Overview
In November 2025 I co-founded the Information and Decision Sciences Student Organization (IDSSO) at the University of Illinois Chicago and served as its president through May 2026. I set the organization’s vision and structure and recruited a seven-officer leadership team. Membership grew to 45+ through brand development, community engagement, and partnerships with other student organizations and industry contacts.
Our main event was IDS inFOCUS 2026, the organization’s case competition and industry summit. I produced it and moderated its industry panel. In the spring we also ran a professional development series, with a sold-out Career Signals Certification Panel and an Agentic AI Applied to Marketing workshop with UIC faculty.
Much of the presidency was relationship work with faculty, administration, partner organizations, and industry contacts. Those relationships secured resources and kept our programming aligned with the organization’s priorities.
What I did
- Co-founded IDSSO and set its vision and organizational structure.
- Grew membership to 45+ through brand development, community engagement, and partnerships with student organizations and industry contacts.
- Recruited and developed a seven-officer leadership team.
- Ran the team on structured delegation, weekly task tracking, and direct coaching on ownership and follow-through.
- Produced IDS inFOCUS 2026, the organization’s case competition and industry summit.
- Moderated the IDS inFOCUS 2026 industry panel.
- Hosted a spring professional development series, including a sold-out Career Signals Certification Panel.
- Hosted an Agentic AI Applied to Marketing workshop with UIC faculty as part of that series.
- Built relationships with faculty, administration, partner organizations, and industry contacts to secure resources and align programming with priorities.
- Automated the IDSSO daily news brief with Google Apps Script, REST APIs, and LLM integration, cutting curation and drafting time from two hours to 15 minutes.
Results
- Established the organization’s governance and structure, then transitioned leadership to the next officer team.
- Grew membership to 45+ and built the organization’s social media presence.
- Developed members into stronger professionals and connected members and officers with careers after graduation.
- Built the organization’s website, idssochi.org, and its new-member orientation.
- Collected member data and surveys to shape strategy, and kept improving our programming based on what we learned.
- Built a culture of constructive collaboration and teamwork across the officer team.
- Delivered IDS inFOCUS 2026 and a spring professional development series, including a sold-out Career Signals Certification Panel.
- Received the Chancellor’s Student Service Leadership Award from UIC in Spring 2026.
What I learned
Delegation needs tracking behind it. Assigning an officer an event was not enough on its own. The weekly task list and the direct coaching on ownership and follow-through kept the programming on schedule.
