Guest post by Gina Adam, GE Foundation Scholar-Leader 2008.
Crossposted with the GE for CEE blog.
The GE Foundation Scholar-Leaders Award came when I most needed an impulse to dream big. The Award symbolized the fruition of my efforts towards success, made me optimistic and opened plenty of doors for me. Receiving this award has been a constant motivation for success.
I received the GE Foundation Scholar-Leaders Award in Romania in 2008. At the time, I was pursuing my undergraduate degree in electrical engineering at the Polytechnic University in Bucharest and my degree in Business Administration at the Academy of Economic Studies. This award has been an eye-opener for me. Three years ago I could not have imagined how much my life would change due to this opportunity.
Thanks to the award, early during my undergrad I became aware that taking advantage of the endless possibilities offered by studying and doing internships abroad is my responsibility. Shortly after obtaining the award, the supportive team from the Institute of International Education informed us that GE Poland offered internship opportunities at the Engineering Design Centre (EDC) in Warsaw for the GE Foundation Scholar-Leaders Award recipients. It was a great occasion for me to experience the world of a multinational company such as GE from inside and to work in a foreign country for a month. The GE Foundation Scholar-Leaders Program has already shown me what a job in a foreign country would involve, both on a professional and personal level.
In addition to the financial support provided by the scholarship, I was able to attend the "Fundamentals of Nanotechnology" workshop at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. This is where I realized that I can combine my passion for chemistry with my electrical engineering background and work in Nanoelectronics. And things only got better and better. In the summer of 2009, I was invited to work at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Germany on a research project under the NanoInitiative Munich fellowship.
As I wanted to become a scientist in Nanoelectronics, I decided that the best step would be to receive a PhD from the United States. I am honored to be the first Romanian recipient of the International Fulbright Science and Technology Award. With the financial support of the US government, I am currently a second year Electrical Engineering PhD student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I am a part of Professor Dmitri Strukov's group, where I focus on fabrication of novel memristive systems.
In the future I want to work in academia, but also contribute to positive changes in the Romanian education system. At the two universities I attended, I met professors who have become my mentors and my models in life. They have shown me that it is possible to be a truly exceptional researcher and professor, even if bureaucracy and mentalities are important obstacles.
Consequently, I consider it necessary to get involved in the administrative aspects of the Romanian education and research system. I pursued a second specialization in Public Administration at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest. My bachelor research projects focused on research management and funding mechanisms in Romanian universities. I have been involved in the "Coalition for Clean Universities" and I benefited from an internship at the Romanian Ministry of 'Education, Research, Youth and Sports, General Directorate for Higher Education.'
In the long run, I want to return to my home university and build a career as a scientist with the hope that I would have the same positive impact on my students as my mentors had on me.