AACTE Holmes Scholars® Meet, Elect New Leaders in Indianapolis
Close to 60 AACTE Holmes Scholars® and program alumni met in Indianapolis February 28-March 3 in conjunction with the 2014 AACTE Annual Meeting. The Holmes Scholars preconference event offered dedicated networking, mentoring, and professional development opportunities to the Scholars. This year we welcomed six new institutions to the program, as well as 25 Scholars who were attending the event for the first time.
AACTE staff worked in close collaboration with the mentoring committee of the National Association of Holmes Scholars Alumni (NAHSA) led by Carolyn Hopp (University of Central Florida), and with NAHSA President Jacob Easley II (University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown), to prepare an intense and rich conference program for the Scholars. The program included mentoring sessions by alumni on topics such as balancing course work and extracurricular life as a doctoral student, navigating the dissertation process, developing a research agenda, publishing, preparing a CV and searching for jobs, and life in academia. Besides academic mentoring, the Scholars also enjoyed invaluable networking opportunities with their peers and alumni as well as with AACTE members in general.
Our now-annual job fair allowed the Scholars to mingle and interview with close to 25 AACTE member institutions in a friendly atmosphere and provided institutions the opportunity to advertise their openings to this diverse group of candidates. Additionally, a subgroup of Scholars presented their research to the general AACTE audience during a well-attended poster session. Scholars enjoyed the opportunity to talk about their research one-on-one with audience members and appreciated the individual feedback offered. View the list of topics and presenters included in the Scholars poster sessions here.
The AACTE Holmes Scholars® Council also revised its bylaws and elected new leaders to replace exiting members. The 2014 Council includes the following members:
President: Willys Michel, University of Central Florida
Vice President: Olivia Uwamahoro, University of Central Florida
Secretary: Tanesha Walker, Kent State University
Historian: Yolanda Williams, University of Louisville
Research Coordinator: Bridget Peters, Auburn University
Alternate 1: Leonard Towns, Auburn University
Alternate 2: Jessica Henry, Ohio University
We congratulate the new Council members and look forward to supporting their work. The Scholars will have an opportunity to meet again June 9-13 during the AACTE Holmes Scholars® Summer Policy Institute, which will take place as part of AACTE’s Washington Week. We hope to welcome a large group of Scholars in D.C. this summer, including all of our Council members!
The Holmes Scholars® Program is a unique benefit of the AACTE membership, open to all institutions with doctoral programs in education. If you’d like to learn about the program and request information on how to join, please contact me or visit the Holmes Scholars® page on the AACTE web site.
Tags: diversity, events, Holmes Program, membership
