EquiL Events

First Year Orientation

The EquiL first-year orientation, held every September, aims to fill in knowledge gaps of information that is sometimes only informally passed down from senior graduate students to new first years. It covers a graduate perspective of expectations about work-load, courses, maintaining a mutually-beneficial relationship within one’s cohort, department service responsibilities, how to find an advisor, other “hidden curriculum” issues, and generally what life in Santa Cruz is like. The orientation also touches on information specific to international students, such as timeline constraints, taxes, payment delays, and more.

Grad Wellness Events

EquiL grad wellness events, typically held in Fall quarters, aim to provide linguistics graduate students a place to support each other and discuss shared experiences. Topics include mental health, burnout, imposter syndrome, advising and mentoring support, sense of belonging in the field, and more. We often incorporate intentional gratitude practices that are both collaborative and hands-on, such as a community craft activity, an interactive slideshow, or think-pair-share small group discussions.

Advising Speed chats

EquiL advising speed-chats are one of our most popular events, typically held in the Winter quarter. The event provides early career grads the opportunity to network with senior grads, talk to each other about their advising experiences, and learn about potential advisors for, not only one's top-level advisor, but also faculty who might be an advisor for a milestone/QP, or a collaborator on an independent project. It is also an opportunity for senior grads to share pros and cons of different work approaches and styles, and general advice on milestones and research progress.

Department Pedagogy Workshops

EquiL pedogogy workshops are available to both faculty and graduate students at the linguistics department, and are typically held in the Spring quarter, dependent on interest and funding. Topics include course design, how to better support students in developing difficult skills, practicing equity-minded and anti-racist teaching, equitable participation in the classroom, and more. Our workshops are designed to be community reflection spaces, where colleagues can share ideas, past experiences, and challenges they are facing, and lean on the broader learning community for support and advice to improve their pedagogical practices. The workshops also explore and provide a discussion space for evidence-based strategies that have been shown to support underrepresented students in the classroom environment.

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