A group of doctoral students and postdocs with the MSU Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate recently traveled to Washington, D.C., where they visited the National Science Foundation, met with elected officials and recruited students during the Emerging Researchers National conference.
The trip was an initiative of the MSU Center for Academic and Future Faculty Excellence. The participants represented graduate programs in the fields of education, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering.
“Each visit and participation in the different events opened up a world of possibilities and ideas which I was not aware of prior to this trip," said Fredy Rodriguez, an MSU anthropology graduate student.
AGEP members helped to recruit undergraduate students for MSU graduate and summer internship programs during the ERN conference. The graduate students judged posters and oral presentations of young scholars.
“The keynote speaker for the ERN Conference, Ainissa Ramirez, is a great model for moving research into the public imagination,” said Cameron Herman, graduate student in the MSU sociology department. “It's important to form populist support and engagement with science. If the people are aware of the benefits, it helps to build our case in front of the government.”