Graduate Scholars of Excellence (GSE)

Program Overview

The Graduate Scholars of Excellence (GSE) program, through Academic Access and Leadership Development, engages the benefits of community and collaborative learning to promote success and retention for University of Missouri students pursuing a doctoral degree. This initiative provides resources that support academic program completion, professional development, and networking. Each cohort is comprised of doctoral students, in their second through fifth years of study, who have expressed a keen interest in receiving personal, academic, cultural, social, professional and leadership support. As a requirement of the program, members engage, support, mentor and guide current undergraduate students through near-peer coaching roles within AALD.

Aims and Objectives

  • Connect and maintain a diverse community of graduate and professional scholars.
  • Foster a sense of community among doctoral students and their undergraduate student mentees.
  • Provide access to and encouragement for engagement in research, internships and fellowships.
  • Enhance networking and social-relationship building skills.
  • Support and challenge doctoral students to achieve academic excellence.
  • Provide beneficial mentorship experiences for undergraduate mentees.
  • Increase faculty recruitment of Ph.D. students.

Guiding Program Themes

  • Access to career guidance and scholarship opportunities
  • Academic support
  • Healthy social relationship building
  • Networking and presentation/communication skills
  • Sense of belonging on campus

GSE Undergraduate Student Engagement

To enrich the student experience, coaching and ambassador programs are implemented to help GSE participants connect to and create unique relationships with undergraduate students. These program components seek to provide mutually enriching experiences for both the undergraduate and graduate students, as they are afforded opportunities to share various experiences (i.e., academic, personal, professional, social and more) while learning from one another.

GSEs are integrated into the AALD student success coaching and undergraduate student programming for the academic year. The GSEs will average seven (7) hours of engagement with undergraduate students monthly. This component of the GSE program aids in:

  • Demystifying graduate school for students
  • Providing encouragement
  • Engaging students in conversation
  • Establishing connections to on-campus resources
  • Providing constructive and supportive feedback
  • Enhancing student success skill development
  • Supporting undergraduate student preparation for fellowship and internship applications

Expectations for Program Participants

  • Participants are expected to attend GSE-sponsored activities. Dates will be identified in a Participant Agreement, issued per academic year, that will need to be signed upon acceptance into the program.
  • Commit to an average of seven hours per month to GSE programmatic activities. This time will be spent engaging with undergraduate students attending designated GSE professional development programming. How hours are accumulated will vary by your role and program assignment.
  • Participate in both traditional and non-traditional programming formats to explore and achieve guiding program themes. The program is designed to be both a personal and collective experience. Working with a faculty/staff mentor to elevate a participant’s experience is one non-traditional format that may be requested. 
  • Fully commit to the activities and come prepared to GSE sessions. Participants will be expected to be an active learner and commit to working with fellow cohort members and session presenters. 

Program Contact

To learn how you can support the GSE initiative, please contact Jennifer Brown at brownjen@missouri.edu.

To request a presentation, please complete our GSE Speaker Request Form.