The Whitmyre Weekly
Week of 10/30/2009
Fellowships, Scholarships, and Grants
Internship and Study Abroad Opportunities
Announcements
CHC Students Place in the Provost Common Reader Essay Competition (highlighted)
- First-place winners are Sarah Finn and Megan Coffey (upper-class).
- Second-place winners are Robert Gearhart and Stephanie Pelch (upper-class).
- Freshmen recognized for Meritorious Distinction are Grey Berrier, Courtney Roth, Catie Shontz, and Lauren Young.
All students who submitted essays will be recognized at the November 17, 2009, Bill Strickland lecture in Fisher Auditorium at 7:00 p.m.
2007 CHC Alumna Heading to Executive Office of the United States President
A 2007 alumna of the Robert E. Cook Honors College of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania has been retained as a procurement program specialist in the Office of Management and Budget Office of Federal Procurement Policy.
Jennifer Swartz, a native of Milton, will complete graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh in December prior to starting her career in the Executive Office of the United States President.
“It's a career position working on all policy surrounding executive branch agencies' government contracting, which accounted for over $500 billion of government spending for fiscal year 2008,” said Swartz. “I never thought I’d end up working in government contracting or for the White House.”
She earned dual IUP degrees in Economics/Mathematics and Political Science and minored in Applied Statistics. She is currently completing her graduate work to earn dual degrees from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz School of Business. She will have attained a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with a major in Operations Management and a Master of International Development (MID) with a major in Non-Governmental Organizations and Civil Society.
She became interested in NGOs while studying abroad where she witnessed such devastating poverty that she decided to study economic development.
“RECHC encouraged me to study abroad, so I spent the May 2004 – 05 calendar year immersing myself in the Spanish culture and language. While I was there, I took a weekend trip to Morocco, and seeing the poverty made me realize that I wanted to study economic development and help people lift themselves out of poverty. Completing a six-week study abroad to Ghana from June-July 2006, solidified my career path aspirations.”
After researching the job market, she learned that she needed ten years of experience or a master’s degree to work in international development.
“I considered doing a Ph.D. in Economics, which is part of why I completed the Economics/Mathematics degree. I got accepted and offered a full-scholarship to GSPIA, and when I visited, I found it as a very practitioner-oriented program that taught grassroots development skills. That was exactly what I wanted, so I enrolled, and in my first semester, I decided that if I really wanted to help people start businesses in sub-Saharan Africa, I needed to be able to speak the languages of both the non-profit and the for-profit world. I applied to the University of Pittsburgh’s business school, and enrolled in the joint degree.”
While at IUP, Swartz honed her analyzing skills, which have been vital in her success.
“RECHC helped me by teaching me to question everything,” she said. “Part of my success in graduate school and with internships is reading through something or listening to someone and knowing which parts need to be thoroughly analyzed.
“RECHC also helped me gain confidence in myself. The first few weeks were intimidating for me in that I was working with very highly skilled peers, but it taught me to appreciate different skills being brought to the table. While in graduate school, I’ve been the team leader on every consulting project I’ve completed. The ability to prioritize tasks and assign them according to individual skills has been critical, and it was enhanced at RECHC.”
The intensity of the first year core classes also prepared Swartz for graduate school.
“I’m completing two masters degrees in 2.5 years, when it typically takes two years to complete just one. I’ve managed to do that by completing semesters with 18 or more graduate credits, and my ability to do that rested on successful time and stress management. However, it also required a very strong academic background, and my two IUP degrees provided an excellent foundation. I even managed to test out of several core graduate courses.”
She completed an internship during the summer with the OFPP. As in intern, she drafted a memorandum and briefed senior political officials on current costing models used for outsourcing. She also managed all public comments related to the president’s March 4th memorandum on government contracting, compiled research on contractor inventory methods used by nine different federal agencies and attended briefings with foreign diplomats on OFPP.
In her new role, Swartz will take on a higher level of responsibility while completing many of the same tasks as her internship.
“I will probably have a specific portfolio of policy-related topics. However, it is a small office, so everyone pitches in to help each other and get projects done. I was told during my internship interview that if I wanted a position where I could anticipate what would happen each day, then this office was not the place for me.”
“Employer’s Corner” Series Produced by Comm Media Dept., Career Development Center, and IUP-TV
Dr. Richard Lamberski of the Communications Media Department worked together with the College of Education and Educational Technology and the Career Development Center in order to produce The Employer’s Corner, a video series of interviews discussing the major points a student should know when searching for an internship or a job.
The series began as a method of getting current IUP internship or career agency partners’ reflections on personal marketing strategies.
Mark Anthony of the Career Development Center said that the Employer’s Corner series is “an opportunity for students to become more aware of career opportunities that are available to them with the variety of employers that are interested in IUP students.” He went on, saying that the students are given information from the employer’s perspective on how to prepare for job searches and interviews. Anthony feels it is very beneficial to hear directly from the employer as opposed to hearing from just the Career Development Center staff or faculty members.
The series consists of four half-hour-long interview sessions with professionals Jamie Timms, the recruiting supervisor for Enterprise Rent-A-Car; Denise Rosenberger, the manager of Human Resources and Labor Relations for North Side Foods Corporation; Sheana Malyszka, the recruitment specialist for the Summit Academy; and Davie Huddleston, the vice president and director of Strategic College Recruiting for PNC Financial Services Group, Inc.
Content by Zachary Salopek.
Honors Research Writing Still Available for Spring 2010 as Honors Elective!
Space is still available for students seeking to fulfill honors elective credit via ENGL 202H, "Research Writing" with Dr. Marsden.
You only need 28 credits to enroll and Dr. Marsden willing to accept those who will, as a result of taking classes during the spring semester, have that number of credits. As department "H" courses are difficult to offer, this is a good opportunity to satisfy one of your "H" requirements through a required course.
Another added benefit is smaller class size since enrollment for Honors research writing is limited to 20, while the non-honors course set at 28 students.
Please contact Dr. Marsden at marsden@iup.edu if you have any questions.
2010 Honors College Commencement Date Set
The 2010 Cook Honors College commencement ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 8th at 11:00 AM.
May 2010 Graduation Application Deadline Looming
The deadline to apply for graduation in May 2010 is November 15th, 2009. If you haven't done so yet, go to URSA and get it done.
Important Information for December Grads and Seniors Planning Not to be on Campus in the Spring
In order for us to produce the 2010 Commencement Brochure we need you to schedule a photograph session and submit their commencement information. Photographs sessions can be scheduled with Tiffanie Fordyce at tjfordyce@gmail.com. The commencement information form is available online at http://old.www.iup.edu/honors/curstu/FORMS/main.shtml. Please fill out this form and submit to Tiffanie as well. NOTE: This is only for December graduates and those planning not to be on campus in the spring. We will collect information from all other seniors during the spring semester.
Creative Minds Needed (Social Service Hours Offered)
We are improving the HC website and need video footage of Whitmyre. We are having a contest for the best videos, which will then become part of the new Whitmyre tour section of our site which you can preview to help you with ideas. Imagine yourself again as a prospective student and what you would have wanted to know and see about our space. You may submit videos for as many classrooms and other public spaces as you like, but each will be judged independently. Please feel free to incorporate as many people as you would like into the video. Try to keep footage to less than 2 minutes. The HC has Flip video cameras which are incredibly simple to use and can be checked out from the HC office. Sign up with Lisa to reserve one. The deadline for submission has been extended through the end of October. We are giving 2 social service hours per room filmed.
Contact Tiffanie Fordyce, tjfordyce@gmail.com with any questions about filming.
Free Tickets Available for First Commonwealth Lecture Featuring Woodward
Free tickets are available starting October 21 for the second annual First Commonwealth Endowed Lecture at Indiana University of Pennsylvania featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning author and investigative reporter Bob Woodward. The event is November 4, 2009, at 7:30 p.m. in Fisher Auditorium.
WestPACS Job Fair at Monroeville Convention Center; Transportation Provided
What a great opportunity to meet employers! Where else can you see many employers in one location or be seen by them? Attending the WestPACS Job Fair (November 4, 2009, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Monroeville Convention Center) introduces you to the realities of the job search. When you are in a “sea of candidates,” you become aware of the competition and you get a better idea of what it takes to get a job. It also provides you with a chance to explore employers and career opportunities that you may have never thought about. It can also provide you with an opportunity for face-to-face contact with recruiters and a chance to polish your networking skills (no matter how brief your contact). Student on-line pre-registration is now available.
The Career Development Center will provide transportation to the WestPACS Job Fair. Students interested in riding the bus can reserve a seat by calling the Career Development Center at 724-357-2235 no later than noon on October 30. Seating is limited, so call soon!
Events
Creative Carreers Seminar
On Friday, November 6, 2009 the Pittsburgh Arts Employment Partnership will host the annual Creative Careers Seminar from 9 am – 12:45 pm at Carnegie Mellon University.
The program features a keynote address by Deborah Acklin, Chief Operating Officer of WQED Multimedia, and panel presentations on Writing & Publishing, Public Relations, Design and Multimedia, Film & Broadcast Media, Advertising & Marketing, Arts Management, Performing Arts, and Independent Artists, followed by a networking session where your students will have an opportunity to meet and speak one-on-one with professionals in their fields of interest.
Students may pre-register and pay the $5.00 registration fee at http://sites.google.com/site/creativecareersseminar/Home by October 28. After this deadline they may use the walk-in registration option on the day of the event at a cost of $10 (cash only). Students at all levels are encouraged to attend; business casual or professional dress is required.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Career Development Center at 724-357-2235 or email Deb Stanley at dstanley@iup.edu.
Common Reader Author to Tell His Story
The author of this year's Freshman Common Reader will present his ideas and personal story at a program open to the public on Tuesday, November 17, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. in Fisher Auditorium.
Bill Strickland, who penned Make the Impossible Possible, will also visit several IUP classrooms and tour facilities in the College of Fine Arts. Strickland is president and CEO, Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, and Bidwell Training Center in Pittsburgh. A reception and book signing session will follow the 7:00 lecture.
Make the Impossible Possible has been positively reviewed by many publications, including Publisher’s Weekly, which says: “It’s the American dream with a twist: for Strickland, it was never about shedding his past and getting ahead but about following his bliss and making a difference.”
According to Random House, the book's publisher, Strickland has transformed the lives of thousands of people. Working with corporations, community leaders, and schools, he and his staff strive to give disadvantaged kids and adults the opportunities and tools they need to envision and build a better, brighter future.
Writing a Law School Personal Statement Workshop
After your LSAT score and grades, your personal statement is the most important part of your law school application. Admissions officials do read them – and they matter … a lot. Your personal statement is your one chance to set yourself apart from the 3000 other applications being reviewed by the admissions committee. Don’t know what to write or how to get started? Then sign up for the:
Writing a Law School Personal Statement Workshop
Saturday, November 14, 2009
10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Keith 164
In this workshop, you will learn:
- the purpose of a personal statement
- what admissions officials are looking for
- what types of information you should – and shouldn’t – include
- how to decide what to write about
- how to banish writer’s block and get started writing!
Besides learning about the components of a personal statement and tips for writing one of your own, you will read and evaluate sample personal statements. We’ll also have a brainstorming session and other exercises to help you come up with and develop a theme for your personal statement.
The workshop is FREE but you need to register by 5:00 p.m. Thursday, November 12, 2009. To register, send an email to torges@iup.edu
Fellowships, Scholarships, and Grants
2010 Critical Language Scholarship Program
The United States Department of State is pleased to announce the upcoming scholarship competition for the 2010 Critical Language Scholarship (CLS - www.CLScholarship.org) Program for overseas intensive summer language institutes in thirteen critical need foreign languages. The on-line application for CLS Program awards will be available November 9, 2009, and the deadline to apply will be December 18, 2009.
Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) provide group-based summer intensive language instruction and structured cultural enrichment experiences for seven to ten weeks. Students may apply for one language, and will be placed at institute sites based on language evaluations after selection. The 2010 CLS Program will include new programs in Indonesian and Japanese.
Levels available for each language are as follows:
- Arabic, Persian: Advanced beginning, intermediate or advanced level;
- Azerbaijani, Bangla/Bengali, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean, Punjabi, Turkish, or Urdu: Beginning, intermediate or advanced level;
- Chinese, Japanese, or Russian: Intermediate or advanced level.
Students of diverse disciplines and majors are encouraged to apply. While there is no service requirement attached to CLS Program awards, participants are expected to continue their language study beyond the scholarship period, and later apply their critical language skills in their future professional careers.
Grant Benefits: All CLS Program costs are covered for participants including: travel to and from the student's U.S. home city and program location, a mandatory Washington, D.C. pre-departure orientation, applicable visa fees, room, board, group-based intensive language instruction, program-sponsored travel within country, and all entrance fees for CLS Program cultural enhancement activities.
Note: U.S. passport fees will not be paid by the scholarship. Selected applicants must have a U.S. passport valid through 2011 with at least two blank visa pages by early March 2010. Please plan in advance to avoid visa delays.
Boren Undergraduate Scholarships for International Study National Security, Language, and Culture
Boren Scholarships and Fellowships provide unique funding opportunities for U.S. undergraduate and graduate students to add an important international and language component to their educations. We focus on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad. For more information about Boren Scholarships or Fellowships, click http://www.borenawards.org/boren_scholarship. If you want to see if Boren is right for you, click http://www.borenawards.org/is_boren_right_for_me
Application Deadlines
The IUP campus application deadline for the Boren Scholarship for undergraduate study is January 20, 2010. The application deadline for the Boren Scholarship for undergraduate students is February 10, 2010.
Excellent Study Abroad Resource
If you are considering studying abroad, you should check out a pretty good online resource at http://iiepassport.org/. You can search by both country and field of study. For those considering applying for a Boren Undergraduate Award, this is an excellent place to begin searching for programs that qualify.
John & Edythe Portz Fellowship
National Collegiate Honors Council announces a new fellowship for undergraduate honors students. The award is named for Dr. John and Mrs. Edythe Portz, pioneers in honors education whose support of imaginative ventures in undergraduate education has benefited college students in Maryland and throughout our nation since the late 1960s. The highly competitive award of up to $7,000 is open to students at NCHC's 800+ member institutions in the United States and beyond.
The Portz Fellowships support original and extended interdisciplinary projects for up to eighteen months. Applications for the first round of grants will be accepted beginning in January 2010.
If you would like more information about the Portz Fellowship, please contact Dr. Patrice Berger at pberger1@unl.edu, or 402-472-5425. Applications and information about the Portz Fellowship are available online at http://www.nchchonors.org.
James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
The James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation offers James Madison Fellowships to a select group of individuals desiring to become outstanding teachers of the American Constitution. To learn more go to http://www.jamesmadison.gov/. The application submission deadline is March 1, 2010, before 11:59 p.m., central time.
Eligibility Requirements
To be eligible to apply for a fellowship, you must:
- Be a U.S. citizen or U.S. national.
- Be a teacher, or plan to become a teacher, of American history, American government, or social studies at the secondary school level (grades 7-12).
- Possess a bachelor’s degree or plan to receive a bachelor’s degree no later than August 31 of the year in which you are applying.
- Wait at least three years from the time that any previous graduate degree was awarded before applying for a James Madison Fellowship.
Professional Teaching Obligation
After earning a master’s degree, each James Madison Fellow must teach American history, American government, or social studies in grades 7-12 for no less than one year for each full academic year of study under the fellowship.
Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Fellowship Program
The Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science (SC) has established the DOE Office of Science Graduate Fellowship (DOE SCGF) program to provide support for outstanding students to pursue graduate degrees and research in areas of physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, engineering, computational sciences and environmental sciences relevant to the Office of Science, and to encourage the development of the next generation scientific and technical talent in the U.S.
Fellows will receive a $35,000 yearly stipend for living expenses, $10, 500 per year for tuition and fees and a $5,000 research stipend supplement for research materials and travel expenses. Fellows will be required to attend the annual DOE SCGF Research Conference to be held each summer at a DOE national laboratory. Travel expenses and accommodations to the Conference will be provided by the DOE SCGF program.
THE APPLICATION DEADLINE IS NOVEMBER 30, 2010.
For more information about the program, eligibility, benefits and application visit http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/SCGF.html
Internship and Study Abroad Opportunities
Washington Center Intern Abroad Programs
If you are interested in combining a study abroad experience with the practical advantage of interning in an international setting, then you need to check out advantages of a Washington Center intern abroad program. You'll begin the semester or summer with a ten-day academic seminar in Washington, D.C. before heading to a destination city to complete coursework and a substantive internship.
Intern abroad program offerings for 2010 include:
Washington, D.C.-Sydney Internship Program (spring, summer)
Washington, D.C.-London Internship Program (summer, fall)
Washington, D.C.-Oxford Internship Program (summer only)
We're extending our deadline for the spring D.C.-Sydney Program until November 13 in order to give students additional time to apply. Prospective interns from who attend as undergraduates will also qualify for the funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that they receive while completing our Washington, D.C. internship programs. The total is now $5,500 for PASSHE institutions and $3,000 for private institutions and details are found here: www.twc.edu/students/financial_state.shtml#pen
If you'd like to find out more about these opportunities, please visit www.twc.edu/internabroad or feel free to contact us at internabroad@twc.edu or 202-238-7900 any time!
SSHE Summer Honors Program 2010
Mapping Cultural and Historical Egypt
May 9-27, 2010
Two students will again be selected this year to participate as representatives of Cook Honors College in the SSHE study abroad courses offered early this summer. The SSHE 2010 Summer Honors Program's theme of "Mapping Cultural & Historical Egypt" will consist primarily of two three-credit courses. Through explorations throughout Egypt and work on personalized research projects, students will gain an understanding of the relationship between culture and geography, in both contemporary and ancient Egypt.
Understanding Contemporary Egyptian Culture will examine current ethnographic perspectives on Egyptian culture, focusing on religion, urban and rural culture, and gender.
Digital Mapping of Places and Spaces in Islamic Cairo will not only explore the wide variety of monuments of Islamic Cairo but also document these monuments and the historical events associated with their geographic places.
How To Apply: Submit an Enhancement Application (minus the financial information) as detailed on the forms page of the honors college website at http://old.www.iup.edu/honors/curstu/FORMS/main.shtml. It should include:
- ð Enhancement Application Cover Sheet
- Résumé/vita (created after consultation with Don Asher College to Career resume book)
- ð Four year plan
- ð Personal statement (see Kevin for details on this important document)
- ð An explanation of why you want to go and how would this experience help you
Applications should be submitted to Kevin Berezansky no later than Tuesday, December 1, 2009. For more information on the SSHE 2010 SHP visit www.clarion.edu/honors.
