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UTMB features more than 50 student organizations that
serve its culturally diverse student population. Many of these organizations
welcome membership of graduate students; the
Graduate Student Organization is
specifically for graduate students. The
Office of Student Life supports
the various student organizations, helps plan a wide range of student events,
provides the university community with culturally diverse programming, and
sponsors an annual classical concert series. Campus Life also coordinates an
annual new student retreat and a variety of intramural athletic events.
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The Student Government Association (SGA) is dedicated to
improving the students' academic, social and cultural environments. Each student
contributes indirectly to these aims by payment of the student activity fee, a
percentage of which goes to SGA. Students participate directly by taking
advantage of the services offered and by getting involved in SGA itself.
Be sure to visit their website.
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Brief History of the Graduate
Student Organization, Membership and Purpose:
The
Graduate Student Organization (GSO) was founded in
conjunction with the establishment of the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences
(GSBS), in the late 1960s. The GSO is faculty-sponsored, registered with the
Office of Student Life
and is an official member of the UTMB
Student Government Association.
The GSO is a student governance organization that also serves in educational,
professional, service-oriented, social, and recreational capacities.
Membership is open to individuals registered as full- or
part-time graduate students at the University of Texas Medical Branch at
Galveston (UTMB). The purpose of the GSO is to facilitate and direct all
graduate student functions in the best interests of graduate students and the
graduate school.
The GSO consists
of all graduate students and is led by an annually elected executive committee
composed of a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, and departmental
representatives from each of the thirteen programs within the GSBS.
Additionally, three graduate students are elected annually to serve as senators
on the Student Government Association (SGA), which is the representative body of
the four schools, the School of Allied Health Sciences (SAHS), the School of
Nursing (SON), the School of Medicine (SOM), and the Graduate School of
Biomedical Sciences (GSBS), at UTMB.
There are also
various committees graduate students to which are appointed or elected to serve
by the GSO. One graduate student serves on the university Budget Committee
(which oversees and allocates funding for student activities in all of the four
schools). Two students serve as members of the Graduate Executive Committee.
Another two serve on the GSBS Recruitment Committee in an advisory role in
recruiting potential graduate students. Two more serve on the Graduate Program
Review Committee, which develops procedures and establishes guidelines for the
periodic review of the graduate programs. Two graduate students serve on the
Curriculum Committee which reviews and oversees curricular matters within all
the graduate programs.
The GSO, through various connections with other schools at
UTMB and the graduate school administration, fosters communication between
students in various programs as well as the interaction of students with the
graduate faculty and administration. A GSO newsletter and contributions to the
OMNI (the campus-wide
student newsletter) also promotes connection and communication between graduate
students and UTMB.
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The purpose of the Committee on Career Development (CCD)
is to aid in preparing graduate students at UTMB for their future careers.
Skills such as teaching, grant writing, interviewing, and lab management may or
may not be a part of their traditional program of study. Therefore, the CCD
organizes workshops and seminars that introduce these skills to students.
Another important focus of the CCD is to introduce students to careers
alternative to the traditional route of academia. Career opportunities are
available in areas such as industry, biotechnology, politics, legislation,
primary and secondary education, journal editing and scientific consulting.
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In the spring of 1995, through the leadership of two graduate students, Andrew
Burrows (a graduate student senator and MD/PhD student in the department of
Neuroscience) and Adrian Billings (a graduate student senator and then GSO
president and a PhD student in the department of Pathology), the Society for
Biomedical Research (SBR) was established. The intent of the SBR is to promote
the research activities of all students at UTMB (from all the four schools) by
fostering intramural and extramural interactions.
Service:
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Campus-Oriented
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GSO outstanding teacher
award--recognizes exemplary teaching skills and dynamic personality.
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GSO student award--recognizes the
most active graduate student.
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Community
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Galveston Area Child Protective
Services Annual Christmas Toy Drive--donations of gifts and money are
collected for children under the care of CPS.
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Helps with the restoration of
Victorian homes in the Galveston historical district.
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Helps with the AKK Haunted House
provided for the Galveston youths for Halloween.
Social:
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The Dean's Back-to-School
Party--acquaint new students with the senior graduate students as well as
reacquaint the senior graduate students with one another.
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QUEST--participation with the other
three schools in welcoming all the new students to UTMB.
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New Year's Party
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Spring Picnic
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TGIF event to benefit the entire
campus and promote interaction between all the four schools.
Recreational:
The graduate student population within the GSBS is not
homogeneous, but rather heterogeneous. Students have varied backgrounds (ranging
from newly graduated from college to others married with careers and experience,
and perhaps not in the field that they are presently pursuing), come from
different cultures, and have dissimilar experiences. However, the differences do
not impede the desire for the pursuit of knowledge, nor the ability to
understand each other. The GSO serves in its greatest capacity when it provides
occasions for realizing the connections each graduate student has with one
another regardless of the differences.
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The
Lee
Hage Jamail Student Center has recently opened
and is the first facility of its type
on the Medical Branch campus. It serves as a place all UTMB
students can call their own and features a cafeteria, meeting
rooms for student organizations, and areas devoted to reading,
studying and recreation. The center also houses the Campus Life
and Student Government Association offices. Through
the magic of the world wide web, you can take
a
Virtual Tour
through the Student Center!
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The
Counseling Center provides timely, professional and strictly
confidential support, free of charge, to all UTMB students.
Services include:
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Individual counseling
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Group counseling
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Marital, relationship and family counseling
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Pastoral counseling
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Psychological assessment and career consultation
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Psychiatric consultation
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Crisis intervention
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Legal consultation
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Financial and investment planning
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Referrals
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Seminars, discussions and workshops
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Counselors in the Office of Student Fiscal Planning and Management
work one-on-one with students to locate funding sources and provide
emergency assistance when needed to ensure that each student has a
chance to complete his or her education.
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This site can only be accessed by students on
campus.
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The
National Student Research Forum is a
competition, administrated by students, for students. It has been hosted
annually by UTMB since its inception in 1960. One of the few national
competitions exclusively for student research, the forum draws entrants
from throughout the United States and Canada. Students may register
online at the
NSRF website.
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