Environmental Affairs Graduate Fellowhships

Solicitation: EPA Science to Achieve Results (STAR) Fellowships for Graduate Environmental Study - due October 22 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of its Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program, is offering Graduate Fellowships for master's and doctoral level students in environmental fields of study. Subject to availability of funding, the Agency plans to award approximately 120 new fellowships by June 30, 2010. Master's level students may receive support for a maximum of two years. Doctoral students may be supported for a maximum of three years, usable over a period of four years. The fellowship program provides up to $37,000 per year of support per fellowship. There's good news for green building/infrastructure from this year's EPA Graduate Fellowship program. Although it doesn't match NSF's $67M, 1700 Fellowship program, EPA's $4.5M is up to 120 Fellowships, compared with 32 in 2008 and 20 last year There's a major Science and Technology for Sustainability makeover, with separate categories for Green Engineering/Building/Chemistry/Materials; Energy; and Environmental Behavior and Decision Making. See http://epa.gov/ncer/rfa/2009/2009_star_gradfellow.html for the solicitation. Note that the deadline for application is October 22 .

"Professoriate Prep"...

...is the working title of the AGEP Fall 2009 professional development event for doctoral students. Develop your teaching skills at a day of workshops and seminars offered by faculty mentors including two recent IUB PhD alumni now in faculty positions. Save the date: Saturday, September 12, 2009, on the Bloomington campus. To register early, e-mail agep@indiana.edu.

Summer Astronomy Film Series

Join the IUB Department of Astronomy for the International Year of Astronomy Summer Film Series! In celebration of IYA, the Department of Astronomy is hosting a summer film series every Wednesday night June 3rd through August 12th. These films will be shown prior to the start of each Kirkwood Observatory Public Open House which run 10-11:30 PM. Showings will range from classic feature films to recent, fun documentaries covering a variety of astronomy and space themes! No charge for admission, and free popcorn will be provided! Location and Time: Films will be screened in Room 119 of Swain Hall West on the Bloomington campus (727 E. 3rd St). Each film will start at 7:30 PM and end no later than 9:30 PM. Running times vary from approximately 1 to 2 hours. Consult the schedule to see the approximate running times for each feature.

Getting You Into IU

The IU Graduate School will be hosting the "Getting You Into IU" recruitment program for underrepresented minority prospective PhD program applicants on October 8-10, 2009. Click here to find out more about this all-expenses-paid campus visit.

GEM in the news

Check out coverage of IU's membership in the National GEM Consortium at the IU News Room!

Even more AGEP student profiles!

Graduate students Paul Carey (Chemistry), Jeremy Felton (Chemistry), Pere Jackson (Math) and Rashid Williams-Garcia (Physics) have been added to our AGEP student profiles. Check them out here and here!

Upcoming presentation

“The role of pedagogy courses in graduate students’ socialization as future faculty in STEM disciplines”

Friday, March 27, 2009
10:30 am – 12:00 pm
Ballantine 006

Presented by:
Valerie O’Loughlin, Associate Professor, Medical Sciences
Katie Kearns, Assistant Director, Campus Instructional Consulting

Sponsored by the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs

For more information, e-mail agep@indiana.edu

Teaching orientation programs, pedagogy courses, teaching certificate programs, and preparing future faculty (PFF) programs provide positive outcomes for the graduate student participants beyond improved teaching effectiveness and self-efficacy. Such programs also support smooth transitions throughout graduate school and socialize graduate students to the numerous roles they will encounter in their future careers. However, many graduate students may not be aware of or be encouraged to participate in these programs, putting them at a disadvantage.

Valerie O’Loughlin and Katie Kearns will share recent research about graduate student development, summarize mentoring strategies presented at the 2008 CIRTL conference on preparing STEM graduate students for faculty careers, and describe results of their investigation into the role of a health sciences pedagogy course on graduate student development. Faculty participants will receive concrete mentoring strategies for helping graduate students successfully navigate research, teaching, and service responsibilities and will be provided with information about campus resources for graduate students.