Madison Herget-Schmidt Share Her Experience at the CAGS Conference
Last month, our graduate student ambassador and History graduate student, Madison Herget-Schmidt, attended the 58th Annual Canadian Association for Graduate Studies (CAGS) Conference. Recently, Emma shared her experience with Gradstudies, highlighting several of her favourite parts of the conference.
How was your experience at the CAGS conference? How many sessions did you attend?
Kick-Off Plenary: Transforming Graduate Education Post-Pandemic
One of the highlights from this session was a discussion of how the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted the way that graduate studies operates, and how students and institutions are adapting to changing times. One of the interesting institutional-level adaptations that was discussed was the implementation of a global virtual classroom concept which is a network of thirty institutions in countries around the world from every continent. As part of this network, institutions produce courses and educational resources that students who attend the institutions in the network can access. This enables students at one institution to access course material produced at the other 29 institutions in a virtual format.
Foundational Skills Needs and what Social Sciences and Humanities Need to Know
One of the concepts that stood out to me in regard to this session was the idea that the skills that social sciences and humanities graduate students are not only applicable to the world of academia but are applicable to professions outside of academia as well. It addressed professional development opportunities for graduate students and that these opportunities can assist scholars in both enhancing their skills as scholars, while also increasing their ability to work in non-academic realms.
Faculty Attitudes to PhD Career Outcomes and Skill Training: Dinosaurs, Allies or Bystanders?
This session discussed the dichotomy between academic and non-academic career paths and discussed a study done with faculty members regarding their views on different career paths. The main theme of this study and the presentation was the question of how to prepare graduate students, predominantly PhD candidates for job prospects that might not necessarily be in the academic community.
Transforming Graduate Education into Awesome Post-Pandemic Careers
This session discussed research done into PhD candidates experiences moving into the job market post-graduation and the facilitators of this session provided study results which delved into what graduates wanted in their careers. They also provided very practical advice for implementing a job search process while still in grad school to find career paths that might be fulfilling post-graduation. One of the most significant pieces of advice that I found from this part of the session was to make lists of skills, goals, strengths and knowledge that you have, and to let these inform both the jobs that you look for and how you write resumés and cover letters for those jobs.
Degrees of Success: Exploring the challenges and lived experiences of students and recent graduates and their entries into the workforce.
One of the concepts that I found interesting from this session was the idea that graduate students might not be aware of the skills that they have that can make them a valuable addition to a workplace. This was addressed with a suggestion that PhD candidates evaluate the highly-specialized skills that they have and determine more generally how these can be applied in an array of different work environments. There was also a misconception addressed that because of their highly-specialized knowledge, PhD holders can sometimes be interpreted as being unable to adapt or work with others. As such, it was suggested that when communicating with employers, individuals express the aspects of their work that were collaborative.
Supporting Graduate Student Mental Health and Well-Being
This session was very timely given the unique stressors that the COVID-19 pandemic have introduced into our lives. It addressed some of the challenges specific to graduate students in terms of financial constraints and shifts in program environments that went from being very collegial and collaborative to very individualistic and cut off from one’s peers. The session provided recommendations for alleviating some of these stressors, and provided good advice for how to network and feel more connected to peers during these times as well.
Thank you for sharing your time at the CAGS conference with us!