The Communication Factor
Newsletter of the Cain Project in Engineering and Professional Communication at Rice University Fall-2003

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Student Spotlight: Graduate Studies

Thesis group & Workshop Students
One of the outstanding achievements of the Cain Project is the work of Dr. Jan Hewitt with her Thesis- and Proposal-writing Groups, and her Thesis-writing Workshop. In these Cain Project sponsored offerings, students who are in various stages of writing a thesis are taught in a classroom setting and also work one-on-one with Dr. Hewitt. Both current and former students praise “Dr. Jan,” her work, and the Cain Project.

Powtawche Williams received her masters from Rice in Mechanical Engineering, and is currently pursuing her PhD here as well. She hopes to work in industry, focusing on research and eventually would like to teach. Powtawche participated in both the Thesis-writing Workshop and the Thesis-writing Group and continues to meet occasionally with Dr. Hewitt, who welcomes her with open arms.

It was through her work with Dr. Jan that Powtawche learned how to organize her ideas and thoughts and manage her time. Powtawche encourages her peers to take advantage of the support that the Cain Project offers.

Denise Beckles received both her MS and PhD from Rice in Environmental Science and Engineering, finishing her studies in 2000. She is currently a lecturer in Environmental Chemistry at the University of the West Indies. She was one of the first students to join Dr. Hewitt’s classes, and continued to turn to the Cain Project for support through her PhD. Denise says that there were several aspects of the program that proved to be extremely helpful: the grammar review, the structured nature of the class and Dr. Hewitt herself. Denise would highly recommend the program to current Rice students. She reflects that by the time a student starts to work on an advanced science/engineering degree, he or she tends to leave their English writing skills behind.

Denise also found a short section on presentation skills helpful. She realizes now that so much of today’s job market involves presenting data. Denise thinks that training in communication/writing skills should be required for all science/engineering graduate students.

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