Presenters: Kristin Terrill

Abstract:

In 2023 Iowa State University Graduate College restructured its leadership and formed a dedicated Professional Development division. This move merged Graduate Career Services, Preparing Future Faculty (PFF), the Center for Communication Excellence, and other programs under one associate dean. In our first collaborative project we developed an interactive individual development plan (IDP) tool. This project served as an opportunity to reimagine each program’s role by articulating the skills and competencies that each one supports. IDPs have been adopted in education and workplace settings as a strategic approach to professional development, focused on enhancing fit between individuals and their professional roles and aspirations. IDPs are recommended by the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health as a means of documenting professional development for postdocs and graduate research assistants. Iowa State Graduate College’s new tool supports educating STEM, social science, and humanities students about skills in research and professionalism, teaching and mentoring, communication, career planning, and leadership. Additionally, it contains a built-in resource finder that recommends specific Iowa State Graduate College services, courses, and other resources that support development in each competency. A dashboard summarizes their self-assessment, professional development priorities, and to-do list. The tool will be integrated into Iowa State programming for graduate career coaching, our Grad Success course series, PFF, and other initiatives. This presentation will include a narrative of how the IDP was developed through interdisciplinary collaboration, a demonstration of the tool, and our plan for deploying the tool at our institution.