Graduate Students

This opportunity is open to graduate students who will graduate in the next year from a program in any of these three colleges: Colleges of Arts and Letters, Social Science, and Natural Science. (Note: One hire per participating college.)

You will work as part of a pilot program to serve MSU students interested in non-academic careers. This project teams up the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) in a reciprocal program where MDARD staff will educate and support MSU students interested in applying for governmental positions AND MSU will provide DEI training and institutional design support to MDARD.

What is involved to become the Writing Workshop Leader:

• Attending and participating in team meetings (3-5 over the semester)
• Provide support and troubleshooting for the workshop members on their materials and with preparation
• Writing a final report focusing on workshop group achievements and recommendations
• Creating clear goals for each of the workshop sessions and following through with them
• Clearly communicating questions, needs, and outcomes with the Graduate Student Coordinator
• Leading by example for the workshops and supporting workshop member needs and questions
• Participating in and encouraging participants to complete the start and end of pilot surveys 
• Encourage members to actively participate in the workshops by preparing materials and questions and the MDARD speaker series through notetaking, active listening, and asking questions

What you get:

• Practice in the transferable skills of leadership, team building, communication, collaboration, leadership, facilitating writing group meetings, providing feedback, and working on your own job-materials writing and application process while providing support for other writers and job seekers
• The ability to better understand and talk about the diversity of writing that occurs in your discipline and how it applies outside of academe
• A better understanding of transferable skills you have attained and can use in the job market
• Better awareness of applying for non-academic positions and how to express the skills you have gained in the pursuit of your degree to a non-academic market
• An opportunity to interact with other job-seeking students in your college
• A $750 fellowship for the semester for fulfilling the Writing Workshop Leader responsibilities and duties
  (Workload: an average of 3-4 hours a week)

Who is eligible:

• Late-stage graduate students in any field in any of the three colleges participating in this pilot session (CAL, CSS, and CNS) and who can commit to the program for the summer semester

How to apply

• Write a cover letter (no more than 500 words) outlining:

1. Where you are in your PhD or MA/MS requirements and why you are interested in looking for non-academic positions upon completing your program
2. How this fellowship will help you and what you will bring to the fellowship
3. What kinds of writing experience you have and how much experience you have teaching writing
4. How will you make sure you meet the requirements of this fellowship over the summer semester
5. Briefly propose how you plan to organize and lead this project with the Director of PhD Career Development