Dear colleagues,
We are well into the fall semester, and I wanted to take a moment to check in and say thank you.
By this point in the semester, our days can become a steady rhythm of classes, meetings, deadlines, student needs, projects, and the many details that keep our College moving forward. It is easy to get caught up in what needs to happen next without pausing to recognize all that we have accomplished. Much of this work happens behind the scenes, and not all of it comes with an immediate or visible result. But it matters—and I am grateful for the care, expertise, and commitment you bring to it every day.
In recent weeks, I’ve watched staff and faculty members support students in crisis, pivot spring undergraduate courses to in-person rather than online instruction, celebrate multiple new multi-million dollar projects, forge new partnerships, and work out thorny issues to make systems more effective and efficient. And I know there are a lot of other things happening I haven’t witnessed firsthand!
I hope you will pause occasionally, recognize the progress you and your colleagues are making, and celebrate the small moments that remind you why you chose this work in the first place. Those moments of connection, curiosity, discovery, and shared accomplishment are worth noticing, especially when the to-do list seems never-ending.
Thank you for all you do for our students, our colleagues, and the College we share. I am proud of the work happening across our community, and I appreciate the many ways you contribute to it.
With appreciation,
Denise
- Proposal deadline: Friday, Nov. 20
Faculty are invited to submit proposals for the spring 2027 semester to work with the Clarke County School District/Mary Frances Early College of Education Professional Development School Partnership.
Guidance for proposals can be found in the call for proposals document. Notification of projects approved for spring 2027 will be made prior to the end of the semester.
- Nomination deadline: Thursday, Nov. 5
The Ready to Thrive Scholarship is a need-based scholarship program open to undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need who are pursuing approved experiential learning activities required for their major (practicum, clinical practice) during the spring 2027 semester.
Faculty and staff may complete the Ready to Thrive Scholarship survey to provide a confidential nomination. Please do not notify students of your nomination. They will receive an invitation to apply for the scholarship if selected. Students may only receive the Ready to Thrive Scholarship one time.
This scholarship is offered by UGA Experiential Learning and facilitated by the Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Office of Clinical Practice.
- Date: Friday, Oct. 23
- Time: Noon-1 p.m.
- Location: Zoom (register today)
- Presenter: Luis R. Alvarez-Hernandez, assistant professor, Boston University School of Social Work
Join the UGA qualitative research program for the second QUAL Lab Speaker Series event this semester, “See Me!”: Amplifying LGBTQ+ Latine Voices Through a Critical Qualitative Book,” presented by Luis R. Alvarez-Hernandez.
How do you put a community in a book? It requires genuine connections, interdisciplinary collaborations, and strong critical qualitative methods. The testimoniadores (storytellers for social change) in our book tell their life stories as gay and trans men living in South Texas. They also show their faces through black-and-white photographs as their authentic selves, determined to connect with all of us. Our goal was for the book to be accessible to everyone in our communities. We envisioned our madres (mothers) and tías (aunts) reading it.
In this presentation, Alvarez-Hernandez will discuss his process of writing a qualitative community-based book—its complexities, messiness, and joy. He will share how he approached:
- Connecting with the community
- Collaborating with an interdisciplinary team
- Centering Chicana and Latina feminist values and qualitative methods to amplify the voices of community leaders