February/March 2024

Faculty mentors often tell us they are looking for ways to help students stay focused and motivated throughout the entire journey of their programs. Grad school is full of right-this-second deadlines and long-distance aspirations, and it can be challenging for students to find ways to plan everything that comes in between. And that means they often struggle to strategically develop skills, knowledge and experiences that take them toward their goals. 

Faculty mentors play an incredibly important role in helping students do just that. One tool that faculty can consider incorporating into their mentoring is the Individual Development Plan. An Individual Development Plan, or IDP, is a process through which students assess their skills, reflect on their career aspirations, set near- and long-term goals, and work with mentors to identify next steps. It can give them focus, energy, and a clear path forward, leading to stronger performance, greater fulfillment, and more productive relationships with mentors. 

The Graduate College recently launched a set of resources related to Individual Development Plans, including some specifically for faculty: 

IDP Essentials for Faculty: This page explains more about IDPs, how they work, and why they are a powerful tool for responsive, student-centered mentoring. 

Faculty IDP Conversation Guide: This guide offers a suggested outline for discussing a graduate student’s IDP experience. The structure can let students take the lead while getting the most out of the mentorship and perspective that faculty can provide. 

GradPLAN: There are a number of available IDP options, including myIDP and ImaginePhD. The Graduate College has developed a version designed specifically for University of Illinois students, which offers a streamlined but robust opportunity to assess skills, make plans, and connect with resources. If you or your students are looking for a place to start with IDPs, consider giving GradPLAN a try. 

If you have questions about IDPs or ideas about related resources you would like to see, please contact us at gradsuccess@illinois.edu. 

With all its academic rigor, graduate school is challenging enough. It can be even more challenging when you are juggling family and work responsibilities while being enrolled in a fully online master’s or doctoral program. Hyun Kang explored those challenges in a recent study, culminating in a paper published in The American Journal of Distance Education.

The Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) at Illinois, provides undergraduate students with hands-on experience in various disciplines, fostering a passion for research and encouraging them to consider graduate study, ideally at Illinois. Each year, the program hosts participants from across the country, partnering with institutions including the Big Ten Academic Alliance, national tribal colleges and universities, the Illinois Minority Serving Institutions (MSI) Alliance, and the City Colleges of Chicago. Faculty mentors are pivotal in shaping these aspiring scholars' academic and professional trajectories. Additional benefits to you as a mentor include engaging motivated students in your projects to contribute to the productivity of your initiatives, creating a pipeline of future graduate students to your program and discipline, increasing your program's visibility, and preparing students for graduate-level research. 

This year, SROP takes place June 3 - July 26. If you are interested in participating as a mentor this summer or in future summers, please let us know.

Thursday, April 4, 11 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at the Graduate College (507 E. Green St.).

Developing and conveying expectations is an important tool for mentors. These conversations about expectations provide an opportunity for mentors and mentees to reflect on and voice their goals and needs in the mentoring relationship and create paths for successful outcomes. We will touch on types of expectations, tools for communicating these (and reassessing over time), and strategies for handling difficult conversations. 

Thursday, April 25, 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. at the Graduate College (507 E. Green St.). 

The workshop will outline some key principles for graduate student mentoring, then use in-depth discussion of case studies to explore what those principles look like in practice. We will touch on topics including establishing and maintaining boundaries, navigating the relationship between mentoring and your own research program, considering student wellbeing, and more. The workshop will be highly interactive and give you the opportunity to learn from other UIUC faculty. The workshop is open to all faculty but may be especially useful for those in the first few years in their role.

New this year! There are two Summer Predoctoral Programs.

Summer Predoctoral Programs at Illinois provides early acclimation to graduate school and the Illinois campus, focusing on three main areas that support student success: academic, social, and cultural/environmental acclimation. Housing, meals, and travel are provided for both programs. Both programs also provide students with a stipend.

The 8-week Summer Predoctoral Institute (SPI) provides incoming graduate students an early introduction to graduate study and an opportunity to work with summer research advisers in their departments in addition to other programming. Dates: June 3, 2024 – July 26, 2024

The Summer Emerging PhD Program provides incoming graduate students an opportunity to learn about graduate school culture, network with current graduate students, spend a day with their department, and attend graduate school sustainability seminars over 2.5 weeks. Dates: July 10, 2024 – July 26, 2024

Applications accepted for both accepted February 1 –  April 17, 2024, at https://go.grad.illinois.edu/apply-spp

The Graduate College's Career Exploration Fellowship Program connects doctoral students with administrative units within the university for substantive, mentored work experiences.

The program enables doctoral students to gain experience and build skills beyond traditional research and teaching roles, aligning their professional development to a wider range of career aspirations. Graduate students develop a number of vital, transferrable skills through their work in research and teaching at the university, but students often tell us that they wish they also had the opportunity to get hands-on experience in other kinds of work. Such experience gives graduate students the chance to develop new skills, explore unfamiliar career options, and market themselves more effectively to employers when they graduate. You can read more about the experience of being a Career Exploration Fellow in this GradLIFE blog by a Fall 2023 Fellow.

Career Exploration Fellows receive:

• A 10-15 hour per week hourly position at a campus host unit (at $25/hour). 
• A $5,000 Career Exploration Fellowship from the Graduate College, which will generate a tuition waiver for the semester.
• Required professional and career development activities facilitated by the Graduate College.

The student's tasks and responsibilities as part of the hourly position will be determined by the host unit (in consultation with the student), and the host unit will provide mentoring and targeted professional development opportunities. In addition to their work with the host unit, the student are required to participate in a twice-monthly career exploration seminar, during which they will reflect on their work and engage in career development activities.

The deadline for students to apply for the Fall 2024 Career Exploration Fellowship is10:00 a.m. (CT) on Monday, March 18.

The ESL Program offers ESL 593 Academic Presentation Skills for international graduate students, faculty, staff and visiting scholars. This is a 7-week course designed to offer authentic opportunities to practice explaining their research, adapting to different audiences and writing conference proposals with individualized feedback. The first session takes place on Tuesday March 19, 2024. For registration information, visit the ESL Advanced Electives Courses page.

The information above is shared on behalf of the Illinois ESL Program, Department of Linguistics. Please direct questions to eslprogram@illinois.edu.

As you plan programs for your graduate students this year, keep in mind that many Graduate College workshops can be requested by departments, faculty, and student groups. These workshops introduce grad students to important topics related to their professional and career development. Workshops can be a productive addition to orientations, courses, professional development seminars, and research group meetings.

GradLINKS
A weekly e-bulletin for graduate students

GradFELLOWSHIPS
Fellowship highlights and opportunities

GradLIFE Blog and Podcast
A behind-the-scenes look at the graduate experience

GradCAREERS
Biweekly job postings for graduate students

GradMENTOR is distributed to graduate faculty, instructors of graduate courses, and graduate program administrators. Visit our GradMENTOR blog for features from past newsletters. 

If you will need disability-related accommodations in order to participate in any of the programs or events listed in GradMENTOR, please email the contact person for the event. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs.