Saturday Success Seminar "Funding Your Graduate Education"

SPECIAL SATURDAY SESSION: Success Seminar on Funding & Fellowships, with special emphasis on the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship Application.

"How to Fund Your Graduate Education"

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Speakers: UMBC Alumni, Dr. Frances D. Carter-Johnson and Dr. Patricia Ordóñez  

Dr. Carter-Johnson is a graduate of UMBC's Department of Public Policy and currently serves as a STEM Policy Analyst at Westat.  Dr. Carter-Johnson has degrees in Public Policy, Applied Physics, Pure Physics, and Mechanical Engineering from UMBC, Georgia Tech, and Spelman College. She has received fellowships from NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP), SREB, GAANN, and GEM. She is currently an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow with NIH's Center for Scientific Review.  Her former positions were at MIT as Postdoctoral Associate for Educational Research (2012-2013) and at Westat (2011-2012).

Dr. Ordóñez is a graduate of UMBC's Department of Computer Science. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Puerto Rico Rio Piedras. Dr. Ordóñez  has degrees in Hispanic and Italian Studies, and Computer Science.  She has taught several classes at UMBC and was a Technical Trainer for UMBC's Training Centers, focusing on JAVA Computer Programming Certifications and curriculum development. Dr. Ordóñez  was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow, and has won fellowships from Xerox, Verizon, and UMBC. Dr. Ordóñez is an Assistant Professor, Computer Science, University of Puerto Rico – Rio Piedras. 

Dr. Carter-Johnson and Dr.  Ordóñez were PROMISE Peer Mentors and have collectively been invited speakers on this topic at the National Science Foundation's HBCU-UP national conference, the American Association for the Advancement in Science's  Emerging Researchers Network national Conference, Harvard, UMBC, and MIT.  Our speakers' work was presented in 2013 at the 120th Annual Conference of the American Association of Engineering Education, Atlanta: ASEE and with new information for internationals students at Eleventh LACCEI Latin American and Caribbean Conference (LACCEI 2013). Dr. Ordóñez reviews for the National Science Foundation, and has developed presentations on this topic in both English and Spanish. 

To date, more than 10 of their mentees who have taken their workshops have won the prestigious NSF GRFP Fellowship, or other award, for a total of approximately $1 million of fellowship money! 

The schedule for the day is as follows:

9:00 - 10:00 AM - Setting up the account (If you wish to do this, bring your laptops)

10:00 AM - 12:00 PM - Seminar "Funding your graduate education"

12:00 PM - 2:00 PM - Lunch Seminar - Starting your application - NSF Fastlane session