Alexandra Hyler named 2018 Graduate Student of the Year
May 3rd, 2018
Alexandra Hyler, the 2018 Graduate Student of the Year, had two goals in addition to earning her Ph.D. at Virginia Tech: to stay sane and stay out of the bubble.
Hyler successfully defended her dissertation in biomedical engineering this spring and will receive her Ph.D. at the Graduate Commencement Ceremony on May 10 at Cassell Coliseum. But on her way to earning that degree, she took on a number of leadership roles in a wide array of activities in pursuit of those other two objectives.
She currently is president of the Graduate Student Assembly, an organization for which she previously was director of programs and chair of the annual research symposium. She was president of the Virginia Tech chapter of the Biomedical Engineering Society and was co-chair of the graduate student committee for the university’s Women’s Alliance.
She also is active in the Interdisciplinary Research Honor Society, among other activities. And she finds time to mentor engineering students.
“I’ve always had the philosophy that if you only do work, you’ll go insane,” said Hyler, known as Alex. “For me, it was something that kept me sane. It took me out of the bubble and was a chance to give back to the university.”