Good morning all,

 

Just wanted to make you all aware of a couple of weeks that are set aside to promote graduate education and graduate/professional students. The first is Graduate Education Week, which was proclaimed by Gov. Haslam to be between Feb. 26 and March 2. There aren’t any major events planned during that week (we didn’t find out until sometime last week that this was happening), but coincidentally, our first two 3-Minute Thesis semi-final competitions will be held on February 26 and March 2. The full schedule for the 3-Minute Thesis semi-finals is:

 

·         February 26 @ 3:30 p.m. in 160 Plant Biotechnology

·         March 2 @ 9:00 a.m. in HBB 530

·         March 7 @ 1:00 p.m. in 220 Henson Hall

 

For those who may not be aware of the 3MT competitions, this is a competition originally started by the University of Queensland in which our master’s and PhD student participants are given three minutes and a single slide to present their thesis/dissertation research to a panel of judges (who may not be in their field). They are judged on content and engagement, and the winners will compete in our 3MT finals on April 6, the final day of Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week. We have more information on the competition on our site (https://gradschool.utk.edu/training-and-mentorship/3mt-three-minute-thesis-competition/). It’s a great competition, and we encourage folks to come by and be amazed at the research they do and how well they are able to talk about some pretty heady stuff in a way that anyone can understand.

 

The Tennessee Conference of Graduate Schools will be participating on the Day on the Hill on February 28 as part of Graduate Education Week, where they will get the opportunity to speak with legislators about the value of graduate education. They will be focusing on graduate research and workforce development through graduate education.

 

The other week will be Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week (GPSAW), which will be from April 2 until April 6. We’re finalizing the schedule of events, but there will be a bunch of things for graduate students that week sponsored by many units across campus, the Graduate School, and the Graduate Student Senate. There will be Habit Animals at the Veterans Resource Center, Massage Day and Professional Photo Shoots from the libraries, Smokey’s Pop-Up Closet, an International Norway Coffee House, and of course, the 3MT final competition. In addition, there are workshops on career, teaching, health and wellness and thesis/dissertation. In the evenings, there will be networking opportunities from the Center for Career Development, we’ll be at the Vols baseball game on Tuesday night, and the Graduate Student Senate will be hosting a trivia night. And on Wednesday morning, the Graduate Student Senate will be having their Awards Breakfast to recognize student, faculty and staff who have impacted graduate education at UT.

 

So, lots of stuff, and we’ll distribute the calendar of events as the last things get set. We’ll be posting on our website and social media about the events, so keep an eye out. If there are any ways in which you can help promote the event, or if you can help us encourage our colleges/departments to recognize their graduate students in their own way on those weeks, we’d appreciate it.

 

Thanks!

Sean

 

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Sean Hendricks, PhD
Information Specialist

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Graduate School
111 Student Services Bldg.
1331 Circle Park Drive
Knoxville, TN 37996

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865-974-7521
http://gradschool.utk.edu

Big Orange. Big Ideas.