BEST Program awards six mini-grants for career and professional development initiatives

In conjunction with the NIH-supported Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Program at Wayne State, the Graduate School has created a new fund to provide academic departments with small grants (up to $5,000) for support of career development initiatives within their graduate programs. A particular goal of the fund is to encourage collaboration among faculty from multiple departments on career development programming. The following six initiatives will receive awards in 2017.

The Michigan Pharmacology Research Colloquium

This is an annual day-long, student-centered meeting of Pharmacology departments from four institutions, Wayne State University, University of Michigan, Michigan State University and the University of Toledo. This year's meeting will be held at Wayne State on June 16, 2017. In addition to research talks, the colloquium include panel discussion on career development topics for our graduate students.

For more information about this colloquium contact Nick Davis, ndavis@med.wayne.edu

Preparing for Life After Graduate School (PFLAGS) Workshop

The Department of Chemistry is will invite experienced career consultants from the American Chemical Society (ACS) for the Preparing for Life After Graduate School (PFLAGS) Workshop. The PFLAGS workshop is designed to inform chemistry graduate students and postdocs about their career options. The workshop will be held on May 2017.

For more information about PFLAGS contact Jeremy Kodanko, jkodanko@chem.wayne.edu

Facilitating Trainee Success in the Age of Big Data

Organized by the Department of Immunology and Microbiology, this program's objective is to develop a sustainable learning environment at WSU by bringing experienced and certified trainers in Software and Data Carpentry instruct an initial cohort of WSU trainees in the fundamentals of bioinformatics.

For more information about this initiative contact Kevin Theis, ktheis@med.wayne.edu

Thinking Outside the (Academic) Box: Multiple Careers in Cardiovascular Sciences

This is a career development program organized by the Student Development Program of the Cardiovascular Research Institute, Wayne State University School of Medicine. This workshop will provide students the opportunity to interact with experienced individuals in the field. The three career events will tentatively be held in March, June and October 2017.

For more information about this program contact Karin Przyklenk, kprzykle@med.wayne.edu

Reproductive Doctorate Career Seminar (ReD CaSe)

This is an ongoing training program, organized by graduate students and postdoctoral scientists in the reproductive science graduate program and faculty from related departments and programs. The ReD CaSe will assist doctoral and postdoctoral trainees in reproductive sciences and related disciplines to explore diverse career venues across business, administration, and teaching, in addition to traditional university research positions.

For more information about ReD CaSe contact Jing Dai, jdai@med.wayne.edu

The Department of Psychology Career Development Initiative

The psychology department will host three small panels of alumni to discuss their careers. Panel discussions will be focused on three main career options, clinical services, research outside academia, teaching at non-ROI institutions.

For more information about this initiative contact Emily Grekin, grekine@wayne.edu

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