About 70 graduate students from all colleges and schools will participate in oral presentations and a scholarly poster session and compete for cash prizes on Graduate Student Day. Graduate Student Week is observed annually across the country during the first week of April.

“It’s a really good opportunity for our graduate students to celebrate what they’ve been researching and studying, “said Christine Ebert, dean of The Graduate School.

“For students, it’s a good time to hear about what other graduate students are doing and to learn from one another about both subject matter and presentation style. For professors, it’s a day when they can be really proud of their students.

“Everyone I’ve talked to who has been to Graduate Student Day in the past has been very impressed with what the students say and do and the number of quality presentations that we have. The day shows just how good the quality of our graduate students is.”

“Graduate student Day allows our students to lead by example for the students who will come along after them,” said Judith Giblin James, associate dean in The Graduate School. “In a way, it’s a map of what’s possible for graduate student research.”

This year’s Graduate Student Day will feature oral presentations in nine categories, including engineering, the environment, health/life sciences, humanities/regional and global studies, information and technology, language and communications, performing arts, physical sciences, and social issues.

Oral presentations will begin at 8 a.m. and end about noon. The 15-minute presentations will be held in meeting rooms on the second and third floors of the Russell House. Winners of the oral presentations will receive $1,000 for first place, $500 for second, and $200 for third.

Graduate Student Day also will feature a scholarly poster session beginning at 10 a.m. in the third-floor lobby of the Russell House. The posters will be on display for the entire day. The first-place winner will receive $700; second place, $400; and third place, $200.

The poster session and all oral presentations are open to the public.

The panel of judges for the oral presentations and the scholarly poster session will include two faculty members and a graduate student. “We try to place the judges out of their major fields for both the oral presentations and the scholarly poster session,” said Anthony Edwards, senior assistant to the dean of The Graduate School.

Graduate Student Day will begin with a continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m. A light luncheon featuring heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served from noon to 1 p.m.

The awards ceremony will begin at 1 p.m. in the Russell House Ball Room. The ceremony will recognize winners from the morning’s oral presentations and poster session competitions and recipients of departmental awards and other awards presented by The Graduate School. This year, the number of awards has increased, Edwards said.

Provost Becker will be the speaker at the awards ceremony, and academic deans have been invited. President Sorensen will be honored by the General Assembly that day and will not be able to attend.

The Graduate Student Association has planned a new event to follow the awards ceremony. A carnival at Davis Field will include music, vendors, and a cookout. “The students wanted to make it more of a celebration that involved family and friends,” Ebert said.

Besides recognizing USC’s outstanding students on Graduate Student Day, The Graduate School has added a new page to its Web site to honor students who have won awards and received other recognition. The Graduate School’s Web address is www.gradschool.sc.edu.

“On Graduate Student Accolades, we post pictures and write-ups about our award winners,” Edwards said. “We’d like to know about graduate students who have won awards so we can post the information on the Web. We want to post the information year-round.”

To have information included on the Accolades page, call Edwards at 7-6399 or e-mail him at AE@gwm.sc.edu.

“Each year we ask for help from faculty, staff, and graduate students, and we want to say a big thank you for helping us out and that we appreciate them,” Edwards said. “If faculty want to serve on the Faculty Advisory Committee, we are always open to having more members. We try to make it as collaborative as possible.”

Faculty members interested in serving on the committee should contact Edwards.

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