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November 12, 2019In this issue: Finding additional mentors, managing stress, and more.
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Tips for Grads: Finding additional mentorship
By Kirby Livingston, PhD student
Quality mentors can contribute to your success during and after graduate school by providing moral support, advice, and access to resources and information, while teaching you skills and increasing your social capital. Even if you have a great relationship with your advisor or PI, one mentor can rarely meet all of your diverse needs as a graduate student. If you think that you could benefit from additional mentoring but aren’t sure where to look, here are some places to find potential mentors:
Badger Bridge network – The Wisconsin Alumni Association’s Badger Bridge network facilitates connections between current students and alumni. It is an ideal place for graduate students to find additional mentoring because alumni have signed up specifically to mentor and connect with current students in their field or industry.
Professional organizations – Joining the professional organizations for your desired career can be an excellent way to find mentors, and to become a more active and informed member of your field or industry. Organizations often have a discounted membership rate for students, and some departments and programs on campus offer scholarships to pay membership fees.
Look up alumni on LinkedIn – LinkedIn allows you to search for UW–Madison alumni and filter by what they do, what company they work for, and what they studied. You can use this tool to find a potential mentor in your desired career field who also graduated from your program, which will give you an instant connection.
Academic department alumni directory – Many graduate programs on campus maintain a directory of alumni with current employment and contact information. You can reach out to your advisor or graduate program coordinator to get contact information for alumni from your program that are working in your desired career.
Alumni career path profiles – The UW–Madison Graduate School maintains a page where you can explore career options through the stories of alumni. These alumni could be a promising place to look for potential mentors.
GradConnections Weekly is looking for fresh perspectives on the graduate student experience.
If you have advice, counsel, or tips for UW grad students, you’re invited to write a guest column for “Tips for Grads.”
If you’re interested, check out our infographic for details and email gspd@grad.wisc.edu to let us know.
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| DiscoverPD is an innovative tool for UW–Madison graduate students to advance their academic and professional goals. Review the nine facets of professional development, complete a self-assessment, and get a customized report and recommendations.
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| | Upcoming Professional Development Events
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Are you stressed? Do you feel devastated when your articles and/or grant proposals get rejected? Is the pressure of publishing/funding your work making you sick? If any of this sounds familiar and you have difficulty managing the negative energy and rejection in your environment, please join us to learn: the impact that stress and negativity can have if they are not managed, identify the most common areas of stress in academic life and strategies for managing effects of stress. To sign up, first activate your National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity account through the UW–Madison institutional membership.
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A robust LinkedIn presence is key to positioning yourself to secure your ideal job - or having it find you! Career Consultant Gina Jenkins will share proven strategies and best practices to help you optimize your LinkedIn profile and grow your professional network strategically. Following the presentation, you will have the opportunity to have a professional head shot taken. Food will be served.
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This week's Software Training for Students (STS) courses:
- CSS 1
- Excel 1
- AEFIS: Q&A
- JavaScript 1
- Access 2
- Drop-in Sessions at DesignLab
This week's Social Science Computing Cooperative (SSCC) courses:
- Data Wrangling in Python (Full)
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Special Events & Symposia
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| Startup UW-Madison Week
Monday, Nov. 11 - Sunday, Nov. 17
Includes office hours for Discovery to Product, the Law & Entrepreneurship Clinic, and the Investigational New Drug and Investigational Device Exemption Consultation Service.
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TAs: Apply for the Discussion Project spring cohortsThe Discussion Project is a professional learning opportunity focused on high quality small and large group discussion in undergraduate and graduate classrooms. It draws upon the most recent research on classroom discussions in higher education to identify effective facilitation strategies. The training has a limited number of seats available for graduate teaching assistants. Applications for the spring cohort are due Dec. 15.
New MIT climate outreach program: EarthDNA
MIT has just released a new climate outreach program, EarthDNA, that helps you inspire high school students near you. This new program is developed with help of climate communications experts and a former Deputy Administrator at NASA. The group is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join their community around the nation to give a presentation that is already created and ready for your use. For more information and the opportunity to sign up, visit the EarthDNA website.
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Mental Health Resources for Grad Students
YOU@WISC. This portal has tools, information, and resources to help you be well. YOU@WISC covers a variety of mental health topics including stress management, self-care and social support, anger management, suicidal thoughts, and mindfulness. It also includes physical, personal, and academic wellness topics. All UW–Madison students can access this resource.
SilverCloud. SilverCloud is a self-guided mental health resource that provides treatment options 24 hours a day, no referral from a mental health or medical provider needed. It includes evidence-based learning modules on anxiety, depression, body image, and stress, designed to help students manage day-to-day stresses and improve resilience.
Individual Counseling. University Health Services (UHS) offers individual counseling in a confidential, caring space. Individual sessions are typically 45-50 minutes, and most students attend anywhere from one to four sessions to address their concerns. Counseling topics can be any issue that causes distress – emotional, psychological, interpersonal, or academic, for instance. UHS also has a bilingual mental health provider for students who are more comfortable speaking in Mandarin.
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The Dean of Students Office provides resources to students struggling with a variety of issues, and can be your go-to spot for assistance as a graduate student. To contact the Dean of Students Office's Graduate Student Assistance Specialist Elaine Goetz-Berman directly, email egoetz2@wisc.edu.
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Please note: Some graduate students may be ineligible to hold graduate assistantship appointments. Be sure to check with your graduate program coordinator about your eligibility before applying.
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The AAAS Mass Media Science & Engineering Fellowship strengthens the connection between scientists and journalists by placing advanced graduate and post-graduate level scientists, engineers, and mathematicians at media organizations nationwide. Fellows have worked at National Public Radio, Los Angeles Times, WIRED, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and NOVA. Participants leave with the tools and know-how to translate their work for the public. Applicants must be in the life, physical, health, engineering, computer, or social sciences or mathematics and related fields. The 2020 fellowship runs June 3 - Aug. 18, 2020.
The Title VIII Program, administered by the U.S. Department of State, provides funding for research and language training to American scholars and students for the study of Eastern Europe and Eurasia (Independent States of the Former Soviet Union). Title VIII maintains U.S. expertise in the regions and brings open source, policy-relevant research to the service of the U.S. Government. Title VIII Fellowships cover full tuition at the Central Eurasian Studies Summer Institute (CESSI), an eight-week summer intensive language program, and provide a stipend of $2,500 to cover living expenses for the summer. U.S. citizens who are graduate students are eligible to apply.
The Boren Fellowship awards up to $36,000 to U.S. graduate students to add an important international and language component to their graduate education through specialization in area study, language study, or increased language proficiency. Boren Fellowships are funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), which focuses on geographic areas, languages, and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national security (broadly defined). The IRIS Awards Office will be offering one more information session for UW–Madison graduate students interested in learning more about the Boren Fellowships. This will be held on Nov. 21 from 4 - 5 pm in 336 Ingraham Hall.
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Follow us on social media to connect with more opportunities and resources:
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