GSO Newsletter – April 6, 2020
Hi Everyone!
I know we are all living in an unusual and difficult time right now, but there are still many events going on and opportunities available, so the plan is to provide you with weekly updates for the foreseeable future. Hang in there and stay safe everyone!
News
Next GSO General Zoom Meeting of Spring 2020 – Tuesday, April 7th from 5-6 PM (information for calling in and required password below).
Dean Barman will be joining us to answer any questions you might have. For organizational purposes, send us your questions for Dean Barman before the meeting by following this link.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7v98DTOuYkRxu_ti0PWhah6BxRGYSKFjtc28e2OWTUKVo7g/viewform.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/673776792?pwd=d0xvSmxHQ25MaEpEYTRpcnZydkdHQT09
Graduate Entrepreneurship Club Interest
Hello GSO,
I am the Vice President of Communications of Boston University’s Graduate Entrepreneurship Club. We are currently based out of Questrom School of Business and are interested in expanding to work with students and clubs throughout Boston University. I have attached a link to a quick survey regarding entrepreneurial interest among graduate students that we would appreciate if you could send to your club’s members.
Link to survey:
Best,
David Landesman
Health Sector MBA ’22
External Work/Fellowship Opportunities
CK Ready Study
Dear Graduate Students,
The CK Ready Studyat Boston medical Center is now accepting applications for Summer 2020 Research Assistants. Please see the announcement below or the C-K-READY websitefor additional information.
Interested students should send a cover letter and resume to Marisol De Ornelas at maria.deornelas@bmc.org.
Thank you!
Boston UniversityGraduate School of Arts and Sciences
617-353-2696 | grsgs@bu.edu Follow us on Instagram! @BU_GRS
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Message from Zachary Coto: COVID19 Volunteer Opportunities
Hello,
My name is Zach Coto, a grad student in the bio department at BU. As you know, people from across the world have pooled our resources for a unified public health response to COVID-19. Many of us have contributed to this in some way, whether that’s committing mutual aid to support those enduring financial insecurity, donating resources to our fellow healthcare, custodial and laboratory workers who might lack adequate PPE to perform daily work that is saving lives, or directly participating in lifesaving medical or research work. In recognition of the importance of all of this, I want to draw our community’s attention to several ongoing efforts meant to pool scientific resourcesas part of our public health response to COVID-19 as well as mutual aid initiatives, all of which anyone can get involved in.
In the absence of institutional support, many mutual aid networks are being organized around the country and in the Boston area (https://www.mutualaidhub.org/), including the Charles River Mutual Aid Program organized by students from BU and elsewhere ( https://crmutualaid.com/) and another public Boston Mutual Aid slack site ( bostonareamutualaid.slack.com). For many people who are facing economic insecurity, these mutual aid networks have been crucial for supplying basic needs.
Crowdfight COVID19 ( https://crowdfightcovid19.org/) is an international effort to mobilize any and all scientific resources for our public health response to the pandemic. Their aim is to facilitate the connection between COVID19 researchers and the vast amount of scientific equipment and diverse expertise that are available throughout our labs and research institutions. Researchers can directly volunteer their services or request specific expertise. Over 39,000 scientists from all over the world have volunteered. Volunteers may also be put in contact with local organizing efforts specific to their region. They have a twitter https://twitter.com/Crowdfightcovi1and instagram (https://www.instagram.com/crowdfightcovid19/).
More locally, the New England Complex Systems Institute has developed a website focused on the virus (endCoronavirus.org) and currently I’m part of a working group coordinated by Dr. Michael Wells from Harvard to develop a database of scientific skills and resources from across the country that can be mobilized for our public health response to COVID-19. Anyone can view the public database at this Link.
As of now, over 7,000 scientists have volunteered from across the country and the database is currently being used by many federal and local public health institutions and researchers. One potential use of our database is related to a limiting factor in test capacity–the availability of RNA Extraction kits. We mapped the scientists who have kits to donate in the state of California as a visual demonstration of the database contents.
If you have expertise in skills such as PCR, bioinformatics or data management or have resources for testing, and you would like to volunteerto the database, you can sign up through our FAQpage. Likewise, if you are a researcher or health care official who may need equipment or expertise now or in the future, you can sign up for full access to the database which will provide volunteer contact information through this data access request form. The database provides an excellent way to access resources from anyone in the country beyond your own community or institution.
Additionally, even for people who do not have expertise in the above fields, we are in need of distributing the database to researchers and public health officials.We collectively have a huge pool of scientific resources ready to be mobilized andanyone can help us mobilizeit to those who can use it. If you would like to participate, if you have contacts with different public health institutions, different states or different researchers, either directly or indirectly, please feel free to contact me at my email zcoto@bu.edu. For those who don’t have the time to dedicate to do the outreach, any contact information that you have would be equally valuable.
Lastly, many of us have been placed in difficult economic situations due to the pandemic having exacerbated the uncertainty of our financial situations and many of these same people are volunteering to do research and healthcare. We shouldn’t forget the additional burden on the lives of those volunteering their scientific work of research and healthcare to resolve the pandemic and we should support any efforts to confront the negative economic impacts that many of the researchers, colleagues, students and workers of our community are experiencing.
Thank you very much for your time and I hope you are well. Feel free to share this information to anyone within or beyond your department.
Zach Coto
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Upcoming Events
GWISE Virtual Book Club
Date and Time: Thu., 04/30, 11:30am – 12:30pm Location: Zoom – https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/144096794
Dear GWISE members and WISE guys,
Please join us for a virtual GWISE Book Club. We’re reading “The Power”, by Naomi Alderman. In this book, the world is a recognizable place: there’s a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family.
But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power: they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets. From award-winning author Naomi Alderman, The Power is speculative fiction at its most ambitious and provocative, at once taking us on a thrilling journey to an alternate reality, and exposing our own world in bold and surprising ways.
GWISE has a few hard copies as well as digital versions of the book on loan. Please indicate which format you prefer in the RSVP form and we’ll follow up with your request. Contact Natalie Vaisman (nvaisman@bu.edu) if you have comments or questions.
As with all GWISE events, this event is open to all members of the GWISE community, regardless of gender and sexual orientation.
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Romance Studies Graduate Student Conference
Dear GSO,
With our new online graduate student conference just over one week away, we in the organizing committee wanted to send you our most recent information for the event! We are attaching a program for the day’s event, a flyer, and the zoom link.
https://bostonu.zoom.us/j/583176742
Best,
Romance Studies Graduate Student Association Boston University 718 Commonwealth Ave.
Educational Resource Center Workshops
Dear Graduate Students,
We are pleased to share information with you about additional upcoming workshops from the Educational Resource Center (ERC) to help you prepare for the end of the semester! Please see the email below for specific workshop details. Interested students can register here:
https://www.bu.edu/erc/about/calendar/
Thank you!
Boston University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
617-353-2696 | grsgs@bu.edu Follow us on Instagram! @BU_GRS
Dear Colleagues,
In response to student demand, the Educational Resource Center will be offering three additional workshops this Spring! I’ve highlighted our upcoming sessions below, including our “Get Rhetty for Finals”series. All sessions will be offered remotely via Zoom! Students can register for workshops via our calendar: www.bu.edu/erc/about/calendar/. In addition to workshops, the ERC continues to offer Peer Tutoring, Writing Assistance, Language Link, and individual Academic Skills Advising via Zoom. For more information on these services, visit www.bu.edu/erc. The three workshops are as follows:
Time Management & Goal Setting Workshop
Wednesday, April 8, 3:00-4:00pm Does it feel like there are never enough hours in the day? Are you pulling all-nighters to complete assignments at the last minute? Or, perhaps, you have all of your classes and extracurricular activities color-coded in your iCal or Google Calendar, but you aren’t sure how to optimize your study time. In this workshop, you will learn essential time management principles and strategies for overcoming procrastination. You’ll also discover prioritization tools to help you confidently navigate your weekly routine and set achievable goals that build toward your long-term objectives. This workshop will be offered remotely via Zoom.
Get Rhetty for Finals: Time Management & Goal Setting Workshop
Tuesday, April 21, 3:30-4:30pm Are you tired of pulling all-nighters to complete assignments at the last minute? Do you want to learn new ways to optimize your study time? In this workshop, you will learn essential time management principles and strategies for overcoming procrastination during crunch time. You’ll also discover prioritization tools to help you confidently navigate your finals prep and set achievable goals for the coming weeks. This workshop will be offered remotely via Zoom.
Get Rhetty for Finals: Test Taking & Test Anxiety Workshop
Thursday, April 23, 1:00-2:00pm This workshop offers strategies that will help you navigate exams more efficiently, budget your time, and manage your stress levels during an exam. You will learn how to approach different types of questions on an exam and how to respond if you don’t know the answer to a question. You will also learn how to assess your performance on past exams in order to improve your study strategies. This workshop will be offered remotely via Zoom.
Sarah Garibova, Ph.D.
She | Her | Hers
Assistant Director for Outreach
Boston University| Educational Resource Center 100 Bay State Road | Boston, MA | 02215 617-353-7077 | www.bu.edu/erc
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GWISE-SARP Virtual Interrupt Training
Date: Tuesday, April 28th
Time: 6-7:30 pm
Zoom link for virtual access will be sent out to RSVPs
As April is Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month, GWISE is continuing to team up with SARP to help build a safer community for graduate students. Join us for a virtual session of Interrupt!
Interrupt is an interactive training to help graduate students identify opportunities and build skills to interrupt sexual misconduct and help create safer communities for everyone. In this 75-minute training, you will will:
· Develop a shared understanding of sexual misconduct
· Think through a step-by-step framework to help identify opportunities to interrupt.
· Practice how to interrupt in realistic scenarios where sexual misconduct is directed either at yourself or others.
· Identify sexual misconduct response and prevention resources
This event is for everyone: GWISE, WISEGuys, and all allies are welcome!
We understand during this time more than ever it is easy to feel isolated. GWISE is committed to supporting our members and fighting gender based discrimination and misconduct on behalf of our community. If you need us, we’re here to help.
24/7 Crisis Resources
SARP Crisis Line: 617-353-SARP (7277)
BUPD: 617-353-2121
Boston Area Rape Crisis Center: 800-841-8371
National Sexual Assault Hotline: (800) 656-4673
National Domestic Violence Hotline: (800) 799-7233
SafeLink (MA Domestic Violence Hotline): (877) 785-2020
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Seeking Voices: