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Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program
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Info for INP Students

Neuroscience Graduate Student Association (NGSA)

The Neuroscience Graduate Student Association (NGSA) is INP’s student organization. All students in the program automatically become members and receive all invitations to social events, outreach events, etc. Each summer, a new executive board is elected. Working both individually and collaboratively, the officers on the board perform a variety of tasks to serve INP graduate students. For example, officers represent student interests to faculty and to UT’s Graduate Student Assembly, organize outreach and mentoring opportunities, build and maintain resources for students, plan social events throughout the year, and work with faculty and staff to organize program events such as recruitment weekend and the monthly Neuroscience Dialogues talks. The guiding goal of the board is to improve students’ experiences, whether that be by scheduling a group outing to the Austin Bouldering Project or by advocating for changes to the Graduate School’s health insurance policies. In addition to bettering the training environment for current and future students, NGSA helps build a stronger sense of community among INP students, facilitating the growth of support networks that bolster students’ professional success and personal wellbeing.

Current Officers
President: Mandi Severson 
Vice President & NURP Coordinator: Jamie Palmer
Secretary: Dominic Balic
Treasurer & Neuroscience Dialogues Coordinator: Cole Maguire
Outreach Coordinator: Max Weed
Recruitment Coordinator: Kat Motovilov
Event Coordinator: Zorana Opachich
Executive Committee Representative: Shelby Towers   
Graduate Student Assembly Representative: Myles Joyce

 

Volunteer Outreach Opportunities
  • The Neuroscience Graduate Student Association (NGSA) is a student-run organization that supports scholarly activities and provides leadership, outreach, and social activities. Contact the current NGSA Outreach Coordinator for information on current outreach activities.
  • Neuroscience Undergraduate Reading Program (NURP) is a mentorship program that allows graduate students to mentor undergraduate students who want to develop their interests on a specific neuroscience topic. Each undergraduate is paired with a neuroscience graduate student with common interests to review and discuss journal articles together. Graduate students are contacted at the beginning of each semester about participating in NURP. Contact the current NGSA VP for more information.

  • The INP Community Engagement Committee is a student led committee, governed by the Neuroscience Graduate Student Association, that believes that science is for everyone, that representation matters at all levels, and that all scientists deserve equitable treatment and opportunities. The committee works to  promote conversation, education, and policies to ensure all members of the INP feel valued. If you would like to become involved in the committee, please contact Britt Mardis.

  • Volunteer for Jon Pierce's informal courses for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Dr. Pierce offers reverse inclusion courses through UT Informal Classes to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs). UT students can volunteer to learn alongside adults with Down syndrome, autism, and other IDDs.
  • Explore UT, held annually, is the biggest open house in Texas. More the 50,000 attendees can choose from more than 400 free workshops and experiments that showcase the best scholarship and research at UT.
Fellowship and Grants

Fellowship Info

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship: A fellowship that supports outstanding graduate students who have demonstrated the potential to be high achieving scientists and engineers, early in their careers

NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship.  A fellowship to support promising predoctoral students to obtain individualized, mentored research training from outstanding faculty sponsors while conducting dissertation research in scientific health-related fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers.

NIH NINDS Postdoctoral NRSA Fellowship (late stage graduate students eligible): A fellowship to support outstanding scientific training for individuals who will begin or are just beginning a new postdoctoral training period in a given laboratory or research environment. Applicants are eligible to apply within approximately 12 months prior to joining a postdoctoral laboratory to within the first 12 months of starting in that laboratory.
 

Additional Resources:
The Texas Grant Resource Center, a unit of the Division of Campus and Community Engagement, offers consultations and orientations for funding research, for both nonprofit organizations and individuals. 

UT Grad School Resources: information from the College of Natural Sciences for students and post-docs (includes fellowships available to international students).

Pivot: A searchable funding data base managed by the Office of the Vice President for Research at UT. Pivot was designed to meet the growing demands on research developers to quickly discover the right funding opportunities. Pivot is available to all UT faculty, staff researchers, research administrators and students includes funding opportunities for US and international students.

 

Professional Development & Career Resources

Professional Development & Career Planning

 The University Writing Center provides free programs to support all UT graduate students as readers, writers, and communicators. Trained graduate student consultants provide one-on-one feedback on any project at any stage of your writing process. 

 CNS elective courses are available to provide professional development and transferable skills useful in any career path. These courses cover topics such as teaching, communication, public policy, leadership and data analysis.  These electives are not for credit and do not count towards the PhD degree requirements.

The College of Natural Sciences career services offers workshops, further education, and career advice for all UT Students.

In addition, the College of Natural Sciences offers graduate student specific professional development and career resources. Contact Dr. Po-Tsan Ku, the Career Development Specialist for graduate students, for career guidance services.

 

Additional Career-finding resources:
myIDP Science Careers
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Healthcare & Health Insurance Information

Healthcare 

Healthcare:  University Health Services (UHS) is located on campus and offers health care services to all registered UT students.  UHS accepts insurance through both providers available to graduate students, as well as most major health insurance carriers and also offers affordable healthcare to any registered student that does not have health care insurance.

MDLive Virtual Visits: Available to UT Austin employees with BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, MDLive is an app constructed for virtual visits with doctors anytime, anywhere 24/7 for non-emergency medical and behavioral issues including Primary care, pediatrics, emergency medicine, and family medicine, therapists, psychiatrists, and licensed counselors. 

24/7 Nurseline: Available to students with the AcademicBlue student health insurance plan, the 24/7 Nurseline provides registered nurses that are on call to answer your health questions and give general health tips.

Health Insurance

Health Insurance:  All graduate students receive health insurance, however the specific plan through which they are covered may vary depending on the source of their funding. Therefore, each individual student should verify the plan that is available to them. A basic overview of the available health insurance policies is provided below.  

Any student with questions regarding health insurance eligibility options should contact Marsha Berkman.

Insurance for Students with Academic Graduate Student Jobs (TA or GRA): Graduate students in academic graduate student jobs who are scheduled to work for at least 20 hours per week, for 135 continuous days or more, may participate in the university’s insurance plans and receive employer contributions towards the cost of their insurance premiums. For information about insurance for Academic Graduate Student employee insurance, please visit the Academic Graduate Student Employee Insurance Options webpage. For more information, please visit student employee insurance benefits.

Insurance for Graduate Student Fellows: Graduate Student Fellows (GSF) have a few options when it comes to healthcare coverage for themselves and their eligible dependents. As a currently registered graduate student, you also have access to University Health Servicesregardless of your insurance enrollment. For more information, please visit insurance for graduate student fellows.


 

Mental Health Resources
Reporting and Advocacy Information

Title IX 

The Title IX Office provides leadership, education and training pertaining to Title IX Univeristy policies and state law that protects all members of our campus community who experience sex discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual assault, interpersonal violence (including dating and domestic violence), stalking, or discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. 

Graduate Student Grievances

The INP Graduate Advisors are resources to help resolve grievances between a student and  faculty member informally. However, in situations where the grievance cannot be resolved informally within the INP, students have recourse through formal procedures mediated by the UT Graduate School.

Other Resources and Support
  • The College of Natural sciences provides a multitude of general resources and informationfor graduate students and postdocs.
  • The Title IX Office is works to  create and maintain an educational and work environment free from all forms of sexual harassment, sex discrimination, exploitation and intimidation where all students, faculty, and staff can learn, work and thrive.
  • Disability and Access is a department of the Division of Student Affairs that assures equal access and opportunity and works to eliminate physical, instructional and attitudinal barriers by providing reasonable accommodations and fostering awareness within the University community.

    International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) provides services to international students and scholars.
Forms

For program requirements, use the forms linked below. For all other queries, email the Graduate Coordinator, Krystal Phu, at krystalphu@utexas.edu. 
 

Rotations

Qualifying Exam

Curriculum

Dissertation

Graduate Program Handbook

INP Handbook