On and Beyond Gratitude

As the time for much-needed breaks and celebrations approaches, Core Programs encourages you to think expansively about honoring yourself and the familial (biological and chosen), collegial, professional, and community-based relationships that support your continued success in graduate school. You can start out with the following reflections:

How do you want to show up for someone? Who has shown up for you? Whether this be a loved one, graduate peer, faculty advisor, campus staff or community member, acknowledge their support and show reciprocity in ways that matter to your relationship.

What are ethical and accountable ways to share strengths and skills you bring to your graduate programs—in addition to the talents you will acquire upon graduation—with your communities on and off campus?

Sometimes showing gratitude is just listening and not taking up space at all. This is one step towards building meaningful relationships with communities whose voices and lives are not always heard or validated. It’s a powerful way to show humility and respect.

#BlackLivesMatter #NativeLivesMatter #TransWomenofColorMatter #SyrianLivesMatter #UndocumentedLivesMatter

Finally, in what ways do you wish to honor the hard work you are doing in graduate school? We know the long weekend can provide additional time to get much needed work done, or make progress on a bigger work project. Giving yourself permission to take breaks and set boundaries around work makes the work itself even more joyful and sustaining.

We are grateful you are here.

Jaye, Ziyan, and Kelly
Core Programs Team

Picturing Hope

Recent graduate Ariane Gauvreau, Ph.D. ’15, finds innovative ways to improve communication for children with disabilities.

IMA

The IMA is free to use if you pay the Services and Activities Fee (Bothell and Tacoma students can pay to join), so you might as well take advantage. Besides the fitness center, the IMA offers a pool, climbing center, personal trainers, classes, roller skating, etc. Additional fees may apply.

Gold Star

Gold Star offers 1/2 price tickets on events around the Puget Sound area.

A Vet to Homeless Pets

Grad student Heather Fowler works as a volunteer veterinarian for pets of homeless people. Read how her research interests inform her volunteer work.

Commuter Choices

I commute by bike and spend most of my day in a shared lab space. What are my options for showering and storing my stuff?

—Anonymous

First of all, good on ya for biking! Don’t forget, Bike in the Rain is coming up! So your best option is the IMA, which is free (because it’s included in the Service and Activities Fee) to all Seattle campus students. Bothell and Tacoma students can join for a fee. If the IMA is too out of the way for you, ask your building coordinator if there’s a shower in the building for use. For storage, again, check with your building coordinator if there are lockers you can use. Otherwise, a great resource is the brand-new Commuter Commons in the HUB, which has storage units and a changing room. (It’s sponsored by First Year Programs, but completely open to graduate students.) The HUB also rents out lockers in the basement. Happy riding!

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Addressing Difference and Growing Your Support

Are any of these thoughts affecting you?

“I should understand that theory or concept already!” “If I speak up to say I don’t understand something, I’ll look stupid in class.” “I’m not participating the way everyone else is, so there must be something wrong with me.” “Where is my community?”

Every graduate and professional student experiences doubt, anxiety or critical self-talk due to the demands of their educational programs. At the same time, there is no universal graduate student experience, and the long-held idea that you’ll automatically be successful if you just work hard enough is a myth. The reality is not everyone enters graduate school with the same access to social, cultural, professional and financial resources and not everyone is treated with equity. This is especially true if you are a first-generation graduate student, person of color, woman, person with visible or invisible disabilities, international student, or a member of the LGBT, Queer or Trans community (one can also embody multiple, intersecting identities and backgrounds).

Sometimes asking for help can feel like taking a risk—that it calls attention to your difference and to your vulnerability. It’s no wonder then that asking for support on campus can either feel truly unfamiliar or feel like a daunting task for many.

Core Programs’ mission is to promote an environment where all graduate and professional students can thrive and to suggest strategies that encourage students to seek out the support they need to reach their intellectual, professional and interpersonal goals. We also see our work as aligned with larger, institutional efforts to address the complexities of difference at the University of Washington.

Here are some tips to help you remind yourself that you belong here and that your work is important:

When you feel you don’t belong. Also known as imposter syndrome, it’s the persistent, internalized belief that “you’re not smart enough, competent enough, or productive enough” to be in graduate school, and that peers, faculty members, and your department chair are somehow going to find out. Notice when these thoughts come up and stop yourself. As communication studies scholar Dr. Felicia Harris states, “The nagging voice that says I don’t belong discredits everything I’ve done to get to a certain point. Pursuing an advanced degree is an admirable and challenging feat, and I remind myself of this by celebrating every milestone.” Milestones can be getting your reading done, mustering the nerve to ask a professor for their mentorship, or gaining teaching, research, or career experience. Read more from Dr. Harris.

Mentoring needs. There are numerous reasons why you seek out mentors in graduate and professional school. The obvious ones are to develop intellectual and professional relationships with faculty advisors whose research or career backgrounds resonate with you. Sometimes a single mentor can support you in multiple ways. Yet it also turns out that we often need a mentor network for different dimensions of our lives. Start with an inventory and see where your needs are being met and where you may have gaps. Some dimensions include:

Academic — Specific skills or techniques, new knowledge domains Career — Sponsorship, exposure, coaching, protection, challenging Psychosocial — Role modeling, acceptance and confirmation, counseling, friendship Values — Worldviews, belief systems, politics

Grow your support. In our first fall quarter newsletter, we encouraged you to get to know the campus community by attending departmental and welcome events to make meaningful connections with peers, staff and faculty. Other ways to grow your support system are identifying those safe people you can confide in when things feel tough. These can be close friends, loved ones, members of your faith-based or spiritual community, and even a qualified mental health professional (there’s no shame in seeking counseling).

Jaye Sablan & Kelly Edwards
Core Programs, The Graduate School

Good Science for Social Good

Data Science for Social Good paired data scientists with 16 UW graduate and undergraduate students to work on projects to reduce homelessness, foster community well-being and map better sidewalk routes for people with mobility challenges.

Getting Started With Your Graduate Education

On behalf of Core Programs in the Graduate School, welcome to all our new and returning graduate and professional students! We are thrilled you are at the University of Washington, where you will have a new year of opportunities to strengthen and grow your intellectual and professional skills. This fall, we encourage you to tap into resources that can help you thrive as you navigate graduate student life.

Here are just a few ways to get you started:

Find your ground. Graduate school is about navigating a complex set of academic, professional and social experiences. Whether you are new or returning to campus, this can sometimes feel overwhelming and unwelcoming—especially if you belong to an underrepresented community based on race, gender, sexuality, class, ability or citizenship. One way to counteract this imposter feeling is to say to yourself, “I do belong here.” You are in graduate school to enhance or find your career path, give back to your families and communities, or make important contributions to research and innovation.

Get to know department staff. From organizing orientations, providing a supportive ear to students, or ensuring that you fulfill your degree requirements, Graduate Program Advisors (GPAs) are often your first point of contact into graduate school. They also provide important administrative support for graduate programs. Feel free to reach out to your GPA, as they have a wealth of experience and knowledge of your campus. If they don’t know the answer, they can often connect you with campus resources that serve the needs of graduate students.

Attend department events. Whether they are faculty or peer presentations, departmental meetings, working committees, or peer pub nights, there are numerous opportunities to connect with peers, staff, and faculty throughout the year. These co-curricular spaces provide an opportunity for you to glean information such as how to develop strong presentations, pick up disciplinary lingo (don’t worry if you don’t know all the terms yet), learn the spoken and unspoken culture of your graduate program, and foster collegial relationships with faculty and peers. Remember to pace yourself—you need not attend everything as you are already busy. We know from experienced graduate students that it’s best to attend events that make sense to you and your schedule.

Prepare for graduate seminars. It’s totally natural to feel excited and anxious about attending your first graduate seminar—especially if you don’t know what to expect or are the first person in your family to attend graduate school. Fortunately, Dr. Ralina Joseph, associate professor of communication at UW Seattle, provides useful tips on how to succeed in a graduate seminar.

Find your community. The University of Washington is a big place, with three campuses and multiple off-site research locations. We know that a feeling of belonging on campus is critical to your success as graduate students. It makes a difference to find and connect with people that can support your whole self—and not just your role as a graduate or professional student.

Best Wishes On a New Academic Year,

Kelly Edwards, Jaye Sablan, Ziyan Bai
Core Programs Staff, The Graduate School

Stand Up!

We’ve all heard about the dangers of sitting for too long. Are there quiet places on campus to study on a laptop while standing up that are comfortable for someone over five-foot-six-inches tall? Although super cool, the counter height tables in the Research Commons are too low.

—The Standing Grad Student

What a great question! Yes, indeed, sitting is verboten now. It was hard to get a definitive list of standing opportunities on campus, but here are a few options to get you started: As you mentioned, the counters in the Research Commons. They have outlets and space for your laptop, but are low for taller students. Could you just stack some big, heavy books and make yourself a stand? The Odegaard Library also has counters, with the same pros and cons as before. The H-Bar coffee shop in the Physics Astronomy Building has tall tables and counters, but is not exactly a formal studying space. The Suzzallo Lobby and Allen North both have desktop computers on counters, so if you can work on a UW computer, that might be an option. We’ll post this question on the Graduate School Facebook group page and solicit suggestions.

And don’t despair, some sitting is not bad; and sometimes sitting feels so good. If you don’t have a standing desk, just stand up at regular intervals. This alternative position also definitely looks doable. Good luck!