Call for Applications- Division C Graduate Student Committee Junior Co-Chair

The Division C Graduate Student Committee is in the process of accepting applications for the Division C Graduate Student Committee (GSC) junior co-chair position. This is an excellent way for you to get involved and participate in the Division C community. Below you will find the call for applications, roles and responsibilities. Applications are due Monday, February 24, 2014. 

Division C Graduate Students
Call for Applications
Due February 24, 2014 

The Division C Graduate Student Committee is currently accepting applications for the Committee Junior Co-Chair position.

The Graduate Student Committee is a six member graduate student team dedicated to serving Division C graduate students and representing Division C within the larger AERA organization.

Position available
The Division C Committee Junior Co-Chair is responsible for working with the Senior Co-Chair/s in preparing articles for Division C’s online journal, in addition to coordinating graduate student seminars at the Annual AERA Meeting. The Junior Co-Chair is the direct link with all campus liaisons and is expected to send monthly newsletters to campus liaisons for distribution. The Junior Co-Chair also recruits campus liaisons and should plan to communicate regularly with university faculty and graduate students. Further duties include coordination with the Division C President and assisting Committee members in preparing newsletter articles as necessary.

The Division C Junior Co-Chair is also responsible for identifying potential speakers for the Division C Fireside Chat held at the Annual Meeting, and also assists the Committee members with preparing Division C Graduate Student Seminars at the annual meeting. The Junior Co-Chair will work with the Senior Co-Chair to prepare a “Division C” poster for the annual meeting, and work with other Graduate Student Council members from across AERA divisions to host the resource center during the annual meeting. The Junior Co-Chair is also responsible for working with the Senior Representative in preparing articles for the Graduate Student Council’s online newsletter, Connections, as well as the Graduate Student Report to both the general Division C audience and the AERA Graduate Student Council during the annual meeting.

Commitment Time: If you want to serve as a Junior Co-Chair you must be able to serve for two years.

Skills Needed: To serve Division C, in a graduate student leadership capacity, you must be able to work well under strict timelines, and with little guidance beyond the Senior Co-Chair. Strong writing skills are a plus, and a willingness to happily serve others is a necessity. Passion for the advancement of Division C initiatives and research, and for the success of graduate students in the division is absolutely vital.

**Prior involvement in student governance or AERA is NOT required.**
Applications: You will need to submit a letter of interest, vita, and two letters of references. In your letter of interest, please explain why you would be a good fit. If you have any questions, please feel free to email any Division C Graduate Student Council member.

Send: All materials as attachments including, (1) your letter of interest, (2) vita, (3) and two letters of reference to Stephanie Wormington, Co-Chair, Graduate Student Committee (wormingt@msu.edu).

Graduate Student Liaison Spotlight: Meet Yi Jiang

Name: Yi Jiang

Hometown: ShangHai, China           

Current university: Korea University, South Korea

Program: PhD in Educational Psychology

Advisor: Dr. Sung-il Kim and Dr. Mimi Bong

Graduation year: Spring 2015

Hobbies: Traveling, watching movies, and playing basketball

How did you decide to go to graduate school?

            I decided to go to graduate school simply because I have experienced so many difficulties during my short term teaching period. I felt the need of knowing more about students’ motivation processes in learning situation. After I graduate from master program, I realized that I prefer doing research rather than teaching in the school, so I made a commitment to devote myself into academic field and started my PhD program.

 What did you do before going to graduate school?

            My major in undergraduate school is teaching Chinese as a foreign language, I came to South Korea and became a Chinese language teacher after I graduated. This one year teaching experience was amazing. I met lots of wonderful friends and decided to start my graduate life at Korea University.

What do you like best about your program/school?

The greatest advantage of educational psychology program in Korea University is that we have an interdisciplinary consolidation of motivation research. We can learn and apply diverse research methods and techniques such as brain-imaging, laboratory and field experiments, surveys, and longitudinal modeling to develop a comprehensive model of human motivation. All the courses are taught in English so there is no language gap for foreign students. Besides, the colleagues here are friendly and the professors are supportive. I like the learning environment here a lot. My lab, brain and motivation research institute, holds an annual symposium on motivation. Famous researchers from all around the world were invited to the seminar and to interact with graduate students.

What are you current research interests?

            I have great interest in neuro-education, which is a novel and viable research field. I think it is inevitable for educational psychology field to integrate neuro-biological evidences in order to understand human motivation comprehensively. I have conducted several studies by using neuro-imaging technique such as testing the neural correlates of different types of reward contingency and examining the effects of informative feedback on emotion regulation. In addition, I am also interested in how academic interest develops, how perceived competence and value interacts and then influences self-regulation.     

What is your favorite article and why?

            I enjoyed lots of good papers and it is hard to choose a particular article as favorite. Both latest empirical articles about motivation and neuropsychological and oldest theoretical paper about various motivation theories are fascinating and worth reading.  

What was your proudest moment or greatest accomplishment?

            I think the greatest accomplishment in my past graduate life was that I completed my master thesis as an independent researcher. It was a neuro-imaging study and has been presented at the 16th annual meeting of Organization for Human Brain Mapping. The paper is currently under review for journal publication, and I hope it can bring me another gratifying moment.

Is there anything else you would want the Division C members to know?

            I think Division C cares a lot about its student members. However, it will be great if more students, especially those from outside the U.S main land, have more opportunity to participate in various activities that hold by Division C.