Dear reader,
A year has come and gone. The world feels a little different, people are working from home, and not unlike the majority of the American workforce, people are freeing themselves from traditional work environments. The undergraduate and graduate training process is also changing. Students and early career professionals are often daring to dream differently about their careers and professional goals. Students in the fields of STEM are also considering new ways to apply their skills and knowledge.
Beyond the PhD is a free resource for trainees and early career professionals in STEM for learning about alternative careers that are beyond classic academia. Currently we facilitate this learning process through three mechanisms: career focused Q/A sessions, annual networking events, and digital educational content.
Since the pandemic began in 2020, we have fully immersed our group into the virtual world not unlike many organizations and businesses. This year, Beyond the PhD hosted eleven virtual events on careers in science related to drug discovery, policy, education, computational toxicology, biomedical illustration, to name a few. Many of these events were recorded and/or written about afterwards which are available freely on our website with new content published every Tuesday!
In March we collaborated with Dimensions Sciences, a nonprofit organization that provides scholarships for minorities in science, to host a virtual networking event that had upwards of 80 attendees. Our team at Beyond the PhD also grew as we added several new volunteers that helped to organize seminars and write blog articles for our website.
In the new year, Beyond the PhD will be launching an Ambassador Program, a grassroots organization that will encourage students on college campuses to disseminate career development events among students in STEM majors. To become an ambassador please apply using the following application. Upper-level college students in STEM majors are highly encouraged to apply but the program is open to any active student on any college or university campus.
If you are interested in meeting the team you are invited to a social drop-in on December 16th from 5-6pm ET. To sign-up use this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/204614295867
Check-out our website to stay current with upcoming events through our website https://beyond-the-phd.com.
Email us at 2phdandbeyond@gmail.com if you are interested in sharing your career journey or would like to participate in the spring 2022 networking event. More details will be shared shortly.
We hope to see you around!
-The Beyond the PhD Team
Robert Pijewski, PhD & Brittany Knight, PhD: Co-directors of Beyond the PhD
Rachel Gilmore: Graduate student liaison UConn Health/Content Creator
Dominique Martin: Content creator/Blog writer
Natalie Sandlin: Ambassador Program Coordinator
Heather Wanczyk: Event Planner and Blog Writer
Sai Krishnan: Content Creator and Blog Writer
