Have you ever wished you had more exciting teaching practices that invited students to learn more deeply in your classroom? Me too! Before taking the University Teaching Certificate (UTC) Program, my teaching had hit a rut where I was doing the same activities over and over again. I felt stuck in a loop. This was...
Have you ever wondered what the green bubble with the white text “ID” next to an author’s name means when reading a research article? It refers to ORCiD! ORCiD is a free and helpful resource for researchers of all backgrounds to link their work in one place. This is possible due to its global reach...
As the Spring quarter begins, GradQuant offers an exciting lineup of programs. For UCR graduate students and postdocs, GradQuant is a valuable resource for data analysis. If you're unfamiliar with GradQuant, here's a brief introduction to our staff and programming. GradQuant Consultants At the core of GradQuant programming is our team of consultants. GradQuant consultants...
Hello Highlanders! We hope all of you have been having a great year thus far. The 2023-2024 academic school year has been flying by! Many of you have been working diligently this school year and knocking out assignment after assignment. Or maybe, though you managed to turn in that paper, you felt like that writing...
As the sun begins to stay out longer, you may feel the itch of being outside to enjoy the nice weather and ditch your seclusion inside! UCR offers many indoor places to study, but what about outside? And how do I avoid high-traffic areas if I am trying to stay focused? Well, we have some...
I venture to believe that most people listen to music because it’s enjoyable. I also venture to believe that a substantial number, if not the majority, of graduate students and postdocs here at UCR listen to their favorite music sometime during the week, if not every day. Here at GradSuccess, music is a significant part...
Many of us have our own writing methods. Some of us lock ourselves in our rooms for several hours and crank out our first draft. Others write for one hour, stop, rest for another hour, and repeat this process until the first draft appears. But, regardless of your process, getting the initial draft out is...
Are you graduating within the next year? Are you interested in pursuing a career outside of traditional academia? Do you ever wonder what kinds of opportunities there are outside of the confines of the campus? Do you want to understand more clearly what “transferable skills” you have attained by earning your degree? This month, the...
The journey towards and achievement of a graduate degree is a significant life milestone, but it should never come at the expense of your health. As graduate students, we typically have sedentary lifestyles, hunched over a desk or lab bench like with many professions nowadays. We might also take shortcuts in our diet and nutrition...
UCR Graduate Division is proud to announce the semi-finalists for this year’s UCR Grad Slam competition. Grad Slam is a UC-wide public speaking competition in which graduate students talk about their research or creative project to a general audience in three minutes. The winner of the UCR Grad Slam will receive up to $5,000 and...
As the Special Topics Peer Mentor specializing in academic and professional development for the Graduate Student Mentorship Program (GSMP), I want to share a resource to help graduate students prepare for their future careers. The UCR Career has a self-serve photo booth available to all students! Here, I want to go over the process and...
During my first quarter here at UCR, along with several other students, I was asked by one of my professors to give a class presentation on a set of readings for one of the designated weeks of the course. The presentation was on a theoretical textbook, around 250-300 pages, and my presentation had to be...
We won’t sugarcoat it: the academic job market can be rough! In recent years, however, the relative scarcity of academic jobs has opened up many other, equally edifying job prospects for us PhDs. This quarter’s Career Pathways Week will be themed “Beyond Academia,” and will explore the many burgeoning “alt-ac” career opportunities available to us...
When I look back on all my English teachers, I notice a few who taught me some valuable things related to writing (and sometimes maybe about life). Most of my English teachers were always interesting characters. During my high school years, I recall one of them – a short woman with a strong character –...
Hi hi! My name is Allyn, pronounced UH-leen, Nguyen. I am a 4th year PhD student in the Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Ecology Department, or EEOB for short. My specific field of research is in comparative muscle physiology. I am very into the fitness/active lifestyle and love the outdoors. I was born and raised in...
Hi everyone! My name is Shannon Brady, and I’m a 5th-year PhD candidate in the Psychology department. I grew up outside Washington, DC, but I have been in Southern California for over ten years. I came out to Los Angeles for college and decided I would never leave (if I could help it)! I always...
Incoming graduate student orientation has been described as a “firehose.” There is so much information coming at you at once that, at some point, you are saturated and can’t take in anything more. And much of the information is (hopefully) super important at some point, but it just doesn’t stick. [ Alt Description : Two...
Hi Highlanders! We hope you are having a relaxing winter break! This upcoming quarter, GWC will be hosting a number of online writing workshops. We hope many of you can make it! Perhaps, recently in your own writing experience you have come across some challenges. I think most of us in graduate school experience moments...
As we make our way out of fall and into winter, we all need to take some well-earned rest! Relaxing during downtime is essential to keep productivity up (i.e., not getting burned out from the constant work stream). Burnout can sneak up on you, so you must care for yourself. If you can, visit your...
The quarter system can be challenging and goes by so quickly! With office hours, constant grading, and planning classes or lab/discussion sections, there needs to be more room to reflect on your pedagogical practices and teaching persona. Despite the limited time and stress the quarter can create, reflecting on your teaching, how you would like...
