Eastern Regional Fall Letter (2009)
Dear Psi Chi faculty advisors and chapter officers-
Welcome to an exciting year in Psychology! As the Eastern Vice-President of Psi Chi, I am eager to hear from you to learn how I can assist your chapter. As a faculty advisor of the Psi Chi chapter at Hunter College for 15 years, I know I am always looking for new ideas to serve as catalysts to encourage, support, and recognize the research achievements of our Psi Chi members. In this regard, there are two things in particular I would like to highlight: a) Psi Chi has many grant and research award programs, and b) not enough members—both students and faculty advisors—are applying for these awards and grants. I encourage you to view Psi Chi’s award website at www.psichi.org/awards/completelist_awards.asp#awards and share this link with the other members in your chapter. In addition, we have just begun planning for a new program, Regional Travel Grants, to help pay travel expenses for students presenting a paper or poster at the Eastern Psychological Association conference in New York City (actually, in Brooklyn in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge!) in March, 2010. Further details will be available in my Spring 2010 letter.
While awards are one way to recognize your achievements in research, the most important (and fun) opportunities for recognition are to present at professional conferences—and Psi Chi is determined to provide as many opportunities for members to do so as possible.
The NEPA Conference will be held on October 10, 2009, at Worcester State College in Worcester, Massachusetts. Psi Chi has a full day of programming, including a workshop on preparing for graduate school, a talk on careers in Applied Behavior Analysis, a Psi Chi Chapter Information Exchange, and an invited address by Dr. Charles Brewer from Furman University, whose talk is entitled A Talk to Teachers: Bending Twigs and Affecting Eternity. The afternoon finishes off with the annual Psi Chi-NEPA awards ceremony. Please visit http://www.nepa-info.org for more information on registration and program details. Further information on the Psi Chi program at NEPA is also included at the end of this letter.
November 15, 2009 is the deadline for poster submissions to the annual conference of the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA), which will be held March 4-7, 2010, at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriott Hotel in Brooklyn, New York. As has been done in recent years, instead of having all of the Psi Chi posters presented together, they will instead be presented as part of the poster sessions organized by topic. This way, your poster will be viewed with all the other posters at EPA within your research area. All poster submissions first authored by a Psi Chi member are eligible for a Psi Chi Regional Research Award consisting of a certificate and check for $300 and are automatically eligible for consideration, but you MUST indicate that you are a Psi Chi member where asked on the EPA’s online submission form. All submissions must be completed online via the EPA website at www.easternpsychological.org. When you click on the link to submit your proposal, you will be asked for your EPA membership login information. If you are not a member, you will be asked to join either as a member (for faculty) or as an affiliate (for students). Be sure to indicate that you are a Psi Chi member by checking the appropriate box on the submission page. Psi Chi expects to have a terrific program of panels, workshops, and speakers. Keep checking the Psi Chi website for updates on the program details.
Please continue to check the Psi Chi website for updates on the major conventions in 2010. APA’s annual meeting will be in San Diego, California (August 12-15, 2010), and APS will be meeting in Boston, Massachusetts (May 27-30, 2010). These conferences are excellent opportunities for students to learn on a firsthand basis about research, service projects, and graduate programs. Be sure to encourage your chapter’s members not only to attend, but also to submit their research for presentation. For those planning on presenting at a conference, check out the helpful tips on the Psi Chi website at www.psichi.org/conventions/tips.asp.
In addition to these major conferences, several universities will be sponsoring local research meetings to which all Psi Chi members are invited. The 20th Greater New York Conference on Behavioral Research is set for Friday, November 6, 2009, at St. Francis College in Brooklyn in New York City. Undergraduate and graduate students and faculty in the behavioral sciences (psychology, sociology, related fields) are invited to submit papers. Direct any inquiries to Conference Director Harold Takooshian at email or 212-693-6393. If your college is planning a Psychology conference or other major event that you would like me to mention in my Spring letter, please let me know.
Do you have an especially active chapter and/or terrific faculty advisor? Then you should complete applications for a Regional Chapter and/or Regional Faculty Advisor Award! If your faculty advisor is really, really terrific, consider nominating him or her for the Florence Denmark Faculty Advisor Award. More information on these awards is in the “Awards/Grants” section of the Psi Chi website. The deadline for these awards is December 1, 2009.
Make Psi Chi work for you—There are a tremendous variety of research support and service programs available only to Psi Chi members that form a crucial stepping-stone to a successful career. Your next step should be to take advantage of these opportunities. Please participate to fully experience the world of professional Psychology!
Best wishes for a successful semester,
Jason Young, Ph.D.
Eastern Regional Vice-President
Professor of Psychology
Hunter College—City University of New York
695 Park Avenue
New York, New York 10065
212-772-5566 (O)
212-772-5620 (F)
email