMES [Biomedical Engineering Society] and started to look for other RSOs, but I felt a little limited by only focusing on engineering. I wanted to meet people from different tracks than me, and I wanted to be able to join an RSO where I could still develop myself as well, which led me to SAA.”

Sikligar said SAA has allowed her to make new friends and connect with many people whose paths she might never have crossed otherwise. Gulecyuz said that part of what she enjoys about being in SAA is having the opportunity to be more fully integrated into the Illini community, which includes thousands of students, faculty and alumni from throughout the world. “Getting to meet students and faculty from all around campus and learn everything about the University of Illinois has been a dream,” Gulecyuz said. “Being able to represent my university and see that I am making an impact on it has been a profound experience. Finally, the most rewarding aspect of my SAA experience is to live by the ideal that we are Students Now, Illini Forever.”

At Illinois, Gulecyuz currently serves as an SAA mentor to Sikligar, who also is involved in the campus chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society and the sorority, Alpha Omega Epsilon, for students in engineering and technical sciences. Sikligar said she enjoys supporting other female students in the sciences through AOE and becoming more acquainted with fellow Bioengineering students through BMES.

Gulecyuz serves as a course assistant for a Theoretical and Applied Mechanics class, helping with discussion sections, office hours, and teaching statistics that are needed for the course. “This role is extremely important to me because I am able to teach students concepts that I found challenging when I was in their shoes,” she said. “Also, this opportunity made me appreciate my professors and TAs more, as I understand how difficult it can be teaching others.”

She also is involved in Women in Engineering as a student coordinator, helping plan and carry out a large fall-semester event in which freshmen women in engineering disciplines are welcomed a few days before everyone else comes to campus. “The most interesting aspect of being involved in this program,” she said, “is that a few years ago, as a Freshman, I was in their very own shoes, being overwhelmed ... However, WIE Freshman Orientation showed me the support, compassion and opportunities available to me from both my department and the Grainger College of Engineering. Now, as a rising senior, I can help the new students have this same experience that I had, allowing them to fall in love with the university as I did.”

Both students said they originally came to Illinois and chose Bioengineering because of their interest in engineering and the fact that Bioengineering combines more than one discipline and works to address medical challenges.

Gulecyuz said, “The Bioengineering department is like its own family inside the University of Illinois. I would not be able to get through my college experience without all of my friends in my major, and entire class. It is bittersweet that my undergraduate experience is slowly coming to an end, and I hope we can all make it out of these challenging times and become stronger than ever.”

“With Illinois,” Sikligar said, “I loved the aspect of having a small major in a big school, since it allowed me to have the comfort of a tight knit community with the opportunities of a big school. That last part is something I'd really like to emphasize for anyone considering applying — having plenty of people [who] are taking or have taken the same classes provides a lot of support!”

After graduation, Gulecyuz has plans to enroll in graduate school to earn a master’s or Ph.D. degree or an M.D., while Sikligar, who is finishing her sophomore year, said she has no specific plan yet but is enjoying discovering the different career paths available to bioengineers.

In the midst of an unprecedented and difficult situation, these two Bioengineering undergraduates are adjusting to their 2020 Spring semester moving entirely online, and they both said they are trying to stay positive, especially for others.

“To fellow students,” Sikligar said, “I'd say that we are living through a pretty confusing time with regards to pretty much everything. The thing that has helped me the most is reaching out to my friends. They've helped me a lot with my classes and bringing a lighthearted approach to current events, and I try to help out however I can as well.”

“Even though we may not be around one another or on campus, we are still a part of the University of Illinois,” Gulecyuz said. “The Illinois spirit does not disappear, and this spirit is carried in each of us. The entire Bioengineering department, Grainger College of Engineering, university, and your peers are here to support you. We are all a part of the Illini Family, and we will get through this together.”