Graduate Lounge - December 2007

The NERA Researcher
Vol. 45, Issue 4, p. 7
December 2007

The Graduate Lounge

The Graduate Student Issues Council (GSIC) of the Northeastern Educational Research Association (NERA) was initiated in October of 2006, by Dr. Kristen Huff from College Board. GSIC’s mission is to support the involvement and professional development of
NERA graduate students members and to reach out to new graduate students in an effort to increase the diversity of institutions represented at NERA. During the first year of its existence, the five-member committee managed successfully to accomplish several tasks including establishing the 2007 Best Paper by a Graduate Student Award Competition, organizing a GSIC-sponsored session at the NERA 2007 conference, preparing “The Graduate Lounge” of NERA Researcher, and having a meeting at the NERA 2007 conference where a number of graduate students met to brainstorm about GSIC potential future activities.

GSIC is currently composed of six members. We are thrilled to continue and extent GSIC’s accomplishments towards our mission. Activities that are planned for the 2007-2008 year include but are not limited to:

1) Awarding the 2007 Best Paper by a Graduate Student Award to a NERA graduate student member whose paper will be deemed exemplary by GSIC and one boardappointed faculty expert.
2) Organizing the 2008 Best Paper by a Graduate Student Award Competition.
3) Organizing the second GSIC-sponsored session at the NERA 2008 conference. The 2007 GSIC-sponsored session was organized around job-hunting in academic and non-academic settings, as well as publishing practices. GSIC is planning to organize the 2008 session around funding opportunities for graduate students and grant writing. Any ideas are welcome.
4) Continue to prepare “The Graduate Lounge” of the NERA Researcher.
5) Make efforts to establish relations with the graduate student committees of other conferences, especially of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
6) Representing graduate students at all NERA Board meetings. Please contact us with ideas, contributions, concerns, or anything you want to discuss. We will consider your input.

Andri Ioannou