Academic Enrichment Activities for Catalyst Scholars

All Catalyst Scholars will have an academic faculty mentor from their respective discipline and a graduate-peer mentor. Faculty and graduate student mentors help Catalyst Scholars establish a strong network of student support and ensure all Scholars are progressing successfully through the Program. The enrichment activities for Catalyst Scholars include:

• Attend monthly meetings with designated, trained faculty mentors and trained graduate student peer-mentors to discuss scholarly progress and student participation, academic aspirations and career goals.
• Enroll in the 1-credit seminar course during semesters 2, 3, and 4 of the award period. Coordinated by the Management Team, the course will focus on topics in the geosciences that overlap the four disciplines.
• Develop an individual Academic Success Plan; scholars draft and complete an ASP during semesters 2, 3, and 4 of the award period.
• Participate in additional scholarly activities such as research or internships with mentors, attend department colloquia, or join professional organizations.

Research & Training Opportunities

Catalyst scholars have the opportunity to engage in research projects mentored by full-time faculty members in either one of the Catalyst departments or other of their choice. Examples of current research in the participating departments include: numerical modeling of geophysical flows, sediment transport, climatology, remote sensing, and coastal processes; topics in software engineering, artificial intelligence, and graph theory; number theory, topology, and combinatorial groups; optics, nuclear magnetic resonance, biophysics, nanoscience, and chemical physics.

An important component of research is research dissemination. Scholars will be mentored and guided to prepare and present posters at institutional, local and regional research meetings, contribute to research articles and develop communication skills.

Internships in corporations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations for interested Scholars will be explored with the assistance of the Office of Career Services at Hunter College. This Office has an internship program that provides close contact with external sponsors, and with the Internship Coordinators in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics and the CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities (affiliated with the Department of Geography).

Students may chose to intern with Hunter faculty or at the various Institutes and Centers of CUNY on established research projects where they will obtain hands-on experience involving data analysis and the use of scientific methods. Examples of CUNY centers where internships are available include:

• The Center for Advanced Research of Spatial Information (CARSI) is one of the best-equipped laboratories in the United States for geographical analysis.  CARSI houses and maintains NYCMap, the citywide base map (buildings, streets, railroads, subways, and emergency routes, bridges and tunnels) for New York City.
• The CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities (CISC) focuses on creating awareness and understanding of the connections between the everyday lives of urban citizens and their natural world. The Institute's Knowledge Network is an online resource offering environmental topic primers, an extensive bibliography and links to related organizations.
• The CUNY Institute for Software Design and Development (CISDD) provides internships for qualified CUNY students majoring in the computing disciplines through the services of the CISDD Career Center, which was created to bring students and employers together.