Henry Wong, a representative for S&T’s Council of Graduate Students, sent the following message to S&T students on July 13:

Hello,

My name is Henry Wong and I am a representative from the Council of Graduate Students (CGS). We exist to create a unified graduate student body. In times of need or if we just want friends, we are here for every single graduate student at Missouri S&T. Over the past year we have accomplished many milestones by having discussions with the administration to increase the rights a graduate student has at Missouri S&T.

Unfortunately, due to COVID, our inaugural year was spent in zoom meetings. However, there is hope this coming semester. If 85% of the student body is reported to have been vaccinated, we can start holding full in-person events. What does that mean for CGS? Well, a lot. 

We want to get to know each other. We’ve spent our first year getting to know each other through webcams. As things open up on campus, we want to see each other without the internet connectivity issues. The possibilities are endless here! We can go bowling, hold game nights, and collaborate with organizations across campus to get to know even more people. Just like you, we want to see other people without having to worry about a feedback echo. 

We need to start talking about serious issues. One of our goals of CGS is to better the life of a graduate student at Missouri S&T. To better fight for our right and ability to study, we need to have in person, serious discussions with each other and campus administration. We have been doing this online for a year and we recognize we can only do so much. If we want to make a more efficient difference, we need in person discussions. 

We want to provide graduate students with resources they need to succeed. Graduate school is incredibly overwhelming and we know it is not easy. That is why we want to try to help every graduate student. We want to hold in person research competitions, so that students can share their research with others. We can also hold research symposiums and discussions, to allow students to sharpen each other’s minds and possibly even find collaborators to find something that will change the world. 

So go get your vaccine! So we can get to know you and everyone else. So we can make Missouri S&T a better place for students. And so we can help others change the world for the better. 

Once you get your vaccine, upload your vaccination record to your student health portal at mst.studenthealthportal.com or that percentage won’t get to 85%!

Not sure where you can get the vaccine? The CDC has your back: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/How-Do-I-Get-a-COVID-19-Vaccine.html 

Want to know how the school is doing? Visit coronavirus.mst.edu.

Henry Wong
Council of Graduate Students Representative
hcwqk7@umsystem.edu