Week of January 20-24

2025

AEL: Information sessions, application for next cohort of Bridge Experience Program

The Academy for Experiential Learning (AEL) at Virginia Tech invites department heads and school directors to apply for the next cohort of the Bridge Experience Program. Bridge experiences support students’ career exploration and enable them to apply academic learning in a real-world setting.

Academic programs in the Bridge Experience Program work with the AEL to implement an undergraduate experiential learning requirement as part of Virginia Tech’s strategic plan and Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). Successful applicants will have access to funding, additional support, and a collaborative Community of Practice to facilitate their curricular change.

Information sessions are available as follows:

January 30: 10:30-11:00 a.m. – Register
February 7: 11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. – Register

For more information or to apply for the next cohort, read this campus notice or email Jill Sible, director of the Academy for Experiential Learning.

Academic Advising Initiatives: Faculty support for students via the Early Academic Referral System

Virginia Tech’s Early Academic Referral System (VT EARS) has been developed as a tool to assist faculty in proactively identifying and referring undergraduate students who may be experiencing academic difficulty early within a semester. Research indicates that intervention within the first 6-8 weeks of the semester can make a difference.

VT EARS has a significant impact on student success because of its potential to:

Increase awareness of the academic support networks.
Reduce the number of undergraduate students on academic probation or suspension.
Reaffirm the institution’s commitment to at-risk students.
Increase engagement between faculty and undergraduate students.

For more information, visit the VT EARS webpage or email Academic Advising Initiatives in the Office of Undergraduate Academic Affairs. NOTE: VT EARS is not intended for urgent, sensitive, time-critical referrals. If you have an emergency or require immediate assistance, please call 911 for the police.

University Libraries and Faculty Affairs: Overview workshop, drop in Q&A for Elements system

University Libraries, in partnership with Faculty Affairs, is hosting online workshops and drop-in Q&A sessions on Virginia Tech Elements – the university’s faculty activity repository used for managing department and college-level data, broader institutional analytics and reports, and the public profiles system.

The workshops are designed to provide faculty with an introduction to Elements, any new interface features and functions afforded by the latest upgrade, and how to generate reports populated with Elements data (like a Faculty Activity Report) through the University Data Commons.

Faculty are encouraged to join the workshops for Q&A during the first ten minutes of each session and stay for updates on topics such as system functionality, how to optimize automatic updates of scholarly works, how to import scholarly works, and how to manually add and edit all types of activity information.

For more information and to register for an upcoming session, visit the workshop webpage or email Ginny Pannabecker with University Libraries.

ICAT: SEAD grant proposals to support creative, transdisciplinary projects due February 3

The Virginia Tech Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) invites proposals for projects that are creative, innovative, and show strong potential to advance the goals of ICAT and its partners.

ICAT major SEAD grants (up to $40,000) support transdisciplinary activities, including creative projects, feasibility studies, and preliminary research. Proposals are due February 3 and include:

a $25,000 open call for any project that involves transdisciplinary exploration across engineering, the humanities, the sciences, the arts, and design;
a $40,000 special call, in partnership with the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, on Creativity, Empathy, and AI;
a $40,000 special call, in partnership with the Innovation Campus (IC), which will explore one or more of the IC focus areas; and
a $6,000 special call, in partnership with the Office of the Vice President for Outreach and International Affairs, to grow the partnership with CCRMIT and McGill University (the #2 university in Canada).

For more information and proposal guidelines, visit the SEAD grant program webpage or email Ben Knapp, executive director of ICAT.

ICYMI: Reminder of program proposal deadline for Women’s Month 2025

The Women’s Center at Virginia Tech has announced a call for program proposals for this year’s Women’s Month celebration designed to promote, advance, and celebrate women at Virginia Tech and beyond.

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday, February 5. Events should be open to all who wish to participate and offer opportunities to celebrate as well as explore women's and gender issues.

Women’s Month (March) recognizes, affirms, and showcases the achievements, concerns, and diversity of women, and occurs in conjunction with National Women’s History Month. The 2025 theme is “Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations,” which recognizes the influence of women who have dedicated their lives to education, mentorship, and leadership.

For more information or to submit a proposal, read this campus notice, visit the Women’s Month program webpage or email the Women’s Center at Virginia Tech.

Additional Resources and Updates

Newsletter Spotlight: Virginia Agricultural Research and Extension Centers (AREC)

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