- Project NExT
Project NExT (New Experiences in Teaching) is a program sponsored by the
Mathematical Association of America (MAA) to aid in the professional development ofmathematician s,statistician s, and mathematics educators after they receive theirPhD s. It involves workshops and lectures onteaching ,academic research ,academic scholarship , and professional activities. The participants in the program are called Project NExT Fellows or sometimes Dots, and the program also provides amplenetworking opportunities for them. Each fellow is also provided with a consultant, who serves as a mentor for them.History
Project NExT was founded by James Leitzel and Chris Stevens. The first fellows were selected in 1994. In 2007, the total number of fellows surpassed 1000.
Selection of fellows
Fellows are selected based on an application, including a short
curriculum vitae , aresearch statement , and ateaching statement expressing interest in the program. The application also requires a letter from the applicant's department chair guaranteeing funding to attend several conferences. The number of selected fellows depends on funding. Currently, about 100 are selected each year.The program
Project NExT fellows participate in
MathFest during the year of their selection and the year after, and in theJoint Mathematics Meeting in the January after their selection as fellows. Each fellow is also assigned a consultant outside of their own institution. NExT fellows organize several sessions at the Joint Meeting and MathFest, on topics of their choosing.Affiliation with other professional development organizations
The national Project NExT program is strongly affiliated with "Section NExT" programs, which are run by local sections of the
MAA , and involve many of the same activities. Section NExT fellows can also participate in the national workshops.Project NExT is also strongly associated with the
Young Mathematicians Network .Dot colors
Every year a group of fellows is selected, the cohort is assigned a color, and thereafter wears a sticker (or "dot") of that color to national mathematics meetings of the MAA. There are seven colors for the stickers, so cohort seven years apart have the same color sticker, although they are assigned a different name. Colors are frequently chosen according to the location of
MathFest in the year of selection (for example, thepeach dots first meeting was in Georgia, and theBrown dots first meeting was atBrown University ). The colors since inception of the program are listed in the following table:The color yellow is reserved for Section NExT fellows.
See also
*
Mathematical Association of America
*Young Mathematicians Network External links
* [http://archives.math.utk.edu/projnext/ Homepage of Project NExT]
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