The Graduate College is proud to announce Ken Vickery, director of fellowships, is a Chancellor's Academic Professional Excellence (CAPE) awardee for his work helping graduate students compete for prestigious grants and fellowships.
In 2009, Vickery was asked to establish a new office in the Graduate College to support graduate students applying for external funding. With few models nationwide, he launched the Office of External Fellowships, which helps graduate students learn the art of proposal writing and compete effectively for the nation’s most esteemed awards.
Vickery offers proposal-writing workshops, information sessions and one-on-one proposal advising. He is particularly dedicated to workshops and advising, through which he helps students refine their research projects, think broadly about the scholarly and societal impact of their research, and articulate that impact in a bold and compelling proposal. He also designed Fellowship Finder—a nationally recognized curated database of nearly 1,800 funding opportunities available to graduate students. In 2016, Vickery began managing the Graduate College’s internal fellowship and grant programs, working closely with the Fellowship Board to award several million dollars in funding to graduate students each year.
The CAPE award was established to recognize academic professionals for their work, personal and professional contributions. Individuals are nominated, reviewed by a committee and approved by Chancellor Robert Jones.
Six academic professionals were honored this year, among them is also Jessica Hartke, senior associate director of nutritional sciences, who was recognized for her work with graduate students in that program.
Congratulations to all the winners!