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Graduate Student Appreciation Week April 1-6

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By Shirley Melikian Armbruster

The second annual Graduate and

Professional Student Appreciation Week will be observed with receptions, programs and other activities during the week of

April 1-6.

The observance, coordinated by the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, is an important way to recognize Fresno State's 2,500-plus master's and doctoral students, said Dr. Vivian Vidoli, dean of the Division of Graduate Studies.

"Graduate students support the work of our campus in instruction, research and undergraduate student advising and recruitment," Vidoli said. "I am truly proud of the graduate students who choose to attend our university and, who, during their tenure here, give us so much of their creative talent and leadership in making our campus more responsive and effective."

Connie Hales, coordinator of the Fresno State MFA program, said one of the MFA students who is doing well as both student and professional is Michael Roberts, who was selected for the Philip Levine Fellowship in Poetry last fall. Roberts teaches full time at Fresno City College and is publishing his poetry in various professional journals.

"Michael works extremely hard at honing his craft and at expanding his talent, and therefore pushes his classmates to work harder, too," said Hales.

Roberts, who earned his B.A. in English with creative writing emphasis from UC Davis, said he researched several different MFA programs before choosing Fresno State.

"After talking with professor Connie Hales and meeting with Ruth Schwartz, our new professor in the creative writing program, I became convinced that Fresno State's program would be an excellent fit for me," Roberts said.

Daniele Ardizzone, a graduate of the University of Rome who is on a Fulbright Scholarship, also praises Fresno State's graduate program.

The Italian Fulbright Commission suggested he choose Fresno State, he said, "because it offers a great marine science program at Moss Landing Marine Lab and because, among the CSU campuses that are served by Moss Landing, it is the one with the largest community of international students, and takes care of them."

Ardizzone is seeking an M.S. degree in biology and is conducting research on sharks and rays with Fresno State's Gregor Cailliet, a biology professor at Moss Landing.

"By doing a great job here in graduate school, students like Daniele are virtually guaranteed of being successful in their future employment or in a doctoral program at another institution," said Cailliet.

Back to University Journal, 4/02/02 Issue