Martel's S/STEM TRAIN Blog (4/28)

 This week I was still in the process of putting the finishing touches on my project. I've also had to spend a good deal of time studying to prepare for finals in all of my classes and other responsibilities. 

Last week, the Student Senate met with the MCCCD Office of Public Stewardship and Legal teams to learn more about proposed changes to the district Common Pages Catalog. The Common Pages Catalog contains district wide policies and regulations that have a great impact students and employees in Maricopa. This year, many proposed modifications were brought forward. The Student Senate worked hard to review over 50 pages of documents to give well-considered feedback on these proposals. As always, we tried our best to keep the interests of the students at the forefront during this process. In the end, we supported many of the proposed changes. But, offered constructive criticism of a few others. For example, one of the proposals this year was to do away with Student Conduct Boards to handle accusations of student misconduct on campus. The proposal states that these boards should be replaced with a Student Conduct Administrator. We argued very strongly that the interests of the students would be best served if these kinds of allegations were evaluated by a group of individuals from different backgrounds and positions in the MCCCD, including students, faculty, administrators, and others. I sincerely hope our feedback is taken to heart. Know that the Student Senate is working hard to fight for your interests in the district and if you have a passion for improving the experiences of the 93,000 students currently enrolled in Maricopa, consider joining the Student Senate of another student leadership position on campus. There are many ways for you to get involved and help to represent the interests of the students.

Today, I received two Ursa student achievement awards at PC for my work in the Student Senate and PC United. I
appreciate being recognized for the work I've done and contributed to. So, a big thanks to PC for extending this gesture.

Martel's S/STEM TRAIN Blog 4/14

 This week I received more guidance from Matt on how to preform some important functions in Excel. I also have done a good deal of web surfing on my own to find ways to perform certain calculations that are important for my project.

On Tuesday, I and another Student Senator met with the CEO of the Maricopa Scholarship Foundation and a team of other top executives at the foundation to advocate for our scholarship proposal for the Women Rising and Male Empowerment Network. We both prepared very thoroughly for our meeting and I think our work payed off. The meeting went very well and the Scholarship Foundation team seemed excited by our proposal. Hopefully this will bring us one step closer to offering these important scholarships to the students at Maricopa.

Martel's S/STEM TRAIN Blog (4/7)

This week, I spent most of my time for this class analyzing a large data set for my experiment. I'm currently using Microsoft Excel because I don't have much experience with other statistical programs. This has its own challenges, since performing some statistical functions in Excel can be burdensome. But, I've been scouring the internet for resources to help me overcome these challenges. 

So far, I'm made some significant progress. But, I still need to master a few more functions before I can finish analyzing this data.

This week, several Student Senators met together to prepare for a presentation we are giving to the Maricopa Scholarship Foundation next week. We have developed a proposal to establish a substantial scholarship for the "Women Rising" student organization, which has chapters on all of the Maricopa college campuses. If we are successful in this, it will mean a major boost to the "Women Rising" organizations and will hopefully motivate other students to join this incredible group. We have determined that over the next several decades, this scholarship will be able to impact the lives of several thousand of students.

Martel's S/STEM TRAIN Blog (3/31)

Since Matt is currently on vacation, I met with Josh to seek his opinion on the best way to work with the data for my project. He was able to give me a great deal of solid advice on the best way to go about this and the different options available to me. I am currently researching the different statistics programs I could use to analyze the data. Even though MATLAB and Excell might not be the most efficient way to analyze the data, I'm currently researching ways to perform statistical operations using those programs since I already have a basic familiarity with them.

The application deadline for the next Student Senator at Phoenix College and the next MCCCD Student Governing Board member is swiftly approaching. There is a good chance that the deadline will be pushed back this year to allow more students to apply. This is an incredible opportunity to act as the voice of the student body and champion their interests and concerns in the highest leadership bodies in the MCCCD. I highly encourage all students with a serious interest in serving their peers to apply to these positions. If anyone has any questions or would like advice on crafting their applications, reach out to me at any time. You can email me at: student.senator@phoenixcollege.edu.

Apply to be PC's next Student Senator here: https://www.maricopa.edu/students/student-life/maricopa-student-senate

Apply to be Maricopa's next Student Governing Board Member here: https://www.maricopa.edu/students/student-life/student-board-member

Martel's S/STEM TRAIN Blog (3/24)

This week, I had an extensive conversation with Matt, one of my program mentors about the possibility of assisting him on a project he is currently engaged in. This project involves collecting temperature data underneath several different types of desert trees found in the Phoenix area. One of the reasons this project is important is that, due to the increase in average temperature in our city as a result of climate change, our city will have an increasing need to offset extreme temperatures in the city by increasing the tree cover found throughout the city. Many other major cities across the world have found major success in increasing the livability of their cities by planting more trees to provide share and increasing the amount of "green spaces" found in the cities. Climate change is an issue that is not only dear to my heart but is an issue that will have an incredible impact on living beings across the planet. I have also researched this topic in the past. So, I'm very excited to potentially have an opportunity to contribute to this research.

This week was incredibly busy for me. On Tuesday, was appointed to serve as the first student tri-Chair on the Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Committee (EIDC) at Phoenix College, an incredibly exciting opportunity that will allow me to contribute to improving student experiences at our college. This week, I also participated in a pair of lengthy meetings interviewing candidates for the PC Presidential Search Committee. I also led a meeting of the Maricopa Student Senate, met informally with several of the senators to plan several of our current initiatives. The Student Senate also had the opportunity to take professional individual and group photos at the MCCCD district headquarters. This was the first time that all of the student senators had a chance to meet one another in person. 

Martel's S/STEM TRAIN Blog (3/11)

This week I had midterm exams in most of my classes. Studying for these exams required a substantial commitment of time and energy. But, I think the work paid off for me. Unfortunately, this made it difficult for me to make considerable progress on my research project. I plan to make up for this lost work during Spring Break. 

This week, we welcomed a member of the Student Senate. We have also made a connection with a talented student at GWCC who offered to design a website for the Student Senate. This is a very exciting development, which will give the body a platform to connect more closely with the student body and keep them updated on the activities and discussions of the senate. 

                GWCC Campus

Martel's S/STEM TRAIN Blog (3/3)

 I spent this week conducting further research on my study topic. I'm currently researching the role of Aristotle's framework of logical deduction in the Euclid and later Greek mathematicians and in intellectual culture in the Middle Ages and onward. I also reached out to a professor in one of my math classes to get his opinions on this topic and the role of logic in discrete mathematics.

Since the escalation in the conflict a few weeks ago, I've been trying my best to keep up with events in the Ukraine. Many analysts and experts have said that this event will likely mark a turning point in the history of international relations. Looking back on the history of the great wars of the 20th century, I can only hope that this conflict doesn't escalate further or turn into a conflict between the major world powers. I also hope that seeing the early stages of this conflict play out before the eyes of the whole world will help to remind people of the value of peace.

*photo from an anti-war protest in Russia, Atlantic Magazine