Graduate Student Organization (GSO)

who we are

All students working toward an M.S. or Ph.D. in the Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Science (MEES) graduate program are members of the Graduate Student Organization (GSO), as well as faculty and administration who chose to take part. 

You can reach your GSO representatives via email (mees-gso@umd.edu) or by submitting an anonymous comment. Please include your campus location in your email. Additionally, we have a MEES-community Slack channel. Please email us for a link to join! You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram @meesgso.

Current representatives (2024)

For any questions you may have, you can contact the GSO email or directly email your campus representative through the email listed below. You can also reference our student survival guide for important MEES wide and campus-specific information.

GSO President: Gillen Curren (gcurren@umes.edu)

GSO Vice President: Hannah Brunelle (hannahb7@umbc.edu)

UMBC - Ally Kido (akido1@umbc.edu)

UMCES - Erika Koontz (ekoontz@umces.edu) and Chelsea Fowler (cfowler@umces.edu)

UMCP - Qianru Liao (qianru@umd.edu)

UMB - Nidhi Satishkumar (nidhi.satishkumar@umaryland.edu)

UMES - Gillen Curren (gcurren@umes.edu), Joshua Akinola (joakinola@umes.edu) and Kayland Huckaby (kfhuckaby@umes.edu)

Purpose

Serve as the legitimate voice of the MEES student body, and to direct student input on issues concerning the MEES program to the appropriate administrative levels; provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, concerns and information among graduate students and between students and faculty with the hope of establishing a comfortable productive academic environment. 

Goals

  1. Explore ways by which the MEES Program can become stronger and more cohesive as a program, through curriculum requirements, course offerings and inter-campus relations.

  2. Improve communication among graduate students, faculty and administration; become directly involved with the committees and groups affecting the MEES Program (i.e. the MEES Program committee, the UMCES graduate faculty committee and the MEES program office).

  3. Offer skill development in areas that will benefit the academic and professional careers of graduate students.

  4. Provide an informal area where proposals, talks and research ideas may be presented, discussed and critiqued; discuss current research topics in diverse biological fields.

  5. Provide new student orientation. 

Activities

  • Organization and sponsorship of a skill development seminar/workshop series on various topics designed to help graduates further their professional careers

  • Organization and sponsorship of annual poster sessions and oral presentations where graduate students present their current research at the MEES Colloquium

  • Sponsorship of graduate student travel awards designed to help supplement registration and travel costs for graduate students to present their research at scientific meetings

  • Sponsorship of social events to increase camaraderie among graduate students 

NEWSLETTERS

You can find an archive of all of our GSO newsletters here.

SOCIAL MEDIA

You can find us on Twitter and Instagram @meesgso!

Contact Us

You can reach your GSO representatives via email (mees-gso@umd.edu) or by submitting an anonymous comment. Additionally, we have a MEES-community Slack channel. Please email us for a link to join!

GSO CALENDAR

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