Graduate Division Dean's Update: 4/19/24

Dear Graduate Students and Postdoctoral Scholars,

 

We have had even more students than usual stopping by, visiting us for office hours, and seeking support from our awesome wellness and inclusion team. In some ways, this is wonderful and a great sign that you want to share your news. However, we do have to acknowledge that it also can mean a lot of you are dealing with a lot. With everything going on in the world right now, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, scared, angry, sad, or all the above. No matter what you’re feeling or what you want to talk about, we are here for you. I encourage you to reach out to our resources below or come see myself or a member of our leadership team during our drop in office hours. Those are also listed below.

 

Additional academic and emotional support is also available through Graduate Division:  

  • Dr. Phong Luong (pbluong@uci.edu), Director of Wellness and Inclusion
  • Amelle Beauvil (abeauvil@uci.edu), DECADE Coordinator
  • Aimee Jiang (jiangam@uci.edu), International Student Support Officer

 

Office Hours (Always first come, first serve)

Monday April 22: 8:30AM

Monday April 22: 1PM

Wednesday, April 24: 10:30AM

Monday April 29: 4PM

Tuesday, April 30: 11:30AM

 

Now on to this week’s news, events, and reminders:

 

Support Onwodi Ifejeokwu in Grad Slam 2024!
Since this is the final time I will be writing you before May 3rd, I want to take this opportunity to remind all of you to support Onwodi Ifejeokwu, who will be representing UCI at the University of California’s Grad Slam Finals event on May 3 at 10:30 am PT on the LinkedIn Campus in San Francisco. Onwodi is a PhD candidate out of the School of Medicine and she won the 2024 UCI Grad Slam event with her pitch, “Kill the cancer; Spare the brain”! I know I’m a little biased, but I can honestly say I think she has a great chance to win the whole thing. No pressure, Onwodi! But in all seriousness, please support your fellow Anteater by watching the live stream here. You’ll also be able to vote for Onwodi to win the People’s Choice Award, but you can only do so by watching the live stream of the event.

 

ASi Career Explorations Presents: Personal Branding with Tim O’Brien

Tuesday, April 23 | 4pm – 5pm
UCI Division of Continuing Education – Yosemite Conference Room

Register here
Whether you’re a graduate student, postdoctoral scholar, or a current UCI faculty/ staff member, this seminar is for you! Tim O’Brien is an internationally recognized Personal Branding Expert. Tim has a Law degree from Georgetown Law, and is also an entrepreneur, author, personal branding consultant, business development strategist and coach who has helped thousands of CEOs, business professionals, entrepreneurs, and professional athletes take their games to the next level.

 

The Wedge: Conflict Resolution Workshop
Due to incredible popularity last year, we have re-engaged the services of Gerry Preciado, a consultant who works out of the UC Office of the President (UCOP). Mr. Preciado works throughout the UC System to assist individuals, teams, departments, and campuses in their efforts to improve workplace cultures using his “Wedge Process” . He has been working with UCI since 2007. Below are three different workshop times to sign up for. All three will be inside the Division of Continuing Education’s Yosemite Room.

 

May 8th at 10am- https://cglink.me/2eo/r1933507

May 8th at 1pm- https://cglink.me/2eo/r1933509

May 9th at 10 am- https://cglink.me/2eo/r1933510

 

Virtual Recruitment Event for Postdoctoral Scholars

Tuesday, May 7 | 8am – 2:30pm

Virtual event

Register here
The Fred Hutch/University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Cancer Consortium is hosting a collaborative initiative to recruit postdocs. Individuals from groups that are underrepresented in biomedical research are especially encouraged to attend. Click the link above for more information.

 

Call for Participation: International PhD Summer School 2024

July 25 -26 at TU Dortmund University 

Click here for more information
TU Dortmund University is hosting a PhD Summer School in July for doctoral candidates conducting research in interdisciplinary contexts at the interfaces of social and technical sciences. Please send applications (in English) to Marion Nölle (wt.fk17@tu-dortmund.de)

 

Take Advantage of Division of Career Pathways’ Professional Photo Booth

The Division of Career Pathways (DCP) is pleased to introduce our all-new Professional Photo Booth, a complimentary, walk-in service at the Division of Career Pathways offering FREE professional headshots for UCI students, staff, and faculty. These professional headshots are perfect for your LinkedIn/ Handshake/ Zoom profile, department website, and also works for UCI Digital ID photo requirements. 

 

Graduate Student Therapy Group

  • Every Tuesday | 9:30 AM – 11 AM PT
    A process-oriented therapy group for graduate students who would like to receive/provide support, learn about self and others, share their experiences, and discuss possible ways to cope with struggles. 
  • The focus of the group will be determined by the members; possible topics may include academic distress, personal growth, relationships, and work-life balance.
  • Pre-group screening required. Contact the Counseling Center at 949.824.6457 to schedule.

 

FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES 

 

Dean’s Recent Alumni Fellowship
This fellowship aims at easing the transition from graduate school into full-time careers either in academia or other industries. While the fellowship is unpaid, a recipient of this fellowship will receive access to resources that will pay immense dividends going forward and was developed in consultation with young professionals and alumni to provide resources they wished they had access to while in graduate school. Click above for more information and to apply.

 

Doc 2A NRST Support

This funding is available for students who have entered Doc 2A status (anyone enrolled for more than 9 quarters past their advancement to candidacy for the Ph.D.) and need assistance paying the Non-Resident Supplemental Tuition. The support will be distributed in phases based on need.  

 

If you became or will become Doc 2A from Fall 20243 through Spring 2025 and are fully out of funding, you may apply for up to three-quarters of NRST support. This funding is NOT guaranteed.

 

  • Applicants must supply a statement of how their research was delayed.
  • A letter of support and any matching funds available from the department is required from the applicant’s advisor or school.
  • Applicants must submit a timeline for completion of Ph.D.
  • Deadline: Apply ASAP, could roll through July 1
  • Apply here:  https://cglink.me/2eo/s82473

 

ResearchAmer!ca’s Civic Engagement Microgrant Program
ResearchAmer!ca is awarding microgrants of up to $3,000 on a rolling basis to STEM groups led by master’s, PhD, postdoc, or professional students to design and execute projects that create dialogue with public officials, local community leaders, and the public around issues of common concern. These funds provide opportunities for grantees to develop skills in areas such as communication and program planning, along with an understanding of public policy and government to have an impact in their local communities. Click here for more information.

Stanford Propel Program – Currently Accepting Applications
The Propel Postdoctoral Scholars Program empowers outstanding researchers, prepares future faculty leaders, and creates a community of promising bioscientists from backgrounds historically underrepresented in academia who are interested in becoming faculty. Propel is a 2-year cohort-based program that provides a $84,000 annual salary with benefits and $5,000 supplemental research funds.  

The UC-National Laboratory in-Residence Graduate Fellowship
The University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) have a close, long-standing and strategically important collaborative relationship that offers graduate students unique research, training, and career development opportunities. The UC National Laboratory Fees Research Program is leveraging that relationship by offering a competitive Fellowship award that provides up to three years of support for Ph.D. candidates who wish to conduct thesis research on-site at LANL or LLNL.

Graduate Division Completion Fellowship
The past few years have had a significant impact on everyone’s lives. Many of you have faced extreme health and research-related challenges that have considerably affected your academic progress. If these issues have delayed your progress, you may apply for a Completion Fellowship to receive one-quarter of funding. This quarter must be in the 2024-2025 academic year (excluding the summer), and cannot be combined with other UCI stipends or appointments. The fellowship aims to provide a final quarter of funding to help you finish your dissertation. Priority will be given to those who are receiving an additional quarter of support from their school – if more than one quarter is needed. Additionally, students can plan to combine the fellowship quarter with an additional quarter, during which they can go on filing-fee status, for up to three-quarters of work leading to the completion of their degree. If you need an additional quarter of NRST funding, it will be included with the Completion Fellowship.

 

Dreams for Schools Hiring Part Time Instructors 

Dreams for Schools has  hired over 500 college students with STEAM backgrounds over the past 6 years, and over 90% have said that this opportunity contributed to their overall professional development and growth. There are many soft skills (leadership, communication, project management, etc.) that this position offers and can translate well to any technical role. We provide all curriculum and training for our classes which can range from Coding with Scratch, building engineering projects, Arduinos, mobile app development, and more. 



  • Application Link: https://www.dreamsforschools.org/workwithus
  • More information on the position (dates/locations/classes to teach): Here
  • Pay: Starting at $19/hr
  • Deadline: March 13, 2024 (applications are reviewed on an ongoing basis, applicants are encouraged to apply earlier)

 

More information is located on the Current Fellowships page and 2023-24 Funding Timeline.  Additionally, please reach out to Turner Dahl (tdahl@uci.edu) with any questions you may have.

 

In Closing:

I had a mentoring meeting this week with a brilliant junior faculty member. This person is doing all the right things but is still a bit nervous about tenure, so they just keep saying yes to things. I was reminded of this well known quote from Cal Newport, a CS theory professor who also writes a lot of books about productivity and deep work:

 

In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many knowledge workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity, doing lots of stuff in a visible manner. – Cal Newport

 

Academics often suffer from poor role definition. Unlike undergraduate study, in which the syllabus and the grading rubric are incredibly clear and well stipulated (in most cases), graduate study is filled with ambiguity. For postdocs and junior faculty, you suddenly have much less guidance than you had while in graduate school. This collective effect is that academics frequently do not know what is expected of them, and so they just work harder, work more, send emails, and try to make a point about how busy they are. But academia does not actually reward this behavior. A good paper that was done with little work is better than a bad paper that took a lot of work. So, if you are not sure what to do, get help, don’t just do more and more visible work.

 

On behalf of the Graduate Division,

 

Gillian Hayes

Kleist Professor of Informatics

Vice Provost for Graduate Education

Dean of the Graduate Division