Graduate Appreciation week, held during March 31 to April 5, 2019, celebrated the achievements of Oregon State University graduate students in scholarship, research, teaching and service. The graduate school organized a number of events including a trivia night, lunch with the graduate school, drop in résumé review and visualize your bibliography competition.
Professional development workshops by visiting speaker, Dr. Karen Kelsky, author of the book “The Professor Is In”, were offered for graduate faculty and staff, and for students. Dr. Kelsky talked about what graduate advisors and programs need to do right now to help their students. For students looking ahead, Dr. Kelsky discussed how to target positions and prepare application materials, including cover letters, CVs/résumés, and other requested statements, plus the interview process and negotiating job offers.
The Department of Mathematics held its own Graduate Appreciation and Research Showcase to celebrate graduate appreciation week, which took place in the Mathematics and Statistics Learning Center (MSLC) on the evening of April 5, 2019. It was organized by the Graduate Committee consisting of Malgo Peszynska (chair), Christine Escher, David Finch, Elise Lockwood, Juan Restrepo, and Ralph Showalter, with substantial help from Joy King (Graduate contact) and Deanne Murray (Office Manager). The program consisted of Oral Blitz mini-lectures and poster presentations by graduate students, and professional development sessions presented by the participating faculty.
Elise Lockwood coordinated the judging for both the Posters and the Oral Blitz, which were judged on their introduction and motivation, creativity of display and methodology, organization and logical flow of material. A total of 15 presenters displayed posters or gave an oral blitz or did both.
Oral Blitz presentations were mini-lectures limited to 3 minutes. Juan Restrepo was the moderator. We had seven graduate students give oral presentations including Joe Umhoefer, Stephen Krughoff, Brady Bowen, Choah Shin, Azhar Alhammali, Patrick Donaghue, and Lisa Bigler. Judging the Oral Blitz, Christine Escher, David Finch, Nathan Gibson, David Pengelley, and Ralph Showalter awarded the first place prize of $50 to Stephen Krughoff. Congratulations to Stephen for a job well done!
