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VPGE's professional development programs span a wide range of topics and formats. There's something to meet your needs and schedule, from information-packed Quick Bytes lunches, to multi-session Negotiation Matters workshops, or week-long Stanford Graduate Summer Institute courses. Browse these offerings and use the Grad Grow Professional Development search tool to find more learning opportunities.  

Programs

Academic Chats

Could a faculty career be in your future? Attend Academic Chats to explore skills and experience to help you prepare from Stanford faculty and staff.

CIRTL@ Stanford Teaching Certificate Program

The CIRTL@ Stanford program provides an opportunity for participants at various stages (graduate students, postdocs, and lecturers/academic teaching staff) to engage in professional development around teaching to ultimately improve student learning in their current and future courses.

Communicating Effectively with Your Advisor

Want to learn skills to communicate better and resolve issues with your faculty advisor? Communicating Effectively with Your Advisor workshop helps you develop a healthy and productive relationship with your faculty advisor.

Crucial Conversations

Through a dynamic mix of theory, demonstration, and practice, this two-session workshop provides a solid foundation for more principled, persuasive, and successful conversations in a variety of contexts.

Deep Dives

Gain valuable professional development skills that you can apply right away! Deep Dive sessions cover a variety of topics.

Designing the Professional

Once you get your degree, how do you get a life? What do you want out of life after Stanford? Wondering how to weave together what fits, is doable, and will be truly meaningful? Then join us for Designing the Professional, offered in several different formats as a program or course.

Developing Your Professional Digital Presence

This interactive series will guide you through the components and steps to creating and strengthening your professional digital presence.

Diversity Works

Come together with academic leaders to discuss issues related to diversity and excellence in higher education at Diversity Works.

Fellows Forum

Expand your academic and professional skills and meet new people at Fellows Forum. Designed for early-mid stage doctoral students, and open to all graduate students.

Finding Purpose and Meaning During Challenging Times

Explore the science and art of purpose and practice essential tools for living a life of authenticity, connection, and impact.

Flourishing: The Art and Science of a Life Well Lived

What is human flourishing and how do we practice it in an age of hyper-complexity and ever-accelerating pace?

Leadership Bootcamp: Communication, Negotiation, and Influence

Enhance your leadership skills by learning how to effectively navigate negotiations and difficult conversations.

Meditation: Good for More Than Getting More Done

An overview of the science of meditation, highlight various forms and practices of meditation, and explore the practical how of implementing a meditation practice that works for you.

Negotiation Matters

Learn how to negotiate with colleagues, bosses, partners, friends, clients, and many others. Through a dynamic mix of theory, demonstration, and practice, this two-session workshop provides a solid foundation for more principled, persuasive, and successful negotiation in a variety of contexts.

Preparing for Faculty Careers Course (EDUC 343C)

How will you prepare yourself to obtain a great faculty job - and to thrive as a professor once you begin your career? The Preparing for Faculty Careers course (EDUC 343C, Spring Q) is designed for advanced doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars from any discipline who are considering a faculty career.

Preparing Future Teaching Professors

Stanford students and postdocs are paired with professors whom they shadow weekly, virtually, or in person, during winter quarter and into the host institution's spring semester. PFTP broadens graduate students' perspectives on higher education and helps them compete for, and successfully teach in, faculty jobs at undergraduate-focused institutions.

Quick Bytes

Gain valuable professional development skills that you can apply right away! Quick Bytes sessions cover a variety of topics.

Slide Design Mini Boot Camp

Elevate the aesthetic appeal and communicative force of your slide deck to make your message stand out.

Stanford Ignite

Got innovation? Learn how to formulate, develop, and commercialize your ideas with Stanford Ignite. Led by the Graduate School of Business, Stanford Ignite is a certificate program that provides the business fundamentals necessary to succeed at any entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial venture.

WISE and WISSH Groups

Since June 2001, Stanford has sponsored mentoring groups for women doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars in science and engineering (WISE). For the past several years, a similar program has also been available for women PhD students and postdocs in the social sciences and the humanities (WISSH).

Fellowships and Funding

Fellowships Eligibility Process Application Period

DIF: Diversity and Inclusion Innovation Funds

DIF is a program that supports Stanford graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the development of a project that will advance diversity within those populations. Learn More
All Students, Postdoctoral Scholars by Application Spring quarter

RAISE: Research, Action, and Impact through Strategic Engagement Doctoral Fellowship

The RAISE Doctoral Fellowship Program supports doctoral students who are motivated to make positive contributions to their communities and the world. Learn More
Doctoral Students by Application Winter quarter

SCORE (Strengthening the Core) Academic Innovation Funds

SCORE Academic Innovation Funds support faculty-led innovations in core areas of graduate education. Learn More
Faculty by Application No deadline; applications accepted anytime.

SPICE: Student Projects for Intellectual Community Enhancement

SPICE funds support graduate students' efforts to build and expand their intellectual communities at Stanford. Learn More
All Students by Application The annual cycle for AY2025-26 will reopen Spring Quarter 2025.