Dear graduate alumni,
It is a great honor to share with you a newsletter that exemplifies the great strength, resilience, and stamina to overcome a global challenge that changed, practically overnight, all facets of graduate education: how we teach, learn, do research, interact with each other.
Since I joined Kansas State University as its inaugural Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Dean of the Graduate School in January 2021, I have been impressed every day by the faculty’s very strong commitment to graduate students and by the graduate students’ strength in doing remote learning and research. I have been impressed by the staff in the Graduate School and across the university, who are committed to ensuring that K- State’s high-quality graduate education, the services we provide, and the interactions we have with graduate students and faculty are not weakened by the pandemic.
The 2020-2021 academic year also saw moments of doubts and helplessness, when we questioned our own ability and strength to move forward. The information provided in this newsletter shows that in spite of everything that is going on in our world, we can move forward and build a strong future for ourselves and for our graduate students. As you read this newsletter, I am sure that you too will feel a strong sense of pride in our ability to overcome challenges and continue building a strong graduate education.
There were many lessons we learned this past academic year: adaptation, resilience, but most importantly, the value of human connection. We learned that we need each other, we need to interact with each other and to support each other. The Graduate School and I want to build on the lessons learned. We want to strengthen the relationship with you, our graduate alumni. Therefore, I invite you to provide us with ideas on how best we can engage with you. We began working on ways to enhance graduate students’ experience and to build a strong graduate student success plan. We look forward to sharing with you how we will apply the lessons learned from the pandemic but more importantly, to engage you, our alumni, in all our future initiatives.
Enjoy reading this newsletter!
Claudia Petrescu, Ph.D.