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  • A white cup with purple liquid and a smiley face.

    Podcast: You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup

    SAGE grad student podcasters interview the Counseling Center’s Kamau Grantham, who gives everyone permission to take care of themselves.

  • Illustration of a woman with a pencil, guitar, mountains and other thoughts above her head.

    Podcast: The Fine Art of Balance

    Theatre doctoral student Vincent Carlson performs "You and Your Work," a poem he wrote inspired by boundary setting and conflicting ideas about work ethic. 

  • Cartoons of adults in a variety of fun activities.

    Podcast: Bringing Childlike Approaches to Self-Care

    Abby shares some techniques to lower stress in elementary school students, such as a 5-4-3-2-1 mapping exercise, that might also work for grad students. 

  • Destiny Williams-Dobosz

    Meet Our Fellows: Destiny Williams-Dobosz, NSF Graduate Research Fellow

    “Why is science so hard for students?” This question has intrigued Destiny Williams-Dobosz, a Ph.D. student in Educational Psychology and NSF Graduate Research Fellow.  

  • A person sits in their home and works on a laptop and takes notes.

    3 Quick Everyday Tips for Surviving & Thriving on Zoom

    Zoom fatigue is real. We share a few quick tips for before, during, and after online meetings that you can do to avoid burnout.

  • People sitting and concentrating at tables with paper and laptops by a white board with the text Writers Workshop Grad Writing Productivity Group.

    How Good Writing Habits Lead to Short- & Long-term Payoffs

    The Illinois Writers Workshop's Carolyn Wisniewski answers 5 questions about the Workshop and shares why writing is an essential part of the research process. 

  • Asian woman wearing glasses, with her hand on her chin, looks quizzically at a laptop screen.

    What Happens After You Submit a Job Application?

    You may not see it, but a whole world of people evaluate your job application, writes Derek Attig, who describes all that happens after you push Submit.

  • A small group of people sit and talk.

    What is Group Therapy, and How Does it Work?

    We ask the Counseling Center's Kamau Grantham 5 questions about the value of group therapy.

  • Podcast: A Research Pivot, One Year Later

    It has been a year of COVID. Grad student podcasters share their funniest Zoom stories and Burning Man expert Caitlin Brooks shares insights on the power of community in times of isolation.

  • People shot at outdoor farmer's market.

    Taking a Break

    Taking healthy breaks in grad school is essential and doesn’t have to take a long time. 

  • Podcast: Your Portfolio Will Never Be Perfect or Done

    Landscape designer Saloni Chawla (MLA '18) sits down to talk with us about how she landed her dream job and why she considers it a perfect match.

  • Students talk to each other about their research posters.

    Why You Should (or Shouldn't) Go to Grad School

    Why go to graduate school? There are a thousand reasons, which is why it's more interesting to discuss why not to go. 

  • Person sitting in a classroom with a laptop, wearing a mask and gesturing with hands.

    Starting a PhD During a Pandemic

    Starting grad school in the middle of a pandemic has not been easy, but the ISE Department has been incredibly supportive! 

  • Illustration of a a diverse group of leaders

    Leadership Award Winners Share What Inspires Their Service

    We caught up with the recipient and honorees of the 2020 Graduate Student Leadership Award to ask what inspired them to pursue leadership roles and what is most rewarding about their experience. Their responses are compassionate and inspiring.

  • A comic about naming and resaving a document.

    How to Keep Track of Your Stuff or Four Horror Stories in Two Parts

    PART I: My file management horror stories and how they taught me to manage my data like a pro. 

  • A computer file directory with funny names.

    How to Keep Track of Your Stuff or Four Horror Stories in Two Parts

    PART II: My file management horror stories and how they taught me to manage my data like a pro. 

  • Person with compass on campus at the Hallene Gateway.

    Creating a Roadmap for Graduate School Success

    Grad school is stuffed with opportunities. This blog will help you start creating your roadmap in 4 simple steps!

  • Person in blue sweater sits at desk with pens, paint brushes, and notebook ready to write something.

    Three Simple Ways to Ease Into the New Semester

    I’ve always found the transition between break and the start of the semester to be particularly tricky. Help your body and mind ease into the new semester with these three tips! 

  • Student in dark shirt with stars sits on the quad and studies.

    5 Ways to Not Get Intimidated & Overwhelmed When Applying to Graduate School

    University of Illinois bioengineering graduate students share their top five tips for applying to graduate school.

  • Courtney Richardson's Transformation of Historical Information

    Doctoral student Courtney Richardson reads aloud her award-winning 2020 Image of Research entry and shares how she created it.

  • Punit Singhvi's Asphalt Concrete Brownie with Hot Fudge Sauce

    Doctoral student Punit Singhvi reads aloud his award-winning 2020 Image of Research entry and shares his recipe for success.

  • Photo by Rakicevic Nenad from Pexels

    "Shoot for the Moon" and Other Lessons I Learned from My PhD

    Chelsea Yu, PhD candidate in Finance, has learned a lot about herself and being productive through the process of figuring out the best motivational strategies to help support her goals as a PhD student. In this piece, originally published on her LinkedIn page, she explores 9 lessons she's learned during her PhD and how they helped her navigate her way through to candidacy.

  • Fred: How a Cartoon Mouse Became a Grad Student’s Mascot

    Graduate school looks different for each graduate student, but all graduate careers come with ups, downs, and all that happens in between. In this post, recent Bioengineering doctoral graduate, Parinaz Fathi, introduces us to an unexpected aspect of her PhD experience, an illustrated mouse named Fred.

  • Matthew Boudreau

    Meet Our Fellows: Matthew Boudreau, NCI Pre/Postdoctoral Fellow

    “All of us, unfortunately, have a personal experience with cancer impacting a friend or family member. It touches a lot of our hearts. I saw the depths of what we could not treat through a life experience of a friend,” Matthew Boudreau, PhD Candidate in Chemistry said. “I think that was the first spark for me to become involved in cancer research.”

  • Ananya Tiwari presenting about SwaTaleem

    What Keeps Me Going during COVID: Journey of an International Graduate Student

    The COVID19 pandemic hit all of us differently. Staying away from home and family has been incredibly hard on all students, but especially international students who may need to go an extremely long time before seeing family. In this post, educational pyschology PhD student Ananya Tiwari shares what keeps her going amid the COVID-19 pandemic while far from home.  

  • SAGE

    Meet the 2020 - 2021 SAGE Board Members

    Students Advising on Graduate Education (SAGE) is a student advisory board and leadership opportunity for graduate students at Illinois that fosters active engagement with Graduate College programs and initiatives. SAGE board members enrich graduate student community, build leadership and administrative skills, and strengthen Graduate College services and programs. As we embark on a new academic year, we are excited to introduce our 2020 - 2021 SAGE board!

  • Cartoon of Sherlock Holmes searching for answers

    Five Questions for a Successful First Year

    As you settle in, it’s a good idea to start learning more about your program and thinking about what goals you want to accomplish while at Illinois. One of the best ways to understand departmental and professional expectations is to connect with your academic support network.

  • Taking Classes Online? These Tips Will Help

    Online learning has gained a prominent place in our everyday lives since mid-March, when the university switched to a fully online format of instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether you are a returning online student or taking some of your first grad school classes online, staying organized and connecting with your peers online can all help you be successful. SAGE member and PhD candidate Olnancy Tzirides provides tips she’s learned from her research and teaching experience in online learning.

  • Raquel Escobar

    Meet Our Fellows: Raquel Escobar, Mellon/ACLS Public Fellow

    Graduate education prepares you for many ways to positively impact the world around you. For Raquel Escobar, recent doctoral graduate in History, the opportunity to have a broad and active impact on the community comes through a Mellon/ACLS Public Fellowship. The fellowship allows Escobar to marry her scholarly expertise in history, memory and public humanities with a position at the Humanities Action Lab (HAL) at Rutgers University in New Jersey.

  • Grading is the Worst & Why Being a URAP Graduate Mentor Is Valuable

    The Undergraduate Research Apprenticeship Program connects undergraduates who are new to research with experienced graduate students who mentor them through the research process. 

  • Graduate students dressed in theatrical costumes perform on stage

    Staying Creative During Quarantine

    Staying creative during quarantine can be challenging. New work conditions with more, or less, distractions and commitments, fewer in person arts and entertainment opportunities in your community, and an atmosphere of stress and uncertainty can all negatively affect creativity. In this interview, Nic Morse, Digital Media Specialist (and our in house illustrator!) checks in with Vincent Carlson, a PhD student in Theatre at Illinois to chat about what creativity and engagement with the arts looks like for him during COVID-19.

  • On the Job Hunt: How to Keep Your Options Open

    In the coming months, facing uncertainty head-on and doing what you can to prepare for multiple possible job outcomes is the best thing you can do for your future self, advises Derek Attig.

  • Working from Home with Kids

    The past several months have presented many of us with new challenges: stress and uncertainty, eroding boundaries between work and the rest of our lives, new and often not ideal workspaces, isolation, and more. Add kids to the mix, and things get even more challenging. 

  • How to Enhance Your Personal Brand Online this Summer

    Remember in the early 2000s when we used to create online pseudonym usernames like “plantlover101” or “sillys0pran0” for internet safety? Fast-forward to 2020, where personal branding is now one of the best tools to market yourself. Long gone are the days where you’ll be advised to hide social media accounts from employers - and why should you? They paint a picture of who you are as a scholar and as a person, too. But personal branding is a scary term. How do you embody a form of corporate personhood without hiding your authentic and multi-faceted self? The answer sounds too good to be true: You don’t have to!

  • Radical Healing / Collective Thriving

    Getting work done looks very different today than it did at the beginning of the Spring semester. For Amir Maghsoodi, PhD student in Educational Psychology, the shift from in-person, clinical counseling training has offered time to deepen his social justice work with the Radical Healing Collective, a group of psychology scholars who work in issues of culture, ethnicity, and race. 

  • Where Are They Now? Rick Deja

    Landing a teaching role outside of the US was always a goal for Rick Deja (PhD, musicology, '16). So when he was offered a job teaching in South Africa, he simply couldn’t pass it up. Deja is currently a lecturer (the equivalent to an assistant professor position) in ethnomusicology at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he teaches courses on music and culture from Africa and other world regions, advises graduate students’ research and writing, curates a collection of traditional and historical instruments, and leads a student music ensemble performing Pan-African Jazz and Popular music.

  • Person doing one-arm push-up with their hand on a laptop. A cat is underneath them.

    Staying Active while Sheltering at Home

    Many of us grew up with a very rigid conception of ‘exercise’ that involves participation in a ‘formal’ exercise program, or joining a gym or fitness club, this kind of exercise almost always involves wearing special clothes, traveling to an exercise facility, and finding time in a busy schedule to fit it all in. There are countless enjoyable and creative ways to build physical activity into a daily routine, even during the cornavirus.

  • Watch the full webinar online.

    Coping with Compassion Fatigue

    Dr. Tara Powell's recent Zoom workshop on "Self-care, Preventing Burnout and Compassion Fatigue" struck a chord with over 1000 people in the university community, maxing out the potential registrants for a Zoom meeting. That's not surprising during these strange times when many people are doubling down on efforts to check-in (virtually or in-person) on friends and family members who are struggling. Powell offers some tips for those in caregiver roles during the COVID19 pandemic, but they are applicable in our everyday lives as well. 

  • Teachers make the world a better place

    Resilient and Ready to Lead, Teachers Make the World a Better Place

    In a time of uncertainty, as instruction and learning transition to digital technologies, College of Education students have an important message to share.

  • Life and Research in the Time of COVID

    On Thursday, April 9, PhD candidate Caitlin Brooks successfully defended her dissertation proposal on narratives of home at Burning Man, the global arts and culture festival held annually in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada. The next day, Burning Man was cancelled for the first time in its 30+ year history. In this piece, she talks about what it looks like to pivot her research for the current times while honoring the loss caused by this disruption. 

  • Nitasha Zoom Friends

    How to Defend Your Dissertation, Virtually: Tips on Preparing, Presenting, and Celebrating from a New PhD

    On March 24, one day after in-person meetings and instruction at the university were halted and moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic, Nitasha Mathayas earned a new title: PhD. She delivered her dissertation defense—on students’ sensemaking using gesture-augmented simulations—via Zoom to her committee of Curriculum & Instruction faculty, her family, and friends. Over the next several weeks, many doctoral students will face the same situation. Here, Nitasha shares her experience and advice for holding a successful virtual dissertation defense.

  • Two people, each on their own computers, metaphorically share coffee and croissants to stay connected.

    Wired to Connect

    As human beings, we are wired to connect in real life. Communicating with others calms our nervous systems and assures us that we are not alone in the world. We are, after all, social creatures. So how are we supposed to find meaningful connections while social distancing? 

  • cartoon of women working at laptop while giving a biscuit to her dog

    Working from Home: Take a Breath

    Like many of us, I’ve recently and suddenly found myself working from home. While the work I’m doing is pretty different these days, working from home is bringing back memories of writing my dissertation on fellowship. With nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, I would spend days (and nights) hunched over my laptop. 

  • Navigating Job Offers

    Navigating the Surprising Stress of a Job Offer

    Looking for a job can be pretty terrible, and it’s often a long slog. Amid that stretched-out stress, it’s easy to start thinking of a job offer as a kind of holy grail, a singular solution to all your problems. But what I see over and over again, among the hundreds of graduate students I advise each year, is that the job offer is often its own source of emotional turmoil. A sudden offer, or the sense that one might be incoming, can prompt as much panic as delight.

  • students at a workshop

    What exactly is professional development, anyway?

    When people talk about ‘professional development’, they tend to emphasize the ‘professional’ part. The type of capital P professional development, that in many people’s minds, is a formal process with a defined beginning and end. But this type of thinking minimizes the ‘development’ part, which is really where the growth takes place. 

  • Sam Chadwick

    Where Are They Now?: Sam Chadwick

    Triple Civil Engineering Alumna, Sam Chadwick's career as a Rail Engineer for WSP USA in Chicago, IL took her all the way around the world to teach at the Tashkent Institute of Railway Engineering in Uzbekistan. Read all about her career trajectory which started at Engineering Open House back in 2008!

  • Hands typing on keyboard of laptop

    Fellowship Tips: Crafting a Good Research Question

    A typical fellowship application contains many components of varying lengths, yet it’s the shortest component — the research question — that’s the most important. Without a strong and explicitly-stated research question, a funding proposal never gets off the ground. So, what constitutes a good research question?

  • Cher. Definitely, Cher: LLM Student Wins First Place at Illinois Global Talent Show

    LLM student Marie Joe Noon won first prize at the inaugural Illinois Global Talent Show for her vocal performance of "I Have Nothing" by Whitney Houston. Annie caught up with Marie after the show to learn about her singing inspiration (definitely Cher), her hometown, and how singing translates to confidence in the courtroom.

  • Keith Taylor

    Where Are They Now?: Keith Taylor

    Growing up in the rural Midwest, Keith Taylor never thought that he would make a home near the sunny, sandy beaches of California. Keith earned his PhD in Human and Community Development in 2013 and now has his dream job as a Community Economic Development Specialist (another way of saying Extension Professor) at the University of California at Davis. In his position, the community is his classroom, and he works with community economic development stakeholders on research and development.

  • Lights on a wall read "work and play."

    Maximize Your Sleep, Rest, and Work

    In our first post on sustainability and productivity, Daniel Wong outlined three principles for a sustainable and productive life and introduced how they can apply to each of three key areas of your life. In this post, we’ll explore some actionable ways that you can implement these principles in the areas of sleep, rest, and work.