Issue 5, Spring 2024

News & Announcements

• Congratulations to our GradTeach Live! Winners
• Graduate Student Congress Regalia Rental Closet
• March Webinar Series: How to Decide Between an Academic and Nonacademic Career
• Graduate Career Consortium PhD & Master's Virtual Career Expo (3/6/24)
• The Kentucky Graduate Internship (3/11/24)
• ETS Scholarship Opportunities (3/15/24)
• Department of Family & Community Medicine Research Fellowship (3/18/24)
• Recruiting Entrepreneurial Fellows at the CBC (3/28/24)
• UK Research Sleep Study
• GradScholar: A Doctoral Re-Orientation (4/5/24)
• Income Tax Webinars for International Students (4/5/24)
• American Journal of Hypertension Summer School 2024 (5/1/24)

Reminders

• ETD Submitters Tips
• Course Repeatability
• For Graduating Master (Plan A & Plan B) and Specialist Students: Degree Audit
• Responsible Conduct of Research
• Graduate-Level Fellowships & Funding Opportunities
• Thomas D. Clark Graduate Study 
• Graduate Student Resources 

Congratulations to our GradTeach Live! Winners

Congratulations to our Winners!

First Place: Nadia Sesay, Communication

Second Place & People's Choice: Motunrayo Oladele, Chemistry

Third Place: Cassy Jane Werking, History

UK GradTeach Live! recognizes the importance of teaching at UK by celebrating and showcasing the central role graduate teaching assistants have in the university’s instructional mission. The final event was held last Thursday, and the presenters were welcomed by an excited audience. Thanks to all our participants and congratulations to our winners!

Left to Right: Nadia Sesay, Cassy Jane Werking, and Motunrayo Oladele

Graduate Student Congress Regalia Rental Closet

The Graduate Student Congress is happy to announce that the FREE Graduate Student Congress Regalia Rental Closet for May 24’ Commencement is now accepting rental requests!

Please use the link below to reserve your FREE regalia before April 26^th, 2024. Feel free to reach out to Sarah (snca229@uky.edu ) or Maaz (mffa224@uky.edu) if you have any questions.

https://uky.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_06WzteVHs0d93y6

March Webinar Series: How to Decide Between an Academic and Nonacademic Career

EVERY WEDNESDAY IN MARCH | 12:00 PM-12:30 PM ET

PhDs work wherever smart people are needed. In today’s creative economy, a faculty career isn’t the only option for PhDs who are seeking engaging and rewarding work. PhDs work in every part of the economy – industry, nonprofits, higher education, and government.

But what career pathway will be right for YOU?

This special workshop series is designed to walk doctoral students, PhDs and postdocs through a series of exercises to help them evaluate career options and identify next steps in building their career either as faculty or beyond the professoriate.

When: Every Wednesday in March from 12 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET

Format: The virtual workshops include instruction, reflective prompts and exercises, and opportunities for participants to ask questions directly to the Beyond Prof team.

Who should attend: This series is uniquely designed for doctoral students, PhDs, and postdocs from all academic disciplines who are wondering:

• Is a faculty career path right for me?

• What other career options are available to PhDs in my discipline?

• How to identify career pathways that are right for me?

• What can I do with my PhD?

The webinar will be held via Beyond the Professoriate, which you can access via UK's institutional subscription. Advanced registration is required. Register here: https://institutions.beyondprof.com/march-webinar-series-academic-vs-nonacademic-careers/

Graduate Career Consortium PhD & Master's Virtual Career Expo

The Kentucky Graduate Internship

The Graduate School is piloting a summer internship opportunity for doctoral students who want to explore a career direction that is related to their research but is not within academia, nor in the field that is a typical career outcome for that degree program.

Examples:

• A Political Science student wants to apply their knowledge of a critical issue to work in a government agency focused on that problem.
• A Psychology student wants to see if HR work is the career direction that fits their interests and skills.
• A Communications student is interested in helping an NGO develop campaign strategies.
• A Plant and Soil Sciences student wants to explore work on regional environmental issues.
• 
  

Eligibility: Doctoral students (PhD, EdD, DMA) who have passed their qualifying exams and have completed no less than three years, and no more than six, towards the degree. Applications from advanced MFA students will also be considered.

Application portal opens March 11. See further details on the Graduate School’s website here. 

ETS Scholarship Opportunity

The ETS Cares Scholarships are 100% funded by donations from ETS employees for students who, despite facing considerable personal challenges, overcame and achieved academic excellence. More than $1 million in scholarships have been awarded since the program's inception in 2011.

Application Portal Opens: February 1, 2024

Application Deadline: March 15, 2024

Department of Family & Community Medicine Research Fellowship

The Department of Family & Community Medicine, Division of Research, announces that applications are now open for our research fellowship! This opportunity is available to any graduate-level or medical student already enrolled at UK

Further information:

The fellowship can be completed with any faculty member at the University, but should address basic areas of interest to primary care and population health and must include a member of the Department of Family & Community Medicine on the mentorship team. All students must have an identified mentor in order to apply. Students who do not have a mentor in mind should email the program director and she may be able to help identify a faculty member with interest in taking a student.

The dates also are flexible and are to be arranged with the mentor, but must culminate with a presentation to our faculty and an external presentation. Fellows are paid for anywhere from 10-40 hours a week across an 8 week period, depending on the needs of the project and availability as agreed upon with the mentorship team and as approved by the fellowship director.

Here is the link containing all the information and application information: https://medicine.uky.edu/departments/familymedicine/summer-research-program

Due date is Friday, March 18, 2024 by 5pm.

Recruiting Entrepreneurial Fellows at the CBC

UK Research Sleep Study

SAVE THE DATE for GradScholar: A Doctoral Re-Orientation

Date: Friday, April 5, 2024

Time: 1:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. EST

Location: Room 330AB, Gatton Student Center

GradScholar will assist doctoral candidates in navigating the difficult transition from graduate student to independent scholar. Participants in GradScholar can expect to learn more about and engage in meaningful conversations on:

• Dissertation writing and completion strategies.
• Effectively working with your advisor and doctoral committee.
• Writing with publication in mind.
• Peer advice on where/how to start and keep the momentum going.
• Resources and support for academic and career professional development.
• And more!

Eligibility: GradScholar is for graduate students who have recently entered the candidacy stage of their doctoral degree, or those who are close to completing their qualifying/comprehensive exams. As such, doctoral students must have completed, or will complete, their qualifying/comprehensive exam between May 2023 and May 2024 to participate.

Registration is coming soon! Please mark the date on your calendar, and we will notify you via email and this newsletter when the registration has launched.

Income Tax Webinars for International Students

International Student & Scholar Services (ISSS) at UK is pleased to announce the following webinars for J-1 scholars and F-1/J-1 international students to learn more about filing a tax return for federal, state tax income or other tax filing forms (1040NR, 8843, W-7 etc.). Webinars will be hosted by our provider Sprintax. Sprintax is a tax preparation service used only for F and J visas who cannot use other tax services for U.S. residents. All F and J students and scholars must file a tax form 8843 even if you didn’t work in 2023 but were physically present in 2023.

These tax webinars will provide general information and explain how to file your tax forms using a free tax discount code or embedded link. UK provides tax preparation software to help you file one federal for FREE. International students and scholars are responsible to pay for any additional forms such as state tax forms, ITIN or other tax related forms, if applicable. A discount will apply for J-2/F-2 dependents when filing the Form 8843 together as a family. For these additional services you may also choose to use the services of UK’s Legal Tax Clinic offered through the law school.

University of Kentucky specific processing tax webinars

• Sprintax Nonresident Tax Webinar 3 - University of Kentucky on Mar 22, 2024 12:00 PM EDT at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8657321896589484117
• Sprintax Nonresident Tax Webinar 4 - University of Kentucky on Apr 5, 2024 4:30 PM EDT at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8225009317710758233

Other PUBLIC Webinar Dates

Public webinars offer general information but will not explain how to obtain access using the special discount codes which are made available to you by ISSS. However, they can be useful to understand how to use Sprintax software and complete the forms properly. Students may be unable to ask individual questions as it’s open to anyone.

• Tuesday March 5th @ 4pm ET – Register here
• Wednesday March 20th @ 2pm ET – Register here
• Wednesday March 27th @ 1pm ET – Register here 
• Thursday April 4th @ 3pm ET – Register here
• Wednesday April 10th @ 12pm ET – Register here
• Monday April 15th @ 1pm ET – Register here 

American Journal of Hypertension Summer School 2024

Reminders

ETD Submitters Tips

We recommend that each day you work on your thesis or dissertation, you save your document under a brief name that ends with the current date. For example, "Ch One 24-Mar-2012", then tomorrow, "Ch One 25-Mar-2012." You will have a chronological archive of your work in case you make an inadvertent change or even lose the file on which you are currently working. It’s well worth the expense of buying removable media such as a flash drive, or saving your work to the cloud. It’s also a good idea to have copies in multiple places. It takes a bit more time, but sensible backup procedures can save you from a lot of heartbreak and many hours of lost time down the road.

Course Repeatability

It is important to be familiar with the repeatability limits of courses.

If a student exceeds the limit, the Registrar’s Office will not assign academic credit to the course. The Graduate School cannot support petitions for exceptions to this policy.



For Graduating Master (Plan A & Plan B) and Specialist Students: Degree Audit

Conducting a degree audit is critically important during the semester you intend to graduate. Checking at the start of the semester gives you a view of the requirements you have satisfied and those that are remaining.

If you discover a course that was wrongly assigned to a requirement, or not credited, you should bring this to the attention of your DGS (Director of Graduate Studies) or your program advisor. The program should contact the student affairs officer for the area/ discipline well in advance of the final examination to resolve. If there are requirements that have not been met, then you and your program will need to decide it there are substitutions that will fulfill that requirement.

Responsible Conduct of Research

Graduate-Level Fellowship & Funding Opportunities

The Graduate School's office of Finance, Funding, and Analytics maintains a webpage of fellowship opportunities available through the university. They also keep a list of some external funding sources.

Additionally, UK Research's Proposal Development Office is a great resource to discover extramural research funding and award opportunities.