Sunday, August 5, 2007: 12:30 PM-4:30 PM
Blrm Salon II, San Jose Marriott
WK 13 - Developing a strategic plan for grad school and beyond
There is a need for graduate professional development that goes beyond research alone. For example, employers repeatedly request that students receive broader training and skill development than is typically obtained in a traditional masters or doctoral program. Desired skills, such as conflict management, negotiation, and listening cannot be readily learned from a textbook. Many of these "interpersonal" skills need to be learned by experience and benefit from practice. In addition, there is a wide range of competencies that future faculty and professionals will need. These core areas of competency include research, communication, collaboration, and administration/personnel management. However, determining what skills to learn and where to learn them can be a daunting task. In this workshop I offer a proposed "roadmap" and some benchmarks for graduate student professional and academic development. I outline several areas of skill development ("core competencies") that will serve future professionals as well as faculty in the natural sciences. Within each area we will discuss a developmental progression and approaches for gaining experience and skill. Workshop participants will learn some of the tools of advanced communication and collaboration, explore their personal interaction styles, complete a professional skills inventory, and develop a strategic plan for grad school and beyond. This is an active-learning workshop, so come prepared to participate! Students, postdocs, and faculty are all welcome.
Organizer:	Teri C. Balser, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Speaker:	Teri C. Balser, University of Wisconsin-Madison

See more of Workshop

See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)