MCIP Student Council President is ready to overcome challenges

Release Date: Nov 4, 2022
Tags:graduate students MCIP physiology

MCIP Board — MCIP Student Council E-board: From left, Vice-president Trombley, President Sudhakran, Secretary Alyssa Vadovsky, Treasurer Megan McGrath, and Social Event Coordinator Ariana Zimmerman. Credit: Tyler Lee

Meenakshi Sudhakran knows that the biggest challenge for the Molecular, Cellular, and Integrative Physiology (MCIP) Student Council has been and will be bringing people together.

But as the recently elected president of the group, the Ph.D. candidate in the Doseff Lab says she’s ready for that challenge.

“We [the graduate students] are split up between buildings and only interact during seminars,” said Sudhakran who previously served as the group’s vice-president for two years. “It’s something we have always dealt with, but I know we can overcome it.”

MCIP Vice-president Brett Trombley agrees with Sudhakran.

“Before I joined the council last year as treasurer, attendance and engagement from grad students in the department was very low,” said Trombley who is a Ph.D. candidate in the Mohr Lab. “As a council, our main goal was to improve this through holding more events and outreach. I can say that we were fairly successful in this and is something I want to continue to establish throughout this coming year.”

There are plans to start a mentorship-type of program to help undergraduates who are interested in grad school."

MCIP Board Members — "It's a great platform to bring everyone together and have a student-to-student talk," said Sudhakran of the MCIP Student Council group. "It allows us to be that voice for the students." Credit: Adam Neff

“We want to connect with the undergraduate physiology students by having career meetings and poster sessions,” Sudhakran said. “We can help give them advice and an idea of what’s going on in our department as well as help with applications to grad school.”

Born and raised in India and the youngest of three children, Sudhakran has always followed her passion when it comes to academic research. After losing her mother to cancer, it led her to her current field of studies. Her current research, which is focused on the role of hnRNPA2 in the regulation of cell fate and immune function, recently won her the 2022 Jack R. Hoffert Memorial Scholarship and Barnett Rosenberg Fellowship.

After obtaining her Ph.D., Sudhakran has plans for a postdoc on the west coast where her husband, who is currently an associate professor at Michigan State University, will be relocating.

“I want to stay in the same field to study and understand the mechanisms in immune cell,” said Sudhakran adding that she has one and a half years left in her degree. “Hopefully I can find a program out there that’s a good fit.”

In the meantime, the classically trained Indian dancer plans to make the most of her time as the MCIP Student Council president.

“I want to make sure this is a platform that can bring all of us together and keep us in the loop,” she said. “We want to be that support group for all students. We can and will be a bridge to the students, staff, and professors.”

By: Tyler Lee