Grad student webinar series grow attendance, involvement, and connections
In this hyperconnected world, graduate students can easily access information that helps with professional development. By students and for students, the ASA, CSSA, and SSSA (ACS) Graduate Student Committee developed a webinar series to engage with graduate and undergraduate students all around the world. More than 250 students, representing over 20 universities across the U.S. and overseas, attended the 2021 spring and fall webinar series. We featured two different topics: (1) Level Up Your Career: From Grad Student to Employment (spring); and (2) Communicating Your Science 101 (fall).
Level Up Your Career: From Grad Student to Employment
As graduate students near the end of their graduate degree, the idea of starting a career comes to the fore. There are many factors to consider when beginning the job search to succeed in the student's career. To help students to thrive in the job search, we featured the following webinars:
- “Developing Job Application Package: CV, Resume, and Cover Letter” led by Dr. Mary Ellen Barkley, Assistant Director of the Kansas State University Career Center.
- “Building an Online Presence, Preparing for the Job Search, and Interview Skills” led by Dr. Alan Franzluebbers, USDA Professor of Soil Science; Dr. Francesca Cotrufo, Professor in the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University; and Dr. Mary Gumz, Agronomy Manager for Pioneer Hi-Bred.
- “Career Opportunities in NGOs, Industry, Academia, Government, and International Organizations” led by Dr. Jerry Hatfield, retired Director of the USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment; Dr. Rachel Owen, Executive Director of MOST Policy Initiative and Owner of Soil Horizon Solutions; and Dr. Emilio Oyarzabal, retired University Outreach for Bayer.
- “Negotiating the Job Offer” led by Samantha Miller, U.S. Crop Protection Regulatory Leader at Corteva Agriscience; and Dr. Michael Gaul, Career Services Director at Iowa State University.
Communicating Your Science 101
Science communication is central to science and benefits the society. This series was created with the objective of helping students to acquire skills, tools, and strategies to boost their confidence and ability to effectively communicate their research to various audiences. We covered the following topics:
- “Data analysis to improve storytelling” led by Dr. Leonardo Bastos, postdoctoral fellow at Kansas State University; and Dr. Kathleen Yeater, USDA-ARS Statistician and ASA Editor-in-Chief.
- “Preparing for the Annual Meeting” led by Dr. Matt Ruark, Professor in the Department of Soil Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
- “Building an Online Presence” led by Carlos B. Pires and Rachel Veenstra, graduate students at Kansas State University; and Vitor Favoretto, graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- “Answering Media Questions” led by Susan Fisk, Director of Public and Science Communications for ASA, CSSA, and SSSA; and Caitlin Heitman, Science Communications and Marketing Project Manager for ASA, CSSA, and SSSA.
All of these webinar series have been possible because of collaborations by, partnerships with, and support from others. The webinar subcommittee would like to thank all those who attended the webinars, especially the speakers for sharing their expertise and experiences on the job search process and science communication. If you missed the live sessions, recordings are available from the Societies’ websites. Even though membership is not required for live sessions, member login is required to access recordings.
The webinar subcommittee is looking forward to another great year and continued success! To continue building a virtual library of valuable resources for students’ professional development, in 2022 we will expand the Communicating Your Science series and focus on writing skills and tools. Topics should include writing groups (February), writing a compelling introduction (March), the manuscript submission process (April), and handling manuscript revisions (May).
For more information on past and future webinars, please follow us on Twitter @ACSGradStudents and visit us on any of these pages: www.agronomy.org/gradstudents/webinars, www.crops.org/gradstudents/webinars, or www.soils.org/gradstudents/webinars.
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