Hello Fellow Graduate Students!

I hope everyone enjoyed AERA 2015 in Chicago as much as I did. There were so many sessions and topics that were really interesting. I always love the variety and volume of sessions that are offered each year. I find myself attending many sessions in various areas broadening my scope and understanding. I’m sure your day was packed with great sessions, but hopefully you were able to see a little bit of the windy city. 

I hope your summer is going well and you’ve had a chance to relax. My name is Gabriel “Joey” Merrin and I am the Chair of the Graduate Student Council. I want to say that I am truly honored and humbled to be able to work with you and cannot wait to get to know you better. The Graduate Student Council works hard to provide opportunities for graduate student growth and professional development. The GSC acts as a great resource and provides a voice for graduate students across AERA. The GSC also hosts a variety of sessions at the annual meeting. As this year's chair, I plan to support and enhance these efforts by striving for more graduate student opportunities and encouraging more graduate student involvement with GSC. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to email me with questions, concerns, or just to chat about research.

The AERA 2016 conference will be held in Washington, DC on April 8^th-12^th and the theme is Public Scholarship to Educate Diverse Democracies. This year's conference will be AERA’s Centennial Year and we expect it to be an historic conference! We have a variety of sessions planned for the conference that align well with the conference theme, from tips for publishing your research to strategies for communicating your research to a wide audience including policy makers and non-academics.  

The Graduate Student Council is committed to making AERA 2016 in Washington, DC an enjoyable and worthwhile experience for all graduate students, and we hope you can attend this year! If you are interested in becoming more involved or a part of the Graduate Student Council, please check out opportunities to be a GSC campus liaison or to self nominate yourself to run for an elected position. Wishing you all a productive school year. Please let me know if I can be helpful to you in any way.

Cheers,

Gabriel “Joey” Merrin

AERA Graduate Student Council Chair 2015-2016

Doctoral Student, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

[email protected]

I am humbled, honored, and excited to serve as your new Chair Elect for the 2015-2016 academic year! I enjoyed meeting many of you at AERA this past year in Chicago, and I already miss the deep-dish pizza. It just isn’t the same in Michigan. This year I was particularly inspired by the meaningful and influential work graduate students are doing around the country to affect change both domestically and abroad. I was also astonished to learn that AERA at large is comprised of nearly 7,000 graduate student members, or roughly 28% of the entire association!  This statistic holds a huge presence and makes for a very significant impact on the world of scholarly research, even as apprentices learning the ropes in the new world of academia. 

It is for that reason the Graduate Student Council exists! Every year our mission is to empower graduate students and promote the transition of graduate student to professional researcher and/or practitioner by providing opportunities within AERA for growth.  As your new Chair Elect, I intend to continue this mission and make way for new concepts as well.  I’m sure many of you have recommendations on how we can make the Graduate Student Council even more effective, and I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please feel free to e-mail me with suggestions, ideas, or willingness to become more involved in a leadership position on our council. I look forward to hearing from you!

The AERA 2016 conference will be held in Washington, DC and the theme this year is Public Scholarship to Educate Diverse Democracies.  I was fortunate enough to spend the past semester in DC, so feel free to reach out if you need any recommendations for lodging or leisure. I’m happy to share my favorite places for ice cream and my top-10 list of museums and historic sites.   The Graduate Student Council is committed to making AERA 2016 a meaningful and engaging experience for all graduate students. 

Wishing you great success in the year to come!

Best regards,

Kate Rollert

AERA Graduate Student Council Chair-Elect 2015-2016

Doctoral Student, Michigan State University

Department of Educational Policy 

[email protected]