Graduate Lounge - December 2009

The NERA Researcher
Vol. 47, Issue 4, p. 15
December 2009

The Graduate Lounge
By Allie Brown, James Madison University

It is hard to believe that the 2009 NERA conference has already come and gone. The Graduate Student Issues Committee (GSIC) sponsored two sessions for graduate students. One was a panel presentation regarding professional perspectives on the future of educational research. Specifically, Dr. Judy Robb from the University of New Hampshire, Dr. John Young from the Educational Testing Service (ETS), and Dr. April Zenisky from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst shared observations from their experiences in the field and discussed how they see educational research progressing in the future. Students also had the opportunity to ask for personal advice with regard to graduate school and careers. The other GSIC-sponsored session was a workshop on grant writing. Drs. Stan Shaw and Michael Coyne from the University of Connecticut discussed both how to find grants to apply for, as well as how to write successful grant proposals. In addition to the in-conference sessions, GSIC also organized a graduate student social with complementary appetizers. This social provided the opportunity for graduate students from different programs to meet one another and hopefully make long-lasting connections.

For the upcoming year, GSIC members will continue to find ways to support the professional
development of NERA graduate students. In addition, we will keep reaching out to new graduate students to increase the diversity of institutions represented at NERA. Although, GSIC is sad to see Carol Barry, Andri Ioannou, Christine Shea, and Asil Ali Ozdogru complete their service to GSIC, we look forward to selecting four new members. Currently, the GSIC consists of three members:

Allison Brown
(brownarATjmu.edu) is in her second year of the Quantitative Psychology master’s program at James Madison University. In addition to an interest in applied statistics and measurement, she is interested in issues related to positive psychology, personality, and motivation. Allison is serving as the 2009-10 chair for the GSIC.

Marisa Cohen
(mcohen1ATgc.cuny.edu) is in her fourth year of the Educational Psychology Program at CUNY
Graduate Center. She is currently working on her dissertation examining the acquisition of
science material by elementary school students through the use of imagery interventions. She teaches undergraduate Introductory Psychology courses, as well as Masters level research method courses.

Megan France
(francemkATjmu.edu) is in her second year of the Assessment and Measurement Program at James Madison University. Her substantive research interests include variables related to college students’ relatedness with their peers and the university environment such as university
belonging, attachment, and mattering. She is also interested in applications of structural equation modeling. Megan served as the 2008-09 chair for the GSIC.