Year 2 (Re) Orientation

Back by popular demand, SFU's Year 2 (Re) Orientation is designed for graduate students who are past the "getting started" stage and looking ahead to what's next. 

Join us for a series of online micro-sessions on topics including personal branding and your digital footprint, facilitation and instruction as a TA, sharing your research, and more. We'll wrap up the week with an interactive, in-person WayFinder skills assessment workshop to help you identify your strengths and explore possibilities

The week's events will be followed by a social hosted by the Graduate Student Society.

Registration will open first to Year 2 graduate students. If space permits, select sessions will also be opened to graduate students at all stages of their programs.

12:00-12:30pm

Leadership: What is it, What it isn't, and What It Could Be (Online)

Kody Sider | Director of External Relations, Graduate Student Society

Ravi Soni | (Interim) Executive Director, Graduate Student Society

Open to all students. Do you need a title to be a leader? Do you need to be in charge? What about sitting on a board, organizing fellow students, mentoring another, or speaking up about an issue?

Leadership in grad school takes innumerable forms, but the opportunities to develop it aren't always obvious. This session will unpack what leadership can look like beyond formal positions and explore how grad students can build influence, contribute to their academic community, and work with others to create the positive change they wish to see.

In this session, we'll explore how leadership in grad school can be more accessible than it may seem. Leadership doesn't always require a formal title, extensive experience, or being the person in charge. We'll explore how leadership can take shape through academic citizenship, community building, and collective action. You'll also gain practical tools to recognize the leadership you're already doing, find opportunities to get involved, and communicate those experiences on your CV and beyond.

Session Goals:

• Explore what leadership is, what it isn't, and what it could look like in graduate school
• Identify practical opportunities to develop leadership through academic citizenship and collective action
• Learn how to turn your unique leadership experiences into meaningful stories for your CV and future opportunities

2:00 - 2:30 pm

Beyond the Paper: Sharing Your Research (Online)

Dr. Alison Müller | Knowledge Mobilisation Specialist, Bridge Research Consortium

Open to all students. Conducting research to learn more about our world, its people, and its systems, is one of the most interesting career paths one can follow; however, academics are excellent at making exciting discoveries sound either incredibly complex or incredibly mundane, sometimes even both!

We'll provide you a few tips and tools to make your research sparkle and shine, so that not only with others see the value in the research you do but also encourages them to be excited about it. Whether it be online, through presentations, in conversation, or contributing towards the next step in your career, sharing your research beyond the thesis is an important part of honing the ever-crucial soft skill - communication.

12:00 - 12:30 PM

Personal Branding and Your Digital Footprint (Online)

Stacey Makortoff | Associate Director, Marketing, Communications, and Student Experience, Faculty of Graduate Studies

Open to all students. You do amazing work, make sure people can see it! Your digital presence can take many forms from a personal website, LinkedIn, SubStack, etc. It can even include your SFU online profile. Your profile tells a story, and is an important element when advancing your academic and professional career. In this session, you'll learn how to create an engaging graduate student profile that highlights your research, strengths, and personality and use what you learn to other aspect of your digital presence so it can open doors.

Objectives: learn more about SFU Grad Student profile opportunities, highlight your research and experiences effectively, and take the first few simple steps to build an authentic online presence

2:00 - 2:30 PM

Demystifying GIS (Online)

Sarah Zhang | Librarian for Geography, GIS, & Maps at SFU Library 

Open to all students. GIS (Geographic Information Systems) has become increasingly useful across many disciplines. This short session led by Sarah Zhang, Librarian for Geography, GIS, & Maps at SFU Library, will introduce you to examples of how GIS, mapping, and geography-grounded storytelling can be used in academic research. Sarah will also provide an overview of the support the Library can offer to help you incorporate spatial data, methods, and tools into your projects.

2:45 - 3:15 PM

A Brief Introduction to Publishing your Research Data (Online)

Keshav Mukunda | Research Data Management Librarian, SFU Library 

Open to all students. Thinking about publishing (or depositing) your research data online to share with other researchers? Or perhaps a journal or grant funding agency requires you to publish your data?  This workshop delivered by Keshav Mukunda (Research Data Management Librarian, SFU Library) will provide practical steps to help you prepare to publish your research data. 

Topics include: 

• what can be published as research data;
• why publish (or deposit) your research data; 
• how to structure your files and prepare your data for publication; and  
• where you can publish your data online. 
  
  

No matter what your subject area is, you likely work with research data. 

11:30 AM - 12:15 PM

When Teaching Gets Tricky: Navigating Challenging TA Situations (Online)

Amanda Wallace | English as an Additional Language Consultant, Educational Developer Centre for Educational Excellence

Zoreen Nuraney | Student Transition Educator, International Services for Students

Open to all students. As you move into your second year of graduate studies, you may be reflecting on past TA experiences or preparing for teaching opportunities ahead. Challenging situations are a normal part of teaching, and having a few strategies ready can make them easier to navigate. Whether it's encouraging participation, responding to grade concerns, or navigating difficult classroom interactions, join your peers for this practical session.

Session Goals: Participants will be introduced to: practical instructional strategies; campus resources available to TAs; and peers from across the faculties.

2:00 - 3:15 PM

WayFinder: Connecting Your Skills to Opportunities (In-Person)

Charity Slobod | Professional Development and Student Experience Manager

Open to 2nd year students only. You've probably heard that graduate school is a journey. But it's also a chance to develop skills, build connections, and discover opportunities that can shape your future. In this interactive workshop, you'll be among the first students to test-drive FGS's newly expanded Wayfinder. Redesigned around a competency-based approach, Wayfinder helps you identify your unique strengths, navigate the often-unspoken aspects of graduate education, and make the most of the resources that best support your success.

Whether you want to become a stronger researcher, communicator, leader, or collaborator, Wayfinder can help you chart a path that works for you.

Learning Objectives: In this workshop, students will identify their strengths within the graduate student education system, connect with supports, tips, resources, and map opportunities for growth

4:00 - 6:00 PM

Graduate Student Society Social @ BierCraft UniverCity

Graduate Student Society

Reconnect with other Year 2 students and others peers! Food included with each registration. Registration for year 2 students first, if space permits it will be open to all students afterwards.

8902 University High St, Burnaby, BC V5A 4X6