Description

* CDWG Overview

* CDWG's Brand Relationships for MEEC

* CDWG Solutions Contractor

* CDWG Services Capabilities

* CDWG Website & Procurement

* CDWG Account Teams

**Targeted Audience…CIOs, IT Directors, IT Managers and Engineers (Higher Education, K12 and Libraries)                                      

Presenters

Eric Drexler, Executive Briefing Manger

Melissa Deets, Higher Education Business Development Manager,

Erica Kordes, Higher Education Account Manager

Our advising offices are located in ITE 202-206. Email and telephone contact information is available here.

For information about advising appointments for registration clearance, please visit the following post:

https://my.umbc.edu/groups/coeitadvising/posts/69976

UMBC is one of 29 universities nationwide joining forces to better serve Ph.D. students by examining the broad range of pathways they take from graduate school to career. The Ph.D. Career Pathways study is backed by the National Science Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and organized by the Council of Graduate Schools. It will provide much-needed data on graduate students’ experiences and perspectives at a pivotal moment when career possibilities for Ph.D.s are changing substantially and universities are searching for ways to better prepare students for opportunities and challenges ahead.

“The assumption that the Ph.D. is primarily a pathway to the professoriate is just not the case,” says Janet Rutledge, dean of the UMBC Graduate School. “We’re hoping that by being part of this study, we will determine the best ways to focus our time and our resources to most effectively guide our students.”

UMBC and Morgan State University are collaborating as partners in the study, which will include students in graduate programs across the humanities and STEM. Morgan is the only participating HBCU, and UMBC is one of only six Minority-Serving Institutions, and the only one outside of the University of California system. The diversity of participating institutions will be essential to the study’s success, Rutledge notes, explaining, “If we’re trying to get a view of what the pathways are for students then we need to have a variety of universities represented.”

In addition to the Ph.D. Career Pathways study, UMBC is participating in the Coalition for Next Generation Life Sciences, which will investigate graduate program alumni pathways specifically in the life sciences. This study is led by Johns Hopkins and University of California, San Francisco, and also includes UMBC, Cornell, MIT, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Wisconsin.

Of course, Rutledge points out, “Before you can survey alumni, you need to find out where they are.” Funding from the two projects together will support a graduate student research assistant to gather that information through contacting alumni networks, scouring social media, and interviewing department chairs and faculty.

In addition to supporting current UMBC students, Rutledge hopes UMBC’s participation in the Ph.D. Career Pathways study will help students considering pursuing a Ph.D. at any institution. “People undertake Ph.D.s without always having a full sense of what the experience will be like or what it could mean for their future,” she says. “We want to have more transparency for current and prospective students to help them understand job and career pathways with a Ph.D., and how you go about finding opportunities.”

Rutledge also sees great potential for this kind of research to help grow universities’ relationships with companies, government agencies, and other non-academic research institutions, which are often trying to reach talented researchers early in their careers. Connecting UMBC graduate students with internship and work opportunities through these partners could help those students access broader career opportunities, help employers access a highly skilled and diverse talent pool, and boost research collaborations and resource sharing among partners.

Already, successful partnerships of this kind have been “a win-win for the mentor and the student,” says Rutledge.

Ph.D. Career Pathways surveys, developed by the Council of Graduate Schools, will be implemented this year, with the first data coming in next fall. Rutledge and her team are excited to be part of such an important national study in graduate education, but their focus always comes back to the scholars they work with every day. “We really want to understand the pathways of our current students and our alumni, as well as learn how other universities support their graduate students, so that we can better serve UMBC graduate students of today and of the future.”

Image: New UMBC graduate students get to know each other and learn about ways to become involved at the Graduate Student Information Fair. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

John 7:37-39 (MSG) - “On the final and climactic day of the Feast, Jesus took his stand. He cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (He said this in regard to the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were about to receive. The Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified.)”

“In the Old Testament, where there was no water, there was no life. People died during droughts. Likewise, unless the living water of the Spirit is flowing in us, we and our churches will have an absence of spiritual life and little vitality. Just as in the Mojave Desert, no water equals no life, no growth, and no fruit. We can attend church regularly and have perfect doctrine, but without the Holy Spirit to water us, we will wither and die. Jesus talked openly about the life-giving properties of the Spirit. “On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them’” (John 7: 37-39). By “rivers of living water,” Jesus was referring to the Spirit that believers would later receive. When the Spirit of God comes, we have new life. Without the Spirit of God, we’re left to struggle with our self-effort, which is riddled by moral weakness and sinful tendencies. But when the Spirit comes, we have joy, hope, and power. Notice that Jesus doesn’t refer to a drop of water but to “rivers of living water.” Like a river, the Spirit flows-a force of power that comes into us and then flows out so we can be a blessing to others.”

Today, pray for the living water to overflow in you-with new joy, hope, and power!

- GK

UMBC is one of 29 universities nationwide joining forces to better serve Ph.D. students by examining the broad range of pathways they take from graduate school to career. The Ph.D. Career Pathways study is backed by the National Science Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and organized by the Council of Graduate Schools. It will provide much-needed data on graduate students’ experiences and perspectives at a pivotal moment when career possibilities for Ph.D.s are changing substantially and universities are searching for ways to better prepare students for opportunities and challenges ahead.

“The assumption that the Ph.D. is primarily a pathway to the professoriate is just not the case,” says Janet Rutledge, dean of the UMBC Graduate School. “We’re hoping that by being part of this study, we will determine the best ways to focus our time and our resources to most effectively guide our students.”

UMBC and Morgan State University are collaborating as partners in the study, which will include students in graduate programs across the humanities and STEM. Morgan is the only participating HBCU, and UMBC is one of only six Minority-Serving Institutions, and the only one outside of the University of California system. The diversity of participating institutions will be essential to the study’s success, Rutledge notes, explaining, “If we’re trying to get a view of what the pathways are for students then we need to have a variety of universities represented.”

In addition to the Ph.D. Career Pathways study, UMBC is participating in the Coalition for Next Generation Life Sciences, which will investigate graduate program alumni pathways specifically in the life sciences. This study is led by Johns Hopkins and University of California, San Francisco, and also includes UMBC, Cornell, MIT, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Wisconsin.

Of course, Rutledge points out, “Before you can survey alumni, you need to find out where they are.” Funding from the two projects together will support a graduate student research assistant to gather that information through contacting alumni networks, scouring social media, and interviewing department chairs and faculty.

In addition to supporting current UMBC students, Rutledge hopes UMBC’s participation in the Ph.D. Career Pathways study will help students considering pursuing a Ph.D. at any institution. “People undertake Ph.D.s without always having a full sense of what the experience will be like or what it could mean for their future,” she says. “We want to have more transparency for current and prospective students to help them understand job and career pathways with a Ph.D., and how you go about finding opportunities.”

Rutledge also sees great potential for this kind of research to help grow universities’ relationships with companies, government agencies, and other non-academic research institutions, which are often trying to reach talented researchers early in their careers. Connecting UMBC graduate students with internship and work opportunities through these partners could help those students access broader career opportunities, help employers access a highly skilled and diverse talent pool, and boost research collaborations and resource sharing among partners.

Already, successful partnerships of this kind have been “a win-win for the mentor and the student,” says Rutledge.

Ph.D. Career Pathways surveys, developed by the Council of Graduate Schools, will be implemented this year, with the first data coming in next fall. Rutledge and her team are excited to be part of such an important national study in graduate education, but their focus always comes back to the scholars they work with every day. “We really want to understand the pathways of our current students and our alumni, as well as learn how other universities support their graduate students, so that we can better serve UMBC graduate students of today and of the future.”

Image: New UMBC graduate students get to know each other and learn about ways to become involved at the Graduate Student Information Fair. Photo by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

Carol Anne Huff ’93, economics, and Julie A. Gillespie ’93, economics

On a rainy day in Chicago, the sisters cross town to meet up for lunch. They greet each other, laughing, and proceed to order their food with similar cadence and tastes. When the plates come, they split the dishes – an octopus salad, a crab cake – with the precision that comes from a lifetime of practice and shared biology.

Let’s get the obvious points about Carol Anne Huff and Julie A. Gillespie (both formerly Sennello) out of the way. Yes, they are identical twins. Yes, they often finish each other’s sentences. They’re also both fiercely smart women who motivate each other in everything from their careers to triathlon training.

“We are really close friends, so it’s always great to be together,” says Gillespie, as Huff nods in agreement.

The sisters made it into the local paper when they graduated first at the top of their class at Bel Air High School in 1989, and then again as co-valedictorians of UMBC’s class of 1993. They followed their Retriever years by attending Duke together, both earning law degrees, and then moving to Chicago – where they spent their earliest years – to lay down permanent roots and pursue their careers.

Today, both work as transactional lawyers in firms across the Chicago River from each other – Huff as a partner in the Capital Markets group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, and Gillespie as a partner in the Securitization group at Mayer Brown – helping clients such as banks, private equity funds, and other institutions issuing securities and completing deals.

Coming out of high school, the sisters had a world of options ahead of them. UMBC offered them full scholarships and full room and board, a package too attractive to ignore, they said.

“I do think it would have been strange to go to separate colleges,” says Gillespie. The idea of living in a new place excited them, so they began their freshman year living apart – “an experiment,” they called it. By sophomore year, they were ready to room together again.

Together, they joined Phi Sigma Sigma, and participated in various student organizations, but for the most part, they studied. As emeritus economics professor Chuck Peake told the Baltimore Sun at their graduation, “They’re quiet and modest, self-confident but not at all flashy, and any time I ask a question, they know what’s going on.”

The work paid off.

“I feel like we learned a lot at UMBC. We crammed a lot into our four years,” says Huff. “Everyone was very good to us. I felt very at home there, and that people were very interested and encouraging about what we were doing.”

The confidence Peake mentioned shines through as they talk over lunch – as does the support system they’ve created for themselves over the years. Both mothers, they share the ups and downs of parenting while living blocks away from each other. They compare reading lists – Gillespie leaning toward science fiction, Huff more to fantasy.

They even talked themselves into training for a triathlon together. Which begs the question: As supportive as they are of each other, are they also secretly competitive?

“I don’t think I am,” says Huff, though her smile gives her away.

“A little bit,” chimes in Gillespie. “I think we’re competitive with ourselves.”

— Jenny O’Grady