2019-20 FUF Sessions

Welcome!

The goal for Physics and Astronomy Community Excellence (PACE) Fire Up Fridays is to provide regular meeting space and programming that is designed specifically in the interest of supporting and developing incoming graduate students in our department. This includes both structured and unstructured activities that will foster a sense of community and inspire resilience within our community of graduate students.

For resources and summaries of our past Fire Up Friday sessions, see below or click the corresponding link: Time & Goal Management, How Funding Works in Our Department, Working Out & Working In (Physical Health), Career Path Exploration, Demystifying the Qual Exam, Personal Wellness with Dr. Phong Luong, Building Your Mentor Map, Finding and Fostering Healthy Relationships with Advisors and Summer Professional Materials Development.

2018-19 FUF Sessions See Our Syllabus Here

Time & Goal Management Session

Description

This session served as a guided discussion/panel on balancing grad student responsibilities. In small group settings, senior students shared their experiences, including their successes and failures, as well as trips and tricks for studying, TAing, etc. Key take aways from this session were to know it's ok to ask for help and to do so often, that scheduling can be a life-saver, and that checking in with yourself is incredibly important!

Resources

NCFDD Videos

How Funding Works in Our Department

Description

In this session, our faculty leader Franklin Dollar presented information to PACE mentees regarding how funding works as a graduate student, departmental support and external fellowships. The objective of this session was to provide students with a space in which they could ask questions regarding how the department handles funding, how summer funding works

Resources

These serve as a repository of resources regarding funding in the Physics and Astronomy Department


Working Out & Working In (Physical Health)

Description

In the first session of this two-part series, we explored as a group some methods of stress reduction - or rather stress expression - to use for when times get rough. This included discussions that facilitated the normalization of our struggles. The key take aways from this session were effective stress management methods such as calendar blocking, practicing discipline, exercise, using To-Do Lists, outsourcing and multitasking (links below). We were left with a great Grandpa quote - "Do your best and eff the rest."


Career Path Exploration

Description

This session was geared at starting a conversation around the future careers that will be available to Physics PhD students. We encouraged mentees and mentors to evaluate their skill inventory and discuss skills that can be obtained during graduate school.


Demystifying the Qual Exam

Description

In this special session lead by UCI's Grad Division Counselor, Dr. Phong Luong, we will discuss individualized and consistent self care, especially for physics graduate students and learn some breathing exercises!


Personal Wellness with Dr. Phong Luong

Description

In this session the graduate student counselor Dr. Phoug Luong offered his advice for how to reduce anxiety and stress for students preparing for the qualification exam.


Building Your Mentor Map

Description

This was our very first virtual FUF, and during this session we discussed the concept of mentor maps and we had everyone complete the exercise of filling in their personal mentor maps to determine which areas of mentorship were and were not being satisfied. We ended the session by reviewing the various types of mentors and how to acquire new mentors.

Resources


Finding and Fostering Healthy Relationships with Advisors

Description

During this discussion, we explored how and when to find an advisor across physics subfields, what to look for in an advisor, and what it means to have multiple mentors.

Resources

Other Related Resource

Summer Professional Materials Development

Description

This session will serve as a time to discuss tackling conferences and self promotion over the summer. We will discuss balancing intense research time with developing important professional skills/materials such as personal websites, CVs, posters, etc.

Resources

Self Promotion
Conferenes
Personal Research Websites
Research Posters
CVs and Resumes
CV and Website Tips Discussed in Session
  • Keep two CVs, a long version that has all your accomplishments and a condensed version. Consider having the condensed version as the one on your website.
  • Personalize Your Website and CV/Resume
    • Remember, we are humans as well as scientists.
    • Examples include recommending books, discussing your hobbies or adding a QR code to your website on your CV/Resume.
    • Photos are great! Consider adding a professional headshot and photos of yourself presenting your science and doing activities you enjoy.
Website Specific Tips Discussed in Session
  • Keep in mind that motion graphics on websites can be sensory overload.
  • On your website, consider structuring it after your goals - one tab/page per set of goals.
  • Cross-linking on your website is super helpful for two reasons - 1) it gives your audience more ways to interact with you and learn about you, and 2) it can help boost your website to the top in search engine results. Examples are: