Diving into Research

On the fifth floor of TTUHSC, many Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences students are hard at work not only with their research, but also with the Graduate Student Association (GSA).

The new GSA leadership team has a year filled with activities and community outreach. Allie Clinton, GSA President and a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Immunology and Molecular Microbiology, said GSA has always played a very active role in promoting and supporting students to showcase their research.

“The main thing we’d like for the others at TTUHSC to know about GSA is that we’re here and that we do our best to make the graduate student life a little more fun,” Clinton said. “Most of us are hidden up on the fifth floor doing our research, and we often get overlooked.”

Clinton said this year GSA would continue working to increase visibility and participation within TTUHSC and the community.

“We have a weekly Journal Club where students present their research or any interesting article they may come across,” Clinton said. “The purpose of this completely student organized Journal Club is to encourage public speaking and inter-departmental student interaction.”

Clinton said presenting at the student Journal Club and participating in community service and fundraising events makes students eligible to receive travel funds.

“Last year we supported student travel to conferences in Washington D.C., San Diego, New Orleans, San Francisc, as well as Canada and Germany, just to name a few,” Clinton said.

Clinton said since entering graduate school can be daunting to new students, the GSA organizes a New Student GSBS retreat every fall to welcome students as well as to display research within the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences for new students to make an informed decision with regard to lab rotations. Following the retreat, GSA also organizes a picnic that includes students, faculty and staff.

“This year, we also plan to invite graduate students from the Department of Biological Sciences Texas Tech University Association of Biologists to promote interprofessional collaboration with main campus,” Clinton said.

Clinton said throughout the year the organization is out giving back to the community.

“We plan on supporting causes within the community such as a holiday clothing drive and educational events,” Clinton said. One example that the GSA has been involved with for a few years is at the Texas Tech University Museum called 'Science Made Simple,' which teaches science experiments to kids to encourage more children to pursue [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] disciplines. In addition, we have several fundraisers over the year to raise scholarship money for graduate students.”

Every year students organize Student Research Week to showcase the next generation of biomedical researchers and their work and invite distinguished national and international speakers to present discoveries on a specific theme.

“Along with the Student Research Week committee, we will help as much as required to ensure that the event is a success,” Clinton said. “We commonly have students from all of the TTUHSC system participate from El Paso, Amarillo, Abilene but one goal of SRW this year is to incorporate other schools nursing, allied health that are not usually involved. We think this will not only increase visibility of the GSBS but also increase collaboration and interprofessionalism with the research conducted at TTUHSC.”

Last year’s GSA president Dhyanesh Patel said with the last Student Research Week, the GSA wanted to celebrate those who worked to organize the event and also raise funds to honor a past professor. Harry Weitlauf, Ph.D., professor emeritus who served as the chair of the Department of Cell Biology Biochemistry for more than 30 years, worked to bring Hope Lodge to Lubbock. Patel said the Student Research Week Banquet was a highlight of the year for GSA.

“We raised $2,620 for the Hope Lodge,” Patel said. “This was the first year we organized events where the GSBS faculty and students could meet in an informal environment. It was a helpful for the new incoming and old students to get to know their fellow students and faculty within the GSBS."

2014-2015 GSA Officers:

• President: Allie Clinton
• Vice President: Greg Fendley
• Treasurer: Srinivasan Krishnan
• Public Relations: Nirupama Nishtala
• Senators: Jake Everett and Monish Makena

Student Research Week Leadership:

• Director: Loc Le
• Vice Director of Judging: Ravi Rajmohan
• Vice Director of Marketing: Hutton Jones
• Vice Director of Operations: Dattesh Verlekar

2013-2014 GSA Officers:

• President: Dhyanesh Patel
• Vice President: Ashish Chougule
• Treasurer: Brad Youngblood
• Public Relations: Connor Hall
• Senators: Allie Clinton and James Wang

Student Research Week Leadership:

• Director: Swapneeta Date
• Vice Director of Judging: Nirupama Nishtala
• Vice Director of Marketing: Cholpon Tilegenova
• Vice Director of Operations: Greg Fendley