Krutika Patel currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia, as a CUNY SPS graduate student in the MS in Data Science program. Patel has already established herself in the clubs and organizations that the School offers, particularly as a representative in the CUNY SPS Student Association.

Before attending SPS, Patel enrolled at a local college in Georgia for her bachelor’s degree in Computer Science where she graduated a semester early. Patel then stumbled across a Reddit post about CUNY SPS and slowly started to look into it to find a perfect degree program.

“I took a semester off to scope out what was available to find this program at SPS, and I think it was worth it because if I had rushed into just a degree for the sake of going I think I wouldn’t have made the best choice,” Patel said. “I went straight from undergrad to grad because it was always a dream of mine and a passion to study further than my undergraduate, to do some level of graduate study.”

Once at CUNY SPS, Patel got involved in student life, filling a seat at the University Student Senate (USS) as a graduate delegate while holding leadership positions in a few organizations, such as the vice president for the CUNY SPS South Asian Student Union as well as the Book Club. But one of Patel’s regrets is not engaging in the CUNY SPS Office of Student Life sooner.

“My advice for incoming students would be to start engaging with Student Life as soon as you start with SPS, and the activities that Student Life promotes, so join Student Life, join student clubs, and try to make a community in your major where it will help build your network,” Patel said. “If you are outside of New York like me, one thing that is important is joining the Student Association, clubs, and Student Life, so that [you’re] able to make a network in New York I can reach out to.”

Serving in the Student Association as a Governing Council representative for the curriculum committee, Patel explained that the board consists of someone from the director’s office of each major to approve and collaborate on any changes that need to be made to any programs. Additionally, the board represents the committee of inclusion, equity, diversity among students, staff, and faculty, and tries to promote a more collaborative environment, she added.

Patel’s contribution to the SPS Student Association is to push for synchronous lectures within School programs. The next cohort of students will enable a shift in how lectures are given and help initiate the change to having more in-person connection with students and faculty, and to start the process by having live lectures as well meetups for students, she explained.

“As a part of the Student Association, we’ve had a meeting with Elizabeth Alsop, she’s a professor in the [Communication and Media] department, we had this discussion with her about online learning,” Patel said. “The topic of synchronized lectures was brought up, not only with her, but also in our meeting with the new dean, and that’s something that I want to push as one of many things that I want to champion before I leave the Student Association and end my term.”