In order to help define and establish the Kaplan Post Doctoral Fellowship, an ad hoc committee composed of Psychology Department Faculty and SDSU administrators was formed. This committee developed the policies and procedures governing the fellowship. The committee determined that the Kaplan fellowship would be a departmental fellowship with the objective of preparing the fellow for an academic position; that at the end of the two years the fellow would be prepared to conduct independent research, obtain extramural support, and teach.
The ad hoc committee determined that this would be a departmental fellowship with the objective of preparing the fellow for an academic position; that at the end of the two years the fellow would be prepared to conduct independent research, obtain extramural support, and teach.
In this type of fellowship, much of the mentoring responsibility will fall upon a single faculty member—the primary mentor—with relatively less support and participation by other faculty. (It is possible, of course, that two faculty members who have strong collaborative projects would provide appropriate primary mentorship.) A three person Guidance Committee consisting of the primary mentor and two others, who are not required to be from the developmental area, will have oversight responsibilities. The Guidance Committee will provide critical evaluation of the fellow's progress and provide whatever additional support he/she might need.
Appropriate Mentors
The primary mentor should:
·
be a tenured faculty member of the Department of Psychology,
·
have had adequate experience supervising postdoctoral fellows,
·
be in the developmental program area (very broadly defined), and
·
have an active research program that is currently funded.
Those members of our faculty affiliated with the developmental program area are listed at http://www.psychology.sdsu.edu/DevBrochure.htmlThe other faculty members of the Fellow's Guidance Committee will be selected by the fellow and primary mentor together as stated in 9) below.
Operating Procedures
Our planning committee decided upon the following procedures:
1)
All members of the departmental faculty will be notified and have the opportunity to declare an interest in becoming a primary mentor
2)
Those who meet the criteria will be listed on the formal program announcement
3)
The announcement will be widely distributed and ads placed in the APA Monitor and other appropriate locations and presented on our departmental web site
4)
Potential applicants will be directed to contact potential mentors regarding their interest in working with them in the development of a proposal and in the provision of guidance during the fellowship.In the pursuit of intellectual diversity both for the program and the experience of Kaplan Fellows themselves, SDSU doctoral students and PhD recipients will not be eligible to apply.
5)
Potential mentors will select no more than one applicant with whom to develop a proposal
6)
A Selection Committee will be appointed by the Department Chair in consultation with the faculty to review applications
7)
The Selection Committee will select one to three finalists from the available applicants
8)
Finalists will be invited to campus for final selection by the Selection Committee
9)
The fellow and mentor will together select two additional faculty members to serve on the Guidance Committee
10)
The Guidance Committee will meet quarterly to review the fellow's progress
11)
There will be a mandatory review at the end of the first year with the second year contingent upon a favorable review
12)
The fellow will present a research colloquium in the second year
13)
The fellow will teach a minimum of one course during the second year. [Many—if not most—of the extramurally–supported postdoctoral fellows on our campus and a fair number from UCSD, Scripps, and the Salk teach courses in our department under similar circumstances. NIH postdoctoral regulations require only that at least 75% of the fellows' efforts be devoted to the research training activities for which the postdoctoral support has been provided.]
14)
The fellow will complete and submit a research proposal during the second year (or sooner) with the goal of securing independent support for continuing work at SDSU or elsewhere.
