Winter Science & Engineering Forum Provides Insight Into Graduate School as a Path on a Career Journey
By Devinn Lambert


The inaugural Winter Science & Engineering Forum, held January 14th at Rutgers University, was very successful.  Sponsored by the Graduate School-New Brunswick, the forum was directed at educating undergraduate students about how to prepare for graduate school as well as summer research opportunities and graduate education options at Rutgers.  The agenda included presentations by Graduate and Summer Program Directors, a Graduate Student Panel, a workshop, “How to Write a Winning Personal Statement,” and a Poster and Networking session.  The Winter Science and Engineering Forum was filled to capacity, attended by students and professionals from multiple New Jersey and regional institutions, including Rutgers, NJIT, Monmouth, TCNJ, Rowan, Rider, Montclair State, Fairleigh Dickinson, Ramapo, and Middlesex County College.

               
Participants received guidance from Graduate Directors and insight from the first hand experience of graduate students, some of which is shared below:

• Life science majors should consider a variety of programs when applying for internships or jobs.  Some sponsoring agencies, which may seem unrelated to life sciences, like NASA, are interested in employing people with life science backgrounds because they provide diversity.
  
  
•  Rutgers has the most National Science Foundation-sponsored Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) programs nationwide. IGERTs support scientists and engineers pursuing doctorates in fields that cross academic disciplines and have broad societal impact.
  
  
• For students interested in going into academia, a great way to gain teaching experience is by becoming a Teaching Assistant.  An additional benefit is that at state universities, like Rutgers, Teaching Assistants have state employee benefits.
  
  
• Rutgers has a program called GradFund, which helps graduate students find a fellowship or other external funding that will be a good fit.  GradFund, sponsored by the Graduate School-New Brunswick, is recognized as an extremely valuable resource for our graduate students.
  
  

Following the panel session, Dr. Lyndon Mitnaul, Research Fellow at Merck and Co., Inc. provided very useful career advice.  First, he stated that you should choose a career in research because of your passion for research, not for money or titles.  Dr. Mitnaul said that it is important to get effective and constant mentoring as well as to start right now building your professional networks.  He also stated that it is critical to get early exposure to all career paths of a research scientist.  One way to do this is by going to events similar to the Winter Science & Engineering Forum.  Based on the overhwhelming success of the Winter Science and Engineering Forum, the Graduate School plans to make it an annual event.  If you were unable to attend it this year, stay tuned for 2011, http://gsnb.rutgers.edu. 

Graduate Student Panel sharing their insight

Visit the photo gallery or you can see it on Bio-1's website.