A big focus of our 2016/17 academic year has been to create a more connected and engaged certificate community. Although certificate students have always been able to interact and network with each other within the classroom, the Graham School is looking to expand its offerings with co-curricular activities and opportunities outside the classroom. Co-curricular engagement is extremely important to creating culture and developing community, and the PDP team recognizes the need to provide opportunities for our students and alumni to take advantage of all that Graham and the University of Chicago has to offer. Here’s a list of these offerings:

September:

  • 22nd: Gleacher: New Student Orientation followed by a happy hour
  • 28th : Gleacher seminar: “Behavioral Economics”. Presenter: Ira Goldberg, PhD Financial Decision Making instructor and director at Argonne

October:

  • 5th: Gleacher seminar: “Job Transitioning, Career Positioning and Skill Transferability”. Presenter: Samantha Coleam, PhD in organizational leadership (outside lecturer—click for bio)
  • 13th: Gleacher seminar: “Exploring Editorial Career Paths”. Presenter: Kim Bookless, publishing consultant and book editor
  • 18th: Gleacher seminar: “Management Expectations”. Presenter: Samantha Coleman
  • 26th: Workshop: “Interview Best Practices”. Presenter: Ilanit Loewy Shacham, UChicagoGRAD career team

November:

  • 2nd: Webinar: “Job Transitioning, Career Positioning and Skill Transferability”. Presenter: Samantha Coleman
  • 11th: Round table discussion: “Editing Careers”. Hosted by the University of Chicago Press
  • 15th: Webinar: “Selling the Sizzle: Branding & Marketing for Editors”. Presenter: Shanita Baraka Akintonde, MBA, M.Ed. expert in the areas of marketing, media, and leadership

 December:

  • 7th: Gleacher seminar: “Using Social Media to Achieve Your Personal Goals”. Presenter: Tracy Samantha Schmidt, Integrated Marketing instructor, founder of Socially Authentic and director of social media strategy at Crain.
  • 12th: Webinar: “Management Expectations”. Presenter: Samantha Coleman

For detailed information about all these events and learn about news offerings visit our Professional Development Student Resources Page

Please join us! These events are open to all instructors. Also, let us know if you are interested in discussing ideas for seminars, workshops and/or panel discussions. We welcome your contributions so feel free to reach out to Karine Bravais or Lisa Malvin with your suggestions. Our main goal is to provide a supportive environment for our students to stimulate growth and professional development.

Karine Bravais: kbravais@uchicago.edu
Lisa Malvin: lmalvin@uchicago.edu

Student Advisory Board 

In service of our 2016/17 goal to foster engagement with the PDP community, we have created the Professional Development Programs Student Advisory Board (PDPSAB). The PDPSAB was put together in the autumn of 2016. It is composed of current students across all Professional Development certificate programs. The purpose of the PDPSAB is to inform and advise PDP staff on issues of concern to certificate students, plan events and activities for their peers, and work to create a collaborative certificate community. The PDPSAB’s role is to help foster a supportive environment for certificate and non-credit students, while also liaising with the Graham School Student Advisory Board to connect with students across all programs—degree and non-degree alike. PDPSAB members act as leaders in encouraging discussion, collecting feedback, and advocating for the needs of and raising the visibility of non-credit and certificate students at the university and within the Graham School.

Current students must make a one-year commitment to the board, with the opportunity to extend their board membership pending approval of PDP staff. All active students and distance-learning students are invited to apply to the board when the application opens each autumn. Board members meet once a month to discuss the interests and concerns of certificate students and work to plan quarterly professional development activities and events. Having representation from all certificate programs is extremely important to building community, and the PDPSAB is already working to develop a strategy to meet the needs of all certificate students and alumni.

The current PDPSAB is composed of eleven current students across all programs. If you are interested in working with the board or sending them your ideas for activities or events, please reach out to them at pdpsab@lists.uchicago.edu. For any questions about the board or for information about how to get involved, please contact Lisa (lmalvin@uchicago.edu).

AGENDA

Note from the Program Coordinator
BUILDING THE PDP COMMUNITY: What’s happening outside of the classroom?
New PDP Faculty and Staff
PDP STATE OF AFFAIRS 2015/2016: Mike Niederpruem’s update
STUDENT PROFILE: Aurélie Desgardin
FACULTY INTERVIEW: Genevieve Long
Twenty Facts on Student Affairs