Welcome All! Tips for Preparing for the Fall Quarter!

Core Programs in the Graduate School extends a warm welcome to all new and returning graduate and professional students to the UW—Bothell, Tacoma, and Seattle. Whether you are enrolled for a year, a few years, or several, we acknowledge that it takes time to settle into a new city, work rhythm, and culture. Even for those of us who have lived in the Pacific Northwest for many years, we are still discovering new places and making new connections.

For those of you who are returning to campus, we truly hope you had opportunities to re-energize during the summer so you can move forward with your academic, professional, and interpersonal goals. We also appreciate that many of you are dreaming about and planning for life beyond graduate and professional school.

At Core Programs, we are here to root you on and support you as you work towards your goals — #UWGradSuccess. Here are some tips we hope you find useful, as you prepare for the first week of the new quarter:

You don’t have to know everything. Your Graduate Program Advisors are doing a fantastic job of organizing departmental orientations and welcome events, and they are sharing a wealth of information about your program requirements and campus resources. This is important for you, so you can plan ahead for your academic and professional goals. At the same time, we encourage you to acknowledge that you don’t have to know everything right now. Prioritize only the most important information and tasks you need to learn and do now and make time to re-visit information about your program and campus resources later (next week, next month, next quarter, etc.) Use an Individual Development Plan (IDP), so you can set goals for yourself with notes like “explore…” or “find out about…”. It takes one step at a time to make progress and figure out what’s next. Be open and curious.

Find your community. The University of Washington is a big place, with three campuses and multiple offsite research locations. We know that a feeling of belonging is critical to your success as graduate and professional 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. To help you find your community, check out the list below of upcoming welcome events and orientations.

Practice asking for help. Throughout your time at UW, seeking guidance and feedback on your studies, professional pursuits, and interpersonal goals is also vital to your success. The trick is knowing when and how to ask for help. Maybe you’re unsure if you’re critically engaging with course readings in the most effective and efficient ways. Be proactive, and send an e-mail to a second or third year student in your program, and ask if they can meet for coffee to go over your understanding of one of the readings. You might learn new study tips that will make your life easier. When you’re a new student, reaching out to a peer can be a more comfortable option rather than approaching faculty. Just remember that you were selected out of many applicants to be in your department, so know that you belong here.

You will be hearing from us every two weeks with these e-newsletters. Add cpinfo@uw.edu to your e-mail contacts, to make sure our newsletters arrive in your inbox. You’ll also be hearing from the Graduate School every other week with the Graduate School Digest–a fabulous collection of events, resources, and quick tips for making the most of your graduate student experience. Check out our Core Programs facebook page and the UW Graduate Student facebook page for more.

Best Regards,

Kelly, Jaye, and Ziyan
Core Programs Team

Making the Most of Seasonal Transitions

Greetings! How has your summer been? If it’s been like ours, there’s been some hard work, some good play, and continual reminders of why we do student affairs work in the Graduate School. Every time we have the privilege of talking with graduate students, we are in awe of your tenacity and creativity.

Some of you may be winding up summer quarter, some may be deep in research mode, others may just be getting started. We at Core Programs just wanted to check-in and offer a few thoughts for making the remaining month before fall quarter work for you. What do you need most right now? Is it a real break? Some play time? Some focused effort towards work? Some reflection about what’s ahead for the year? Although the fall quarter is a little more than a month away, we thought we’d share some helpful tips to help you feel more prepared and ready to hit the ground running.

Set goals. Make a list of goals that will address your interpersonal, wellness, intellectual, and professional needs. Break your goals down into manageable tasks. Deadlines can be self-imposed, but realistic. Deadlines can also be external depending on whether you are applying for research funding, preparing for your qualifying exams, applying for a job, or ensuring that you block out time for self-care and relaxation. Remain open to your goals and deadlines shifting, depending on your circumstances. An individual development plan (IDP) can help you think through, and map out, your goals.

Write. Maybe you’d like to start writing your thesis, plan to work on another dissertation chapter, or interested in revising that seminar paper so it’s publishable. Get in the habit of doing structured, timed writing. Set a goal to write for 30 minutes a day, or every other day, using a timer. Choose a work space that will enhance your productivity. For some, it’s the quiet of the library. For others, it’s a bustling café. Turn off your web browser and phone (unless you need your phone because of family or work-related responsibilities). Also, it’s helpful to reach out to peers and have a writing partner or two. Rely on one another to keep each other accountable to your work. Here are more general writing resources.

Grow your networks. Get an early start on your career development and network with professionals in academic, non-profit, private, or governmental sectors. Your chances of finding, or getting, the job you want increase when you develop and sustain connections with industry professionals. One strategy is to join LinkedIn (check out this tutorial, if you haven’t joined). Use its search engine to look up individuals by job title or industry. Peruse profiles to get a sense of how individuals describe their work, tasks and responsibilities, previous work experience, and the verbiage of their field. Message individuals whose careers, companies, or industries pique your interest and set up an informational interview.

Find some space to release, reflect, or rejuvenate. While summer is busy for many of us, it also does offer more spaciousness as email inboxes are lighter and the sun is shining high. Take some time for yourself – alone or with friends – to do something that is solely for you. Set yourself up for fall quarter by “filling your tank” with energy you can draw on as the months ahead get ever more full. Perhaps start some refreshing habits that could keep you going into the fall.

We hope you find these tips useful as you prepare for the coming year. As we get closer to the start of the fall quarter, we’ll be announcing an assortment of tri-campus welcome events, career-related programming, and more! So stay tuned to this newsletter.

And let us know what you are up to! #UWGradSuccess on Twitter or Instagram, or check out our Core Programs Facebook page.

Best,

Kelly, Jaye, Ziyan
Core Programs Team
UW Graduate School

Is “Work/Life” Balance Attainable in Research Careers?

Research has shown that happy people work more effectively, creatively, and collaboratively. It is worth fueling yourself outside work to keep yourself going in work. Especially as we head into the summer months, think about what choices you can make about your time that will allow you to make the most out of the summer. Can you go out for a hike or kayak after work (it is light until 9pm or later!)? Can you take your family for a picnic or camping trip? Is there free outdoor music you want to hear?

There are ebbs and flows to any working life. Times when a grant is due, for example, when you have to give up weekends (and maybe even sleep). But these big pushes aren’t sustainable and a research career is a marathon. You need to rebuild and sustain your energy, and recover your sleep. Postdoc Elisa Lazzari (UCSD) wrote a blog on this topic: “Start asking yourself what would make your life better. What are the deal-breakers and what can you compromise on? …. Make a list of what things are the most important and honestly work out what you can go without. Chances are that to have an academic position you’ll have to compromise on your personal time, just like other high-profile professionals.” For the full blog post, see Can scientists really have work/life balance?

One other consideration: if you are doing what you love, you can fuel your passion and creative energy within work too. There are many who resist using the idea of work/life “balance” as it implies those are two separate things. If you can structure your working life such that it feeds your energy, then you have less need to get away. It still is healthy to maintain perspective and give yourself distance from your work at times, no matter how immersive it is. It will help you do better work in the long run – insights gained from a play you saw, or a conversation with a friend can help you move forward in unexpected ways in your research. And it will help you be a better human too.

Additional resources

National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) – Work/life balance and family friendly policies
UW Postdoc Handbook – Health and Wellness Session

Originally posted on June 16, 2016.

Ground Yourself These Last Few Weeks of the Quarter

We see how hard you’re working. You’re running here and there, juggling multiple responsibilities related to all aspects of who you are as a graduate or professional student. In the midst of this spring quarter chaos, we want to offer you some tips to help ground you in these last few weeks of the quarter.

Connect with your body. Feeling accumulated tension in your muscles? Are you having trouble keeping your energy up? Maybe you’ve been agitated the last few days. These are all signs that your body is stressed. We know this is common knowledge, but isn’t it interesting how we can easily ignore bodily feedback and try to plough through the day or week anyway? Try taking 10-15 minutes out of your day to connect with your body (this is very possible as we can easily spend 10 minutes on social media). Go for a brief afternoon walk on campus or outside of your home. Sit in a quiet place such as the library, close your eyes, and take several deep breaths. Match your caffeine intake with hydrating water (we won’t tell you to cut back on coffee, not now!) . Keep healthy snacks on hand to make it easy to stay fueled with vitamin rich food. Connecting with your body allows you to be more mindful of your stress level and to actively respond to decrease it.

Shift from distraction to purpose. It’s easy to get caught in a negative feedback loop of feeling bogged down, frustrated, or depressed about all the things you have to do to close out the year or complete your graduate degree. And your feelings are totally valid and real. Yet you are also a whole person and not just the sum of stressful experiences. In those moments, it’s helpful to remind yourself of your purpose for earning that graduate degree. You want to contribute to innovation in your field. You are seeking to impact change in collaboration with your community. You want to better support yourself and your family. You want to make a unique contribution to knowledge and research.

Good enough is good enough. Academia has the capacity to make us feel that we aren’t doing or achieving enough. Yet in reality, we in Core Programs know that this is just not true. We have the privilege of collaborating, and engaging in conversations, with a range of graduate and professional students throughout the year. We get to hear about all the amazing things (no matter how big or small) you are involved in, projects and interests that go above and beyond your degree programs. We also know that you have families you’re taking care of, working at one or two jobs to make ends meet, or that you are not always validated or seen on campus. We too have projects that are not yet done, and a long list of things we want to get to. Your work is never done–this is why the world (and your loved ones) needs you! We’re telling you right now, you are enough. And we see you.

Anchor yourself in community. Make the time in your schedule to hang out with friends, colleagues, or family who care about your well-being and success. Spend time with people whose well-being you care about. Reach out to people who share your hobbies and interests. Go hiking with your best friend. Plan pizza and a movie night with peers in your cohort. Make plans for connecting after your last deadline this quarter. If you’re new to Seattle, consider joining a meetup group based on your interests. Anchoring yourself in community reminds you that you are a whole person!

Warmly,

Jaye Sablan, Kelly Edwards, and Ziyan Bai
Core Programs Team

Managing Conflict: Strategies for Approaching Difficult Conversations

At an event in April 2016, sponsored by Hutch United and the Association for Women in Science, Emma Williams, Associate Ombud at UW, shared effective strategies for managing conflict.

First, we know that being a postdoc is highly stressful. You have many deadlines, demands, funding uncertainties and questions about your future. Research shows that people who make decisions from a stressed mental state tend to have a narrower perspective about their options. On the other hand, approaching a problem from a positive mindset – one of gratitude, generosity, and grace – can improve creative problem-solving and open up previously unseen options. In light of this, we offer a few tips the next time you experience even a minor conflict:

Take a deep breath and a break. While it is important to address conflicts soon, before they fester, it is also critical to calm down before responding. Taking a little time, even 24 hours, will often give you perspective and allow you to explore options for responding.
Prepare, prepare, prepare. Ask yourself: what would you like to see happen? And, how can you make that most likely?
Consider the ‘who, what, when, where, and why’.
- Who: Is there someone who can help you have a better discussion? Bringing in another person – perhaps from your research group or from your mentoring team – can both offer support or another perspective on the conversation.
- What: What should this conversation be about? If it is a seemingly small thing – or series of small things – in the research group, what does this pattern of behavior really signal to you? What’s really the overall concern?
- When/where: When and where are the best place to have a productive conversation? Find a neutral territory and a time when you can both focus.
- Why: What are your goals for the conversation? What are the results or outcomes you want to see?
Practice. Ask a peer or another trusted colleague to have a mock discussion with you. Practice the tough questions or responding to difficult scenarios, and practice remaining calm, respectful, and clear about your goals.
Step away when you need to. If the conversation does go sideways, take a break. Acknowledge the conversation isn’t productive now and you’ll come back to it. You can name a time/day when you want to pick it up again so it doesn’t linger further. You can also send an email follow up to clarify your goals for the conversation, and be descriptive about what is making it difficult to have this conversation (e.g. “the conversation broke down when…”), and then ask for what you need (e.g. “it would help me if…”).

While you are in it, here are a few additional strategies that can help the conversation go well.

Save your reactions. Try not to respond in the moment from an emotional place. Take time to digest what they are saying, and stick to your plan.
Consider their perspective. Ask curious questions rather than defending, such as: “Can you tell me more about that?” You may get more data, more insight into their ultimate goals. Perhaps you can also find some alignment with your own goals.
Educate, don’t escalate. It can help to be descriptive about the impact of their behavior on you or on the research group. Get them to see what is going on, and guide them to come to their own conclusions about what might need to happen.

If you need help thinking through a response to a difficult situation, you can also make an appointment with the Ombud Office to help you clarify your goals and work through a productive approach. You can reach the Ombud Office at 206.543.6028 or ombuds@uw.edu.

Originally posted on May 5, 2016.

Getting Unstuck, Moving Forward

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill

We know what you’re thinking: why are you already giving me tips on how to move forward from feeling stuck so early in the quarter? Well, we thought we’d offer you some preventative tips to help you pull through, no matter where you’re at this quarter or what year you are in your degree program. Besides, everyone gets stuck in life, and graduate school is no exception by any means. There are several factors that can contribute to feeling stuck from getting our work done. We’ve put together a short list of these, including ways you can move forward. So let’s begin:

Relieving the pressure. Looming deadlines for school and work. Family, community, and financial responsibilities. Preparing for job searches, interviews, and possible relocations—near or far. Those pressures can make us feel overwhelmingly stuck. One way to relieve this weight is to re-focus your attention on what you need right now: Do you need to slow down and take a few deep breaths (repeat every few hours)? After that deep breath or two, and in a calmer state of mind, identify a single step you can take for one of your tasks that would help you feel you have accomplished something today. Each task is just made up of a whole series of steps. We have to start somewhere, and it often helps relieve the pressure to just take that one step.

Finding value in yourself (despite imperfections). We all struggle and have shortcomings. Indeed, in a job interview a common question is, “Tell me about your weaknesses!” Being honest about your own limitations – not critical, just descriptive – can sometimes give you the awareness you need to move ahead again. More often than not, we need a trusted conversation partner to help us see this perspective. Reach out for support from peers, departmental staff or advisors, loved ones, or campus resources (whomever you feel most comfortable with).

Facing the fear of failure. Academia can perpetuate the myth that we must be highly productive, all of the time. And if we’re not, we must be failures. Not only is this unrealistic and unattainable, this kind of culture obscures actual strategies for how to do our best work—and it can keep us from trying in the first place. So how can we best manage this? First, it’s helpful to think of failure in terms of progress over time—so you can grow into being that better professional, practitioner, or scholar. It’s a process, not an end result. You try, you learn, and you move forward—all the while validating and/or rewarding yourself each step of the way. No matter how big or small the milestone. It’s also vital that you build a support system of people who’ve got your back and will recognize your achievements along with you.

Remembering your purpose. Feeling stuck can make you forget why you are in graduate or professional school in the first place. It can also keep you in a false feedback loop that makes you believe that you are unsuccessful or unworthy of achievement. Whenever you feel this way, remember that you are working hard towards your degree for many amazing reasons and focus on those—whether it’s to making a contribution to a field of knowledge, impacting policy that improves lives, getting a job that you love and that helps you provide for your families. Remembering your end goals helps us focus on what really counts.

Warmly,

Jaye Sablan, Kelly Edwards, Ziyan Bai
Core Programs Team

Mental Health and Wellness

MH&W

Towards Sustaining a Culture of Mental Health and Wellness for Trainees in the Biosciences, written by Jessica W Tsai and Fanuel Muindi, discussed the importance of mental health of postdocs in benefiting the scientific community at large. Studies are limited, but we can see we clearly have work to do. According to one study, only 13% of postdocs are “flourishing” and we know that a postdoc position doesn’t lend itself to regular exercise, healthy diets, or good stress relieving practices. Lack of sleep and high levels of stress actually impede performance. Bottom line: our work will get better if we take care of ourselves!

As the figure above shows, there are many factors that contribute to well-being. Do your own self-assessment to see where you have areas of strength and where you may need to seek more support. If you are experiencing significant stress, anxiety, or depression, there are offices that can help. You may be eligible for accommodations – even on a temporary basis – and it can be worth discussing with the Disability Services Office.

The UW Mindfulness Project aims to increase holistic wellness, self-inquiry, grounded leadership and compassion within UW community and beyond. Check out their Facebook Page.

Health & Wellness provides support, advocacy, consultation and education to the UW campus community. Check out their website for more information.

For additional resources and suggestions on many dimensions of self-care, visit the UC Berkeley “Be Well” page.

Originally posted on March 24, 2016.

Hours and Hours of Office Hours

I am a TA for a graduate level class this quarter, and my professor is asking me to hold 4 hours of Office Hours. I feel this is too much. I had TA’d the same class last quarter, and I had five hours of Office Hours, way more than any other grad class in my department. It was incredibly stressful, and I grew to hate the work because of the long hours. I was hoping that this quarter I can have office hours similar what others in my department hold. How do I tell my professor? I want a good recommendation letter from him eventually and don’t want to piss him off, but there simply doesn’t seem to be an indirect way to tell him what I want to say. —Anonymous

This is exactly the type of situation to take to the Office of the Ombud. They specialize in handling conflicts with others at UW and will help you approach your professor with your concerns. Additionally, you can consult the Center for Teaching and Learning for tips on how to manage office hours and handle the stress that comes with teaching.

Ask the Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guide doesn’t know the answer, the guide will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guide 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 →

Break?! Making Time For Yourself

We know that depending on your graduate or professional degree program, “spring break” looks very different from your days as an undergraduate–at least in terms of the work. You may be doing fieldwork locally or globally, applying for funding, preparing for job searches or qualifying exams, writing your thesis or dissertation, or working at a practicum site.

All this is true, but this doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate all that is you. In fact, given the tips we share below, you don’t have to wait for an official break to honor–and take care–of yourself. You can make that happen any time of the year.

Press pause. We move at break-neck speeds, going from one task to the next, barely allowing ourselves to just be. So go on, give yourself permission to slow down and breathe deeply, take several deep breaths–for however long it takes. The world will not end, we swear.

Appreciate yourself. Isn’t it funny how it can be easier to treat our friends and loved ones better than we treat ourselves, especially when they’ve been working hard or going through a rough time? So what’s stopping you from treating yourself to a nice meal or new pair of shoes? Why not buy a book you actually want to read? Why can’t you go on a staycation? You know what? There’s absolutely no reason why you can’t, so go on and do it! Do more than one. It’s not selfish. It’s self-love.

Laugh at yourself. You all work incredibly hard in your respective fields, and you are also awesomely, brilliantly human. Both are true. We all can’t help but be imperfect, so we might as well laugh at those embarrassing moments where we aren’t always our best selves.

Let go of guilt. Give yourself permission to not feel awful for taking care of yourself. By taking some time out for you, you’ll be able to return to longer term projects feeling energized. Also, taking time for yourself benefits everyone in your circle, because you’re all the more happier for it!

Warmly,

Jaye Sablan, Kelly Edwards, Ziyan Bai
Core Programs Team

Crushed

How do you cope with a breakup of a long term relationship while job searching, moving and taking care of your family? It seems impossible. I feel crushed. I’ve used up my free counseling services due to a family crises earlier in my graduate experience. I don’t know what to do or where to go. My whole world is altered right before I was supposed to go out into the world determined for new experiences and greatness. I thought that I would have them to share that with me. But now it’s over. I’m lost. —I once was a bot

My heart goes out to you. The only responsible thing I can do is refer you to professional counseling. I do have a kernel of good news for you, though. You are still eligible for free counseling through the UW Counseling Center. There seems to be a lot of misinformation out there about counseling sessions for students. A representative from the Counseling Center confirmed that there used to be a cap on sessions in the past, but that is no longer the case. So you can absolutely go back and receive help for your current situation. Best best best of luck to you!