The 2024 Grand Marshal Week election was one to remember—the first tie in Rensselaer history for Grand Marshal between Vivian Rost-Nasshan and Ria Massoni. After a run-off election two weeks later, Vivian won the election.
Vivian is an Industrial and Management Engineer with a dual in Sustainability Studies, who is very excited for her term as GM. With her dual, she wants to focus on human processes and how to make systems more human centered and environmentally friendly. She is very involved on campus, being a part of Student Senate, Engineering Ambassadors, Quadball, and Rensselaer Motorsport (RM). In Engineering Ambassadors, she travels to K-12 schools in the area to spread engineering topics to a broader community. She also is on the Quadball team and has competed in tournaments in Boston.
In RM and Senate, Vivian has taken leadership roles and developed as a member of the Rensselaer community. In RM, she was appointed the role of Business Lead, in which she has taken a large role in project management. For each year, they redesign the car and there will be multiple project leads with their own deadlines and restrictions for their aspect of the car. The role of business lead requires her to advertise their plans and successes to gain support from sponsors, as well as forecast the budget for projects. With many moving parts and different project groups that need to begin in sequential order, her role has become a project manager—work that goes hand in hand with her Industrial Curriculum.
Vivian has learned the importance of organization and communication, and how it is vital for their teams to achieve their goals through her work in RM. This has a significant effect on how she wants to structure and oversee student government as GM. Additionally, she takes inspiration from IISE’s own relations with faculty and staff. Every month, representatives from the executive board of the chapter of IISE attend faculty meetings and voice concerns from other industrial engineers. Vivian appreciates this open communication between faculty and students, and wants to expand this further as GM. She wants to model committees that the Graduate Council is currently working on and use the momentum of their work to expand communication for the undergraduate population.
Vivian has experience in the Senate from the past two years, serving as an Independent Senator and Academic Affairs Chair (AAC). In the position as AAC chair, she has been able to work on initiatives to reduce textbook costs for students, making RPI more accessible. Additionally, she has worked with the Provost on projects to alter the academic calendar and enforce regulation on assignments during reading days.
As a member of one of the smaller majors on campus, the Industrial and Systems Department is excited for the work Vivian can accomplish as the 158th Grand Marshal.
