Twenty-second International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

Although the COVID-19 pandemic presented many challenges in helping graduate students navigate their experiences, it also offered many opportunities to research and develop different types of support to benefit students from diverse cultural and disciplinary backgrounds. This workshop will highlight the University of Minnesota Graduate School’s student-centered approach to academic and professional development. Various initiatives designed to unveil the “hidden curriculum” and empower international and first-generation graduate students will be discussed. Initiatives include focus groups and surveys to identify student needs, as well as collaborations with multiple units to develop resources to make implicit expectations more explicit. This highly interactive workshop will engage the audience in discussions to reflect upon and share strategies used by their institutions to assist diverse graduate students make timely progress on their degrees. An outcome of the workshop is for participants to set short and long-term goals to support multiply marginalized graduate students. Participants can then build upon their goals to develop action steps to share and collaborate with their colleagues to ensure students can progress through their studies with purpose and confidence. Participants will have access to U of MN resources and tool templates to aid them in their own work related to graduate student academic and professional development.