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SPARK:

The Doctoral Success Program

Welcome to SPARK

The Office of Student Engagement in collaboration with the Doctoral Success Committee has launched SPARK: The Doctoral Success Program to provide support to doctoral scholars who are approaching or already in the post-coursework phase of their graduate journey. We began our program with a 4-part summer workshop series. Each workshop correlated with one of the core curricula skill videos from the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD), for which CGU is an institutional member. This academic year, we invite our doctoral scholars nearing the completion of coursework or already in the post-coursework phase to join us during our monthly workshops, make use of our academic affirming community space, and utilize the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity to advance in your doctoral milestones.

Provide Feedback

As we continue to plan and develop sessions for SPARK, we ask that you share your feedback with our committee. Please click the button below to share any suggested sessions, workshops, or topics that you would like to see incorporated in our 2022-2023 academic year programming. Our goal remains to help doctoral students make progress towards degree milestones and feel successful as they advance towards degree completion.

Share Your Feedback

Academic Affirming Community

Integral to SPARK is building community and establishing accountability with peers. We invite doctoral scholars to join our academic affirming community space via Microsoft Yammer, where doctoral students can engage with each other regardless of location. We will be facilitating weekly discussion questions and polls, but invite you all to connect and share your research, ask questions, ask for support, and build community with other CGU scholars. We encourage you to review our Yammer Community Guidelines as you look to engage with your peers.

Fall 2022 SPARK Workshops

October Workshop
Welcome all doctoral students, as you continue your doctoral journey, join us for a virtual session where you will continue to make progress in your daily writing. During our first session of the fall semester, we will discuss how to create a weekly plan to Slay Your Goals. During this session we will introduce tools to help with your daily planning. Our asynchronous component will be the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) core skill video #2: How to Align Your Time with Your Priorities.

Watch the recording HERE and access the slide deck HERE
CLICK HERE to Access and download the toolkit
November Workshop
 

Wednesday, November 16 | Creating ceremony and community to disrupt your writing roadblocks | 6:00 – 7:30 PM | REGISTER HERE

Are you feeling stuck in the writing process? Are you experiencing challenges that are hindering your writing progress? Join our session to learn how to identify and combat your internal and external writing challenges and find joy in the process. Members of the Office of Student Engagement will discuss the importance of sharing your work with your peers, finding accountability partners, and receiving helpful feedback.

During this in-person session, students will have the ability to create a ceremony pack to signify the importance of implementing ceremonial practices that relieve the anxiety and pressure around the writing process. Our asynchronous component will be the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) core skill video #5: Moving from Resistance to Writing.

December Workshop
 

Thursday, December 8 | managing expectations and honoring your committment to self | 6:00 – 7:00 PM | REGISTER HERE

As a graduate student, you wear many hats: scholar, working professional, parent or guardian, and many more. It can sometimes be difficult to balance all of the expectations placed on you in these various roles. At times, you may find yourself pushing your goals, projects, and tasks aside in order to show up for others. In this session, we will discuss strategies for you to manage these expectations while honoring your commitment to have a healthier work-life balance. Our asynchronous component will include the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) core skill video # 6: The Art of Saying No.

Session Toolkit

For each of our sessions, we have curated a toolkit of helpful documents and resources to support you in goal setting, planning, and milestone mapping. We encourage you to join each session to understand how to utilize each of these tools to track your progress this academic year and work your way towards achieving your next doctoral milestone. After each session, we will upload the documents used for you all to access. Should you have any questions about the tools that are shared, please email us at student.engagement@cgu.edu.

 

Summer 2022 Workshop Series
June 8 | 5-7PM PT | Hybrid
New Summer, New Goals: How to Create Space for Yourself and Your Scholarly Aspirations
As a graduate student, goal setting and planning are essential elements to doctoral progression. The post-coursework phase of the doctoral journey means holding ourselves accountable for deadlines and deliverables. Together, we will take the time to deconstruct planning and goal setting and introduce you to tools like the doctoral milestone maps and the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) that can help you assess where you are in your journey and the goals you hope to achieve over the next 3, 6, and 12 months.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity

June 15 | 5:00-6:30PM PT | Virtual
Feeling Overwhelmed: Moving from a Place of Procrastination to a Place of Certainty
As you review your doctoral milestone maps and begin to assess where you are in your graduate journey, you are likely to approach tasks and items that are unclear. Degree requirements can include form submissions, gathering signatures, and following processes that are not inherently understood. This coupled with pressure, from yourself or others, based on the progress you have made up to this point may cause some frustration. During this virtual session we will discuss how to isolate one milestone and back map your way to achieving your goal. We will also discuss the power in sharing your work and letting go of the anxiety and pressure regarding peer feedback.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity

June 22 | 5:00-6:30PM PT | Virtual
Reclaiming Your Voice: Owning Your Writer Identity
The post-coursework phase of the doctoral student journey is filled with writing, editing, re-writing, and editing more. Creating a writing plan can make all the difference in how you progress during this time! You must also create space to share your work with peers to ensure you receive helpful feedback that will strengthen your work! In this virtual session we will discuss ways to commit to the writing process, the importance of ceremonial practices, and some quick writing exercises to combat writing fatigue.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity

June 29 | 5:00-6:30PM PT | Virtual
Perfection is the Enemy of Good Enough
As a doctoral student there is pressure to ensure your work exceeds expectations within the field. This academic rigor can stall doctoral progression to meet degree milestones. Join this virtual session as we engage in conversation around academic perfection and ways to use rejection as redirection. We will discuss the importance of digesting feedback and acting on it to enhance your editing process. During this session we will introduce tools for building an academic affirming community for our doctoral students to utilize over the summer.

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity