GSLIS hosts Community of Scholars visit

GSLIS is hosting nine prospective students as part of the campus-wide Community of Scholars Campus Visit Program (COS). The program brings admitted graduate students from underrepresented backgrounds to campus to meet with their academic department and give them the opportunity to network with current and prospective students. Students will visit campus from March 11-March 13, 2012.

Amani Ayad, coordinator for the LIS Access Midwest (LAMP) program, is arranging the students’ visit at GSLIS. LAMP is a regional network of LIS schools and academic libraries who work to recruit and provide support for students from statistically and historically underrepresented populations in LIS. "The COS provides prospective students with a general overview of the University of Illinois and the chance to spend a day at GSLIS,” she said. “It's a great opportunity to discuss and explore the field of library and information science not only with faculty and staff but more importantly with students who are already pursuing graduate degrees in LIS and find out about the diversity and interdisciplinary nature of the field."

In addition to their department visits, prospective students attend a presentation by current graduate students. The theme for the COS Graduate Research Symposium is “A Community of Scholars: Broadening Participation, Broadening Minds, Creating New Knowledge.” Two GSLIS students will present at the symposium:

Safiya U. Noble, Ph.D. candidate, will present Changing Course: Collaborative Reflections of Teaching/Taking “Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Information Professions” by Jeanie Austin, Safiya U. Noble, Miriam E. Sweeney, Lucas McKeever and Elizabeth Sullivan.

Jacqueline Oquendo, master’s student, will present "Competitive Advantage in the Information Age: Analyzing Thought Leadership Among Consulting Firms Servicing the Property & Casualty Insurance Industry," a presentation that grew out of research conducted in the class “Information Consulting” taught by Yoo-Seong Song and Michael Robak.

As part of their visit, prospective students are also given tours of campus and the community.

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