Top photo: ISSA members representing the organization at Welcome Wednesday. (l to r) Sydney Strickland, Sydney Kauffman and Laila Conway.
The Information Science Student Association (ISSA) is a 34-member student organization whose mission is to help students of all majors find internships, discover research opportunities, improve their resumes and network with alumni and other students.
ISSA president Katie Altman says the organization's biggest goal is growth. “We want to get people talking to each other and just really push students and ask them how we can help them.”
Altman adds the group is looking to show students the various avenues of information science.
In October, former ISSA president Sydney Kauffman spoke to group members about her time as an ambassador for "Good Molecules," a skin care brand and how that experience applies to information science. Kauffman shared information about the production and promotion of their product and even gave away free samples.
This is Altman's favorite ISSA event as it shows “Information can be something like skincare that other people can be interested in.”
ISSA is everything a student group should be — student-created, student-led and born from a genuine need. When these students wanted a community focused on professional development and networking in information science, they didn't wait for someone else to create it. They built it themselves. That initiative and ownership is exactly what we hope to foster, and it's inspiring to watch them support each other's success in such meaningful ways.
-- Lyda Fontes McCartin, director of the School of Information Science
A major part of ISSA is preparing students for the professional world and helping them grow their resumes. In September, the group hosted an event that allowed students to meet with Jennifer Harriger, an early career recruiter at Hearst Television. She shared tips about what looks best on a resume and what employers do and do not want to see.
ISSA vice president Charli Silber says ISSA has helped her make her resume stand out. “I was able to step into leadership roles, plan events and talk about real projects that became something I could confidently put on my résumé and speak about in interviews,” Silber said.
She said ISSA has helped many other students find opportunities they did not know about before. “People come to our events and end up meeting professors, alumni or other students who guide them toward research or internships,” she said.
Silber says even simple things like helping format resumes and writing LinkedIn profiles makes a big difference in students’ confidence and career readiness.
Altman also noted AI’s growing involvement in information science and that ISSA is trying to address it in a way that will benefit students.
“I do believe that AI can be used for good and we are trying to shape it into a tool that can be used in information science. Not in a way that thinks for us but helps us along,” Altman said.
To support this mission, ISSA recently hosted a virtual reality event where students tested different VR equipment and discussed the ways it applies to information science.
According to the University of South Carolina, Information Science teaches you to identify and solve problems at the intersection of people and technology. ISSA’s virtual reality event is a way to demonstrate this intersection in an engaging, relevant way.
Altman and Silber hope to grow the association to reach more people outside of the school of Information Science.
“We want to have joint events with the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) and the Student Community for Archives, Libraries, and Museums as there is a lot of data visualization and overlap in our different organizations,” Altman said.
It is Altman and Silber's hope that ISSA will continue to grow and benefit many more students both in college and the professional world.
For Silber, ISSA has already had a lasting impact and is the reason she feels so confident moving forward in the tech and data world. “It gave me leadership experience, public speaking experience, and real involvement in a field I care about.”
Zoey Pippin is a first-year broadcast journalism major from Edgewood, Texas. She wrote this story as a part of Bertram Rantin's Honors Writing for Mass Communications class. She is a member of Ghost Light Productions and a reporter for Student Gamecock Television.