January 2021 Edition - Archive Edition

 Grad School Help Desk Newsletter Header

JANUARY 2021

We are looking forward to the fresh start of a new year! We have many events and opportunities to get yourself off on the right foot this year. Farewell 2020!

To keep up with updates and messages from the Graduate School, visit our Announcements page.


The Grad School Help Desk Newsletter is here to help you with dates, funding opportunities, upcoming workshops, and graduate events. Let us know if there is anything you’d like to see or anything we missed.

Sincerely,

The Graduate School

Jan 11 Classes begin. One-credit Extension deadline. Last day for non-degree applications to be submitted.

Jan 18 Martin Luther King Day (no classes; offices closed)

Feb 5 Last day for graduate students to file Graduation Application

Feb 15 President’s Day Holiday (no classes; offices closed)

WORKSHOPS, EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

Announcement: SUNY career development program and leadership opportunity

Spring and Fall 2021

The Graduate School is looking for two students to participate during Spring 2021 in the PCLP program, a virtual 7-session career development program run by graduate student peers at SUNY-SB. The PCLP program is for graduate students pursuing any career pathway.

After participating in this career program during the Spring, our MSU graduate students will work with the Graduate School to host one of these programs for MSU graduating students in Fall 2021. In exchange for your time facilitating the 7-session program at MSU during the Fall 2021 semester, we will provide a $250 fellowship. If you are interested in this opportunity, please email the Graduate Dean, Craig Ogilvie, at craig.ogilvie@montana.edu with a short paragraph stating your interest.

Announcement: Graduate Assistantships in the Graduate School

The Graduate School has two opportunities to learn more about the Graduate Student Affairs at MSU. If you are a degree seeking graduate student and are interested in an assistantship to help fund your schooling costs, please check out the following positions:

  • Assistantship working with the Graduate Student Affairs Director on a variety of topics: position description. Preferential deadline passed, but position is open until filled.
  • Assistantship in Graduate Wellbeing to lead the graduate wellbeing initiative: position description. Deadline for full consideration: Jan 22.

Announcement: Completing your FAFSA

If you are a US citizen and have not filed either a 2020/2021 or a 2021/2022 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA, www.fafsa.gov), please consider doing so. In order to be considered for student assistance from the federal stimulus (CARES Act funding), you need to have submitted a FAFSA. Filing a FAFSA does not commit you in any way to funds, but is used for eligibility for resources.

Announcement: Childcare Scholarships Available

If you have a child (or children) and are incurring childcare costs, please consider applying for a childcare assistance graduate scholarship. The deadline for applications is Wednesday, Jan 20 at 5pm.

CFE Event: How to Make Virtual Easy w/ Chat Littlefield

Tuesday, Jan 5 from 10am-11:30am
Where: Zoom with CFE

Join the Center for Faculty Excellence and Chad Littlefield, co-founder and Chief Experience Officer of We and Me, an organization whose mission is to make connection easy, in a 90-minute seminar that will give you concrete tips, tools, and techniques to implement immediately to make your remote teaching more enjoyable and engaging for both you and your students. This webinar is limited to 200 participants, so register for the How to Make Virtual Easy event today!

Library Workshop: Integrating Library resources into BrightSpace/D2L

Tuesday, Jan 5 from 1pm-2pm
Where: Virtual with the MSU Library

Did you know that Library Resources have been integrated into EVERY course in Brightspace? If not, come to this session to learn how to make accessing the library as easy as possible for your students and who to contact to customize this integration for your courses. The MSU Library will review how to integrate journal articles, e-books, videos, and other library resources into your BrightSpace/D2L course. This session will teach you how to use stable URLs to add library resources to your BrightSpace course. Register for the Library resources event today!

CFE Event: Capture Your Teaching: Record Lectures and Demonstrations with Techsmith Knowmia

Thursday, Jan 7 from 1:30pm-3pm
Where: WebEx with CFE

The Center for Faculty Excellence and the Academic Technology & Outreach office will offer a hands-on training for the TechSmith Knowmia (formerly TechSmith Relay) lecture capture tool to both new and experienced users. TechSmith Knowmia can be used to record lectures and demonstrations for both online courses and face-to-face courses with built-in features for in-video quizzing, basic editing, viewing analytics, closed captioning, and a conversations tool for asynchronously discussion recordings. Register for the Capture Your Teaching event today!

Seth Walk: Virtual Provost’s Distinguished Lecture

Tuesday, Jan 12 from 7-8pm
Where: Streamed with PDL

Seth Walk will give a virtual tour of MSU's COVID-19 testing lab in this virtual lecture, and will speak one-on-one with MSU provost Bob Mokwa about the university's transition to processing COVID-19 tests and researching the disease. Stream Seth Walk’s Lecture on the Provost Distinguished Lecture Series website.

Introduction to R

Wednesday, Jan 20 from 3pm-5pm
Where: Online with the MSU Library

This workshop will start with the building blocks of creating and exploring the data structures available in R. Then we'll learn some basic tools for inspecting, extracting, manipulating, summarizing, and visualizing data. We will also discuss accessing and using R packages, and how to use R's built-in help interface. The workshop will be presented online. Once you sign up for the R workshop, the Library will follow up with details. 

Solid Finances Webinar: Student Loan Debt

Wednesday, Jan 20 from 12:05pm-12:55pm
Where: Virtual with MSU Extension

A Solid Finances Webinar titled "Student Loan Debt" will be held on January 20, 2021 from 12:05 pm to 12:55 pm.  The speaker for this webinar will be Carrie Johnson, North Dakota State University Extension. This session will present current student loan borrowing habits of students and provide tips on minimizing loans while in school.  

Citizen Science for Graduate Students

Thursday, Jan 21 from 3pm-4pm
Where: Online

The MSU Science Math Resource Center and SciStarter.org, an NSF-supported online hub of more than 3,000 citizen science projects, present this workshop designed specifically for MSU graduate students. A citizen science project is a collaboration between scientists and curious, motivated citizens who do everything from collect and share photos of clouds, birds or water; analyze tweets to predict COVID outbreaks; and solve puzzles to design specialized RNA-based medicines and sensors. This workshop offers an overview of how citizen science can support your academic and professional career. Register for the Citizen Science event today!

NCFDD Event: Turning Chutes into Ladders for Women Faculty

Tuesday, Jan 26 from 12pm-1pm
Where: Virtual with NCDFF

Gender inequities remain pervasive in academia. The COVID19 pandemic has only magnified these inequities. This webinar will focus on the barriers and facilitators to gender equity in academia and highlights actionable strategies for institutions to implement to improve gender equity.

MSU has invested in an Institutional Membership with the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD). An account is needed and is free for MSU graduate students. Visit the NCFDD information page and to learn how to sign up. 

994-Calling! Series with Raina Plowright

Monday, Jan 25 from 4pm-5pm
Where: WebEx with VPREDGE

The Office of Research, Economic Development, and Graduate Studies presents a slate of MSU researchers where speakers “tell their story” -- which usually includes some fun background, where they trained, how they came to MSU, and a few key highlights on their research and scholarship. We have decided to host one per month virtually, and our next 994-Calling will present Raina Plowright, Associate Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, on Monday, Jan. 25, from 4-5 p.m. Follow the direct link to this virtual 994-Calling.

FUNDING & FELLOWSHIPS

Weekly National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funding Opportunities and Notices

DEADLINE: Varies

Follow the link for the latest in NIH funding opportunities and notices.

Research Grants on Reducing Inequality; William T. Grant Foundation

Letter of Intent: due Jan 13, 2021
Application due: TBD – full applications by invitation only

The Foundation's mission is to support research to improve the lives of young people ages 5-25 in the United States. One way that they pursue this mission is by investing in high-quality field-initiated studies on reducing inequality in youth outcomes.

Their focus on reducing inequality grew out of their view that research can do more than help us understand the problem of inequality--it can generate effective responses. View more about the Research Grants on Reducing Inequality on their opportunity page.

NHPRC-Mellon Start-Up Grants for Collaborative Digital Editions

Draft (optional) due: Apr. 1, 2021
Application due: June 9, 2021

The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), with funding provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, seeks proposals for its new program for Collaborative Digital Editions in African American, Asian American, Hispanic American, and Native American History. The overarching goal is to broaden participation in the production and publication of historical and scholarly digital editions.

For more funding opportunities, visit MSU’s Research Funding Opportunities or the Graduate School’s Funding & Fellowships webpage.

Follow Us on Social Media

Follow us on Social Media for more news and events!