Masters Matter: Dr. Andrew Shanely and Vincent Georgescu, Exercise Science

Andrew Shanely: My name is Andrew Shanely, I’m the associative professor in exercise science at Appalachian State University and I am also the program director for our graduate in exercise science.

Vincent Georgescu: My name is Vincent Georgescu. I am from Indianapolis, Indiana. I am a first year graduate student, focusing on the research concentration in Exercise Science.

AS: We are in the Holmes Convocation Center, which is where our department is located. Vince works for Steven McAnulty, which is a professor in our department. Vince and I overlap in that we are both making measures of oxy something in human plasma.

VG: The way I became involved in the current activities in the biochemistry lab where when I was awarded a graduate assistantship - a research graduate assistantship - with Dr. Steven McAnulty, I would be asked to perform these tasks in the lab. I have since learned a vast amount of information. Learning by doing. Going through the steps and running the assays, following  protocol, being creative and learning on the fly is part of how stuff works in the lab

AS: As the Graduate Program Director, I inform our prospective graduate students of the kind of relationships we seek to foster with our graduate students. We do our best to have 1 on1 relationships with our students, whether they are our direct mentee or indirectly - such as with Vincent. We work together on two different projects, but we are still working together. We seek other students that have a similar work ethic as Vincent who want to come into the lab and get to know things. It really important to distinguish that in the library you learn, in the lab you come to know. Whether you're in the neuromuscular lab, biochemistry lab or at the hospital working with patients, that’s where you really put learning to action and transfer that into knowledge.

VG: I chose Appalachian for my masters degree for several reasons. I came from a relatively smaller school on the southside of Indianapolis, the University of Indianapolis, and we had a smaller department with a tight-knit community and a lot of people knew each other. I liked that aspect and that was something to look for moving forward as well. Not only for the faculty to have good relationships amongst each other, but for the students and faculty to have a well-knit working ability and relationship. That was the feedback that I got not just from the faculty, but I met with students as well when I came to visit, and everyone just gets along well. And that’s held true since I’ve been here these past eight months. As a student of Dr. Shanely’s, there is a mutual respect all students have with the faculty. I really enjoy the fact that I come to them as people. Dr. Shanely for example, even though we may not be working directly together in the lab, if he’s passing through one day I am not afraid to stop him and ask him a question or his thought and opinion on this point in the project to get some valuable feedback so I can keep moving forward as well. They are more than happy to provide that information with any student on campus.

Another thing that I valued when I came to visit here was the opportunity to be involved in research and the amount of equipment that they had to perform and conduct higher level research. There were opportunities that I knew I wanted to get involved with to learn how to use these tools to measure anything, biologically or biomechanically.

AS: I think that an important reason for students to consider coming to our program at Appalachian is the reason why faculty chose to be here. The faculty have made a conscious decision to be here for the students. Many of our faculty could be at large research 1 level institutions. They certainly have the brainpower and the work ethic to be at those places, but they made a conscious decision to be at a university where students come first. Masters Matter