All times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Breakfast, lunch, and the reception are in person only.
The Zoom meeting will remain active during coffee breaks.
*in person only
Associate Provost of Graduate & Professional Education and Dean of the Graduate School, University of Kentucky
Associate Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, Western Carolina University
Co-editor of A Practitioner’s Guide to Supporting Graduate and Professional Students
Awareness that graduate and professional (G&P) students need support for their holistic ability to thrive and that their needs are different from undergraduate students is essential to our work as campus administrators and faculty. Those who work with G&P students, particularly in developmental and student affairs roles, need actionable strategies to support student success. Meeting that challenge with available research and promising practices from a transformational lens is the focus of this talk.
*in person only, remote attendees will be able to stay on Zoom to chat
Assistant Dean of The Graduate School, Director of Graduate Student Professional Enhancement, University of Kentucky
Assistant Director of Graduate Student Professional Enhancement, Faculty Instructional Consultant in CELT, University of Kentucky
Program Manager of Graduate Student Professional Enhancement, University of Kentucky
Assistant Director for Graduate/Professional Students & Postdoctoral Support, Stuckert Career Center; Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Career Advisor, The Graduate School, University of Kentucky
President of the Graduate Student Congress, University of Kentucky
Graduate student professional development initiatives at universities cover broad-reaching areas and diverse needs. Creating programming that meets and speaks to the diversity of graduate students’ professional development goals and aspirations is a challenge we face in this field. In this interactive session, hear how The University of Kentucky Graduate Student Professional Enhancement Office cultivates relationships with key campus stakeholders to provide graduate students a holistic framework for optimizing their educational experience through the creation and implementation of UK’s Graduate Student Success Pathways initiative.
*in person only
Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky
Students are increasingly demonstrating customer-like behavior and are now demanding even more "value" from Higher Education institutions. Researchers argue that consumer-like behavior shifts the common goal of higher education from mastering content knowledge towards gaining practical skills that align with future employment prospects. This shift in student expectations challenges faculty to balance traditional graduate student education and graduate career development. The Department of Biostatistics has recently developed a new master's program designed to acknowledge this challenge. The program infuses career development skills into the curriculum by the inclusion of authentic assessment in core courses, student exposure to the most common software applications currently used in the field, a focus on collaborative work, and a cumulative project that requires students to demonstrate the practical skills needed to enter the workforce before graduating from the program. This roundtable discussion will explore techniques for infusing professional development skills into traditional graduate education, applicable to many graduate programs.
*in person only, remote attendees will be able to stay on Zoom to chat
Patrick Brandt | Director, Career Development and Outreach, Office of Graduate Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ana Nogueira | Education Research Fellow, Office of Graduate Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Rebekah Layton | Director, Professional Development Programs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Communities of practice sharing programming lessons-learned can provide field-tested ideas to help colleagues developing new programs build on or modify programs efficiently and effectively; our lightning talk will highlight best practices and lessons learned over 5+ years and 150+ interns to date. Our data suggest that developing a sustainable internship program for graduate and postdoctoral trainees requires a stakeholder-informed internship format; broad-based faculty support; and evidence-based positive outcomes.
Robert Pearson | Assistant Dean, Professional Development and Career Planning, Emory University - Laney Graduate School
In this lightning talk, I will discuss the formation of a new curricular internship course that we have developed and passed through the university's governance process. The internship course is adaptable to a variety of internship experiences and offers a solution to certain structural challenges that have been faced by students who receive part-time and full-time internship offers. I will share the rationale for the course, the internship approval process, the models around which the course was built, and I will discuss the role of governance in providing feedback and approval for this course.
From job shadowing, to site visits, to internships – what may be right for your program and institution? Join Dr. Pearson and Dr. Layton for brainstorming sessions and facilitated discussions, allowing you to build an initial sketch of at least one idea you could bring back to your own institution. Will include discussion of potential barriers, solutions, and lessons-learned that may help tailor your plan to best suit your needs. Let's ideate together! We can’t wait for you to join us!
Robert Pearson | Assistant Dean, Professional Development and Career Planning, Emory University - Laney Graduate School
Rebekah Layton | Director, Professional Development Programs, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
*in person only
*in person only
Postdoctoral Affairs Program Administrator, Virginia Tech
Assistant Director, Graduate Student and Postdoc Career Services and Programs, University of Connecticut
Director of Postdoctoral Affairs, University of Kentucky
Establishing a postdoc office is a sometimes daunting task which will have you pulled in many directions. Drawing from experience doing this twice, this roundtable discussion will focus on how community building, at both the trainee and support staff levels, is a cornerstone of creating impactful career and professional development programs that busy graduate students and postdocs will engage with.
*in person only, remote attendees will be able to stay on Zoom to chat
Lydia Soleil | Director of Career Development, Office of Postdoctoral Education, Emory University
Not being afraid to ask for things and persistent follow-up are two key ingredients to making things happen! Come hear examples of what being fearless and tenacious can lead to and get inspired to make things happen at your institution!
Talline Martins | Director, Office of Graduate Professional Development, University of Florida
A writing accountability program was created as a means to decrease feelings of isolation that students often experience when writing theses and dissertations, which was exacerbated due to the covid-19 pandemic. End of program surveys indicate that students perceived large gains in writing habits and goal setting, and decreased feelings of isolation.
Chris Smith | Postdoctoral Affairs Program Administrator, Virginia Tech
How can we convince trainees and faculty mentors to adopt best practices in career planning and mentoring? We leveraged data from a postdoc climate survey at NC State University to make the case for expectation setting and career planning to new postdocs and their faculty supervisors.
Tithi Basu Mallik | Assistant Director for Graduate/Professional Students & Postdoctoral Support, Stuckert Career Center; Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Career Advisor, The Graduate School, University of Kentucky
A significant percentage of graduate student and postdoctoral population at many institutions are international individuals. They face various challenges during their time at US institutions of higher education. Many of these challenges are connected to finding fulfilling employment opportunities at the end of their training. In this session we will discuss some strategies for supporting the career needs of international graduate students and postdocs.
Assistant Dean of The Graduate School, Director of Graduate Student Professional Enhancement, University of Kentucky
*in person only
Students are increasingly demonstrating customer-like behavior and are now demanding even more ‘value’ from Higher Education institutions (Tomlinson, 2017; Woodall et al., 2014). Researchers argue that consumer-like behavior shifts the common goal of higher education from mastering content knowledge towards gaining practical skills that align with future employment prospects (Zhai et al., 2017). This shift in student expectations challenges faculty to balance traditional graduate student education and graduate career development. The Department of Biostatistics has recently developed a new master’s program designed to acknowledge this challenge. The program infuses career development skills into the curriculum by the inclusion of authentic assessment in core courses, student exposure to the most common software applications currently used in the field, a focus on collaborative work, and a cumulative project that requires students to demonstrate the practical skills needed to enter the workforce before graduating from the program. This roundtable discussion will explore techniques for infusing professional development skills into traditional graduate education, applicable to many graduate programs.
Internships provide an experiential learning opportunity for trainees to explore potential career pathways, provide evidence of demonstrated success to future employers, and build professional networks in career fields of choice. Creating a sustainable internship program requires, amongst other factors, balancing stakeholders' interests. Therefore, to determine common themes (e.g. expectations and fears) by host institutions and faculty, we analyzed surveys taken by stakeholders (interns, research advisors, and internship hosts) before and after each trainees participation in an internship. Finding the right duration, timing, and format of internships allowed for consensus between stakeholders to find the right mix that achieved trainee goals.
Details about the internship program design, evolution of a sustainability plan, and common themes identified from stakeholder surveys will be discussed. Faculty attitude change was also measured pre- and post- NIH BEST programming, showing a significant increase in research advisors who agreed or strongly agreed that they would be supportive of their trainees participation in the internship program. Additionally, we measured the impact of the internship on the trainee's career outcomes, resulting in a higher career match between trainee career interests and first job placement.
Taken together, this work highlights the importance of developing a stakeholder-informed internship format; faculty support; and evidence-based positive outcomes. This work will highlight lessons learned over 5+ years and 150+ interns to date. Furthermore, best practices regarding sustainable internship programming will be shared.
In my 20+ years in higher ed, I have learned that not being afraid to ask and persistent follow-up are two key ingredients to making things happen! I will share a few examples from two institutions (one public and one private) where fearlessness and tenacity led to positive changes for graduate students, postdocs, and/or my own career and touch on some caveats. At the end, I will ask attendees to brainstorm one step they can take towards a positive change they want to see at their institution.
In this lightning talk, I will discuss the formation of a new curricular internship course that we have developed and passed through the university's governance process. The internship course is adaptable to a variety of internship experiences and offers a solution to certain structural challenges that have been faced by students who receive part-time and full-time internship offers. I will share the rationale for the course, the internship approval process, the models around which the course was built, and I will discuss the role of governance in providing feedback and approval for this course.
In the Fall 2020 we piloted a new program at the University of Florida where a cohort of students would meet weekly to work independently on a writing project. The goal of the program was to provide students with community support and decrease potential feelings of isolation, rather than to provide writing support. Now in its fifth iteration, this has become a very popular program, with positive outcomes including gains in writing habits and goal setting, and decreased feelings of isolation.
Many faculty members are unaware of various resources available to support their graduate students and postdocs in their career and professional development. For those supervising postdoctoral scholars, clear expectation setting and effective career planning are critical to maximize both the faculty member's and postdoc's time during a relatively short appointment period (median time in postdoc at NC State: 2 years). To assist both faculty supervisors and new postdocs in engaging in these best practices, the NC State Office of Postdoctoral Affairs leveraged data from a newly-created annual postdoc climate survey to illustrate the value of expectation setting, frequent communication around goals, and the creation of a career plan on the postdoctoral experience. We send each new faculty supervisor and their postdoc a "new postdoc supervisor" letter that emphasizes the value of these best practices by referencing data from our postdoc population. During this lighting talk, I will report on a preliminary analysis of the impact of this initiative on the NC State postdoc population. In addition, the survey questions and new postdoc supervisor letter template will be shared so that other offices supporting graduate students and postdocs can consider pursuing similar practices at their institutions.