April 4, 2025
By Chloe Arrington

The inaugural cohort of the Woodruff Graduate Leaders Fellows recently completed their 10-week leadership program, during which they came together to give a voice to the experiences, concerns, and goals of graduate students in the Woodruff School and at Georgia Tech.

The program was developed by Kyriaki Kalaitzidou, associate chair for faculty development in the Woodruff School, with assistance from Andrei Fedorov, associate chair for graduate studies in the Woodruff School, with funding secured by Bonnie Ferri, vice provost for Graduate and Postdoctoral Education.

Kalaitzidou saw the need for graduate students to have a safe space to raise concerns and propose solutions for the challenges they face and to provide development opportunities beyond the classroom and laboratory experience.

The program, which was open to all graduate students in the College of Engineering, had 22 participants, 10 of whom were from the Woodruff School: Erik Barbosa, Raphaelle Dodart, Brian Epstein, Zhaoyuan Gu, Anika Kansky, Soohwan Kim, Daphne Lin, Bailey Painter, Kristoffer Sjolund, and Matthew Yen.

Students participated in weekly workshops for the duration of the program, where they heard from leaders across campus. The program culminated with group presentations, in which students addressed some of the issues discussed in the seminars.

The next cohort, supported solely by the Woodruff School starting in Spring 2026, will be open to all graduate students in the College of Engineering.