Beginning in the summer before my final year at Oregon State University (OSU), I decided to start an IES Student Chapter, as our university had never had one before. This began one day as just an idea, heavily inspired by my manager at the time, Chip Israel, CEO and founder of Lighting Design Alliance, who always urged me to make connections within the lighting industry. I thought, “What if there was a place specifically for lighting students here at OSU?” Over the course of the year, that idea grew into a community of more than 20 students with dreams to help grow the lighting field. It was not an easy process by any means, but our team of officers learned many valuable lessons while establishing the IES at OSU.
In the early days of planning for this new IES Student Chapter, I relied heavily on my professor, Kevin Houser, as a mentor. He understood the vision for IES at OSU, but he recognized more quickly than I did that I needed some help in making this happen. He suggested that I spread the word to my classmates to seek help in planning and development as well as turn to another professor, Dr. Clotilde Pierson, for direct oversight and advising of the chapter. I began by writing a six-page constitution by myself, but within a couple of weeks, I had found a team of students (along with Dr. Pierson) to help establish the rest of the organization. In our first meeting, we discussed the final paperwork we had to complete to become a fully recognized student organization by our university. We then created a plan to make contacts in the lighting industry to expand our reach and listed our goals for how the organization would grow in the next couple of months. I learned in these early months that the rapid growth of IES at OSU would not be possible without help from other students and professors in my community.
“Advertising is key: advertise club events through flyers, emails, in-class announcements, social media posts, and any other medium available to secure higher attendance at events”
With the newly established IES at OSU up and running, our next task was to start planning events. It became apparent that if we were to be successful, we had to work together. We first assigned members to the roles of president, vice president, treasurer, secretary, and social media manager. This allowed us to take responsibility over certain aspects of event planning. As the president, I would take an event idea and contact the necessary community members and lighting professionals to seek help on planning and share this work with the vice president. The secretary filed all paperwork for the event, making sure that we complied with school policies, and the treasurer generated a budget for the event and ensured that all of our funds were properly allocated. Our social media manager would then design flyers for the event and share them through bulletin boards and social media. In any instance where we did not know how to go about planning, we turned to our advisor for help. While we thought that we were functioning effectively in our new roles, we soon learned that we were not doing so quickly enough.
IES at OSU was set to have its first individual meeting in the early weeks of the winter quarter—a pizza party and lighting scavenger hunt, focused on fun and team bonding. While all officers completed their tasks to prepare for the meeting, final planning had not been finalized until the week of the meeting. This left only a couple of days to advertise for the event. We learned quickly the importance of advertising heavily and advertising early, as only two guests attended the meeting.
While we felt defeated, we did not give up on our goals to establish a fun community of future lighting professionals, so we turned to another student organization on campus for support. The Architectural Engineering Institute (AEI) Student Chapter at OSU took us in and invited us to take part in planning a meeting. They taught us how to advertise more effectively, delegate tasks earlier and with stricter deadlines, and plan a meeting professionally and quickly. The first joint meeting between AEI and IES was a great success, and as leaders of IES at OSU, we felt more prepared to plan our next individual event.
One of the earliest challenges IES at OSU faced was the lack of money to fund events. Fortunately, OSU provides small grants during each term to recognized student organizations to cover the cost of some events. This helped, but for the rest of our meetings throughout the year, we sought support from local professionals. For each speaker meeting—in which a local professional would come to the university and give a presentation—we kindly asked for them to sponsor dinner for our members who attended the meeting. This helped us save money and secure higher attendance, and we found that many of the professionals we spoke with were more than happy to do so.
We also took part in our university’s annual funding day at the end of the year to raise money for IES at OSU. This involved reaching out to all our supporters and asking for direct donations to the student chapter. Due to our high activity on social media as well as through email, we ended up raising enough funds to rank in the top 10% of all student organizations at OSU.
It’s no secret that college students love free food. So, inspired by other student organizations on campus, complimentary dinner became a staple of IES at OSU meetings. We also found that our members enjoyed combining fun with professional development and learning. We practiced this in our two most successful events of the year, the Professional Headshots Photoshoot and the PRAx (Patricia Valian Raser Center for the Creative Arts) Lighting Tour. The Professional Headshot Photoshoot was the highest-attended event we organized throughout the year, due in part to early and widespread advertising. At this event, students were able to get a professional photo taken for their LinkedIn profiles, grab a treat from our dessert bar, and take a pamphlet with information about the IES and our upcoming events. At the same time, we were able to help a student photographer at OSU build his portfolio and spread information about his photography business.
Our second most-successful event supported visual learning. While there was not as large of a turnout as for the photoshoot, we attracted attendees by advertising through multiple student organizations with flyers, social media, and classroom announcements. We also felt that most people were excited to come learn about lighting in the new PRAx building on campus, but the incentive of free Hawaiian food for dinner likely helped our cause. At this event, students experienced a walkthrough of PRAx, presented by the building manager, and it focused significantly on both theatrical and architectural lighting. This event received our most-positive feedback all year, with students saying that they were looking forward to attending again the following year.
With a year of meetings and events under our belt, the IES helped connect several OSU students to opportunities in the lighting field, but our goals did not end with the school year. We wanted to ensure that we could plan for multiple years ahead, repeating some favorite events and designing new ones. One of our keys to success was prioritizing connections. We made sure to always thank our guest speakers and the people who helped us organize events, and we made it clear that we would love to work together again. Not all our events went off as planned, but we made sure to discuss ways to improve with our guests. By maintaining our professional connections, we were successfully able to start coordinating for the next year of IES at OSU.
One important piece of advice, which was provided by Chip Israel, was to start looking for my replacement the moment I began work on creating the student chapter. Because three officers were in their final year at OSU, we wanted to set the organization up for success for years to come, even if we would not be there to witness it. Throughout the year, we focused our attention on second- and third-year students, with the goal of inspiring the next set of leaders to take over following our graduation.
Once we secured some interest in leadership of IES at OSU, we then began the transition. This was a phase that could not be rushed, and we focused the entire spring quarter on teaching our new officers how to do the necessary work. We did not end up holding as many events during this time; we focused more heavily on training, fundraising, and planning so that next year’s officers would be set up financially and organizationally.
There are many challenges associated with originating an IES Student Chapter. For those who are interested in doing so, here is a checklist of my top five best practices.
Organize your members and student chapter leaders early to get a head start on planning events.
Advertising is key: advertise club events through flyers, emails, in-class announcements, social media posts, and any other medium available to secure higher attendance at events.
Establish outside connections with your university, local lighting professionals, and your IES regional section so that you remain aware of opportunities available to your student chapter.
Fundraise more effectively by working with your university to discuss available options. Spead the word to student chapter members’ friends and family as well as your educational and professional connections.
Plan for the future by training new members for leadership early and planning new events for the coming years.
It was truly difficult to prepare to leave this organization that we put so much time and energy into, but by the end of the year, myself and my fellow graduates all felt proud of where we left it. IES at OSU has a bright future, and it will be exciting to see both its growth and the new lessons learned along the way.
Hailey Defferding graduated in spring of 2025 from Oregon State University where she studied architectural engineering with a focus in lighting design.