PROMISE & GRADUATE STUDENT SUPPORT

The PROMISE Program at UMBC is proud to support the academic and professional development of graduate students from all backgrounds and in all fields.  Programs of PROMISE are sponsored by the UMBC Graduate School and the National Science Foundation.  Broadly, students can participate in PROMISE regardless of their status (full-time, part-time), ethnicity, citizenship, discipline, or source of funding. Narrowly, students who are underrepresented will be strongly supported as they utilize the services and resources of PROMISE; these students can be encouraged to consider PROMISE to be one of their major mechanisms of support.

Some of the programs that we co-sponsor include:

• Dissertation House
  
• PROF-it: Professors-in-Training seminars
  
• Wednesday Success Seminars (Topics include: Finances, Leadership, Research & the IRB, Writing & Publishing, Grantsmanship, and more.)
  
• When Faculty Say "x", They Really Mean "y" faculty/student dinner seminar
  
• Community Building Retreat (Rocky Gap)
  

Is PROMISE for you? Yes!  You are invited!

ABOUT AGEP

The National Science Foundation's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program is intended to increase significantly the number of domestic students receiving doctoral degrees in the sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), with special emphasis on those population groups underrepresented in these fields (i.e., African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders). In addition, AGEP is particularly interested in increasing the number of minorities who will enter the professoriate in these disciplines. Specific objectives of the AGEP program are (1) to develop and implement innovative models for recruiting, mentoring, and retaining minority students in STEM doctoral programs, and (2) to develop effective strategies for identifying and supporting underrepresented minorities who want to pursue academic careers.

ABOUT PROMISE: Maryland's AGEP

PROMISE: Maryland's AGEP is an alliance of the three public research universities in Maryland, led by UMBC, dedicated to the increasing the number and diversity of Ph.D. graduates in the sciences and engineering who go on to academic careers. AGEP is a program of the National Science Foundation. The initial award for Maryland's AGEP was funded in 2002 for 5 years. The PI for the first phase of Maryland's AGEP grant was former UMBC Provost Dr. Arthur T. Johnson. The second award for PROMISE was made in 2008 and has a duration of two years. The current UMBC Provost, Dr. Elliot Hirshman, became the PROMISE PI in 2008.

For more information, visit the tri-campus PROMISE pages at:

http://www.umbc.edu/promise