Conference Session

Mentoring Graduate Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shekhar Bhansali, University of South Florida; Ashanti Pyrtle, University of South Florida; Louis Martin-Vega, University of South Florida; Peter Betzer, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

techniques for college-level science andengineering instruction; with development of professional and “soft-skills” including technicalwriting (research manuscripts and proposals), conference presentation preparation (oral andposter), professional etiquette, time management, strategic career planning and interviewingskills. The courses were cross listed in both Colleges of Engineering and Marine Science.These courses were designed as half-day biweekly sessions that started with a working lunch.This enabled the students to interact and share their concerns, challenges, successes and failureswith the group. The courses were offered separately in Fall and Spring, ensuring studentinteraction for two semesters.C. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Minority PhD

Conference Session

Mentoring Graduate Students

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Shashi Marikunte, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; Frances Harackiewicz, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; John Nicklow, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale; Lizette Chevalier, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale

Tagged Divisions

Graduate Studies

teaching assistanttraining more specific and relevant than what is typically done at the university level.Two is the need for a forum where students can interact with others at the sameprofessional level although in different research areas. Three is the need for the graduatestudents who come from many different undergraduate institutions to have a unifyingprofessional development experience. The topics were split into two broad categories:those for teaching training and those for professional development and soft skills. Tomaintain student interest, number of seminars in a semester was limited to six. Theseminar was open to all graduate students in the College of Engineering. Thus studentswho were not teaching assistants also benefited. Invited