Send a blogger to college, take 2

Once again it's the 2007 Blogging Scholarship contest. It's been just short of a year since we offered everyone reading the opportunity to Send a Blogger to College. Now you get another chance. Of course the blogger in question, the now well-known Shelley Batts, maestra of Retrospectacle and my SciBling here at ScienceBlogs, is long out of college and close to being done with doctoral studies in the neurosciences at the University of Michigan. Last year she very nearly took the prize (with magnificent help from readers of Effect Measure). She's a finalist once again and this year the prize is $10,000, a sum not exactly a tunafish sandwich if you are a struggling doctoral candidate.

Shelley's the only one from ScienceBlogs in the running. More importantly, she's a helluva blogger. Doctoral studies are tremendously demanding and so is writing a blog. She's been doing it consistently and with grace and style, day in and day out. It's easy to vote for her. Just go here and click on the Shelley Batts radio button. Real easy.

Looks like she's running second out of 20 and the ScienceBlogs community has yet to weigh in. She's already got my vote.

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Well, not exactly. She's already been to college and is now a PhD candidate in neurosciences at the University of Michigan. More to the point, ScienceBlogs own Shelley Batts (maitresse of Retrospectacle) is one of the finalists for a $5000 Blogger scholarship and all she needs to win is for you all…
As you may have heard from some of the other ScienceBlogs, our SciBling Shelley Batts, of [Retrospectacle](http://www.scienceblogs.com/retrospectacle/) is competing for a scholarship being given to bloggers. Shelley's a great writer, and on her way to becoming a great scientist. Please head over to…
Fellow ScienceBlogger Shelley Batts is a finalist for a student blogging scholarship. Not only is she a fine blogger, but she shares with me a connection with the University of Michigan, where she is now working on her Ph.D. and where I got both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. So, with that…
Just got a nice note from Daniel Kovach of CollegeScholarships.org announcing their blogging scholarship competition. As is well-known to ScienceBlogs.com readers, our own Shelley Batts of Retrospectacle! won the $1,000 runner-up prize last year. All the details and eligibility requirements are…

good luck to Shelly and all, but there is something i must take aim at:

if you are a struggling doctoral candidate

i know this is a common phrase, but i think we should be aware of what we're saying. are doctoral students or other graduate students really struggling? sure, they're not making their $60+k salary...yet, but are they struggling? struggling like the elderly
to collect social security
and $10 odd jobs;
struggling like the immigrant
to rest 'tween job number 1
and job number 4;
struggling like the addict
to soothe the pain of poverty
and sting of rationality;
struggling like the farmer
to commit to multi-national life
or submit to city strife...

i could go on, and sorry for the slip into poetic verse, but hopefully the point is made. i bring it up because i too have been guilty of saying the same, "as a struggling grad student." but it's absurd. stand next to someone who is genuinely struggling in this world and talk with them, then tell me how privileged the student is, and who is really struggling.

sorry, revere, no attack on your person, just an opportunity to enlighten. thanks.
8)

I violated my own rules for Shelley and sent an email out to all on my maillist and requested that they vote. 39 already this evening....

You go girl!

By M. Randolph Kruger (not verified) on 09 Oct 2007 #permalink