Celebrating Accomplishments and Not Being a Fraud

The AME Graduate Student Community holds a weekly seminar series hosting various faculty and graduate students. As the group hoped to expand the series, they applied for and received funding from OU’s Graduate College and Campus Activities Council Speakers Bureau, along with other contributors, to host Dr. Valerie Young.

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Dr. Young visited OU on February 4, 2016 for a presentation called Imposter Syndrome in the Meacham Auditorium of the Oklahoma Memorial Union. Imposter Syndrome refers to high-achieving individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and suffer from persistent fears of being exposed as frauds.

In addition to Young’s presentation, GSC and AME’s Student Advisory Council (SAC) planned an event to kick-off the presentation. Before the presentation, AME undergraduate and graduate students set up a show-and-tell style walk through featuring various research, projects and teams. The event was known as Celebrating Our Accomplishments. Together the two events were publicized as Celebrating Accomplishments and Not Being a Fraud. Both events were open campus-wide and free of charge.

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The day of the event participants arrived early to set up their builds and research posters. A steady flow of attendees passed through the event from 3:00-4:30PM. Dr. Young arrived and began her presentation at 5:00PM. Her presentation took the form of an engaged discussion where participants were encouraged to form groups while interacting and exploring their feelings and interpretation of the impostor syndrome.

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“I’d like to highlight the fact that GSC is dedicated to improving the experience of graduate students at AME, but also interested in assisting their undergraduate counterparts in planning and leading events,” said Jawanza Bassue, GSC member and SAC chair. “Fostering a better relationship between the mostly segregated groups,”

Because Celebrating Accomplishments and Not Being a Fraud was a success, the GSC and SAC hope to grow the event as an annual occurrence with increased planning and further engagement of students.

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Photos compliments of Jawanza Bassue. To view additional photos from the events, please click here.

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