Internship Opportunities for Liberal Arts Majors

Hello, all,

I received the following notice in my faculty email, which I have cut and paste here. I’m not sure if the link will work, but you should be able to go to jkwatson.org on your own.

SUMMER INTERNSHIPS FOR
FRESHMEN AND SOPHOMORES

How would you like to work for a summer… at the U.N?  In a television studio?  At the Bronx Zoo?  In a New York publishing house?  On Wall Street?  At a social service agency helping children?  At a Fortune 500 company?

The Jeannette K. Watson Summer Fellows Program:

Provides promising and accomplished undergraduates at Queens College and seven other New York City colleges with challenging, paid internships designed to promote leadership and personal growth.  Queens College may nominate up to four students for the city-wide competition from which fifteen students will be selected as Watson Summer Fellows.  Fellows must undertake supervised, paid internships for three consecutive summers* in the areas of nonprofit, government service, and private enterprise.  The internships, which last up to ten weeks, will be tailored to the interests of each fellow.  The stipend is $5,000 for the first summer and $6,000 each for the second and third summers. 

To be eligible,

• you must be a second semester freshman or a sophomore as of the start of the spring 2013 semester
• you must demonstrate competence in college level work
• you can not be more than 25 years old on March 1, 2013
• you must be an American citizen or “green card” holder.  You may not be on an international student visa
• be available for three consecutive summers
• be available for mandatory Saturday sessions

Also, there are some eligibility restrictions based on majors.  Students should be liberal arts majors – for example, business and accounting are not eligible majors.

The application requires two letters of recommendation and two essays, each up to 1,500 words.

Interested students should call or stop by the Office of Honors and Scholarships in The Honors Hall (temp 3), Room 16, to discuss the application process.  We can be reached at 718-997-5502.  The application should be submitted to our office and the deadline is February 1, 2013.

If you are interested in applying to be one of the four Queens College candidates for this program, please review the Watson website thoroughly (link below) and contact our office.  We will be available to help with your application during the winter break.
LINK TO JKWatson.org

Last Day of Class!

Just a reminder that we are meeting in the computer lab for our last meeting. See you then!

Research Papers and Final Drafts

Hello, all,

As I read over your research papers, I’m finding that a number of you have not fulfilled many requirements of the assignment. On Monday, November 5th, I handed out a sheet that stated which rhetorical moves you are required to demonstrate in each essay when you turn in your final drafts. They are:

Essay #1:  (Chapters) 6, 7, 8, 10

Essay #2: (Chapters) 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10

Essay #3: (Chapters) 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10

I’ve come across several papers that do not employ templates, or incorporate the moves the templates are meant to encourage. For example, Ch. 3 is called “The Art of Quoting.” I have read papers that do not incorporate a single quotation. In each paper, you are required to anticipate an objection to your argument, or some aspect of your argument (Ch. 6, Planting a Naysayer). When you summarize your sources, briefly, so that it is clear how they relate to the “conversation” you are creating in your paper, you need to respond to those ideas, not just present them (Ch. 4, “Three Ways to Respond.”) And so on. You need to demonstrate the use of templates/rhetorical moves from each of the chapters listed above. If you do not, that means you haven’t fulfilled the requirements of the assignment, and your grade will be affected.

The majority of the blog assignments we’ve done this semester correspond to the rhetorical moves we’ve encountered in They Say / I Say, so you have all had practice using them; there is no reason to turn in a research paper where few or none of them are evident.  In some cases, on the blogs or on your drafts, I have pointed out if a use of the template is incorrect, or not appropriate. Please be sure to adjust these accordingly in your final papers if I have made such a comment. I expect to see revisions based not only on the comments I’ve made on your papers, but also on your blogs.

I also stated in class, because it was not written on the formal assignment sheet, that your research papers are to be approximately 2400 words (Times New Roman, 12 point font), or 8-10 pages, which means that some of you still have quite a bit of writing to do.

I have decided that when you turn in your papers, you will need to indicate where you have incorporated your use of the templates/rhetorical moves using the Track Changes/Review function in Microsoft Word. We will go over how to do this the last day of class, when we meet in the computer lab.

Reminder!

We are meeting in I-203 tomorrow. Please have hard copies of essay #3 and your revision narratives to turn in. You’ll also need your TSIS books with you, and will be expected to have read “Kenyon Commencement Speech.”

Articles, Etc., of Note

“The Humanities: It’s What We Do,” by Rosemary Feal, Executive Director of the MLA (the organization responsible for the citation method we use in this class!)

“A Useful Liberal Arts,” by William G. Durden, President of Dickinson College

Andrew Hacker’s faculty page, from Queens College.

“You Get What You Pay For,” by Scott Jaschik, Insidehighered.com

“Pricing Out the Humanities,” by Colleen Flaherty, Insidehighered.com (charging different tuition for different majors?)

“Trading in the Blue Collar,” by Shari Dinkins, Insidehighered.com

“Economy Affects Students’ Academic Performance as well as Spending Decisions,” by Libby Sander, Chronicle of Higher Education

Teaching and Technology Surveys, Insidehighered.com

Thanksgiving Weekend…

I will be unable to check my email. I will reply to emails on Monday, 11/26. Enjoy your weekend!

Conference Schedule, Etc.

Please bring four hardcopies of your drafts to class on Wednesday (and email me a copy prior to class); the size of the groups will depend on the number of students in attendance. If you are late to class, there is a possibility that there won’t be a group for you to work with. I will not make groups larger than four members.

Your second drafts of essay #3 are due Wednesday, 11/28 (with a revision narrative). I will return them with my comments during conferences. In addition to emailing me your drafts, please turn in a hard copy as well. I only need a hard copy of the revision narrative; you do not have to email that to me.

Please indicate when you would like to meet in the comment section. Review previous comments to make sure you are not requesting a time that has already been taken.

Monday, 12/3

10:15 Cyrille

10:35 Apurbo

10:55 Sarah

11:15 Zachary

11:35: Joe

1:00 Tamar

Wednesday, 12/5

10:15 Zoe

10:35

10:55 Bryant

11:15 Tiara

11:35 Joshua

1:00 Marisa

Monday, 12/10

10:15 Mehzabin

10:35 Unavailable

10:55 Daniel

11:15 Hasan

11:35 Britlin

1:00 Shuangshuang

Class, Wednesday, 11/14

We will meet in the regular classroom tomorrow. Hard copies of your annotated bibliographies are due; if you are unable to print them before class, you can drop them off during my office hours.

Class, Monday, 11/12

will be in the computer lab. Come prepared to work on your annotated bibliography, blog homework, research paper, and essay revisions.

Canceled office hours, 11/7

Due to inclement weather.