Brett Cease and Dina Janke, graduate students at Bemidji State University, have received Graduate Mini-Grants to support research related to their master’s degree programs.

BSU’s Graduate Mini-Grant program, supported by the Division of Student Development and Enrollment, the Center for Extended Learning, Library and Library Services and the university’s three colleges, offers grants of up to $400 to help fund graduate research. Recipients must be in good academic standing, fully matriculated and ready to pursue research. The grants provide funding to support activities such as data collection and analysis or to help defray publication costs. Awards may also be used for travel to a professional conference related to a student’s field of study. Applicants are required to receive a faculty member’s endorsement for their work, and applications for support are reviewed by the BSU Graduate Committee.

Cease, a Bemidji resident, is an online student pursuing a master’s degree in education. His research focuses on coursework and curricula related to the “People and the Environment” liberal-education goal area at universities in the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system. As one of 10 goal areas required under the system’s transfer curriculum, these courses seek to improve a student’s understanding of modern environmental challenges. Cease’s research will examine and evaluate the effectiveness of People and the Environment courses at three MnSCU schools: Bemidji State University, Minnesota State University, Moorhead and Winona State University.

Janke, also a Bemidji resident, is pursuing her master’s degree in biology. In her graduate research, she is studying the seasonal succession of zooplankton in Lake Bemidji. She attended a workshop in St. Paul, Minn., to learn procedures used by the DNR to identify, count and measure zooplankton in lakes.

Contact
• Joan Miller, director, BSU School of Graduate Studies