The School of Graduate Studies, in partnership with the other University of Missouri campuses, has initiated a program to help promising graduate students further develop their professional skills to make them more effective leaders and more competitive in the job market. A call went out for applications from students in the Fall 2013 semester. A large number of applications were received. Five students were selected as a class for the current academic year, and five for next academic year. Those chosen for the current academic year are: Kaustubh Dhondge, a PhD student in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering; Fohona S. Coulibaly, a PhD student in Pharmaceutical Sciences; Morgan Groteweil, a PhD student in Counseling and Educational Psychology; Harika Vemula, a PhD student in Pharmaceutical Science; and Divya Kamath, a PhD student in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry.
Those chosen for the class of 2014-15 are: Kimberly D. Johnson, an EdD student in Higher Education Administration; LaShaundra Randolph, an EdD student in Higher Education Administration; Feichen Shen, a PhD student in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering; Opeyemi Zubair, a PhD student in Geosciences; and Pejman Rezakhani, a PhD student in Civil and Mechanical Engineering.
Students were selected on the basis of clear career aspirations, the unique strengths they articulated that they would bring to the program, what the student perceived they would gain from the program, and how well the student made the case that their participation would benefit their unit and/or UMKC. Congratulations to all of those selected from a competitive pool.