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18 outlook T he week of May 17, 2009 represented another important milestone for the Organizational Science PhD Program at UNC Charlotte: the zenith of an exciting year of developing and implementing the inaugural Organizational Science Summer Institute (OSSI). OSSI was designed to encourage historically underrepresented undergraduate students from across the country to learn more about graduate studies in the field of organizational science and to foster interest in research and potential careers in the academy and industry. Our goal is to diversify the educational pipeline by addressing the primary barriers for successful admissions in graduate programs for underrepresented students: research experience and standardized testing. My hope is that OSSI will make a lasting impact on the field of organizational science and graduate education by providing graduate programs with a talented and diverse pool of students. The entire Organizational Science community fully participated in this unique program initiative. OSSI brought together organizational science faculty, doctoral students, distinguished visiting scholars, practitioners, consultants, industry leaders, financial supporters, university leaders, and the OSSI Fellows (what we called the students who won scholarships to participate) to engage in a week of intense scholarly inquiry, discovery, interrogation, openness, rigorous and focused research activity and foundational preparations needed to navigate the graduate educational experience for the ten Fellows. Planning for OSSI was an incredible experience. I was fortunate to have a great team to aid me in these efforts. I cannot say enough about the vision, leadership and support given by Steven Rogelberg, the director of the Organizational Science program. When I approached Steven about this idea, it was not even a question of “if,” but “when.” Once the faculty and doctoral students approved moving forward with OSSI, Steven rapidly secured donors to commit to supporting it before the planning even began. My goal from the beginning was to make OSSI a national model for how to develop and mentor the next generation of organizational scholars. The planning of the institute involved seven interrelated phases that were carried out over the course of a year. This was implemented over the summer of 2007 with the invaluable aid of April Spivek and Adrian Goh, Organizational Science doctoral students. The OSSI team expanded in fall 2007 to include first year doctoral students Kate Frear and David Askay, who assisted with such activities as mentor coordination, logistics and housing and catering. In fall 2007 we launched a national recruiting and marketing campaign to promote OSSI. We hosted a formal luncheon and presentation about OSSI at the National Black Honors Conference for 40 honors directors from historically black colleges and universities across the country. We targeted several Hispanic-serving institutions and posted to several professional and disciplinary electronic distribution lists. We received a large pool of talented applicants from across the country. The inaugural cohort of ten Fellows consisted of African American and Latino students with an average 3.6 GPA, representing eight institutions from across the country. In my view, the most important part of this endeavor is that our originally selected cohort of ten accepted our invitation to join us, and they all came! Once the students were selected, the OSSI mentoring program began. Each Fellow was paired with an organizational science doctoral student and faculty member according to identified research interests. The mentors made contact with the fellows in the early spring about required research readings and expectations prior to the institute. The faculty and student mentors were outstanding in building relationships and getting the students graduate school ready. Additionally, the Fellows were administered a GRE pre-diagnostic test to provide faculty Developing the Next Generation of Scholars Shawn D. Long on Diversifying the Field of Organizational Science SHAWN D. LONG

faculty - University of North Carolina at Charlotte · faculty, doctoral students and staff, along the active and intense participation of our inaugural fellows. the most remarkable

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Page 1: faculty - University of North Carolina at Charlotte · faculty, doctoral students and staff, along the active and intense participation of our inaugural fellows. the most remarkable

18 outlook

The week of may 17, 2009 represented another important milestone for the organizational science PhD Program at Unc

charlotte: the zenith of an exciting year of developing and implementing the inaugural organizational science summer institute (ossi). ossi was

designed to encourage historically underrepresented undergraduate students from across the country to learn more about graduate studies in the field of organizational science and to foster interest in research and potential careers in the academy and industry. our goal is to diversify the educational pipeline by addressing the primary barriers for successful admissions in graduate programs for underrepresented students: research

experience and standardized testing. my hope is that ossi will make a lasting impact on the field of organizational science and graduate education by providing graduate programs with a talented and diverse pool of students.

the entire organizational science community fully participated in this unique program initiative. ossi brought together organizational science faculty, doctoral students, distinguished visiting scholars, practitioners, consultants, industry leaders, financial supporters, university leaders, and the ossi fellows (what we called the students who won scholarships to participate) to engage in a week of intense scholarly inquiry, discovery, interrogation, openness, rigorous and focused research activity and foundational preparations needed to navigate the graduate educational experience for the ten fellows.

Planning for ossi was an incredible experience. i was fortunate to have a great team to aid me in these efforts. i cannot say enough about the vision, leadership and support given by steven rogelberg, the director of the organizational science program. When i approached steven about this idea, it was not even a question of “if,” but “when.” once the faculty and

doctoral students approved moving forward with ossi, steven rapidly secured donors to commit to supporting it before the planning even began.

my goal from the beginning was to make ossi a national model for how to develop and mentor the next generation of organizational scholars. the planning of the institute involved seven interrelated phases that were carried out over the course of a year. this was implemented over the summer of 2007 with the invaluable aid of april spivek and adrian goh, organizational science doctoral students. the ossi team expanded in fall 2007 to include first year doctoral students Kate frear and David askay, who assisted with such activities as mentor coordination, logistics and housing and catering.

in fall 2007 we launched a national recruiting and marketing campaign to promote ossi. We hosted a formal luncheon and presentation about ossi at the national black honors conference for 40 honors directors from historically black colleges and universities across the country. We targeted several hispanic-serving institutions and posted to several professional and disciplinary electronic distribution lists. We received a large pool of talented applicants from across the country. the inaugural cohort of ten fellows consisted of african american and latino students with an average 3.6 gPa, representing eight institutions from across the country. in my view, the most important part of this endeavor is that our originally selected cohort of ten accepted our invitation to join us, and they all came!

once the students were selected, the ossi mentoring program began. each fellow was paired with an organizational science doctoral student and faculty member according to identified research interests. the mentors made contact with the fellows in the early spring about required research readings and expectations prior to the institute. the faculty and student mentors were outstanding in building relationships and getting the students graduate school ready. additionally, the fellows were administered a gre pre-diagnostic test to provide

faculty

developing the next generation of scholarsShawn D. Long on Diversifying the Field of organizational Science

ShaWn d. long

Page 2: faculty - University of North Carolina at Charlotte · faculty, doctoral students and staff, along the active and intense participation of our inaugural fellows. the most remarkable

outlook 19

baseline data for comparative analysis of their actual gre scores.

the institute was an intensive week connecting the broad themes of mentoring, motivating and modeling. features of the week included:

• “speed” mentoring• 15 hours of GRE preparation (at 8:00 a.m.

each morning!)• “Power Hours,” which are professional

development workshops focused on navigating the graduate process on topics such as getting into graduate school, securing grant funding, communicating research effectively and Writing an effective research Proposal

• two-hour daily workshops addressing the pragmatics of an advanced degree, presented by visiting scholars and practitioners

• two-hour daily research mentoring sessions• nightly dinners with keynote speakers to inspire

and motivate the fellows• Fellows Research Presentation and Awards

luncheon, which was attended by chancellor Philip Dubois; Dean nancy gutierrez; Dr.

Doug reynolds, vice president of DDi, the major sponsor of ossi; samuel lopez; and the organized science community.

the success of the inaugural ossi is due to the support and hard work of the organizational science faculty, doctoral students and staff, along the active and intense participation of our inaugural fellows. the most remarkable aspect of the institute was that it was conceived just a little over a year prior to its full execution. We are pleased to announce that all ten fellows have confirmed their pursuit of an advanced degree within the next two years. i have had the honor of writing letters of recommendation for five of the fellows for the upcoming 2010-2011 academic year to a variety of top graduate programs across the country. We are currently planning for the second annual organizational science summer institute, may 22-28, 2010.

words: Shawn D. Long, Associate Professor of organizational Science

and organizational Science Summer institute Coordinator

pictures: Shawn D. Long and oSSi

“The institute was so well organized that I cannot believe this was the first time they did it.”

“I thoroughly enjoyed everything.”

“The affirmative and encouraging advice of believing in oneself.”

“I really liked the helpful atmosphere and faculty. And the one-on-one attention was very nice. The faculty and grad students were awesome. I liked the insight we got, and I think it was extremely

enlightening.”

“ The speakers were awesome!! It was insightful, and great networking opportunities.”

“I liked the workshops. The activities really expanded my thinking, like the empowerment

presentation.”

“They were great. It’s nice to hear examples of what it takes to get into Grad school and then a career.”

“The thing I liked the most was the faculty/grad students and the oS community in general. You

were all very supportive, inspirational and nice =).”

Fellows’ Feedback on Their Experience at OSSI