September 26, 2005 Vol. 77, no. 5F

PERFECTLY PRESIDENTIAL: MSE/ME senior Grace Hsu is the new EJC president this year. She wants to do everything from reinstate the EJC as a strong voice for engineering students to making each EJC meeting more effective and productive. (Photo Credit: Rachel Jackson)

EJC’s new president plans changes big and small

She’s from Taiwan and speaks fluent Mandarin. She moved to California in the fifth grade and confesses to being a band nerd. She marched in the Rose Parade. She’s a former ASUC intern. She likes business and marketing. She thinks it would be fun to be a poet. She believes Hurricane Katrina is a good example of why everyone needs to be socially responsible and help each other out.

Meet ME/MSE senior Jui-Shan Grace Hsu. As president of the Engineers’ Joint Council (EJC) this year, Hsu leads an organization that oversees some 25 engineering student groups and societies and a budget of $29,000. She’s also the public face for engineering students in various College and campus organizations.

“It’s been hectic so far,” she says. “There have been a lot of meetings on top of my schoolwork and research. But as EJC president, I want to make sure I’m the mediator between engineering students and outside parties.” For example, she’s already working with ASUC senator Igor Tregub and Berkeley’s mayor to address safety concerns of northside residents about navigating their way around campus. But her main goal this year is to revive the old days when EJC wasn’t just a source of money for clubs, but a forum for engineering students to raise concerns and wield real clout across campus.

In the meantime, Hsu says she’s dedicated to involving students. “You don’t have to be in a specific student club for EJC to benefit you,” she says. “We offer engineering workshops and activities like Broomball for any student.”

Nonetheless, she encourages her peers to get involved in something outside coursework. “People should take the initiative to understand the world around them so they know whom they’re affecting as engineers in the long run,” she says.

Contact Hsu at president@ejc.berkeley.edu. For more information, go to http://ejc.berkeley.edu/.

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