Stories

“James has had an outsized impact on the Northeastern and Khoury community. He is always happy to volunteer for us to attend any event, serve on any panel, and talk to his fellow students about his experiences. We look forward to hearing of his exploits as an alumnus.”

-Benjamin Hescott, Senior Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Student Experience

What are some of your hobbies and interests?

I love going for long meandering walks through campus and through nature, admiring the greenery, buildings, and weather along the way. I like to hone my sushi making skills in my free time, making (and eating!) sashimi (thinly sliced raw fish), nigiri (raw fish draped over rice), maki (sushi rolls), Uramaki (inside out sushi rolls), and temaki (hand rolls). I also dabble in a bit of photography and videography now and then.

What are some examples of your involvement in the Northeastern community and the community at large?

I was a member of oSTEM and Out in Business, as well as serving as an Analyst in my first year during the inaugural year CASE—Consulting and Advisory Student Experience club—started their pro-bono consulting arm NCG—Northeastern Consulting Group. I served on Northeastern Electric Racing’s Executive Board from Fall 2019 to Fall 2022. I started as project manager before recruiting a team of project managers and stepping up to lead the business team as vice president. I served as president for three semesters before passing the torch. While on the E-Board of NER and working to emerge from COVID-19, I built collaborations among the College of Engineering clubs sharing manufacturing space. As a result, I was appointed to lead the COE Student Activities Council and worked to strengthen the COE student organization leaders community. When the opportunity arose, I passed the torch and pivoted to establishing Kaleidoscope, Khoury College’s Club Council. Much like COE SAC, Kaleidoscope works to build community and shared success among all student organizations and their leaders in Khoury College. Kaleidoscope also serves as a foundation and conduit for tighter collaborations between the college and student leaders, incubating innovative programs, and increasing access to resources. Upon the recommendation of the Student Body president, I joined the Student Government Association’s Student Involvement team after stepping down from the NER E-Board. The following semester I stepped up to serve as vice president for student involvement and spearheaded numerous initiatives to transform the student organization ecosystem and supports.

Describe some of your achievements at Northeastern

During my time on the executive board of Northeastern Electric Racing, the team grew from about 50 members to over 200 members, expanding interdisciplinary experiential education opportunities to so many more students. I established NER’s software team to build project management software, only for it to blossom into over 80 team members within NER with multiple projects spanning web development, data analysis and visualization, and vehicle interface and controls. NER completed its first car, won 1st and 2nd place, won the Scrutineer’s Award for best preparation and documentation, and won the IEEE

Excellence in Project Management award. NER also successfully organized an event for President Aoun, Dean Beth Mynatt, and other senior leadership to drive the car and experience the power of experiential learning. As a Khoury student leading COE’s Student Activities Council, I championed inclusivity, increased participation, built structures for meaningful student advocacy, and successfully partnered with COE administrators to improve the experience for engineering student organizations. In founding Kaleidoscope, I built a highly unique student-admin partnership to enable student leaders to define and built the support systems their peers need most. I strengthened the sense of community among Khoury student leaders, more than doubled the collaborative events clubs organized with one another, and opened new avenues of funding to enable innovative projects. Through SGA, I strengthened the collaborations with staff, increased engagement with student organization leaders, improved transparency for club policies, and expanded the previously 12-member Student Involvement team to a 4-team, 25-plus member standing division which is better equipped to handle the demands of over 500 student organizations and the dynamic future of a global university ecosystem.

Of the above examples, which do you consider your most significant achievement and why?

I consider the establishment of NER’s software team to be one of my most significant achievements. Although somewhat comparatively small, I think it has had the largest positive impact on the Northeastern and Khoury College community. NER’s software team began as a small group of students interested in learning web development who were willing to listen to me ramble and teach for an hour each Sunday. Over time, we added an interview process that allowed interested students to gain valuable behavioral and technical interview experience before joining the team. The dedication to member learning from day zero and continuous learning via dedicated learning sessions has undoubtedly afforded hundreds of Khoury students the opportunity to learn and apply critical technical and career-preparatory skills in a judgement-free environment. As the software team has expanded beyond the first web development project, new opportunities for students to learn a wider variety of software technologies and domain applications have opened up too. In the years since I left NER, their software team has continued to grow, boasting more than 80 members each semester and almost two dozen learning sessions per semester. While the software we built was objectively mediocre in the beginning, I could not be prouder of the team, systems, and structures I built that have facilitated so many students learning the skills they’re most interested in and subsequently finding their co-ops.

What honors or awards have you received during your time as a student?

[One semester on the] Dean’s List [and a] Student Government Association Delegate of the Semester for Spring 2023.