Workshop Topics, Success Groups and Evaluation

Hosting an RDI means that you provide a series of workshops, small group discussions (success groups), and an evaluation of the activity.

Workshops: We identified five topics key to supporting incoming doctoral students’ success. These topics serve as guides to frame the activities, workshops, and talks for students attending the RDI.

Not all topics need to be covered in your RDI. Assess the needs in your institution and select those that you consider instrumental in helping new doctoral students.

Success Groups: small group discussions for students to create community and openly discuss the content in the workshops

Evaluation: We gather data to assess the RDI and evaluate its impact on students success and persistence

Workshop Topics

Doctoral Program Management

Key Takeaways

Students enter graduate school with misconceptions that can ultimately impact their persistence.
Having a clear understanding early on can help them make critical decisions conscientiously.
Funding types and management have been shown to impact the doctoral experience and time to degree.
In the case of minoritized students specifically, the investments made to attend doctoral education often extend beyond the financial.

Advising and Interpersonal Relationships in graduate School

Key Takeaways

- Learning how to handle disagreements has been shown to increase persistence.
- The process of selecting an advisor is often complex.
- Maintaining a positive advising relationship is a key factor for student retention.
- Awareness of the broader departmental politics and environment can be key to the development of graduate students and their persistence.
- Minoritized students in engineering have been found to struggle with this awareness

Day to Day Strategies for Graduate School Success

Key Takeaways

- Shifting from a prescribed schedule and explicit assessment guidelines in the undergraduate to a hidden process at the doctoral level is often a barrier for students who lack self-management.
- The writing process can often be a challenge for engineering doctoral students as they may not have developed these skills in their undergraduate.

Being Minoritized in Graduate School

Key Takeaways

- Minoritized doctoral students often experience impostor syndrome and lack belongingness.
- Managing such and creating support systems such as peer groups and mentoring relationships can help students manage to be visibly different from the norm in academia and persist in the doctorate.
- The continuity of these feelings can develop mental health issues and impact doctoral progress.

Life Post Ph.D.

Key Takeaways

Over 70% of engineering and other STEM doctorate holders have been shown to pursue careers outside of academia, such as industry and government.

Success Groups

Goals of the Success Groups

The goal of the success groups is to directly connect participants with other participants of similar backgrounds in a small group setting moderated by a key faculty or college contact (group facilitator) who will be with them throughout the first year.

These groups are meant to be safe spaces; what is said in the group remains only between the group. Please ensure students know this on the first day of the group meeting.

During the RDI

The goal of the success groups during the week of the RDI is to have an open space to ask questions, discuss the lessons learned during the RDI, and create camaraderie. This camaraderie will allow for more authentic participation and community building in follow-up gatherings.

After the RDI

The main goal of these monthly meetings is to help students translate the knowledge of the RDI into their real-world graduate school experience. Although initially, we recommend you provide more scaffolding in the conversation, every month we want to shift towards getting them to rely on each other more for answers and develop intra-group relationships that persist in the long term.

RDI Content

Workshop Topics

Key Takeaways

Key Takeaways

Key Takeaways

Key Takeaways

Key Takeaways

Success Groups