Throughout your training, but especially in the postdoc experience, your faculty supervisor plays a significant role with you and your future. We know there is a full spectrum of what faculty have to offer and how this matches with what you need. From what we have learned, it can take “managing up” and being proactive in your relationship with your faculty advisor to make it work for you. The National Postdoc Association recently posted a blog with exceptional tips for…
From everything we read about writing productivity, protecting a 30-minute writing practice – daily – is what helps build momentum and make progress. It can also help to remember why you are writing and publishing – there can be a variety of reasons. What’s yours? My faculty advisor had encouraged me to think about contributing to the peer reviewed literature as joining a conversation. Thinking about writing as participating in key gatherings in the field helped motivate me, more so than simply…
We understand it can feel daunting to find funding sources for postdocs, and that NIH or NSF mechanisms can be highly competitive and slow to respond. The Office of Postdoc Affairs worked with our UW Graduate Funding Information Service (GFIS) to identify additional mechanisms for postdocs or early career researchers. We found these mechanisms can include non-profits, corporations, professional and academic associations, foundations, and government agencies. These tips and links below will be archived in a blogpost on our OPA…
Many of you are thinking about research questions, arguments, and citations for your final seminar papers. Some of you are close to beginning work on your thesis or dissertation. This may also be the first time you are engaging with graduate-level writing, if you are an incoming or first-generation graduate student. Fortunately, there are a number of campus-based and online resources that offer tips and tools to help you progress and complete these writing projects. For example, the following insights…
The Graduate Student Equity & Excellence (GSEE) program invited Core Programs to facilitate a Power Hour event called Building Your Roadmap Through Graduate School. We knew the students were the ones who really had the insight here, and we worked with several outstanding GSEE graduate students including Priya Patel, Osa Igbinosun, Greg Diggs and Juan Gallegos, to plan and facilitate the discussion. So many great insights were shared during the panel and small group discussions that we wanted to share…
Life in graduate school is challenging and stressful, not only because of program demands to excel and be productive, but also because there is life outside of the lab, classroom, and the university. The demands of health, relationships, and responsibilities don’t stop. We seek to find a balance between our graduate studies, research and life responsibilities—and often feel unsuccessful. This can result in debilitating feelings of failure, perhaps negative thoughts that “something is wrong with me,” which only intensifies shame…