School Notes: Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
January/February 2014

Students serve New Haven community

Close to 200 people took part in this fall’s Yale Day of Service, organized by McDougal Public Service Fellows Michelle Legaspi (chemistry) and Ted Schmid (immunobiology), working with the GPSS and the Office of Graduate Student Life. Volunteers worked at 23 local nonprofit agencies, including New Haven Farms, LEAP, the Town Green District, Ronald McDonald House, YMCA, CitySeed, New Haven Public Library, and Edgewood Park. The Yale Day of Service is one of many ways that graduate students volunteer in New Haven all through the year. 

Career guidance for science students

In November, small groups of science graduate students began to meet on a regular basis to explore the career options that align with their interests, values, and skills. The Career Development Peer Groups (CDPG) program for science students was designed to guide students to think creatively and systematically about the kind of job they want. It was created by Rebecca (Becky) Delventhal (molecular, cellular, developmental biology), who is now a Career Services Fellow. This is the third time Becky is running the program and the first time it is being cosponsored by Graduate Career Services, along with the two original sponsoring organizations, Women in Science at Yale and Career Network for Science PhDs at Yale. Representatives of all three plan and produce the program together.

Alumnus leads national research group

Political scientist Alan J. Abramson ’90PhD (political science) has been elected president of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). ARNOVA is the major national research group for scholars and others who study the nonprofit sector and philanthropy. Abramson will serve as ARNOVA’s president-elect in the coming year, and then as president. A professor of government and politics at George Mason University, he is the founding director of George Mason’s Center for Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, and Policy, which seeks to improve the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations through research, training, public education, and related activities.