As an ELEVATE fellow you will be expected to attend the monthly ELEVATE meetings, a course, occasional seminars and social events, and fill out surveys.

Meetings

The ELEVATE meetings are a crucial part of the program, and you are expected to attend them all. If you are not able to attend one, please let me know in advance (if possible). If you need any accommodations to participate in the meetings, please let me know, and I will be happy to work with you. We will be sending around a poll to schedule these soon.

Surveys

ELEVATE fellows will be required to fill out surveys from NSF and from our external evaluators in a timely manner. These shouldn't take more than an hour or two max and will come in the spring. 

IDP workshop

Students who are starting their first semester at UMass this fall are required to attend a 1-hour workshop put on by the graduate school to set goals for your PhD. More information will be shared when this is scheduled.

Courses

We typically require ELEVATE fellows to take 2 courses, one on Energy Systems with Golbon Zakeri, and one on Public Engagement with Ezra Markowitz. Golbon's course will be taught in the spring. However, Public Engagement is not being offered in the next year, and we are unsure when or if it will be offered again, so it will not be required. If you are interested in working with local communities as part of your research, we encourage you to look at Theory and Method in Community Based Research with Jen Sandler as an alternative to see if it matches your academic needs. This course is not required.

Funding information

If you are being paid by fellowship (you signed a form in docusign), you will be paid in a lump sum, which should be disbursed to you within ~2 weeks of the start of the semester. Please make sure you are enrolled in Excess Express, so that the fellowship money can be transferred from your bursar account to your bank account.

 I believe that you are not technically in GEO, but we can work with you to get you GEO-like benefits. You can purchase vision and dental through the marketplace, and we can increase your fellowship to compensate for that cost. ELEVATE will also be covering your fees, however, these get processed maddeningly slowly (I am so sorry!) so it will look like you have fees sitting in your account for a few months. They will disappear eventually, I promise!

For those on an RAship, you will be paid every two weeks, and are GEO eligible.

If you need accommodations for any part of ELEVATE, please email zgetmanp@umass.ed, and I will be happy to work with you.

ELEVATE provides students and affiliates with $750 of funding each year for travel and research. Please see the here for details on how to access the money. To avoid the slow and difficult UMass reimbursement process, please contact zgetmanp@umass.edu before booking anything, and I can book it with you using the ELEVATE card.