Category Archives: Grad

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Grant panel for grad students, Oct. 27

I am planning to reserve one of the Friday afternoon slots each semester for programming that will contribute to our graduate students’ professional development. The first of these events is next Friday, October 27, 3:00 – 4:00+ in 125.

Specifically, this will be a panel of faculty, students, and staff on grant writing for graduate fellowships. It will include the perspective of students who have successfully competed for these awards (Lisa Velkoff, Annie Kalomiris), faculty who have mentored student recipients (Heather Claypool, April Smith), faculty who have served on relevant award panels (Robin Thomas, Jay Smart, Heather Claypool, me) and staff with considerable expertise in identifying and securing grant funding (Cricket Meehan, Anne Schauer).

My hope is to present some of the challenges and success strategies for grants submission, as well as make the process seem a little less “mysterious.” Although this panel will be tailored towards popular funding mechanisms like the NSF GRFP and NIH F31, it should be more widely applicable as well.

BNS lab open house Saturday

To everyone, from Anna:

The Behavioral Neuroscience Labs are hosting an open house this Saturday during Family Weekend. We have invited our students to bring their family and friends to tour the labs and learn about our research.We are extending the invitation to all faculty, grad students, and staff, as many of you have previously expressed interest in seeing the labs.

So, if you’d like to come by anytime between 1:00 and 3:00 this Saturday, we would love to see you (and family and friends) there!

View the invitation here

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship panel

If you are considering the possibility of your graduate students competing for predoctoral fellowships, you may be highly interested in this panel discussion. This has been announced in ProSem and the first-year students have been encouraged to attend in preparation for the grant training they will receive this year. From Anne Schauer, OARS:

The Office for the Advancement for Research & Scholarship will host a panel discussion on the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) Wednesday, September 27, from 3:00 to 4:30 pm in the ORU space of King Library (First floor- Suite 134).

In addition to covering basic information about applying for the NSF GRFP, the discussion will offer participants an opportunity to ask questions of recent fellows and mentors.

Doctoral students’ diversity-related research

Two separate awards from Miami’s Grants to Support Research in Social Justice, Human Rights, Diversity, and Inclusion feature doctoral students in the department. Sarah Dreyer-Oren (clinical), Anjali Jain (clinical), and Tessa Benson-Greenwald (social) are working on a project to examine how stigma of mental illness and social support relate to mental health help-seeking among domestic and international students at Miami. The project is supervised by their mentors, Elise Clerkin, Vaishali Raval, and Amanda Diekman, respectively.

Psychology graduate students Tessa, Sarah, Anjali, and Amy (L-R) receive funding for diversity and inclusion research.

Amy McConnell’s (clinical) project investigates risk factors for sexual victimization among bisexual women using a mixed methods approach that empowers the stakeholders in the research. The goal is to develop a better understanding of bisexual women’s perceptions of risk factors as well as the effect of minority stress. She is mentored by Terri Messman-Moore.

Doctoral student wins NIMH award!

We have exciting news to share regarding Anne Kalomiris, a doctoral student in the clinical area working with Liz Kiel. Annie has received the prestigious and highly competitive Ruth L. Kirschstein Institutional National Research Service Award (F31) from the NIMH to fund her doctoral studies! According to Anne Schauer, this is the first F31 at Miami.

Anne Kalomiris, F31 award recipient

Annie’s research project is titled “Parenting, Physiological Reactivity, and Neurological Risk for Anxiety in Kindergartners.” The research implements a differential susceptibility framework to investigate how physiological reactivity in toddlerhood changes the association between early environmental factors and neural markers of anxiety in kindergarten-age children. Specifically, the project will identify how this neural marker is predicted by specific parenting behaviors (i.e., overprotection, appropriate support) that place children at an increased or decreased risk for anxiety. It is expected that only those children who display greater physiological reactivity will be susceptible to the parenting that they receive. By determining the interaction of specific parenting behaviors and the child’s openness to their environment on neurological activity, we can determine the type of parenting behaviors in toddlerhood that are optimal for neurological development to reduce the risk of anxiety in kindergarten-aged children.

Please join us in congratulating Annie and Liz for this amazing accomplishment!

Cross-cultural mentoring of graduate students

From Valerie Robinson in the Graduate School on a relatively new program:

In Fall 2015, the Graduate School introduced a program in Cross Cultural Mentoring. We partnered interested faculty with diverse doctoral students with all but dissertation status. It was a successful initiative by a number of measures and we want to extend it this year to include more graduate students. We hope you consider participating.

We seek doctoral level faculty/staff who will engage the student not as an advisor, but as a role model, counselor, and experienced future colleague, providing support for the research process and preparing for life after the dissertation.

We seek diverse doctoral students in at least their second year who are interested in a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship with a faculty or staff member.

We are planning a kick-off meeting in mid-September. If you are interested in participating or have questions, please contact Valerie.

CTE seminar calendar posted

The Center for Teaching Excellence has not only retained its name for two years in a row now, but they have updated their calendar to reflect offerings for the CTE as well as some other partners. The calendar can be found here, and includes sessions on funding opportunities, service learning, study abroad, diversity, the new Title IX reporting requirements, and more; specialized topics such as Chinese names, Peer review of writing, or Teaching large classes; and systems and software such as Qualtrics.

I would encourage you all to check it out and think each of you might find something to contribute to your professional development.

Industry information interest group for grad students

Many of our grad students are interested in, or could benefit from, some exploration of non-academic career paths. To this end, J.P. Gonzales, a second-year student in the social area, writes:

Some folks in the department have expressed interest in continuing a group that was formed last semester by Kurt S., the Industry Info Group. The primary purpose of this group is to collect and disseminate information and resources (and to provide support for) students who may be interested in pursing non-academic career paths upon graduation. I would like to stress moving forward that this group is not intended to serve as a place to criticize or “bash” the traditional academic career path and those who may have their heart set on pursuing a traditional academic career post graduation. We seek to create a collaborative, supportive environment for students, regardless of their specific career objectives.

Contact J.P for more information, or use this link to schedule (When2Meet) if you are interested.

 

Diversity symposium and grad recruiting

There is an upcoming regional event that may be of interest to many: the 2017 Diversity Research Symposium (September 22-23) at Ball State University (Muncie, IN). In addition to workshops, speakers, posters, etc. at the symposium, the organizer also writes:

I would like to invite representatives from your graduate programs to participate in our networking sessions as exhibitors/recruiters. Undergraduate and MA level graduate students with strong interest in cultural diversity issues who are seeking graduate programs will be participating at these networking sessions.

This could be an excellent, relatively easy opportunity to speak with local students with graduate school intentions and allow us to recruit a more diverse pool as well. Those interested can contact me for more information or visit diversitysymposium.org. Registration closes September 8.