This is your personal invitation to submit a poster proposal for the

Fourth Annual Graduate Student Research Poster Session
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Graduate Student Presentations 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm
Stern Student Ballroom

As a graduate student who has worked on or is currently working on a research or creative project, you are encouraged to submit and present a poster at the Fourth Annual Graduate Research Poster Session.  We are inviting you to participate because you were accepted and have received a Graduate Student Research or Presentation Grant to support your research within the past year.

Poster session process and details can be found on our website under the link to research at http://gradschool.cofc.edu/currentstudents/research/research.php We have examples of past posters for reference in case you are unfamiliar with poster formats.  Please get in touch with our office for assistance if you need it when your poster proposal is accepted.   We will be sending out more detailed information later to all students whose proposals have been accepted.

We would like your program to be represented and will display as many posters as possible.  In the past all students who submitted poster proposals were able to present their posters and research or creative project, so it is a good idea to begin working on the poster early.

A brief timeline:

By November 17 – Deadline extended to November 20 — poster proposals are due to the Program Director from the student  (see website for proposal format)

By November 24 – reviewed and selected poster proposals are due to Dean McCandless, from the Program Director

By December 1 — ad hoc committee will select the 50 posters proposals to include in the poster session

By December 8 — students and program directors, supervising faculty, will have been notified of the selections (poster printing details will go out to those selected)

By December 20 — posters are due from students graduating in December, electronic versions to be sent to the Graduate School and posters to be printed and ready to hang

By January 15 — last chance for those students enrolled in spring classes to have posters printed and ready to hang

January 28 — Poster session — students set-up posters from 8 am to 2:30 pm and presentations are from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm, the selection of winning will also take place. Prizes will be announced and awarded the following week.

The members of the Board of Trustees will be on campus on the day of the poster session and will each receive personal invitations to attend that day. All faculty, staff and students will be invited to attend the event. Refreshments will be served.

Please contact Regina Semko with any questions: semkor@cofc.edu

Howdy,

The Graduate Student Association has formed a team to participate in this year’s Dance Marathon and we want you to be a member.

Dance Marathon is the largest philanthropic event on our campus. This is the third year at CofC raising money for Children’s Miracle Network and MUSC Children’s Hospital right down Calhoun Street. Each participant pledges to raise at least $150 leading up to the 15 hour event February 26th-27th. This event is essentially an all-night party for all of the participants to thank them for their hard work and dedication. There are various bands throughout the night, energy drink flip cup, root beer pong, great giveaways, and excellent food. Also, every hour participants will learn segments of a 6 minute dance that is performed for the patient families in the morning. It is an amazing event that helps others in our community as well as bringing students from our campus together.

This year the Dance Marathon committee is trying to get 650 participants and GSA wants to help them accomplish this goal. If you are interested in participating in Dance Marathon as a member of our team you can register for the event at:  www.dancemarathon.clubs.cofc.edu

When you are filing out your registration form, add yourself as a member of the GSA team. Also, please send me an email at keclancy@edisto.cofc.edu, with your name and your t-shirt size is so that I make sure we have all of our participants. Please join us for a night of fun and help the Children’s Miracle Network and MUSC Children’s Hospital.

Thanks,
Kathleen Clancy
keclancy@edisto.cofc.edu
GSA Social and Outreach Committee Chair

I returned to my hotel that evening, ready to write a Monday Motivation post providing links to blogs that talk about life after college. My hope was to provide enough links to show those facing graduation that they’re not alone. There are so many people, from those ready to graduate to those ready to retire, who have no idea what they want to do with their life. And then, like the woman I talked with in Florida, there are some who have an idea but they have yet to clearly identify the path that will lead them to their career aspiration.

I was Googling phrases like, “life after college” and, “after I graduate” when I found this gem of an article from the NPR archives. Then I found another referencing the same book. And then finally in his own words, the author of What Should I Do With My Life has a six-page feature in Fast Company. This morning, I read that Po Bronson has released a sequel, What Should I Do With My Life, Now?

“Your calling isn’t something you inherently ‘know,’ some kind of destiny. Far from it. Almost all of the people I interviewed found their calling after great difficulty. They had made mistakes before getting it right.” -Po Bronson

Graduate school is full of people looking to fulfill their calling, whether they’re changing careers or enhancing the knowledge they already have in a certain field. But, it will not help you find your calling unless you can decide whether,  “your choice is something that will stimulate you for a year or something that you can be passionate about for 10 years?”

Bronson’s first book is a journal about the experiences of 900 people realizing their dreams and making them happen. I haven’t read the book yet, but the two articles mentioned above are enough to make me consider purchasing a copy. Hopefully, they will spark hope and inspiration with those getting ready to graduate and those who are still trying to figure out what it is they want to be when they grow up.

(Photo Credit: brunkfordbraun)

Related posts:
What questions do you ask at a grad school fair?
How to waste time productively
Monday motivation: choosing a grad school

The College of Charleston Library is part of a consortium of 40+ academic libraries across the state that make borrowing quick and easy.  The consortium is called PASCAL (PARTNERSHIP AMONG SC ACADEMIC LIBRARIES) and the service is called PASCAL Delivers.  (We librarians are clever folks)

If  you don’t find the book in the College catalog, you might see the bright blue PASCAL Delivers logo:

Click on the logo and you’ll  see the other libraries in South Carolina that own the book.   And if you click “Request this item,” you can quickly request the book and get it delivered to the Interlibrary Loan Office within three days.

It’s that simple – as many of your colleagues have already discovered.

Of course,  you may need books that are not owned by any South Carolina academic library.  In those cases,  fill out the standard Interlibrary Loan Request form  and our staff will borrow the book from libraries beyond SC borders.  But you’ll discover, PASCAL Delivers will make Interlibrary Loan even faster and easier than ever before.

Questions – call the friendly staff at Interlibrary Loan at 843-953-8010.

Fun With English is a blog chronicling all kinds of fun ways to be creative with English. It also pokes fun at us English-speakers with some good-natured humor.

PhD Comics (PhD is short for Piled Higher and Deeper) are made for those of us in the academy. They really nail what it’s like to live the grad school life.

Free Rice is a fun site that quizzes you on vocabulary and other trivia. For every correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program.

Free Kibble has a similar concept to Free Rice, except it’s geared towards our furry friends. For every correct answer, pet food is donated to animal shelters around the country. There are versions for dogs and cats, so you answer trivia and donate food for either.

Mental Floss is a website with a lot of fun trivia, games, and factoids about everyday topics. It won’t necessarily help you study, but it will make you feel smarter.

Typeracer lets you test your speed and accuracy through a series of fun typing exercises. It’ll make you feel more productive because those papers will get done faster in the future.

Thanks to everyone in the office who contributed. Enjoy your weekend, and let’s get busy doing nothing productively!

Related Links
Monday Motivation: Social Media in Charleston
Monday Motivation: Finding balance as a grad student
Are you LinkedIn?

Web Apps: They're not just for the iPhone...

We were browsing our awesome new website when we came across this news article about Web Apps for Students. In the interest of getting the word out to grad students, we decided to reprint the article’s list. If you get a chance, be sure to read the entire article for more information on learning how to use these and other Web Apps.

So, what are web apps and why do we think they’re especially important for grad students? Web apps are one of the neatest things to be invented since sliced bread, and if you’ve never used them, you’re missing out! They add features to websites, make doing repetitive tasks  (like bookmarking all of your research) easier, and have other helpful functions that you can’t get elsewhere. In other words, they can save you lots of time, which is your most valuable asset in graduate school. The fantastic staff at the Addlestone Library have come up with this handy list of their Top Ten Web Apps for Students:

Keeping in Touch with Family and Friends:

• Brightkite geographic social networking  – Brightkite is about connecting with the people and places around you. The application can help you spend more time with your friends, show you new places and introduce you to people in your neighborhood.
• Skype – With Skype’s free software, which works seamlessly with your internet connection, you can chat away and never worry about cost, time or distance.

Finding Information/Library Resources

• Amazon/Library Catalog search plugin - The College of Charleston Library/Amazon.com Catalog Mashup plugin allows a user who is on Amazon.com to compare the books they are browsing with the holding in the College Library’s catalog. In addition, the plugin will also check PASCAL holdings to see if one of our lending partners has a copy of the title. If no title matches are found in the College’s catalog or in PASCAL the plugin displays a link for the Interlibrary loan request.
• LibGuides Facebook app – download research guides directly from Facebook – LibGuides is the first library application available within Facebook. A user simply needs to select LibGuides from the list of applications in order to access LibGuides content. LibGuides will recognize the user’s school affiliation and present them with their “home” LibGuides system.

Personal Productivity, Working Collaboratively and Managing Time

• Google docs – A source to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations online. You can also upload existing files and share with others.
• StudyStack – Find data or use your own data to create printable electronic flash cards that you can use online or export to a cell phone or iPod

Collecting and Organizing your Work

• Zotero – a Firefox extension to help you collect, manage and cite your research sources

Creating Multimedia Presentations

• Creative Commons – find licensed images or music files that you can share, remix or reuse for presentations
• VoiceThread – Offers free and subscription accounts. A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents and videos and allows people to comment.
• Microsoft’s Photosynth – Allows you to create interactive 3-D images out of a bunch of photos of the same scene or object.

If you like these, then you should check out the Literacy, Information, Technology, and Education (L.I.T.E.) Workshops @ Addlestone. This semester’s theme is “The Top Web Apps to Help With College Life.”  Just Register here to attend, and before you know it, you’ll be zipping around the web like a seasoned professional.

Related Posts
Monday Motivation: Study Tips
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Are you LinkedIn?

Wow, so what can I say. It’s been a whirlwind few months since graduating from the MPA program in May.

I had spent the last two years working as a graduate assistant on campus while obtaining the Masters in Public Administration.

The final week of school I was informed that I had been selected for the Charles Koch Associate Program, which is a one-year program that trains futures leaders of nonprofits interested in liberty. I am spending the year working for the South Carolina Policy Council as a Policy Analyst, while also learning Market-Based-Management — a management philosophy created by Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries. The program lasts until May 27, 2010.

My first week was spent in Washington DC, where the program is based out of, for a crash course in the program. There are 81 other associates in the program scattered throughout the country — 60 based in DC, 21 in other cities.

The mission of the South Carolina Policy Council is “to promote limited government, free enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility.” It has been a great experience working in a nonprofit organization, after spending two years learning about the nonprofit world in the classroom. Working as a policy analyst, it has extremely rewarding to be a part of important state and national issues that are shaping our world.

Being able to apply the academic principles I learned at the College to read world problems is another great reminder of why the MPA degree is so helpful!

Preparing for Graduate School

Know why you’re getting your degree and remember that grad school life can be a completely different animal than your undergrad career was. It requires much more communication and effort than you may be used to.

Tips for New Graduate Students

Graduate School is a bigger challenge than you expect, because it’s not only about studying, it’s about acclimating to life as a professional.

Making the Transition to Graduate School

As a new grad student, you have to learn to rely on a new support network. Learn from students who are already in your program, and be sure to become involved in the activities that your school or program offers.

Tips for Making the Transition to Graduate School

A current student shares her opinion on how grad school is more solitary, but also has its own special kinds of rewards in the long run.

New Students: While you’re thinking about transitioning to graduate school, now would also be a good time to register for Fall Orientation if you haven’t done so already. You’ll get lots of specific advice and information about your new graduate career here at the College of Charleston.

For all of you new students, see you soon. In the meantime, stay motivated!

Related posts
Monday Motivation: Paying for grad school
Monday Motivation: Finding Balance in Grad School
Getting to Know You

Now that I’ve plugged my program, I’d like to answer the other most common question I get from friends who are considering going to graduate school: How on earth did I get an assistantship, and what the heck is one exactly?

An Assistantship is a real job, requiring a commitment of 20 hours per week. Unlike grants or scholarships, it is not “free money.” You do have to work!  You also have to be enrolled as a full-time, degree-seeking graduate student in order to qualify. Of course, this means that you will have to be very committed to balancing your time between your studies and your job!

Getting an assistantship requires filling out an application, which can be found here.  You may submit it either along with your application to the Graduate School or after you’ve been accepted. Attach a résumé to your form, and then send it in to us here at the Graduate School Office. Be sure to make your résumé extensive and accurate! Departments hiring graduate assistants peruse the applications to see whose prior experience matches the position for which they’re hiring. If you happen to match an open position, you too could live the luxurious life of a G.A.

I hope that answers all of your questions about assistantships. If not, don’t hesitate to contact us on Twitter, Facebook, or by e-mail. Now, if only I could find where my computer mouse got packed…

Related posts
Monday Motivation: Paying for grad school
Monday Motivation: Finding Balance in Grad School
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Dean McCandless Punting on the Cherwell River

From time to time, we like to keep you updated on the excellent scholarly work in which our faculty, staff, and students engage. Here in the Graduate School Office, we are proud to report that Dean Amy Thompson McCandless participated recently in a presentation of her paper at the Oxford University Roundtable on the topic of “Women in the Academy.”  Dean McCandless’s research focuses on the higher education of Southern women in the 20^th Century, and her presentation examined the historical opposition to coeducation at flagship universities in the region.

Her summary states:

“From the attempts to bar women from state flagship institutions in the 1890s to the efforts to exclude women from The Citadel and Virginia Military Institute in the 1990s, universities in the southern United States have proclaimed the deleterious effects coeducation would have on traditional gender relationships. Coeducation, one group of South Carolina students asserted, would ‘alter the spirit and tone of robust manliness of the student body which we believe to be of even greater importance than scholarship.’¹

When women were eventually allowed to matriculate, men students proceeded to ban them from clubs, activities, and buildings. Faculty ignored their presence in the classroom and/or graded them more harshly. Administrators put quotas on their admissions and imposed restrictions on their mobility. Gender discrimination in the academy was (or is) not unique to the southern United States, McCandless notes, but she believes the interrelated nature of gender and racial constructs in southern culture account for much of the historical prejudice against coeducation in the region’s institutions of higher education. It is ironic that in the 21^st century schools founded because women and blacks were barred from the top universities of southern states are now being pressured to become more ‘diverse’; i.e., open their doors to more men and whites. In the contemporary South, opposition to coeducation is more likely to come from women who argue that historic patterns of discrimination remain alive and well on today’s college campuses.”

Dean McCandless at the Oxford Union

¹ Petition to the Board of Trustees, 23 June 1903, College Archives, Special Collections, Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library, College of Charleston.

Congratulations to Dean McCandless on her engaging presentation. To stay updated on all of her work, you can follow her here on Twitter!

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Painting a Portrait

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We’re chirping a lot over here. Join us on Twitter.

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