{"id":18056,"date":"2020-07-22T15:43:42","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T19:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metcalfinstitute.org\/?p=18056"},"modified":"2020-12-15T13:36:57","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T18:36:57","slug":"summerintensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/summerintensive\/","title":{"rendered":"A Lesson in Workforce Preparedness"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo
Photo credit: Creative Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Entering the job market after graduating with a Master\u2019s or Ph.D. can be daunting. The challenge is easier to meet when the degree-holder has a ready set of career skills.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why more than 30 graduate students from colleges and universities across Rhode Island participated in the Career Development Program (CDP) virtual Summer Intensive, July 16 and 17. The CDP, established by Metcalf Institute in partnership with the Rhode Island Consortium for Coastal Ecology, Assessment, Innovation & Modeling (RI C-AIM), is designed to help Rhode Island researchers gain the confidence and skills to succeed the workforce.  <\/p>\n

Metcalf Institute kicked off the online program with a session on creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP), a career road map that helps students set professional goals. Cara Mitnick, director of professional development in the University of Rhode Island\u2019s Graduate School, described the IDP as a forward-thinking way to promote career advancement.<\/p>\n

\u201cAn IDP can help you navigate the current challenging job market,\u201d she said. \u201cResearch shows that individuals who perform structured career planning have greater career success and satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Sunshine Menezes, Metcalf Institute\u2019s executive director, shared her expertise on the fundamentals of science communication, including the key traits of inclusive science communication and a workshop on framing and crafting clear messages.<\/p>\n

\u201cAudience is absolutely central to this whole process,\u201d Menezes told the group. \u201cKnowing who you are talking with and what they value is a critical first step.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CDP Summer Intensive also focused on effective writing habits in a session led by Dr. Austin Jackson, assistant director of The Writing Center at Brown University. Jackson outlined a long list of myths that \u201cprevent us from becoming excellent writers\u201d and emphasized the importance of developing habits that build writing skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccessful writers know that there are no shortcuts, no magic bullets, no special exercises, no tricks to making it easier,\u201d explained Jackson. \u201cThere are just habits and practices that you can develop. In other words, writing is just simply hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n

The workshop concluded with a conversation about career paths with Dr. Karlisa Callwood, director of the Community Conservation Education and Action Program at Perry Institute of Marine Science in Vermont in, and Dr. Heather Goldstone, chief communications officer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n

One participant asked the speakers to identify skills they gained in graduate school that have proved to be relevant in their respective careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I learned in graduate school is how to learn, how to take in a ton of information and critically analyze it\u2026\u201d said Dr. Goldstone. \u201cThat is a life skill that is important to pretty much any career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Callwood pointed to preparation, an essential skill for everything from defending a dissertation to workforce preparedness. \u201cYou should know or have an expectation of what you will be asked when you walk into that defense room,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that is very true in the real world as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Career Development Program is supported by the National Science Foundation under EPSCoR Cooperative Agreement #OIA-1655221. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

30 graduate students from colleges and universities across Rhode Island participated in the Career Development Program (CDP) virtual Summer Intensive, July 16 and 17.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2201,"featured_media":18059,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18056"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18065,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18056\/revisions\/18065"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/metcalf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}