Shaun Cole, a new Interdisciplinary Graduate Program student, climbs the swinging pole section of the alpine tower at Camp Widjiwagan during orientation activities for graduate students. Photo by Anne Rayner
Graduate students begin ascent toward Ph.D.
Judsen Schneider, left, and David Lund race down the water slide into J. Percy Priest Lake. The two new IGP students were enjoying graduate student orientation activities earlier this week. Photo by Anne Rayner
Beth Loecken, a new IGP student, is lowered to the ground after climbing the 50-foot alpine tower during graduate school orientation activities earlier this week. Photo by Anne Rayner
For Vanderbilt’s incoming biomedical graduate students, school started this week with a return to summer camp. The Joe C. Davis YMCA Outdoor Center — home of Camp Widjiwagan — was the site of a two-day retreat focusing on survival skills, communication skills and responsible conduct of research.
Between the presentations and group discussions, students climbed the 50-foot alpine tower, slid screaming into J. Percy Priest Lake and relaxed on the beach.
The retreat’s goals were twofold, said G. Roger Chalkley, D. Phil., senior associate dean for Biomedical Research Education and Training: providing education in the standards of research integrity and offering a relaxed venue were students could get to know each other before they arrived on campus Wednesday for their “official” orientation.
The Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) welcomed 75 new students, and the Chemical & Physical Biology Program (CPB) welcomed seven new students.
The IGP, now in its 13th year, recruits and educates graduate students who are interested in biological and biomedical research. The CPB was launched in 2001 for students with a quantitative sciences background who wish to pursue research in areas that span the boundaries of the chemical, physical, and biological sciences.
Both programs organize the training of students during their first year at Vanderbilt. At the end of the first year, students choose mentors and home departments where they complete their coursework and dissertation research.
IGP mentors include faculty members in the seven basic science departments of the Medical Center, the Neuroscience graduate program, and the department of Biological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science. The CPB program includes a subset of IGP faculty interested in structural and chemical biology as well as members of the departments of Chemistry, Mathematics, and Physics.
The new students hail from around the world, with the greatest number coming from the eastern United States. About 15 percent are minority students, Chalkley said.
The incoming IGP and CPB students have more research experience than ever before, Chalkley said.
“Ten or 15 years ago, it would have been unusual for a student to have laboratory experience outside of the usual college coursework and perhaps an undergraduate research project,” he said. “Now we’re seeing students with extensive and fairly sophisticated research knowledge.
“I don’t think I could get into this place.”
Judsen Schneider and Beth Loecken exemplify this new breed of graduate student. Schneider, a graduate of Kalamazoo College, has worked for the past year in the Vanderbilt laboratory of Christopher D. Ferris, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of Medicine. Schneider initially intended to go to medical school, but “fell in love with research,” he said.
Loecken worked for a year at a medical diagnostics laboratory in Saint Paul, Minn., after graduating from Hamline University. She planned during college to continue her scientific education and chose Vanderbilt for its “superb faculty,” she said.
This year, the incoming graduate students were joined at the retreat by postdoctoral fellows, clinical fellows and scientists interested in learning about regulatory and ethical research-related issues. About 200 investigators and budding scientists participated in the training.