The Sway | April 2024

Bison Trailblazers | Howard Students Leave Their Mark at Mt. Chacaltaya

by Anna De Cheke Qualls |

Howard has a footprint even on top of the Bolivia's 17785-foot Mount Chacaltaya. It is home to the world’s highest Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) station, where senior research scientist Dr. David Whiteman took a group of Howard undergrads recently.

My Story | My Maternal Health Story

by Imani Cabassa-George | Black Maternal Health Week is recognized each year from April 11-17 to bring attention and action to improving Black maternal health. During this year's campaign, I’ve been reflecting on my own personal Black maternal health story that led me to pursue my PhD at Howard. I found out in February of 2020 that I was pregnant. Exactly three weeks later, the world was completely shut down because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Navigating pregnancy already brings its challenges, but navigating it during a global pandemic - when you are forced to maintain social distance protocols from everyone who is usually a part of your community - definitely brought on a toll that I didn’t expect.

Bison Trailblazers | Cuban Study Abroad Impacts Doctoral Studies

by Imani Cabassa-George | Have you ever pictured yourself in a different country, learning the culture, exploring the cuisine, and meeting new people? Studying abroad is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that offers those very experiences. For doctoral student Geneva Greene, her time in Cuba last year, also impacted her research and career goals.

Word to the Wise | Kendra Coronado

by Anna De Cheke Qualls | As an aspiring chemist and biracial woman, Kendra Coronado never saw any scientists who looked like her. Through her journey, she hopes to inspire black and brown students to pursue STEM without some of the limits she experienced. "We all have something to give to this world in our unique way but when we see someone who looks like us it lifts us up to believe that nothing is impossible," says Coronado.

For this month's Dean's Corner, it gives me great pleasure to celebrate a few of our students whose degrees will be conferred at commencement this year. The four scholars highlighted below are evidence of the range of research emanating from the Graduate School.

Rhema White will earn the Ph.D. in Communication, Culture, and Media Studies. A scholar in the Media and Culture Studies track, Rhema maintained a 4.0 GPA in the program. Her dissertation title “Taking Over for the ‘99 and the 2000s”: A Comparative Textual Analysis of Black Reboots, Remakes, and Re-imaginings, Black Twitter, and 1990s/2000s Afro-Nostalgia.

Brandy Jackson will earn the Ph.D. in Higher Education, Leadership, and Policy Studies. Ms. Jackson is a returning student who is no stranger to Howard. She is an assistant dean for enrollment in the School of Education and a tireless advocate for students.

President Vinson's Engagement Tour Report Is Out

In September 2023, Ben Vinson, III, Ph.D., Howard University’s 18th President, embarked upon the Bison Engagement Tour at the start of his administration, to connect with a cross-section of members from the Howard University community. The objective of the tour was to deepen his understanding of what makes Howard unique and to assist the administration with effectively addressing the needs of and leveraging strengths of our community.

This month, Howard University released a comprehensive report detailing key insights from the Bison Engagement Tour which included meetings with all 14 schools and colleges, the Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, the Howard University Student Association (HUSA), Faculty Senate, and the University's Board of Trustees.

Congratulations | Bouchet Honor Society Inductees

Nine Howard University PhD students and one doctoral alumni were formally inducted into the national Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society on April 6 at a ceremony during Yale University's Annual Bouchet Conference in New Haven, Connecticut. Austin Anderson, Tia M. Dickerson, Jonece Layne, Jimisha Relerford, Anaiya Reliford, Kirsten Sims, Lauren L. Taylor, Phillip Warfield, Tiffany Wheatland-Disu, and Malick Kebe joined a prestigious national network of peers from the Society chapters at 19 American universities. This year’s honorees were all invited to present their research at Yale's Conference.

The HBCU Doctoral Career Pathways Conference had record numbers?

The third annual (virtual) HBCU Doctoral Career Pathways Conference had 480 registrants this March. Over the course of four days, there were 15 different career panels, an evening networking session, and 60 doctoral speakers. In total, a combined 524 people attended these sessions.

BisonHub is here?

The system that faculty and staff currently call Workday and the system students will use for their academic and financial transactions, will now be called BisonHub! BisonHub is Howard's version of the global cloud-based system, Workday. Every month the website below is updated to include new features that students can appreciate. Use this link to access and bookmark the website to stay up to date: bisonhub.howard.edu

As a follow-up to the Doctoral Career Pathways Conference, the Graduate School will be offering the following to all HBCU graduate students:

How to Establish Your Digital Identity

May 1, 2024 | 12:00 - 1:00 PM EST | Registration (required): bit.ly/3vXIYf1

The Sway is Howard University Graduate School's news publication. It serves to celebrate and highlight graduate student, alumni, faculty and staff achievements and updates. It is published regularly during the academic year.

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We also encourage all alumni to join one of our networks on LinkedIn. The Doctoral Alumni Network can be found here, and the Master's Network here. The Graduate School also regularly publishes updates on its social media channels: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

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