Future Professionals Program

WiSE Future Professionals Program (WiSE-FPP) is pleased to welcome the 2012-2013 cohort! This year we have twenty-six new and returning associates (11) in the program—one of our largest groups. These Associates were nominated by 22 faculty members, some of whom nominated more than one. The Associates are PhD students from multiple disciplines across STEM. There are 9 from the College of Engineering and Computer Science, 13 from Arts and Sciences and 2 from STEM related departments in other colleges. The group is equally diverse in nationality; this year’s WiSE Associates hail from Argentina, China, India, Iran, Kenya, Korea and the US. We look forward to working with the Associates over the next year.

In the above photo: 2012-2013 WiSE-Future Professionals Program (FPP) Associates Left to right. Back row: Bing Yang, Carli Flynn, Mallory Squier, Patricia (Tricia) Wardwell; Amanda Hoffman, Kelly Henry, Mingxuan Tan, Jueun Kim, Grace Orado. Middle row: Susan Flynn, Amanda Lashua, Aimee Kellicutt, Yutian (Shirley) Yang, Mary Bearkland. Front row: Hao He, Sarah Ledford, Bridget Hier, Elizabeth Droge-Young, Judith Ricks, Huan Gu.  Not pictured here: Mariana Bonich, Pinqing Kan, Yan Nie, Zeynep Ozal, Sara Sotoud, Ying (Joy) Tang.

We greatly appreciate the help of those faculty and professional staff who nominate, mentor, and provided valuable feedback to Associates.

Graduate and Doctoral Student Support Program

Under the direction of faculty leaders, Drs. Shobha Bhatia and Susan Older, the WiSE- FPP program focuses on graduate and doctoral student career development, planning, and preparation, as well as addressing persistence in science and engineering. WiSE-FPP is a professional development and academic support program that began in the 2007-08 academic year from a partnership between the WiSE Program, the Graduate School, and the Colleges of Engineering & Computer Science and Arts & Sciences. WiSE-FPP is designed for Masters and Doctoral students in any of the sciences and engineering subfields at Syracuse University.

WiSE-FPP reflects both: (a.) the different disciplines of its members across the sciences and engineering and (b.) the different career goals that participating graduate students pursue in academia, organizations, and industry.  WiSE-FPP is uniquely designed to be collaborative, interdisciplinary, and self-directed, with WiSE-FPP participants (“Associates”) taking a lead role in developing programming and events. This vision is predicated on the belief that when graduate students take a proactive role they help to design the terms for their own academic and professional success. To this end we have targeted programs in two best practice areas:

1. Introduction and facilitation of a career planning process that identifies both professional development needs and career objectives.

a. These programs will support career development through self-assessment opportunities, professional portfolio development and coaching/mentoring addressing a wide range of issues associated with career development.

b. Provision of opportunities for informal mentoring, networking and peer-to-peer connection. Through informal mentoring by faculty and guest presenters students are provided with opportunities to discover and access resources that support their academics and career goals. Peer-to-peer connection opportunities helps to build community among women students, whom often feel isolated in these male-dominated fields. Finally, we often bring in former alumni and community professionals for programs to facilitate and practice networking.

c. Note: Corresponding faculty development should include training on the provision of high quality advising and the facilitation of a student’s pursuit of research careers. (Lord and Cahoon, 2006) This corresponding area will be addressed through the Faculty Mentoring programs provided by WiSE.

2. Integration of students into the research culture of science and engineering at Syracuse University as well as the professional community.

a. These programs will enhance the student’s knowledge and skills which fosters successful inclusion in research and persistence towards her degree. It could take the form of work/life balance programs, leadership and collaboration skill development, support to participate in professional activities such as conferences & grant writing, etc. Wherever possible, FPP programs will coordinate activities with other WiSE programs and activities to maximize our efforts on behalf of students and faculty.

To learn more about the WiSE Future Professionals Program click here.