The Graduate Students in Anthropology (GSA) is a student-run organization with the goal of fostering community and academic opportunity among graduate students in the department. Caitlin Vogelsberg, GSA treasurer, summarizes the past year’s accomplishments.
The GSA has continued to focus on providing academic support for anthropology graduate students. We awarded two more $100 Academic Enhancement Scholarships in the Fall of 2016 and just recently selected the recipients of the Spring 2017 awards. These small but helpful scholarships provide financial support for students for such things as travel funding and academic necessities (i.e., books, equipment, etc.). This January, we held the Second Annual Graduate Research Symposium with great success. We were able to continue the one-day event with student-led sessions in the morning and faculty presentations in the afternoon. Students and faculty from each subfield created a diverse and interesting program that we look forward to continuing in the future.
We continued our fundraising traditions in order to support the student scholarships and symposium. The Chili Cook-off and Cornbread Bake-off were once again a great success with several faculty and student participants, all vying for the coveted best chili and cornbread trophies. In conjunction with the Cook-off, we collected nonperishable food to donate to the Greater Lansing Foodbank. We held our Spring Raffle and Bake Sale fundraiser on March 15th to support our organizational needs and to donate to charitable groups in the area.
To help balance the lives of our graduate students, the GSA also held several events to have some fun and support our community. We held a “Yule Ball” for students in December, where we provided free food and a space for students to enjoy good bites and bits as well as getting a little fancy. The GSA was happy to assist newly-minted Ph.D., Dr. Amy Michael, in her organization of several charitable events such as the collection of bras and donations for local women’s shelters in the Fall, and the Book Drive for Prisoners collection this Spring. Several GSA members represented MSU and the GSA by volunteering at the Refugee Development Center in Lansing this spring. We embrace these opportunities to give back and support our community, especially in our current political climate.
The past year we have been glad to see new and returning students join our meetings and help us create a fulfilling experience, not only for us, but also the department. We hope that we can keep the momentum rolling in future years and expand our impact.
For more information about the GSA, click here.
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