The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions Hosts Sixth Annual ELEVATE Program
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Brandy Jones | brandy.jones@gse.rutgers.edu | 848-932-0788
New Brunswick, N.J., September 7, 2021— This week, the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) will host its annual early-career faculty training program, ELEVATE (Enriching Learning, Enhancing Visibility & Training Educators) in New Brunswick, NJ. The three-day program will include a series of interactive sessions on how to best maneuver the challenges associated with being tenure-track faculty at a Minority Serving Institution (MSI).
Facilitated by CMSI and senior faculty mentors with years of experiential knowledge working at or with MSIs, ELEVATE will present Fellows with a valuable opportunity to network and connect with other early-career faculty members. Speakers will discuss topics that include publishing and pedagogical techniques, effective mentoring practices, op-ed writing, work-life balance, achieving tenure, and grant writing. Each session is curated to directly address the distinct needs and preparation gaps that can prematurely impede early-career faculty at MSIs from advancing their careers.
“ELEVATE allows our Fellows to gain insights from experienced faculty who have achieved tenure and found professional success,” said Marybeth Gasman, Executive Director of the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions and the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Endowed Chair. “This is especially vital as we aim to cultivate communal knowledge amongst the group that has the potential to not only influence individual behavior but also have an impact on the institutions that they return to.”
Supported by The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations, ELEVATE intends to encourage community building through ongoing learning, training, and networking of early career MSI faculty by offering a platform for collaboration that prompts participants to forge meaningful partnerships. In an attempt to foster a community of MSI scholars, the program will also provide participants with the tools necessary to support faculty at their home institutions.
“We have worked to design ELEVATE in a way that is not only geared toward helping early-career MSI faculty navigate the professoriate, but allows Fellows to have fun, meet like-minded individuals from all over the nation, and gain tools that are necessary to be successful in academia,” says Brandy Jones, Director for Programs and Communications at CMSI. “After over a year of isolation and limited community building, we are excited to host a safe event and bring people together in a new and refreshing way.”
About the Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions
The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions (CMSI) brings together researchers and practitioners from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Asian American, Native American, and Pacific Islander Serving Institutions. CMSI’s goals include: elevating the educational contributions of MSIs; ensuring that they are a part of national conversations; bringing awareness to the vital role MSIs play in the nation’s economic development; increasing the rigorous scholarship of MSIs; connecting MSIs’ academic and administrative leadership to promote reform initiatives; and strengthening efforts to close educational achievement gaps among disadvantaged communities. The Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions is part of the Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity and Justice (Proctor Institute) at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University, New Brunswick. For further information about CMSI, please visit http://cmsi.gse.rutgers.edu/.
About The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Organized in 1952 under a living trust established by Mr. Arthur Vining Davis, The Foundations bear witness to Mr. Davis' successful corporate leadership acumen and his visionary, entrepreneurial spirit in philanthropy. Since inception, the Foundations have provided philanthropy to American higher education, medicine and health care, interfaith leadership, and to public educational media for children and for historical and scientific documentaries with national distribution. Under the Foundations’ 2017-2022 strategic plan, the AVDF Board of Trustees will consider proposals aligned with two new additional philanthropic priorities: environmental engagement, stewardship and solutions; and palliative and end of life care. For more information, please visit http://www.avdf.org/.
