Achievement

The NYCEP Professional Development course was radically restructured from previous years. We combined it with our Student Seminar series, resulting in a major component of giving a professional 50 minute seminar on their research. Students practiced their talks over a number of class sessions and were encouraged to constructively comment and assess each others' presentations; feedback showed that they found this tremendously useful. Students then gave a formal seminar to the whole NYCEP faculty and student body, and assessment of this presentation constituted a part of their final course grade. A new component of the course was a section on media relations and outreach. An outside professional lectured on how to deal with the media, how to write press releases and journalistic articles, and how to deal with difficult media-related situations. Students also had to write a mock press-release of their own research and assess each others' efforts; this also was included in graded coursework.