PROMISE Opening Meeting/Dinner Friday, Sept. 14, 2012 – UMBC Game Room! Faculty, postdocs, grad students, and staff – all welcome!

Tue, 04 Sep 2012 13:45:25 -0400
advising, agep, community-building, development, gradschool, gradstudents, learning, maryland, nsf, postdoc, professor, professoriate, promise, promise-marylands-agep, support, teaching

PROMISE: Maryland’s AGEP is dedicated to increasing the numbers and diversity of Ph.D.s in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields. PROMISE also provides a strong support system for underrepresented students of all fields, and for all graduate students. Come out for dinner and connections.

We have continually heard many of the same questions:

Does UMBC have any other students who went to HBCUs, Hispanic-Serving Institutions, or Native American Universities or Tribal Colleges?

I came from a small town in the south. Are there any other students from Georgia or North Carolina?

Are there any other students from the Caribbean?

I heard that there are only a few graduate students from the African Diaspora, where are they?

I miss being able to hear and speak Spanish. Where are the other students from Puerto Rico, Mexico, or South America?

The answer for each of the questions above is yes … we have graduate students from these diverse backgrounds and you can meet or re-connect with them at the PROMISE Opening Meeting!

This connection meeting will allow you to meet other students, staff, postdocs, and faculty members who also have similar experiences. Did you know that some of our faculty and staff are also from HBCUs, MSIs (Minority-Serving Institutions) or South America, or had the same kinds of experiences that you may be having now? Come out and meet them! We have faculty, postdocs, staff, and graduate students from Colombia, Panama, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Spain, etc. We have members in our community who went to either undergrad or grad school or taught at Howard, FAMU, NC A&T, and more! We have people who have been active in the National Society of Black Engineers, Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Scientists, the Compact for Faculty Diversity (includes social sciences and education programs), and other organizations that serve the needs of populations that are underrepresented in a variety of disciplines! Come on out and meet peers and mentors!

Dinner will be served. Please feel free to bring your family members, including children. If you are bringing family members, please let us know how many in the comments below. Children of our students always love it when we have programs in the game room!

RSVP today!

Students from UMBC should RSVP on http://my.umbc.edu/groups/promise/events/13055. Students from other schools may RSVP by writing a comment below this post. (Please RSVP so that we can order the right amount of food. We serve a full hot dinner at the PROMISE Opening Meeting.)

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