Graduate Student Organization - Stony Brook

Greetings! I hope all of you who are returning are having a smooth transition into the fall semester, and all new students are getting adjusted and acclimated well. The GSO represents all graduate students on campus, regardless of program/area/department or degree path. If you don't know whom your representative is, find out, and make sure that he/she keeps you up-to-speed on GSO happenings. If your department or program does not currently have a representative, you may be eligible to fill that spot. As graduate students, our lives can be challenging, stressful, and generally difficult in addition to being enlightening and enriching. GSO is here to help make grad student life at Stony Brook the best it can be. We are a group of grad students, elected by grad students, working for grad students.

As part of our mission, we at GSO want to help grad students get through their work at Stony Brook (relatively unscathed), through programs that fund conference travel/presentations, legal/tax clinics, and academic speaker series. Another part of our mission is to improve the quality of life for graduate students during their time here. We want grad students to have fun, relax, and meet people at the same time they are working/studying. We do this primarily through programs like the GSO Survival Guide, as well as support for new and existing student groups/clubs on campus. Currently, we fund the Chinese Students Association (SBCSSA) and the Indian Students Association to hold 2 large celebrations each fall and spring. We also host the GSO Fall and Spring Festivals, and are looking to expand on these social events for graduate students. Our Vice President, Angel Gonzalez, has new plans in the making, one of which is to hold monthly gatherings/mixers so that grad students from different programs can have opportunities to mingle (and maybe form lasting friendships/relationships).

Introducing the GSO Meditation Group:
As GSO President, I would love the opportunity to sit and practice meditation with a group of fellow Stony Brook graduate students. I have been practicing both meditation and Buddhism for years, and I've participated in 4 different groups while here at Stony Brook. As a psychologist, I'm also familiar with the Psychology of Mindfulness & Positive Psychology movements, which are gaining traction and are proving themselves very useful in people's lives. I'll have some readings available at our meetings for those who are interested, e.g. "Mindfulness vs. Positive Evaluation" by Ellen Langer and "Meditation & Positive Psychology" by Shauna Shapiro.
Meetings will be in the GSO office (SAC 227). Our first meeting will be Tuesday September 15th at 6pm. I'd like to have sessions at least every 2 weeks (and maybe once every week depending on how many people will show up). If you're interested, shoot me a quick email so I can get an estimate of how many will come.

Best regards,

Dylan Selterman, M.A., Doctoral Candidate
President, Graduate Student Organization
Psychology Department B-363
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-2500
Email: Dylan.Selterman@sunysb.edu