The UF Industrial & Systems Engineering (ISE) Ambassadors is a student organization unique to UF ISE with a mission of supporting the growth and improvement of the department through collaborations with faculty, administration, students, and alumni. The organization works on a variety of different projects throughout the academic year, such as teaching sections of the Introduction to Engineering course, leading tours for prospective faculty and students, and hosting forums to connect students, faculty and alumni.

The ISE Ambassadors recently welcomed seven new members to their team.

Donna Patricia De Castro, Hannah Elmattougui, Jake Glass, Katie Hughes, Aliyah Malcom, Kenny Marschner, and Ryan McGary joined the group in March, and are gearing up to step into various leadership roles this spring.

“The defined mission for our Ambassadors includes growing and enhancing student and faculty interactions for ISE, but the recent teams have done so much more! The Ambassadors are one of our most organized and ambitious student groups with projects including new programs for students in need of academic assistance, promoting awareness of ISE research opportunities, making connections with young alumni, reaching out to diverse student engineering organizations to represent ISE, and doing outreach to Florida high schools to promote student awareness of the discipline and UF. The UF ISE Ambassadors are a tremendous credit, not only to our department but the ISE discipline, in general,” said David Kaber, Ph.D., ISE Chair and Faculty Advisor to the ISE Ambassadors.

The ISE Ambassadors plan and manage the ISE Career Fair, an annual event to provide networking opportunities for ISE students. Due to the global pandemic, the Ambassadors pivoted and planned a week-long virtual career fair that offered recruiting sessions and career enrichment workshops with top companies.

In addition to planning events, the ISE Ambassadors also work to recruit prospective students. They scripted and directed a recruitment video that they sent to high school science programs throughout Florida to introduce students to the ISE discipline. They have also organized an orientation for students who have expressed an interest in choosing ISE as their major. The group organized multiple weekend events with information sessions and campus tours for future students and their families.

Going forward, ISE Ambassadors are working on a number of projects. These include a research showcase that will provide ISE students with research opportunities, alumni chats that will connect ISE alumni with students so they can learn about the industries and opportunities available to them in the workforce, as well as faculty and student events such as coffee chats and a new faculty cooking show series, allowing ISE students to get to know department faculty.