Highlights for this issue

•  SHIFT Graduate Student Conference: Professional skills conference for graduate students to assist with making ‘the SHIFT’ from ‘learning to earning’: uncover, discover, explore and articulate your well-developed higher order skills. Making sense of your graduate level skills and understand how these skills transfer to other areas of work.
Event Date: Thursday, April 30, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Location: Pond Inlet

• NEW — 2015 MNK Conference: Thanks to all graduate students who presented at the 2015 Mapping the New Knowledges Graduate Student Research Conference on Thursday, April 9 and made our 10-year anniversary a huge success. Approximately 123 graduate students, representing 20 graduate programs, participated in oral, poster and Three Minute Thesis® presentations throughout the day.
A special congratulations to:
Three Minute Thesis® Contest winner and runner-up:
Winner: Matthew Nikitczuk, Master's student in Earth Sciences;
Runner-up: Natalie Trojanowski, Applied Health Sciences
MNK Award winners:
2015 Graduate Mentorship Awards — Professor Nancy Francis, Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, (category of master's students only); Associate Professor Thad Harroun, Faculty of Mathematics and Science (category of master's and doctoral students)
2015 Marilyn Rose Graduate Leadership Award — Professor John McNamara, Faculty of Social Sciences
Read highlights about the conference in Brock News 3MT Contest

• NEW — CPI recognizes Teaching Assistants: Congratulations to the following graduate students who recently received TA Awards:
          Graduate TA Award (sponsored by the Faculty of Graduate Studies): Eleftherios (Terry) Kyprianos Soleas, Education
          Novice TA Award (sponsored by the CPI): Brodie Terence Hague, Sustainability: Science and Society
          International TA Award (co-sponsored Centre for Pedagogical Innovation and Faculty of Graduate Studies): Oksana Pichugina, Mathematics
CPI also presented Andrew C.P. Kemble,Psychology, with the TA Award.

The e-Bulletin is also posted online.
Previous issues of e-Bulletin are posted online.

TAKE NOTE
Deadlines or events that will occur between this issue and the first week of the next issue are highlighted for your immediate attention.

Scholarships/Awards/Grants

• The Mitacs Accelerate Program provides funding for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to apply their specialized expertise to business-related research challenges. Partners can be either for-profit businesses or not-for-profit organizations. For more information contact Louisa Ho, Commercialization Research Officer at lho@brocku.ca. Click here for more details.

• Canadian Institutes of Health Research IHSRP Travel Awards: IHSPR will provide travel awards in 2014-2015 for graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and new investigators to attend and present their research at meetings, conferences (including international conferences) and/or symposia that align with the Institute's mandate and advance their professional development and/or knowledge translation initiatives in health services and policy research.
See more information online.

• African Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship Program: The ALT Scholarship Program commemorates the late Nelson Mandela’s commitment to social justice and equity by offering young African women and men the opportunity to study in a Master’s degree program in Canada in public administration, public policy or public finance. The program has two components: academic training and professional development and leadership.
The 2015 Competition, for the September 2015 academic year, is now open to candidates from South Africa and Senegal.
Deadline to apply: Sunday, April 26
Find more details online.

• Paul Stothart Memorial Scholarship in Mineral Economics: To qualify for the scholarship, candidates must be studying either a Bachelor of Masters of Economics/Commerce, or a Master of Business Administration. Students must also demonstrate an interest in mineral economics supported by current or intended course work. Value: $3,500
Deadline: Friday, May 15 (awarded for the 2015-2016 school year).
Application requirements and process are posted online here.

• Student international funding opportunities: Visit Brock International for a listing of scholarship and awards programs

• Brock Library Open Access Publishing Fund: Open to Brock faculty, graduate students and postdocs. The purpose of this grant is to assist researchers in disseminating their research broadly via an Open Access (OA) journal. A minimum of four awards will be granted, to a maximum of $2,500 each [Total funds = $10,000]. This Grant is intended to support researchers with limited or no funding. If an alternate funding source is available that permits payment of submission fees (e.g. a research grant), that source must be used before applying to the OA Publishing Fund.
For more information contact: Barbara McDonald, Ext. 3949

Vitae: Essential Skills for Graduate Students

Academic and professional development program for graduate students provided in partnership with nine campus units.

• SHIFT Graduate Student Conference: Professional skills conference for graduate students to assist with making ‘the SHIFT’ from ‘learning to earning’: uncover, discover, explore and articulate your well-developed higher order skills. Making sense of your graduate level skills and understand how these skills transfer to other areas of work.
Event Date: Thursday, April 30, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Location: Pond Inlet

• NEW — Vitae Writing Retreat for Graduate Students:

Campus Partners Presents:

• NEW — Connect 2015: Canada's Learning & Technology Conference, Niagara Falls, ON: Use the ID Code: Brock2015 to receive $50 off the full conference price. For more information or to register, see here.

• NEW — Spring Perspectives: The Last Lecture with Barry Joe, Tuesday April 28, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Please join us for a discussion on flexible teaching and learning at Brock University, followed by "The Last Lecture", a plenary address by Prof. Barry W. K. Joe as he reflects on three decades of teaching at Brock University. Open to the Brock University community. Please confirm your attendance by registering online and contact Jill Grose with any questions (jgrose@brocku.ca)

• NEW — Contemplative Practices in Higher Education, Tuesday May 5, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Learn tools that will assist educators in maintaining a healthy work life balance and stay connected with the broader purpose of the work we do. This full day session offers a rich and diverse set of tools for helping students decrease stress, increase learning, and gain a greater sense of connection and resilience in undertaking post secondary education. For more information or to register online.

• 6th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference, Tuesday, Apr. 28 to Thursday Apr. 30 at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. This year's theme? Looking back to research the future and look at the lessons we can learn from past research to build the future of research in our universities and industries. This conference is open to all graduate students from all universities. If you have colleagues or friends who would be interested in participating in the conference, please spread the word! This is a great opportunity to present your work to the wider research community.
Abstract are due by April 20th please submit abstracts through the UOIT website.
Early bird registration ends April 15th, so be sure to register early to take advantage of reduced conference rates.

• Faculty Institute on Community-Engaged Learning: Aligning Intention and Action in Community-Engaged Learning: The Centre for Community Partnerships invites proposals for research papers to be presented at the 2015 Faculty Institute on Community-Engaged Learning at the University of Toronto. Call for 20 minute papers on any aspect of community-engaged teaching and learning, which may include research on community-engaged courses (qualitative, quantitative, mixed methods or other) or theoretical or conceptual papers related to the field of service-learning or community-engaged learning. Theme: “Aligning Intention and Action in Community-Engaged Learning” are particularly encouraged.
(see vitae website for more details – link to posting)
Event date: Wednesday, May 13, 10 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
For more information, please visit the Centre for Community Partnerships website.

• Calling all Writers! We are recruiting graduate level students (Masters/PhD) for volunteer writers: contributing creative and stimulating blog content. Writers will have some editorial range yet provide a voice for the graduate student experience. Writers must submit sample of writing. For more details, please contact kperry@brocku.ca

Please continue to visit our website for professional development programs and workshops.

Conferences and Events

• Brock University’s Centre for Lifespan Development Research’s Speaker Series: Dr. Charles Tator presents “Concussions - What are they and what can I do?” May 4, 7 to 9 p.m., Welch Hall Room 324. This is event is free and open to the public, but RSVP is required as space is limited. Click here to RSVP for this event.

GSA

Visit the GSA website for news and events.

Upcoming Thesis Defences

Check Faculty websites for notices of upcoming thesis defences.

• Paul Adachi, PhD student in Psychology, will present his thesis defence on Monday, April 27, at 1 p.m. in WH 147. Title: “Demolishing the Competition: The association between competitive video game play and aggression among adolescents and young adults”

• Daniele Chirico, PhD student in Applied Health Sciences, will present his thesis defence on Monday, April 27, 1 p.m., WC 203. Title: “Autonomic cardiovascular control in children and adolescents”

• NEW — Samantha Sendzik, MA student in Child and Youth Studies, will defend her thesis on Tuesday, April 28, 10 a.m. to 12 noon, CRN 336. Title: "Motivation Among Reluctant Readers: Capturing the goal setting experience in the 'Reading Rocks' program"

• NEW — Angeliki Giannopoulou, MSc student in Applied Health Sciences (Kinesiology), will defend her thesis on Wednesday, April 29, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., South Block 361. Title: "Acute endocrine responses to plyometrics versus resistance exercise in children"

• NEW — Yi An Lin, MSc student in Biological Sciences, will defend his thesis on Monday, May 4, 2 p.m., WH147. Title: "Interactions of onion (Allium cepa) and yellow wax bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) in monoculture and intercropping with weeds, Chenopodium album and Amaranthus hybridus"

• NEW — Kris Knorr, MEd student, will defend his thesis on Wednesday May 20, 2 p.m., WH 147.
Title: "Postsecondary Teaching and Learning Development Needs: Motivators and barriers associated with participation in educational development"

• Eleftherios (Terry) Soleas, MEd student, will present his thesis defence on Monday, June 15, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., WH147. Title: "New Teacher Perceptions of Inclusive Pedagogies: Designing new futures for the changing classroom"

News

•  NEW — Earth Sciences student wins 3MT contest

• NEW — 3MT contest returns with impressive new research ideas

• NEW — Research Services Podcast Series —The Pan Am Games: A boost for the Niagara region: Members of Brock University's Centre for Sport Capacity discuss the impacts of the Pan Am Games on Niagara. The panel includes: Julie Stevens, sport management associate professor and director of the Centre for Sport Capacity, Chris Charlebois, business development and operations director with the Niagara Sport Commission, and Shannon Kerwin, assistant professor in the Department of Sport Management.
More Information

• NEW — Nikitczuk readies for provincial 3MT finals

• NEW — MBA skills put to work on real-world problems


The Faculty of Graduate Studies e-Bulletin is distributed every two to four weeks. Past issues are posted online.