Grad Grow Learning Opportunities

One of the most important decisions you will make as a graduate student is choosing a dissertation advisor. This article from Inside Higher Ed (and this one from the Chronicle of Higher Education) address this vital decision and offer some guidance on how to select an advisor, including what good and bad things to look for.

Stanford's Enhancing Diversity in Graduate Education (EDGE) Doctoral Fellowship Program aims to recruit and retain outstanding doctoral students who have the potential to contribute to the diversity of their academic fields and departments. In EDGE Insights videos, EDGE Mentors and Fellows share their Stanford graduate experience. From finding a supportive community to selecting a PhD advisor, these videos offer unique insights from your peers and cover a wide range of topics relevant to graduate students.

Interested in finding ways to engage with the local community? At the Haas Center for Public Service, several Education Partnerships connect Stanford students with local children. By engaging Stanford students and community youth in mentoring and tutoring relationships, the partnerships program seeks to promote educational equity within our region. Check out the Education Partnerships website for more information.

El Centro Chicano y Latino's Graduate Scholars in Residence Program promotes a vibrant intellectual atmosphere and interdisciplinary exchange among Chicano and Latino students at Stanford. The program offers six doctoral students per year a stipend and an office space. In return, Graduate Scholars are expected to spend time in their offices, give one research presentation per year, and encourage undergraduate students, especially in pursuing graduate studies. 

This resource from the University of Michigan is a guide for proactive students seeking to improve the quality of their relationships with faculty. It covers the basics of mentoring, how to find a mentor, and your responsibilities as a mentee, and delves into strategies for underrepresented students and the way the mentoring relationship changes as you progress from mentee to colleague. Useful for all graduate students seeking mentorship.

For graduate students trying to find a faculty mentor with whom to do a postdoc, this handy guide from the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs may help. By asking yourself a series of questions, you can better narrow down what kind of position and mentor you are looking for. There are also additional tips and resources for approaching potential mentors, and a list of key questions you should ask.