Morgan Sykes, Mohammed Seyam named 2015-16 Board of Visitors student representatives

1 Apr 2015

image of Morgan Sykes, Mohammed Seyam — Morgan Sykes and Mohammed Seyam.

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors on Monday selected new undergraduate and graduate student representatives who will serve as liaisons between the student body and the board starting July 1.

The two student representatives are appointed to one-year terms. They will serve as ex-officio members on the Commission of Student Affairs and sit on a committee of the governing board. These non-voting members are required to maintain contact with university faculty, administrators, and Virginia Tech students.

Undergraduate Student Representative

Morgan Sykes of Winchester, Virginia, is a junior majoring in history in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, with a minor in psychology and plans to pursue a career in teaching. She is the co-founder and president of Kappa Delta Pi, the international honor society designed to promote fellowship among future and current educators.

During her time at Virginia Tech, Sykes has served as a Hokie Camp counselor and a Hokie Ambassador. She also served as part of the university delegation to attend and present at the ACC Meeting of the Minds conference at North Carolina State University.

Sykes is a member of the Kappa Delta sorority, the Golden Key International Honor Society, and received the Virginia Tech Pamplin Leader Award scholarship. This year, she has served as general manager of the newly created College Mentor for Kids program.

Graduate Student Representative

Mohammed Seyam of Egypt is a doctoral student in computer science in the College of Engineering. Seyam received an undergraduate degree in information systems from Mansoura University and a master’s degree in information systems from Cairo University, both in Egypt.

Among his many activities on campus, Seyam serves as a global ambassador, helping welcome new international students to the Virginia Tech community. He is a member of the computer science graduate council, as well as the Center for the Arts international advisory board. Seyam is actively involved in preparing for the upcoming Islamic Worlds Festival, set to take place April 6 through April 11.

This past year, he represented the university at Hokie Day at the Virginia state capitol in Richmond. He also traveled to Washington to take part in OpenCon 2014, a conference for researchers on open access, open data, and open educational resources.

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors is the governing body of the university. It is composed of 14 members, 13 of which are appointed by the governor and the 14th member is the president of the Board of Agriculture and Consumer Services who serves ex-officio. The term of office for each member is four years.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.