SFU Graduate Studies

The Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan (CSFP) invites applications from Canadian and UK citizens for the 2011–12 New Zealand Commonwealth Scholarship Plan.

Awards are for doctoral study in all disciplines, and a total of eight awards are available to applicants from Canada and the United Kingdom.

One award is tenable for three years of study at each of:

• University of Auckland
• University of Canterbury
• Lincoln University
• Massey University
• University of Otago
• Victoria University of Wellington
• University of Waikato
• Auckland University of Technology

Online applications are due by July 9, 2011. Deadline has been extended to July 27, 2011.

Please consult the application guidelines before you draft your application.

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Update: This post is moving to a new home: [See our new website.]

The Faculty of Education invites all graduate students to attend Summer Institute 2011: Transitions, Innovations, and Opportunities in Education, to be held from July 14–16 at SFU’s Surrey campus.

The keynote presentations:

• Challenges of Re-Positioning Teaching and Learning in a Research-intensive University, Jonathan Driver, Vice President, Academic and Provost of Simon Fraser University
• Leadership for Mortals: Developing and Sustaining Leaders of Learning, Dean Fink, International Educational Development Consultant, Author
• Prisoner’s Dilemma and the Hidden Curriculum, Kenneth Pawlak, Faculty Member, Social Sciences Division, Langara College

In addition, the conference organizers are inviting submissions for presentations from faculty, teachers, current and former graduate students, school leaders and stakeholders. Proposals are due by June 30, 2011.

Admission to the Summer Institute is free but seating is limited so reservations are recommended.

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Update: This post is moving to a new home: [See our new website.]

Congratulations to Dr. Dennis Storoshenko, who received a Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal at SFU’s morning convocation ceremonies on June 16.

The Convocation Medal recognizes graduating students from each faculty whose cumulative grade-point averages place them in the top five per cent of their class. His doctoral thesis in the Department of Linguistics was A cross-linguistic account of reflexivity using synchronous tree adjoining grammar.

His next stop is at Yale University, where he’ll be doing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Linguistics.

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This afternoon’s convocation ceremonies is the first of three ceremonies for graduates from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Today’s graduate students were from the Department of History and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies.

We are delighted to confer a second award on Shadrach Kabango this year for completing his Graduate Liberal Studies degree — his first major award this year was a Juno for best rap recording of the year!

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The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers  (IEEE) is holding a symposium in Vancouver this July 24–27: The 20th IEEE International Symposium on Applications of Ferroelectrics, jointly held with the International Symposium on Piezoresponse Force Microscopy & Nanoscale Phenomena in Polar Materials.

Graduate students are invited to participate in the short courses on Sunday, July 24 and in the poster competition. Some financial assistance may still be available.

They’re also looking for student volunteers to help out at the symposium. Volunteers can request to be an attendant at specific sessions and will receive full admission to attend lectures and sessions around their volunteer schedule.

For information on how to get involved, contact Regan Belan, MSc candidate in chemistry, by email to rab11@sfu.ca

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This morning’s convocation saw a parade of SFU’s new PhDs in the Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology and the Faculty of Science.

Their red gowns with blue Cambridge bonnets are regalia which which originated in the monasteries of the middle ages.

At the morning convocation, Dr. Karel Lucien Casteels received his doctorate from the Department of Mathematics and was awarded the Governor General’s Gold Medal for achieving the highest academic standing upon graduation from a graduate program. His thesis was The combinatorial structure of the prime spectrum of quantum matrices.

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Dr. Colin Campbell (PhD ‘11), robed in red, led the graduands for today’s SFU’s convocation ceremony for students from the Beedie School of Business.

He also received a Dean of Graduate Studies Convocation Medal for his high grade point average, which placed him in the top five per cent of his class. His thesis was Consumer motivations for creating and consumer responses to consumer generated advertising.

If you’d like to see the rest of this week’s convocations from your computer, they’ll be broadcast online through this page. (Tip: Sarah McLachlan will be performing three songs at Wednesday morning’s convocation.)

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The Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), in partnership with CIHR’s Communications and Public Outreach Branch, is seeking to fund up to five Café Scientifiques focused on gender, sex and health research.

Grants are valued at $3,000 each. For more information, see the Update paragraph on this page.

Application deadline: June 30, 2011.

• See also: CIHR’s Cafe Scientifique looking for submissions
• Other Institute of Gender and Health awards, including several awards for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows
• Other CIHR funding opportunities

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Convocation brings many inspirational stories of growth and excellence despite early challenges.

Dr. Rob McTavish was a problem student as a child, and had been kicked out of seven elementary schools by grade 5. He attended three high schools and was expelled four times before quitting to join the Canadian army. He did well in military courses and then joined SFU’s Centre for Online and Distance education, rising through the ranks to become a distance education program director.

And this week, he will receive his PhD in educational psychology from Simon Fraser University, after receiving his high school diploma just a few months ago, as he discusses in his video above.

His inspirational story is being shared with other children by his former teacher, and Rob is hoping to continue to help support kids, including his own two boys, to have better school experiences.

• Vancouver Sun: “PhD achieves his goals despite school struggles”
• Surrey Leader: “How to Succeed in School”
• SFU press release: ‘Problem child’ grad triumphs
• Centre for Online and Distance Education program directors
• SFU 1997 press release: Grad sees virtual learning take off

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Update: This post is moving to a new home: [See our new website.]

SFU’s Graduate Student Society has just posted a new position of Advocate for graduate students.

Please see the full job description for more details of the duties, which are expected to take up approximately 28 hours per week. The rate of pay is $30.45/hour.

This is a one-year contract position that will begin in late July or early August 2011.

Cover letters and resumes are due by 4 pm on Monday, July 4 by email to hiring@sfugradsociety.ca or by mail to:

Advocate Hiring Committee
The Graduate Student Society at Simon Fraser University
MBC 2205, Simon Fraser University
8888 University Drive
Burnaby, BC  V5A 1S6

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Update: This post is moving to a new home: [See our new website.]