Each year, a number of Towson University departments, both academic and administrative, offer opportunities for qualified students to become graduate assistants. . The process is competitive and responsibilities vary depending on the sponsoring department. Depending on the number of hours graduate assistants (or GA’s) work they receive tuition remission and a stipend making these limited positions highly sought after. The objective of a graduate assistantship is to provide the student with rich professional experiences that also support the department’s goals and activities.
Within our department, Center for Professional Studies, we regularly utilize graduate assistants to support a number of areas ranging from customized training programs to continuing education. For the past two years we have had been lucky enough to have, Jenna Frazzini as a member of our team. Jenna is a speech and language pathology major. When Jenna first joined our group we were in the process of submitting a grant to the Maryland Higher Education Commission and identified an active role for Jenna to play in the proposed project. Over the past two years, Jenna has regularly traveled to Dundalk High School to help high school seniors with the college application process, essay writing, and basic interview skills. Jenna worked one on one with the students and feels confident that her interaction with the students had a large impact on the student’s confidence as it came time for them to begin applying to college.
When I asked Jenna what she’s found most rewarding during her tenure as a GA, she responded, “that the skills that she learned from dealing and communicating with several different groups of people in a business-like setting have been invaluable.”
Our Director, Jeff Beeson, while new to the job, is already looking for opportunities for us to employ more graduate assistants in the future.
As the new year gets into full swing, many companies are planning top priorities for their employees and organization. With multiple projects, short deadlines, and budgets in mind, training is often left as a last priority or is sometimes forgotten.
But how do we make the time? By offering several methods of training, including:
In-Service Sessions: Specific dates set out in advance to ensure that training takes place. Similar to a staff meeting or priority project, advanced notification helps ensure that employees will be available to attend.
Departmental Retreats: An opportunity for most or all of a specific Department to come together in one room to receive customized training, address questions and concerns, and discuss strategic plans for the upcoming year.
Customized Sessions: Requested by and designed for a specific Department on their topic of choice, and scheduled to meet the availability of their staff.
Open Enrollment: Offered during various dates and times throughout the calendar year to ensure maximum participation.
These are just a few of the ways we are making training a priority in 2012, and we encourage you to try what works best for your employees and organization. The key to success is making sure you set the date(s) and time(s) for training in advance and follow up to ensure effective employee participation.
Towson University has long been known as the “teachers college”. Though it is now a comprehensive metropolitan public university, TU still maintains its strong roots in teacher education. The pedagogies and curriculum have evolved over the years as the field and needs of our community and students have changed, today a large focus for TU and educators across Maryland is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education.
The Baltimore Excellence in STEM Teaching (BEST) project, which is funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), realizes this and aims to improve STEM education at high schools and middle schools throughout the Baltimore region. The BEST project is a part of Towson University’s Center for STEM Excellence and offers training and mentoring to in-service STEM teachers and educational outreach to their students. Mentors come from many area higher education institutions, including TU. Participating teachers go through a 6-week summer research experience, which is followed by professional development workshops. Teachers then take what they have learned from the BEST Program and apply it in their classroom.
I was recently able to speak with Julie Damico, the Director of the BEST program. She began her position in July of 2010 and though the program is young, it is growing in popularity. Ms. Damico informed me that for the 2012-2013 school year, there were 52 applicants for about 20 spots. She also provided me with some thoughts from previous years’ participants and they had some great things to say.
While many of the participants spoke of gaining more skills in their field, I was surprised to see how many talked about the confidence boost they received from the program.
A lot of the teachers had not done research in a long time and this program was a chance to do just that.
Many of the participants noted that this research experience helped to confirm that they had chosen the right career path.
This new knowledge and confidence invigorated the teachers and got them excited to take it all back to their students to improve STEM education in their classrooms.
BEST is a great program and it is making strides in the improvement of STEM education in and around Baltimore. I encourage everyone, and especially any middle and high school teachers, to check out the BEST program and see what it has to offer.
Want to know what’s coming up for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute’s spring 2012 semester? Attend its Preview of Spring Classes to be held on Thursday, January 19 from 10 a.m. until noon in the Merrick Lecture Hall at Goucher College. There’s plenty of free parking with a short walk to the Lecture Hall. At the Preview you’ll see and hear teachers as they give brief presentations of their upcoming courses. A wide array of courses in the Fine Arts, Humanities, Social Sciences and Natural Sciences will be offered in spring as well as two book clubs and two film series. Among the courses are
Cosmic Puzzles
Russia in Revolution
Disease and History
Roots of the Blues
Jewish Women in the American Labor Movement
Physics for Everyday Life
Traits of Triumphant Survivors
French Wines Demystified
and many more
Some of these courses are four-week courses and some are eight-week with all offered during the day. The spring semester begins on March 5 and ends May 3. View the full list of course offerings.
The Osher Institute offers courses to persons 50 years of age and older, but makes a special offer to Towson University faculty and staff of any age who may join Osher at a reduced rate and take one course each semester without further charge. If you are reading this blog, you are no doubt still employed and may not have the time to attend even one course. But please spread the word about the Osher Preview and its upcoming spring semester among the older generations of your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
For more information about the Osher program, visit the Osher website call the office at 410-704-3688. We’d love to send you a spring 2012 catalog with descriptions of all of the courses being offered and biographical information on the teachers who will teach them.
Months of brainstorming and planning went into this year’s DECO holiday card and I can truly say that is the best video card we have created to date. You may recall the New Year’s resolution card, or even our attempt to re-create the 12 days of Christmas. And then there is this year’s card. Imagine speed decorating while competing to be named the best decorated unit.
Check out our holiday card which show’s all the amazing decorations and teamwork of the DECO staff!
Now that you’ve seen the video, you may be wondering… who won our contest? While most participated, some really excelled.
Honorable mentions.The Center for Professional Studies (CPS), TowsonGlobal, and the Vice President’s office. These units all tried their very best to pull together various holiday themes in their office spaces. CPS included decorations from all of the staff’s cultural backgrounds, TowsonGlobal’s tasteful blue and green Christmas tree was gorgeous, and the Vice President’s office transformed a palm tree into a Christmas tree and surrounded it with Towson paraphernalia.
A tie for second. The Center for Applied IT (CAIT), lead by Dawn Bott, and the Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI), lead by Raquel Frye, had such great concepts the judges couldn’t distinguish between second and third place so it was ruled a tie! These groups really coordinated their themes. CAIT’s winter wonderland and RESI’s snowy village were well thought out and could not be pulled off without the team’s full efforts.
And the winners! But, in the end, it was hard to compete with two dedicated decorators from the Administration and Finance team, Anna Orfanidis and Lusine Baghdasarian. Their decorations could rival 34th Street in Hampden!
The purpose of the tool is to increase collaboration across the university and to support faculty and staff efforts in grants and contracts initiatives. In plain English, that means that the tool makes it easier for faculty and staff to gain funding for their projects and research. Users can log into TU in the Community and have a number of funding opportunities at their fingertips. They can also receive emails about opportunities as they become available. The list of grants is by no means exhaustive, but it represents the opportunities that the Development Office and the Office of University Research Services (OURS) find the most relevant to TU faculty and staff members.
The great thing about the Funder Tool is that it contains opportunities for the many interests of Towson University. A user is just as likely to find a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) grant as a grant for the arts. Also, if users maintain contact with OURS and Development, the two offices will have a better idea of what kinds of opportunities to include in the tool.
To begin using this tool, users need to ensure that their profiles are up-to-date and that they include their administrative division/college, as well as their research and professional interests. Once this information is updated, users will be sent emails about opportunities relating to these interests as they are added to the database.
TU in the Community is working with members of Development and OURS to ensure that new opportunities are continually added. To begin taking advantage not only of the Funder Tool, but of TU in the Community in general, log on today!
Jeff Beeson is the Director of the Center for Professional Studies (CPS) within the Division of Economic and Community Outreach at Towson University. As Director, he is responsible for managing a dynamic team dedicated to meeting the diverse educational and consultation needs of clients regardless of their location. Prior to coming to Towson, Jeff was the Director of the Maryland Apprenticeship and Training Program for the Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation (DLLR), and prior to that he was Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Division of Workforce Development and Adult Learning at DLLR. Jeff has also worked for the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services and as an aid for Senator Barbara Mikulski. Jeff is a graduate of Towson University earning his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and his Master’s degree in Social Sciences. To hear more about Jeff’s background and vision for the Center for Professional Studies watch the interview.
The Center for GIS (CGIS) will be taking part in GIS Day this Wednesday, November 16, 2011. CGIS employees, along with Community College of Baltimore County students, will travel to Lutherville Laboratory Elementary School this year for GIS Day. The event, organized by Eric Cromwell (Coordinator of Elementary Science for Baltimore County Public Schools), will involve approximately 120 fourth grade students. The students will be divided into groups and each group will complete a Global Positioning System (GPS) quiz consisting of multiple choice questions that have numerical answers (e.g. Abraham Lincoln was the [fill in the blank] President of the United States.). All of the possible answers will correspond to marked locations on a field at the school. Once the groups have completed the quiz, each will be provided with a Garmin e-Trex GPS unit and asked to walk to the locations marked with their answers while the GPS unit tracks their route. Each group will then map the routes using Google Earth and if the group answered the questions correctly their route will appear as a star.
In addition to the event at the Elementary School, CGIS staff will also attend two events. For the past several years, CGIS has attended the Maryland State Highway Administration’s (SHA) GIS Day event located at the SHA building in Baltimore. At this event, CGIS staff will manage a booth and provide information on current projects and initiatives that CGIS is involved in. If you will be attending SHA’s GIS Day event stop by CGIS’ booth and see what we are up to! Also, CGIS will attend Central Pennsylvania’s GIS Day celebration that will feature an exhibit hall, geo-challenge, genius bar, workshop, demonstrations and plenty of networking.
The time has arrived! TowsonGlobal’s Business Plan Competition is back for a second year. The inaugural competition brought entries from a diverse group of entrepreneurs with interesting business concepts. All had the same goal in mind—success. And this second annual event promises to be even more inspiring, helping stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship across the region.
While the basic format of the competition remains the same, a few changes have been made to help better prepare entrants and to make the competition more interactive. For this second competition, interested participants are invited to attend free workshops which focus on the basics of a business plan, including:
writing an effective executive summary,
conducting useful market analysis,
and developing realistic financial projections.
The five chosen finalists will attend a required boot camp to help prepare for their final presentations. Also, this time, presentations will be made both in private and at a public forum. After which, the winner will be announced at a networking reception.
Business Plan Competition Workshop #1 (October 2011)
October 19, 2011 — Business Plan + Executive Summary Workshop
October 26, 2011 — Market Analysis Workshop
November 10, 2011 — Financial Projections Workshop
February 6, 2012 — Executive Summaries Due (3-5 pages)
February 20, 2012 — Finalists (5) selected and notified to submit business plans
February 27, 2012 — Presentation boot camp for finalists
March 27, 2012 — Deadline for finalists’ submissions of business plans and PowerPoint presentations
May 2, 2012—Finalists present in front of judges, winner selected
We hope that participants will get as much of the competition as the first group did. Lisa Drouillard of My Hopeful Journey, one of two 2011 winners, commented, “The business plan competition helped me to think of my business in a more tangible way and not just as a concept.” The other winner, Ben Walsh of Pure Bang Games, added that participation “strengthened our ties to other early stage startups, and most importantly, Towson University.”
TowsonGlobal is looking forward to seeing the exciting, innovative concepts that will be brought to the competition. For more details on the competition, visit TowsonGlobal’s Business Plan Competitionpage or email us at info@towsonglobal.com .
Posted by Allie Pyzik 
Guest Blogger
Bobbie Laur
Sharyn Kuczka
Jeremy Monn
Raquel Frye
Clay Hickson
Dawn Bott
Lindsey Meyer
Allie Pyzik
Daraius Irani
Past Bloggers
Jenn Lake
Kelsey Beckett
Timothy Brooks
Ashley Buzzeo
