My name is Borna, and I am a student volunteer with Conversations to Remember, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, dedicated towards combating loneliness and isolation felt by senior citizens. We are very interested in partnering with you to have your students volunteer with us to help these seniors. Our virtual visit program matches 2-3 college students with residents of long-term care, assisted living, and memory care communities for virtual video visits. These residents have been suffering from isolation, and your students could really brighten their days just by speaking with them. We provide training to the students in the program about the best ways to interact with the seniors, as well as additional support throughout their service. Since these visits are virtual, your students can do it without any travel. This is both convenient, and allows more of the volunteers’ time to be spent volunteering, rather than commuting to their volunteering location. We provide this program free of charge to seniors across the country, and have students from around the country as well. We would very much like to partner with you, and hope that your students would like to volunteer to help our seniors.

Typically, students volunteer 1-2 hours per week. Each call lasts up to one hour, based on the senior’s attention span and mood on each day. We expect students to volunteer for approximately 16 weeks, so that they can build a friendship with the senior. This does not need to coincide with the start of a semester, as we have new seniors starting all the time, and train new volunteers weekly. The students are matched based on the times that they’re available, with a senior who is available at the same time, and they will have a regular, weekly appointment for their visit. Students wishing for more visits or other opportunities that allow them to volunteer more hours can be accommodated with different ways to volunteer, such as assisting us with our social media, call support, or outreach.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions that you have about the program, or to look through our website, at https://conversationstoremember.org. Your students can register to volunteer by filling out a volunteer interest form on our website. If you’d like a flyer to tell your students about us, you can find one here.

Regards,

————————–

Borna Golbarg

Conversations to Remember, a NJ Nonprofit Corporation
Telephone: 862-243-5331
www.ConversationsToRemember.org

Keck Foundation’s Interests for Its Research Grants 

For science/engineering projects and medical research projects, the Keck Foundation seeks to support projects likely to lead to new models or breakthroughs in fundamental science, engineering, and medical science. (The Keck Foundation is not interested in applied science.) 

A successful Keck Foundation proposal in either category could lead to the creation of a new field of research, development of new instrumentation that facilitates observations and the science of the previously unobservable, or discovery of knowledge that challenges prevailing perspectives and paradigms. Proposals should provide new and transformative answers or approaches to underlying questions in fundamental science and should address issues that seem unsolvable, unattainable, or intractable. 

The Keck Foundation funds proposals that are necessarily high-risk projects that push the edge of the field(s) and present unconventional approaches to intransient problems. The Keck Foundation does not fund projects that represent the “next logical step” in research or applied research. The Keck Foundation also prefers projects that do not qualify for funding from—or, better yet, have been previously rejected by—federal agencies, such as NSF and NIH, due to the proposed project’s high-risk nature. 

The ideal concept paper would attest to a previous federal agency’s declination due to the high-risk nature of the proposal in spite of high reviewer scores in federal agency proposal submissions. Successful proposals should hold promise of a significant breakthrough or new discovery in science, engineering, or medical research.

The bi-annual internal limited submission for Keck Foundation research grants is open in InfoReady and due on January 3, 2023 @ 11:59 pm.

Join Academic Technologies and Office of the Registrar from 2-3 p.m., Dec. 7, for a 30-minute overview on the new Final Grades tool in Canvas. Faculty will learn how to export their final course grades from Canvas into a Banner-ready Excel format. We will have time after the overview for Q&A. Please register using OSU ONID email. Questions? Email us at Canvas@oregonstate.edu

The Dr. MLK Day of Service will take place on Jan. 13. This event is an opportunity to honor Dr. King’s legacy through volunteer service. A light breakfast, snacks and hot lunch will be provided to participants. Check-in and meals will be held in the Horizon Room of the Memorial Union. Project times and locations vary; see the registration page for details. Community Engagement & Leadership will provide transportation to and from service projects. Register here: beav.es/cel.

The OSU Alumni Association is making spirits bright with “Festive Connections: Navigating Networking During the Holiday Season,” 4 p.m., Dec. 14. Executive recruiter Nick Poloni, ’15, unwraps the secret for helping you “sleigh” your networking game during this most wonderful time of the year. Register for this engaging and informative webinar for free at ForOregonState.org/AskAlumni.

Join this gathering to discuss the mental and emotional challenges that can come up during the holiday season. Attendees will also discuss self-care strategies to help you manage stress and maintain your mental health during this time. 9 a.m., Dec. 6. To access and sign up for Lyra Gatherings go to learn.lyrahealth.com passcode: #osu445. You can sign up for an upcoming gathering in Lyra Learn. Note: Lyra Learn is a separate login from Lyra Health; for ease of use, sign up for Lyra Learn with your work email address.

Check out the OSU Libraries’ free Graduate Student & Faculty Winter Break Workshops. All of these workshops are offered online (no need to travel to the library when it’s cold and wet outside!). Registration is required. For complete session descriptions, visit the workshop calendar page.  Can’t make it to a session?  Some of the sessions have online tutorials or recordings. 

Questions?  Ask Hannah Rempel, hannah.rempel@oregonstate.edu

Intro to Zotero: Manage Your Citations 

Tuesday, December 12, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m., via Zoom

Intermediate/Advanced Zotero 

Tuesday, December 12, 4:00 – 5:00 p.m., via Zoom

Intro to R 

Wednesday, December 13, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., via Zoom

Intro to GIS: QGIS Basics 

Wednesday, December 13, 3:00 – 5:00 p.m., via Zoom

Illustrator for Scientific Figures 

Thursday, December 14, 1:00 – 3:00 p.m., via Zoom

The Basic Needs Center has a Textbook Lending Library open to all on-campus students that includes books, calculators, chemistry model sets and more. Visit their website to see if they have your books or request one if they don’t. Checkouts begin January 8th; request your book by Dec. 11 to check it out at the start of the term. Pop by 1030 SW Madison Ave., call 541-737-3747 or email bnc.help@oregonstate.edu for questions and more textbook affordability advice.