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The Whitmyre Weekly
Week of 11/9/2009

Whitmyre Weekly Archives

Announcements

Events

Fellowships, Scholarships, and Grants

Internship and Study Abroad Opportunities


Announcements

Monday Not Football

There is no Monday Not Football program planned for Monday, November 9th. However, those not in attendance at the Study Abroad program last week need to turn in their four year plan by November 16th.

Our next session will be on internships on November 16th. We will deal with such questions as: What is an internship? Who does them? When should I think about finding an internship? Do I need to have a specific career goal before applying to an internship.

A student panel will discuss internships they have completed, how to find an internship, and how interning can benefit you both academically and professionally.

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2010 SSHE Study Abroad Trip: Mapping Cultural and Historical Egypt
(This trip is fully funded by PASSHE.)

Since the campus deadline for this application is December 1, please let Kevin know if you are interested ASAP so he can work with you to complete and revise your application. We will be selecting two students to represent IUP and so far no one has expressed interest. Freshman, please consider applying.

For more information, see the full article about the trip.

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Geography 254 (Russia, Central Eurasia, & Eastern Europe)

Geography 254 (Russia, Central Eurasia, & Eastern Europe) is approved as non-western and as a liberal studies elective. It carries no pre-requisite and includes an assignment that allows students to examine their field (art, business, education, history, medicine, politics, safety, tourism, or any other major on our campus) in the context of that region of the world.

For more information, see the attached flier.

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CHC Students Place in the Provost Common Reader Essay Competition (highlighted)

All students who submitted essays will be recognized at the November 17, 2009, Bill Strickland lecture in Fisher Auditorium at 7:00 p.m.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Cheap Transportation To and From Greater Pittsburgh Intl. Airport

Information about service from Indiana to Pittsburgh airport can be found on the Office of International Education's web page.

The cheapest way to go is by bus (leaving daily from Indiana at 9:35 and Pittsburgh airport at 2:45). However, if your plane arrives after 2:00, you probably will not arrive in time to catch the Trailways bus back to Indiana.

Weekend travel is a problem. I did not find any carriers who provided service on Saturday or Sunday. Also, Aire Ride no longer provides service to Indiana.

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English Honors Track Program

The Honors and Distinction track programs give English majors and minors the opportunity to pursue advanced, independent work in all fields of English Studies. Students in the tracks are interested in kinds of reading, research, writing, and pedagogical practice that are non-traditional, intedisciplinary, that enable further development of interesting, original projects begun in other classes, or that provide the fun and excitement of high-level intellectual challenge.

To earn "Distinction," you need to successfully complete ENGL 480: Honors Seminar in English or the Honors-designated section of ENGL 484: Topics in English Studies. To earn "Honors," you also need to take HNRC 499: Senior Synthesis, and 6 credits in Honors-designated courses (either Honors Independent Studies or Honors-designated English courses). Next year's honors seminar is ENGL 484: Topics in English Studies and will be taught by Prof. Mike Sell. The topic will be the roots and legacies of playwright August Wilson.

Eligibility: The program is open to English majors or minors who have completed ENGL 101, 122, 202 and taken at least 15 credits of English courses. English majors must have at least a 3.5 GPA in English courses, while English minors must have at least a 3.5 GPA overall.

To Apply: Prepare an application that includes (1) a cover page with your name, phone number, and preferred e-mail address; (2) a 2-page letter, single-spaced, describing your qualifications for the program, your achievements, and what you'd like to achieve in the class; and (3) a list of English courses taken or in progress and the names of their instructors. Send applications to Mike Sell (msell@iup.edu). The application deadline is November 19th.

If you have questions or want further information, visit the English Department's web site or contact Mike Sell at msell@iup.edu.

New York Times Article: Teach Your Teachers Well

Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, recently called for sweeping changes to the way we select and train teachers. He’s right. If we really want good schools, we need to create a critical mass of great teachers. And if we want smart, passionate people to become these great educators, we have to attract them with excellent programs and train them properly in the substance and practice of teaching.

Our best universities have, paradoxically, typically looked down their noses at education, as if it were intellectually inferior. The result is that the strongest students are often in colleges that have no interest in education, while the most inspiring professors aren’t working with students who want to teach. This means that comparatively weaker students in less intellectually rigorous programs are the ones preparing to become teachers.

So the first step is to get the best colleges to throw themselves into the fray. If education was a good enough topic for Plato, John Dewey and William James, it should be good enough for 21st-century college professors.

These new teacher programs should be selective, requiring a 3.5 undergraduate grade point average and an intensive application process. But they should also be free of charge, and admission should include a stipend for the first three years of teaching in a public school.

Once we have a better pool of graduate students, we need to train them differently from how we have in the past. Too often, teaching students spend their time studying specific instructional programs and learning how to handle mechanics like making lesson plans. These skills, while useful, are not what will transform a promising student into a good teacher.

First, future teachers should continue studying the subject they hope to teach, with outstanding professors. It makes no sense at all to stop studying the thing you want to teach at the very moment you begin to learn how.

Meanwhile, students should learn their craft the way a surgeon learns to operate: by intense supervision in a real setting with expert mentors. Student-teachers are usually observed only twice during a semester and then given a written evaluation. But young teachers, like young doctors, should work side by side with skilled mentors, getting plenty of feedback, having plenty of opportunities to observe and taking on greater and greater responsibility as they improve.

Teacher training can also learn from family therapy programs. Therapists spend a great deal of time watching videotapes of themselves in action, reflecting on their sessions and discussing the most difficult moments with senior therapists to explore other ways they might have responded. In much the same way, young teachers need to record their daily encounters with their classrooms and then, with mentors and peers, have serious, open-minded conversations about what’s working and what isn’t.

Teachers must also learn far more about children: typically, teaching students are provided with fairly static and superficial overviews of developmental stages, but learn little about how to watch children, using research and theory to understand what they are seeing. As James Comer, a professor of child psychiatry at Yale, has argued for years, if we disregard the developmental needs of our students it’s unlikely we’ll succeed in teaching them.

One more thing is required — give as many public schools as possible the financial incentives to hire these newly prepared teachers in groups of seven or more. This way, talented eager young teachers won’t languish or leave teaching because they felt bored, inept, isolated or marginalized. Instead, they will feel part of a robust community of promising professionals. They will struggle and learn together. Good teachers need good colleagues.

To fix our schools, we need teaching programs that are as rich in resources, interesting, high-reaching and thoughtful as the young people we want to attract to the profession. Show me a school where teachers are smart, well-educated, skilled and happy to be there, and I’ll show you a group of children who are getting a good education.

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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."

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Events

Peace Corps Information Session

On Thursday, November 19, 2009, Jennifer McFann, a returned volunteer and Peace Corps recruiter, will be on the IUP campus. Jen will be conducting a Peace Corps Information Session from 12-1 p.m. in Pratt 305.

The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to friendship and world peace. Since that time, more than 190,000 Peace Corps Volunteers have served in 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation. Peace Corps Volunteers continue to help countless individuals who want to build a better life for themselves, their children, and their communities.

Please contact Janice D. Shellenbarger if you have any questions.

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Smart Start Workshop

The average woman earns 20% less than her male co-workers. Join the $tart $mart Campus Workshop to learn how to ne-gotiate for better starting salaries and benefits.

The workshop will take place November 18th in the Northern Suites (behind Weyandt) from 4:00 - 7:00 pm.

Contact Andrea Harms at zhgq@iup.edu or stop by the Women’s Studies office in Stabley 103 to sign up. Space is limited.

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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.

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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:

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

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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:

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.

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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.

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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.

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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:

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.

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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

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Internship and Study Abroad Opportunities

Capital Semester in Washington, DC

Spring 2010: January 13 – May 1, 2010
Georgetown University, Washington, DC
www.DCinternships.org/CS

SPECIAL EXTENDED DEADLINE OF NOVEMBER 18, 2009
****SCHOLARSHIP FUNDING STILL AVAILABLE****

Sponsored by The Fund for American Studies in partnership with Georgetown University, Capital Semester combines substantive internships, courses for academic credit, professional development activities, site briefings and lectures led by prominent policy experts. Students choose between two tracks – public policy and political journalism.

Applications will be accepted until the extended deadline of

November 18, 2009

for Spring 2010. There is a substantial amount of scholarship funding available, and awards are made based on financial need and merit.

Capital Semester combines hands-on professional experience for 25 hours a week with a challenging academic experience. This fast-paced, residential program provides students from around the world with the opportunities to gain an edge in today’s competitive job market and graduate school admissions, and experience the excitement of Washington first-hand.

For more information and an online application, please visit our website www.DCinternships.org/CS. Should you have any questions, please email Mary Connell at mconnell@tfas.org or call 1-800-741-6964.

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!

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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:

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.

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