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Grad Connections supports graduate students’

academic success  •  sense of community  •  professionalization

Fall 2023 Events 

September 11
212 Ross Hall
1:10 – 2:00
Grant Writing Presentation
Satisfies the grant writing workshop requirement to apply for the Department’s Research Grant for Graduate Students

Presenters: Communication Center for Excellence Consultants

October 16
212 Ross Hall
1:10 – 2:00
Iowa State University so Far: Coping with a new university, city, state, or country
Share with other graduate students about your experience and offer tips on coping with, adjusting to, and embracing this new environment.

Facilitator: Tina Coffelt, Associate DOGE

November 13
212 Ross Hall
1:10 – 2:00
Job Search Preparation: CVs, Resumes & Cover Letters
Bring a draft and your laptop

Presenter: Tina Coffelt, Associate DOGE

Refreshments served at each workshop. Contact tcoffelt@iastate.edu for questions.

December 4
212 Ross Hall
1:10 – 2:00
2022 Graduate Student Grant Recipients  

Presenters:
Ananda Muhammad, Applied Linguistics and Technology
Agata Guskaroska, Applied Linguistics and Technology

This is a great opportunity for future applicants to get a sense of the significance, organization, and impact that are key elements of a grant application and project. Light refreshments will be served.

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Ongoing Resources

Mock Interviews

Are you entering the job market soon? Take some of the stress out of the interview process by setting up a mock interview session. Contact Tina Coffelt (tcoffelt@iastate.edu) to sign up for a time.

Lending Library

Grad Connections maintains a small library of both sample documents and books related to research, teaching, and job searches. These materials are available in 203 Ross for 3-week check out. <<Click here to see list of books>>

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Our Department & University Committee Student Representatives

English Department: Graduate Studies Committee (GSC)

GSC Student Representatives 2023-24

ALT    Mahdi Duris; mduris@iastate.edu
CWE   Christal Campa; cvcampa@iastate.edu
LIT     Faith Ennis; faennis@iastate.edu
RPC    Fatemeh Denghanian; fatemeh1@iastate.edu

ISU’s Larger Graduate Student Community: Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS)

GPSS English Senators 2023-24

Wren Bouwman (PhD ALT); bouwman@iastate.edu

MacKenzie Novotny (PhD ALT); mnovotny@iastate.edu

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Past Events

Event Title	Additional Details
Department Social Hours	A couple of times each semester, snacks and appetizers will be provided at a local off-campus establishment.
CV Workshop	GC partnered with Phorum and the Center for Communication Excellence to offer a workshop where graduate students at any level to develop and/or spruce up their CV.
Academic Writing Workshop	Introduction to the Center for Communication Excellence (CCE) programs and how you can receive support as you develop as a scholar. Sharing common struggles graduate students face in their academic writing.
Graduate Student Writing Retreat	An all-day writing retreat for graduate students to join their peers for a productive day of writing.
Inclusion Workshop (for graduate students)	A diversity and inclusion event developed specifically for graduate students to explore the inclusion-related issues graduate students face in the classroom and beyond. GC partnered with the ISU Graduate College.
Inclusion Workshop I (for faculty)	Part I workshop on fostering the climate of inclusion in our department: This workshop provided opportunities to discuss both the issue of microaggressions and scenarios that have occurred on campus as ways to help identify concrete steps for fostering inclusive departmental culture and interactions. GC partnered with Phorum, GPSS, Multicultural Student Affairs, Sloss Women’s Center, and the Graduate College.
Inclusion Workshop II (for faculty)	Part II workshop on fostering the climate of inclusion in our department. This workshop provided opportunities to quickly review the last workshop before diving into a discussion of how to address microaggressions when we encounter them. GC partnered with Phorum, GPSS, Multicultural Student Affairs, Sloss Women’s Center, and the Graduate College.
Inclusion Workshop III (for faculty)	Part III workshop on fostering the climate of inclusion in our department. This workshop provided the opportunity to learn about creating an inclusive environment in a research group
Insiders' Advice: Success in the First Few Years of Grad School	Advanced graduate students will share advice they wish they would have been given (or the best advice they did get) early in their degree programs. This session will cover such topics as how to: choose a major professor and committee, adjust to the dual roles of being both a teacher and grad student, find even a semblance of work-life balance, and use coursework to develop topics for the thesis/dissertation/creative component. Coffee and snacks provided!
PhD Students Annual Review: Open Forum	GC partnered with the TESL Brown Bag series to host this open forum on the annual review process for PhD students. Faculty members Carol Chapelle and David Russell, DOGE John Levis, and Grad Studies Staff Teresa Smiley described the annual review process and requirements before opening the floor to questions from attendees. Responses on a survey indicated an interest in learning more about departmental and Graduate College policies; since annual reviews are required for all PhD students , we thought this policy-related panel would be especially useful!
Don’t Set Yourself on Fire to Keep Everyone Else Warm! Student Counseling Services	GC partnered with Student Counseling Services to host this discussion about the impact of burnout, strategies for coping, creating a culture of wellness and self-care in your life, and services available to students at ISU.
Navigating the Dissertation/Thesis Process	This session covered everything from forming a POS committee to understanding timelines via advice from faculty and current graduate students at the late stages of their writing.
Surviving the Academic Hiring Process	Recently hired faculty members in a variety of areas shared tips and advice for navigating the academic job market and presenters took questions from the audience. They discussed the entire process from developing your job materials to interviewing and everything in between.
The Academic Job Search I	Part I of a series on the academic job market, GC partnered with the TESL Brown Bag series to offer a panel of faculty members, graduate students, and alumni who talked about these topics related to the academic job search: finding job listings, writing the cover letter, assembling the dossier, and establishing a professional digital presence.
The Academic Job Search II	Part II of a series on the academic job market, GC partnered with the TESL Brown Bag series to offer a panel of faculty members, graduate students, and alumni who talked about how to generate these crucial job documents: CVs, research statements, and teaching philosophies.
The Academic Job Search III	Part III of a series on the academic job market, GC partnered with the TESL Brown Bag series to offer a panel of faculty members, graduate students, and alumni who talked about interviewing and negotiating such as what questions are typically asked at interviews; special strategies for Skype and telephone interviews; useful tips for answering questions well; preparing a teaching demonstration and research talk; and professional conduct with the department pre-, during, and post-interview.
The Academic Job Search IV	Part IV of a series on the academic job search focuses on the on-campus portion of the process. A panel of faculty and graduate students talked about preparing for not only the job talk, the teaching demonstration, and meetings with administration but also those other, less scripted moments such as meals with members of the department, walks around campus, etc.
The Non-Academic Job Search	GC partnered with the TESL Brown Bag series and Phorum to host this panel discussion about how a graduate degree in English can translate to jobs in industry. Survey responses showed an interest in discussions on getting jobs and hearing from alumni, so we first heard from recent alumni about their work in non-academic fields and then took time for attendees to ask questions.