Michelle Guney and Matt Myers, new graduate students, slide into Percy Priest Lake during orientation activities Sunday afternoon at the Joe C. Davis YMCA Outdoor Center.
photo by Dana Johnson
Strength, flexibility of programs draw incoming graduate students
Graduate students bond with their new classmates during orientation activities Sunday. The largest group of graduate students ever started classes on Wednesday.
photo by Dana Johnson
Jim Patton, Ph.D., left, director of the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program, shares a laugh with new student Nuruddeen Lewis at Sunday’s orientation.
photo by Dana Johnson
With resounding cheers from their classmates, Vanderbilt's newest biomedical graduate students plunged into their studies this week — literally.
The 94 entering students — the largest group to date — started the week with orientation activities at the Joe C. Davis YMCA Outdoor Center, where they slid, swung, bounced and leaped into Percy Priest Lake.
“This is a great way for us to get to know each other,” said an enthusiastic Nuruddeen Lewis, who graduated this year from Alabama State University. Like many of his peers, Lewis chose Vanderbilt over competing programs because of its high-ranking graduate programs and excellent reputation, he said.
The friendly and supportive faculty swayed some students in their choice.
“The professors seemed really interested in each individual student's success, more than at other programs,” said Megan Wadington, a graduate of Augustana College.
Students also cited the wide variety of scientific research options available through the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program (IGP) and the Chemical & Physical Biology Program (CPB).
“I chose Vanderbilt because the program has so many possibilities; it offers students access to so many different fields,” said Patrick Robertson, who has worked in pharmaceutical research since graduating from North Carolina State University two years ago.
Robertson's research experience is common.
“It seems that every year there's more and more research experience among the students,” said James G. Patton, Ph.D., director of the IGP and associate professor of Biological Sciences and Biochemistry.
The IGP welcomed 84 new students, and the CPB enrolled 10 new students.
The IGP, now in its 14th 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 or programs where they complete their coursework and doctoral dissertation research.
IGP mentors include faculty members in the seven basic science departments of the Medical Center, the Neuroscience graduate program, the program in Human Genetics, 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 94 new graduate students hail from 28 states, 10 countries, and 76 colleges and universities. The group is 62 percent female.
Five of the new graduate students participated in the Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy last year or the year before. The summer program offers biomedical research opportunities to undergraduates, post-baccalaureates, and promising high school students who want to pursue a career in the biomedical sciences.
“We're thrilled when the summer program sparks an interest in graduate school here,” said Michelle Grundy, Ph.D., assistant director of Graduate Programs in Biomedical Sciences and director of the Vanderbilt Summer Science Academy.
After bonding at the YMCA Outdoor Center, the students arrived on campus Monday for “Responsible Conduct of Research” training — a daylong course focused on regulatory and ethical research-related issues.
They were then introduced to all of the departments and completed biosafety, environmental and radiation safety training before beginning classes on Wednesday.