Fermilab's Graduate Student Association (GSA) is an organization of graduate students working at Fermilab. Representatives, from the graduate student community, are elected every year in October to represent the needs of grad students to the lab and organize events specifically for grad students.

The GSA Mission:

• Act as a liaison between the FNAL Directorate, Experiments managers, Computing Division, the User's Executive Committee (the UEC, the voice of all users at Fermilab), and the graduate students.
• Continue the education of the graduate student population.
• Disseminate information on employment opportunities.
• Encourage interaction among graduate students from different experiments.
• Help with outreach and educational programs.
• Encourage graduate students to take a more active role at FNAL.
• Offer some entertainment for students.

The GSA manages and maintains the fnalgrad email list whereby students can communicate with the rest of the graduate student community at the lab. The GSA web-page also provides info on upcoming events and employment opportunities that concern grad students. We have sponsored job seminars and other informative discussion on-site. We obtained subsidies for graduate student enrollment in C and C++ classes, and even academic physics classes.

Coinciding with the FNAL Users Meeting the GSA organizes a conference called New Perspectives where undergraduate, graduate students, and young post-docs have the opportunity to present their work by giving talks or making posters. This conference has grown to be a highlight on the Fermilab calendar and provides students with a great opportunity to gain experience and learn from their peers.

In addition to the serious work of the GSA, we also work to bring some fun to the lab. The on-site social calendar is marked by the annual Halloween party as well as New Perspectives which invariably ends with an afternoon bar-b-q where students can relax and mingle. 2006 also marked the fifth annual GSA Triathlon at the lab.

The GSA is made up of physics graduate students like yourself. The GSA exists to represent the large, vibrant community of younger physicists from on-site or afar. For the most part, our projects are quite simple, for example, organising social events and bringing students together. But we are also in a unique position to reach out to the wider Fermilab community, to make the voices of the younger generation heard to the Directorate, the UEC and the US congress. With your help we can do that.