Graduate Professional Development

Pictured above, from left to right: Brittany Huffman, Jacob Pawlik, James Custer, Sarah Morley, Sondrica Goines, Tayliz Rodriguez, Aldo Jordan, Hannah

Ferguson-Johns, Emily Beyer. Not pictured, Megan Schutzbach-Horton

GCPD

Graduate Committee for Professional Development

One of the findings of the recent Department Climate Survey was the need to further foster professional development, especially when it came to non-faculty career paths.

As a response to this, the Graduate Committee for Professional Development, GCPD, pictured above, was created in January of 2019 to define and execute a department wide plan to prepare and educate students and postdocs about potential career paths available to chemistry Ph.D.s.

Since their inception the committee has hosted several workshops and information sessions, such as “Plotting a Career Timeline” and “Business Certificates Available to Graduate Students”. In addition they have created a seminar series, “Career Answers for Chemists”, that brings in professionals from different disciplines, from working at a chemical company like BASF, to working in science policy in DC, and has them share their stories and tips on how to plot an exciting career path.

Keep an eye out for GCPD in 2020 as these talented individuals draw on the successes from prior events to bring in more speakers from out of town. They are also planning to host a full day career development conference for senior students that aims to bring in industry professionals for intimate networking and accelerated professional development.