Interested in graduate school and/or a summer research experience in beautiful coastal Southern California?

Come to an information session with the UC Irvine Graduate Dean Dr. Frances Leslie and Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Dr. Thomas Parham who will talk about UC Irvine graduate programs as well as our summer research programs.

DATE:  Monday, December 5th from 12-1pm in Commons 329

Founded in 1965, the University of California, Irvine combines the strengths of a major research university with the bounty of an incomparable Southern California location. UC Irvine is ranked in the top 10 public schools by US News and World Reports. Over 5,000 graduate students come to UC Irvine from around the world with unique perspectives and backgrounds, but together they comprise the core of our top-rated research enterprise and an unparalleled campus culture.

With a commitment to cutting edge research, teaching, learning and creativity, UC Irvine is a driving force for innovation and discovery. Three Nobel Prize winning researchers — two in chemistry and one in physics — have helped solidify UC Irvine as a center for quality education that fosters the passionate and enthusiastic expansion of knowledge. Our robust graduate programs create the brainpower needed to make an impact on our local, national and global communities.

SURF:  The 2016 Summer Research Program application for UC Irvine is available here.
UC Irvine’s Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program offers undergraduate and master’s diversity students an opportunity to work closely with faculty mentors on research projects and provides an intense course of graduate preparation workshops. The program, which is designed for students who plan to pursue a Ph.D. or M.F.A. degree and enter academic careers, provides the tools needed to facilitate application, admission, and enrollment to graduate school. The SURF program is open to virtually all academic fields at UC Irvine. Qualified students with interest in pursuing their graduate program at UC Irvine are especially encouraged to apply.

The University of Chicago is providing up to FOUR current UMBC undergraduates an opportunity to apply for a deep immersive experience in research activities in economics.  The program is designed for undergraduate students with strong quantitative and analytical backgrounds of ALL majors. Substantial coursework in not required.

Program Elements include:

• Students will attend workshops given by Booth faculty as part of the "Economics Undergraduate Research Experience" beginning the end of June of 2016 and extending into July of 2016.  Information about this program can be found below: https://bfi.uchicago.edu/feature-story/research-for-undergraduates
• Depending on interest and background students will be matched with research professionals, graduate students or professors to work on a specific research project in economics.  This activity will start in June of 2017 and extend until the end of August 2017.  Last year’s research activities included work in Microeconomic Theory, Operations Research, Decision-Making Under Uncertainty, International Trade and Finance and Labor Economics.
• Additional classroom instruction will be provided for those students without substantial formal exposure to economics.
• See UMBC STUDENT PROFILE FROM SUMMER 2016 HERE

Support:

• All living expenses will be covered by the Booth School and the Becker Friedman Institute
• Housing will be provided in undergraduate dormitories at the University of Chicago.
• Travel expenses will also be covered.
• Successful applicants will be offered a stipend of $10,000.

Qualifications to Apply:
We seek applicants with an interest in research and willing to work hard for the summer in a stimulating environment!
3.2 cumulative GPA or above.
Open to all analytical backgrounds including economics, finance, engineering, mathematics, physics, etc.
A strong quantitative background is a plus but is not required.

Application process:
Required materials:  
- Current Resume or Curriculum vitae
- Personal Statement: Two page discussion of the candidate's objective for the summer and future research goals.  Include why you are interested in the program.
- Two letters of recommendation.
- Unofficial Transcript

Please send these materials via e-mail to:      
Christine Routzahn, Director
UMBC Career Center
routzahn@umbc.edu, 410-455-3671

Deadline to Apply:  Rolling Admission, Absolute deadline to apply is Friday, December 9, 2016

For additional details, contact Christine Routzahn at 410-455-3671 or routzahn@umbc.edu

Colossians 4:12-13 - “Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis”

Today’s passage says that Epaphras was always wrestling in prayer for the Colossian Church. The language of wresting has to do with contending and battling. The actual root word for wresting is ‘agony’, where in prayer Epaphras agonized for this young church with much desire, burden, and passion. How do we love another?  How do we minister to one another? It is in prayer! Perhaps we are not so sure what loving another in Christ looks like-well, it is in prayer that we will be taught how to love, how to view that person.  Prayer is how we love one another. This is how Epaphras loved the Colossian church, by wrestling in prayer for them: that they may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.

The first prayer was that they may stand firm in all the will of God. That they will not miss out, deviate, digress, be thwarted, or be cut short of all the plans/will of God.  This gives us an insight into prayer, for that is how each of us are enabled to live and stand in all the will/plan of God.  Prayer is how we are enabled to continue to live and stand firm in the will of God.

The second prayer of Epaphras was for maturity. If you recall, one of the main issues that the Colossians were going through was that they were being swayed in their faith by different heresies.  So Epaphras is contending, fighting for the Colossians in prayer, so that they would mature in Christ and be able to stand fully assured in Christ.

Today, are there those in your life/ministry who are being shaken or swayed in their love and devotion to the Lord?  Are there those you are concerned about due to their spiritual infancy?  Today pray as Epaphras did, and wrestle in prayer for them.  Pray for maturity so that they may stand fully assured in Christ.

-GK

It’s the middle of August, and a group of rising UMBC sophomores enters the classroom with anticipation. “Once everyone walks into the lab, you start hearing ‘Yes!’ across the room from people checking on their experiments,” says Fatma Abker ‘19, chemical engineering.

The students, all participants in the BUILD Training Program (BTP) at UMBC, are checking to see if their petri dishes successfully grew lawns of bacteria, which they hope are infected with bacteriophages—viruses that only infect bacterial cells. The goal is to discover never-before-seen viruses, sequence their genes, and add them to an international repository of genetic data. As the first scientists to identify these viruses, the students also get to name them.

This three-week intensive research project is known as “Phage Hunters.” It’s also taught as a full-semester course in the fall, followed by a bioinformatics-focused data analysis course in the spring. The accelerated summer course, though, plays an important role in the BTP, which is supported by the STEM Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) at UMBC Initiative.

“Ultimately, we want the students to have an authentic research experience, which we know is critical for student success in STEM,” says Laura Ott, STEM BUILD Active Learning Coordinator. “Hopefully they are inspired to then go and pursue their own independent research experience.”

UMBC was awarded over $18 million from the National Institutes of Health in 2014 to create a national model of comprehensive supports to expand and increase the success of undergraduate students pursuing STEM degrees. Each year, a subset of the incoming freshmen who have declared interest in the biomedical and behavioral sciences are encouraged to apply. Qualified candidates are randomly placed in either the BUILD Training Program (BTP) or one of two comparison groups. In this way, the BTP functions as both a support initiative for students and a research study to improve future supports.

The BTP research study, Ott explains, “investigates how we can best support students in the STEM fields so that they go on to persist in the STEM field and be competitive for jobs, graduate and professional schools.” Program administrators track the progress of students in the BTP and comparison groups to determine how effectively and efficiently various factors can boost student success.

BTP students hear guest lectures from STEM professionals to learn about career possibilities, participate in various courses and enrichment activities, and receive intensive mentoring, particularly through group experiences. They are also required to live on campus with other first year students in the STEM Living and Learning Community, which was established with the first BTP cohort and is expanding in size each academic year as a sustainable legacy of the STEM BUILD initiative.

In a summer bridge before their freshman year, the students focused on developing time management skills, making use of resources available on campus, and building community. “It helped us transition from high school to college,” says Aleem Mohamed ‘19, biological sciences. He adds, “It also gave us a friend group. We all support each other like a big family.” Fefe Azinge ’19, biological sciences, agrees: “Having a support network and the advising system in place is really helpful.”

The next summer, the cohort tackled Phage Hunters. This was the first time that many of the participating students had an opportunity to pursue their own research in a lab. “It was an insight into the world of research,” says Azinge. “We were very determined to be successful.”

Of 18 participants working on 16 experiments during the summer, 12 produced phage DNA that were of high enough quality to be sequenced, and five were selected for sequencing. Steven Caruso, senior lecturer in biological sciences and Phage Hunters instructor, says that’s “a remarkably high success rate.” Since the Phage Hunters program began at UMBC in 2008, almost 500 students have participated, discovering more than 250 unique phages.

The Phage Hunters program is part of the BTP’s research enrichment core, led by Philip Farabaugh, professor and chair of biological sciences, which focuses on coordinating research opportunities for students. The program also includes other intensive STEM success programs, like a six-week summer research internship for students at collaborating community colleges in Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery, Baltimore, and Prince George’s counties, and at Gallaudet University.

As this collaboration across institutions suggests, UMBC has its eye on scalability. Historically, students in prestigious scholars programs have often had the most access to supports at universities nationwide, but the STEM BUILD at UMBC team is committed to using its findings to benefit STEM students across the board. College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences Dean William LaCourse and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Patrice McDermott share that the project, which currently includes 40 students and will add another 20 students in Fall 2017, operates with the motto, “Think 500, not 50.”

Reexamining how UMBC provides research opportunities, creates support networks, and allocates university resources are all important pieces of the puzzle, and for students in the first two cohorts, it’s already working. After his Phage Hunters experience, Mohamed is now pursuing research with a scientist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Inspired by attending an academic conference with BUILD, Abker is focusing on growing her network and practicing her research presentation skills. Azinge is now training in a biological sciences lab at UMBC. At just over a year into the four-year program, she says, “BUILD opens doors.”

Image: Students at work in a UMBC organic chemistry lab taught by Mark Perks; photo by Marlayna Demond ’11.

Maryland’s constituents have voted in a new Democratic senator, Chris Van Hollen, who has a tremendous track record for proposing policies that benefit students. Photo Courtesy of Talk Radio News Service via Creative Commons.

One of the most decisive and controversial elections in our lifetime is finally over. Due to the turmoil from the final results of the presidential election, less serialized campaigns unfortunately fell into the background. Such as the victory of Chris Van Hollen, Maryland’s newest senator.

Van Hollen began his political career in the House of Representatives and now presides over the Senate. With a 100 percent approval rating from the National Education Association, Van Hollen has the potential to improve the financial issues plaguing numerous college students and recent graduates today.

Although he will not be sworn into office until January of 2017, his track record and accomplishments in relation to the House have proven to be strictly pro-education. By voting “Yes” on many bills in that benefit college students, constituents can be fairly confident in his sincerity and dedication towards improving higher education for all.

Severely debilitating student loans is a unique issue that our generation is facing. The baby-boomers very often managed tuition and a part time job semi-comfortably. With tuition constantly rising, the previous generation’s strategy is no longer a viable option for many current students.

As most college students are aware, debt slavery is a common new phrase. This very realistic worry almost entirely exists due to the monetary strain that comes with a higher education. Consequently, Van Hollen is being counted on to uphold his reputation when it comes to public education.

Van Hollen voted “Yes” to provide $84 million to traditionally Black and Hispanic schools for the Pell Grant, which is determined by financial need. By increasing the budget for this government grant, it will allow countless more students to comfortably attend university without the worry of financially burdening their support system or even themselves for years to come.

Nirav Shah, a junior computer science major, stated that, “Van Hollen’s decision to boost Pell Grant funds will be beneficial to so many students in the University System of Maryland who are struggling to acquire financial aid.”

Lowering the interest rates on student loans has also proved to be a controversial topic on Capitol Hill. The expensive yet effective step would possibly remove much of the debt issues that numerous college graduates face.

Van Hollen co-sponsored the Student Loan Affordability Act in 2013 which would have served to extend a 3.4 percent interest rate on loans given between 2011 to 2015. The act never made it past the Senate. Now that Van Hollen is a part of the Senate, he will be able to introduce education reform and bills which are similar to the Affordability Act during his time as a Senator.

The issue of debt slavery and extraordinarily high student loans is one that must be paid attention and college students should urge Senator Van Hollen to sustain his 100 percent NEA rating through practical and passionate new legislation.

The post Chris Van Hollen: a voice for college students in the Senate appeared first on The Retriever.