Summer Research Snapshots
This year the Graduate School was fortunate to be able to fund 141 summer research fellowships for Ph.D. students in the humanities and social sciences, forty more than in summer 2010. The fellowships, which are funded through endowments and private donations to the Duke Annual Fund, help relieve the financial burden for students who are guaranteed only nine months of support during the academic year. This prevents interruptions in their graduate careers due to financial need, and allows a more seamless progress toward degree completion. Students use these fellowships in a variety of ways; some travel to sites where they can review firsthand original documents, while others take advantage of the time to make the last big push before graduation. For this issue, we asked summer research fellows to share with us how they spent their time this summer. more
Participation Pays Off
Graduate Student Appreciation Week, held April 4 through April 8, yielded an attendance rate of over 700 students for 26 events that included workshops, alumni lunches, and lectures. For the first time, a raffle was held, with an opportunity to enter at every event. Prizes included Conference Travel Awards, money for research supplies, jump drives, and other items, such as Graduate School t-shirts. For biomedical engineering graduate student Esther Lee, participating in Graduate Student Appreciation Week landed her a Conference Travel Award. Esther attended one of the “Alumni Lunches” series, where engineering alumni talked with students about how they had used their graduate school education as a springboard for their career paths over lunch at the Faculty Commons. She entered the raffle there, and was later selected as one of four winners for a Conference Travel Award. more
Graduate School Launches New Certificate In College Teaching
Beginning this fall, the Graduate School is offering a new Certificate in College Teaching (CCT) and an expanded range of courses in teaching at the college level. Graduate students planning to go on to a faculty career in higher education will very likely be expected to teach, and the CCT program both prepares them to do this and formally documents this professional development to make graduates more competitive when applying for positions. This program not only promotes development as a teacher, but also facilitates more efficient use of time in the balance among research, teaching and other responsibilities. The CCT program is for Duke Ph.D. students enrolled in any department and, upon completion, will be noted on their Duke University transcript. more
