Graduate at a Glance

Dear Graduate Students,

Welcome to Fall, Grad Students! As the crisp air and colorful leaves begin to signal the arrival of Fall — a season full of energy and transformation — we hope you're feeling settled and inspired now that the semester is well underway.

We've loved connecting with many of you at our Welcome Week Socials. But the fun doesn’t stop there! The coming months are brimming with exciting opportunities to engage, grow and connect.

Keep reading to find out about upcoming social gatherings, more chances to get a professional headshot, career development events, additional free learning opportunities in conjunction with our Continuing Education Programs and a special “Grad Student Night” at a Seton Hall Men’s Basketball game.

Let’s make this season one to remember!

Sincerely,
Christopher Cuccia, Ed.D.
Associate Provost for Academic and Graduate Affairs

Table of Contents

Sharpen your story at the Graduate Student Interview Skills Program on Thursday, October 30.

Step into a dynamic and interactive, come-and-go career development experience designed to elevate your professional edge and prepare you for the next step in your career journey.

Whether you stay for 15 minutes or the full duration, you’ll walk away with valuable insights and tools. Drop in anytime between 4 and 6 p.m. Learn more and register.

The Office of Graduate Affairs invites you to a “Grad Student Night” at the Seton Hall Men’s Basketball game against Rutgers on December 13 at the Prudential Center. Also, join us for a pre-game tip-off reception with light refreshments, beginning approximately two hours before the evening game. Additional information to come.

Current Seton Hall Graduate Students can request 1-2 free tickets to the event. Tickets are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis, so please reserve your tickets now!

This annual NJ Hardwood Classic is sure to be an exciting game!

Current graduate students are invited to the Graduate Student Virtual Lunch and Learn Series, a dynamic biweekly event designed to empower your academic journey. Running every other Wednesday through December 3, these lunchtime sessions bring together campus experts and key resources to support your success.

Learn more about each weekly session and how to register.

Graduate students, grab your professional clothes and get ready to impress future job recruiters with an opportunity to capture new headshots for your professional profile.

Professional portraits are free for all graduate students. Registration requested but not required. Photos are first-come, first-served. Graduate students can also enjoy time to socialize with peers while enjoying light refreshments.

Graduate Open House is on October 15. Share with your friends and colleagues who are interested in excelling professionally or reaching even more academic milestones. This is a perfect chance for them to explore our flexible graduate programs that are designed with our students’ success in mind. Invite a friend to learn about all the opportunities that await with a graduate education from Seton Hall. Feel free to join them and share your academic journey as well. Register to join!

Join our campus community on Veterans Day, November 11, as we take an opportunity to honor all military veterans and, in particular, our graduate and undergraduate student veterans.

The day will kick-off with a ceremony in the University Center Event Room starting at 9 a.m., followed by guest speaker, author and Vietnam Veteran, Robin Bartlett. Light refreshments will be offered in the University Center Event Lounge after our keynote presentation. Learn more here. 

Seton Hall University offers Hall-mark professional development courses — at no cost to matriculated graduate students! 

Upon successful course completion, you will receive a digital badge, along with a digital certificate that you can share on your resume and LinkedIn profile.

Fall 2025

Approaches to Contemporary Leadership
Session Dates: October 20, 23, 27 and 30, 7 to 8:30 p.m.

Personal Finance Essentials
Session Dates: November 2, 9, and 16, 4 to 6 p.m.

Leadership Strategies in the Disruptive AI Era
Session Dates: November 14, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

*To waive the course fee, select "Seton Hall Graduate Student" under Enrollment Options at checkout.

Stillman Speaker Series
This fall, Stillman School of Business is launching Stillman Speaks, a new faculty lecture series designed to highlight the academic and industry expertise of Stillman’s faculty. All are encouraged to participate. Learn more here.

Nurse Practitioners Serve Newark Through Mobile Care
Seton Hall faculty presented research on the University’s mobile health program, which equips graduate nursing students to advance health equity. The study highlights both student impact and community benefit. Read more.

Diplomacy Faculty Member Selected for Prestigious Fulbright Asean Research Program U.S. Scholar Award
Professor Murphy’s project, “Geostrategic Challenges, Domestic Politics, and Foreign Policy in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore,” will examine how these three countries are responding to international challenges such as US-China geostrategic competition, and how domestic politics are increasingly influencing foreign policy. Read more about this exciting honor and Dr. Murphy’s work.

Opening Reception for "One College, One Exhibition”
This inaugural exhibition brings 50 portraits of American truth-tellers to Walsh Library and SOPAC. This event kicks off a month-long series of celebrations drawn from across the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media community. Learn more about this exciting exhibition.

Guest Jazzlyn Feliciano, Managing Director for EY – September 30
Co-sponsored by the Women in Leadership Speaker Series and ALPFA, Feliciano will share the lessons she has learned throughout her career — lessons rarely taught in the classroom. Learn more and register.

October is Hispanic Heritage Month
We continue to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15 until October 15. View upcoming events.

Supervision Conference
On October 3, join the Department of Professional Psychology and Family Therapy within the College of Human Development, Culture, and Media for its Annual Supervision Conference, led by Dr. Melanie M. Wilcox, a nationally recognized counseling psychologist, educator, and leader in the field of mental health training. Learn more here.

Entrepreneur Speed Dating Networking Event
On October 16, business students, as well as students from all academic disciplines, are invited to meet with more than a dozen successful alumni entrepreneurs and corporate intrapreneurs. Learn more and register.

Student Spotlight

Kendra Sherman
Year: 2025
Major: Ph.D. in Higher Education Leadership, Management and Policy

Kendra graduated from Sacred Heart University with a bachelor’s in Biology and a minor in Chemistry, then earned her M.A. in Higher Education Administration and a Certificate in International Higher Education from Boston College.

She joined Seton Hall in the summer of 2022 as Area Coordinator for the First-Year area in Residence Life while beginning her Ph.D. in Higher Education, Leadership, Management, and Policy. Within six months, she was promoted to Assistant Director and has enjoyed working closely with RAs on campus.

Outside of her role, Kendra teaches University Life, facilitates R.A.D. self-defense classes for women each semester, and collaborates with the Office of International Programs to chaperone the ROTC trip to Vietnam. Her dissertation explores collaboration between residence life and faculty on short-term education abroad programs, and she recently won Best Presentation at the BAASANA conference. She plans to defend this October, present at CIES in March 2026, and become the first in her family to earn a doctorate.

Faculty/Student Spotlight

Dawn Apgar, Ph.D., LSW, ACSW
Associate Professor, Department of Social Work and Public Administration

Iara Vellaro
Program: Master of Social Work (M.S.W.)

M.S.W. student, Iara Vellaro, who also serves as a graduate assistant in our B.S.W. program, and Dr. Dawn Apgar have co-authored an article that has been accepted for publication in the prestigious Journal of Social Work Education — one of the most respected peer-reviewed journals in the field.

The article, "Creating accreditation standards for online social work education: Examining best practices," addresses the pressing need for clear and robust accreditation guidelines tailored specifically to online social work education.  Particularly significant is that the journal is published by the Council on Social Work Education, the profession's educational accrediting entity.

Iara’s contributions, professionalism, and insight were instrumental in the development of this manuscript. 

Learn more here.

What's Happening This Month

 Consider current grad student events:

For all Graduate Program Webinars hosted by our schools/colleges, information and dates,  please refer to this page.

Career Center Corner

As you prepare for your next step int he professional world, strong interviewing skills and professional communication can help you stand out.  The Career Center offers two valuable platforms that can help you prepare and strengthen your interviewing strategies.

Big interview
This program combines training modules with practice tools to help you build confidence and enhance your interviewing skills. It has virtual mock interviews with AI feedback and an extensive question library of thousands of questions based on profession and industry. 

Access Big Interview via PirateNet.

Virtual Speech
Virtual Speech provides an immersive environment for you to practice and improve your skills in interviewing, public speaking and leadership. After each interview or training, students will receive feedback on multiple areas including their rate of speech, posture, eye contact and vocal pauses, as well as the opportunity to listen back to the answers they provided.  If you are interested in using Virtual Speech, please contact your Career Advisor or the office at 973-761-9355 to schedule an appointment.

Take advantage of these resources now to build confidence, sharpen your communication, and prepare for career success

Stay Connected with The Office of Graduate Affairs!

Opt-in to Graduate Student Specific Text Messaging Announcements
It’s so important for us to continually communicate with our graduate students to inform you of key items and events. We now have the capability to do so via text messaging. To OPT IN and stay connected, text the word “grad” to (973)-319-4335.

Connect on Instagram
Follow our Graduate Student Specific account on Instagram @SetonHall_GradStudent for up to date graduate student happenings!

Monthly Newsletter
Look for this monthly graduate student specific newsletter each month during the Fall and Spring semesters to stay current on graduate student news and events. The newsletter is published and sent via email on the last Thursday of every month!

News From the Library

Join University Libraries for Walsh Wednesday Workshops

Use Browzine to Stay Up to Date with Journals and Broaden Your Knowledge Base

Find any journal in Seton Hall's database with a simple BrowZine search. Browzine makes keeping track of your favorite journals easy; stay on top of new developments in your field and easily see similar titles to the ones you are familiar with in order to broaden your knowledge of related scholarly literature.

Specific benefits of the BrowZine platform include the ability to:

@SetonHall_GradStudent 

Office of Graduate Affairs
Schwartz Hall 2nd Floor
Graduate Student Engagement Website
shugrad@shu.edu

The Graduate Affairs Team is located in Schwartz Hall on the 2nd Floor. Feel free to drop in! 

We are located with other teams from Academic Affairs including the Pre-Professional Advising Center, the Buccino Leadership Institute, and the Division of Continuing Education and Professional Studies.