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During this month’s Sister Chapter spotlight, we are pleased to introduce you to the Sister Chapter duo made up of the student chapters from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from Illinois, USA and Universidade Estadual de Maringá from Maringá, Brazil.
Throughout history people have shared their culture through their traditional cuisine. Mark Kurlansky, an American author, once said, “Food is a central activity of mankind and one of the single most significant trademarks of a culture.” The chapters at Maringá and UIUC decided to share between them a little bit about their culture through a recipe and video exchange. Maringá provided recipes for Brazilian cheese bread and carrot cake. Maringá also shared an instructional video to complement the recipes. In return, UIUC provided a recipe for sausage hashbrown breakfast casserole. We asked each chapter to answer a different set of questions about their experiences swapping recipes and the other activities they've been working on lately under the Sister Chapter Program.
How many miles separate your student chapter from the Universidade Estadual de Maringá student chapter and how do you keep in touch with your sister chapter from afar?
UIUC: Approximately, the distance between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the Universidade Estadual de Maringá is 4,973.55 miles (8,004.16 km), and more than 19 hours to travel from one chapter to the other chapter through many forms of transportation.
As the distance between each chapter is very far, we usually use Facebook Messenger and a shared Google Drive folder to communicate. To be close to each other, we try to have events that could help us to understand each other. Events could be video conferences, pen-pal letters (or emails), exchanging recipes, etc.
Do your chapters have any shared goals or projects that you’re working on as a team?
Maringá: We have been thinking of new ideas for projects and we are working on them. In the past, we had the opportunity to make a recipe exchange and share videos between our chapters. We also participate in a pen pal program, and as for short-term ideas, we want to do a video conference between the officers and share experiences about each chapter.
Tell us a little bit more about the last communication you had with your sister chapter.
UIUC: The last conversation we had was about exchanging recipes. Both of our chapters recently hosted a potluck event, and the most popular item from the potluck was selected and shared with the other chapter. Our sister chapter sent us recipes of Brazilian cheese bread and carrot cake, and we sent a recipe for hashbrown breakfast casserole. Also, we are planning to do a video conference through Skype before the semester ends.
How has being a part of the Sister Chapter Program brought you closer to AIChE? Have you begun taking advantage of any new benefits or competitions that are available to students?
Maringá: The Sister Chapter Program has helped us to gain more knowledge about the activities that we can do and understand how big and important AIChE is. We have made use of some of the benefits such as AIChE Engage, eLibrary, and ChEnected, and we already participated in the Global Undergraduate Student Video Competition. As for the future, we want to participate in the Chem-E-Car Competition®.
What is your chapter’s biggest challenge or opportunity for improvement and how will your partnership with the Universidade Estadual de Maringá student chapter help you to tackle that challenge?
UIUC: One of our biggest opportunities will be sharing experiences in chapter leadership. Leading a chapter under different circumstances and cultures is a highly valuable experience and sharing these experiences with one another will enhance the quality of our chapter leadership.
What has been the most rewarding part of your sister chapter partnership with UIUC so far?
Maringá: The most rewarding part is the opportunity to meet people from other countries. This has helped us to open our minds, to learn what it is like to live in another country, and to understand the experience of studying chemical engineering at another university. Meeting new people is very gratifying because this exchange of experiences is enriching.
What advice do you have for student chapters that are thinking about getting involved in the Sister Chapter Program?
UIUC: Having a partnership with a sister chapter is a great opportunity to learn about a different perspective of running an AIChE student chapter. Having a positive relationship can help one another to grow and learn more about different types of leadership. Also, it’s an amazing opportunity to know people outside of your own college and country who are pursuing the same goals. The partnership of sister chapters can only help you to grow and benefit as student chapters.
Have your chapter members ever met in person? Do you have plans to do so in the future?
Maringá: No, but it’s something that we want and we are working to make it happen. At Universidade Estadual de Maringá, we are working to expand our projects and make AIChE known in our country, attracting more visibility and opening doors to some financial help to make bigger projects happen, like meeting our sister chapter.
For more information on the Sister Chapter Program, check out the website here. Questions can be sent to studentchapters@aiche.org.