Hosted by the Office of Academic Excellence & Engagement, Penn School of Arts & Sciences
This fall, we will be featuring blog posts written by PhD students who participated in Career Services’ Career Exploration Fellowship (CEF), a program that helps doctoral candidates explore their career interests through networking opportunities with advanced degree professionals. Click here to learn more about CEF.
I was paired with Vanessa Gonzalez-Perez, Associate Vice Dean for Academic Excellence & Engagement (formerly Office of DEI). Vanessa was extremely helpful in getting started with my CEF experience and was able to connect on a personal level about our stories throughout our careers. After initial conversations centered around getting to know each other and what our expectations were for the CEF program, we moved forward with potential project ideas. I decided that it would be best to help organize the SAS Summer Virtual Series for my CEF project. This series helps prepare students for the graduate school application process, with a focus on PhD programs in SAS. I was responsible for organizing and facilitating the graduate student panel. This involved recruiting participants, creating and soliciting questions, and finally running and moderating the panel.
Besides my project, I also had the opportunity to network with other members of the Office of Academic Excellence. This included lunch with other deans, directors, and another CEF fellow who was paired with a host in a similar role. This was an excellent opportunity to connect with another CEF fellow and get to hear about how other members of the office were able to get to where they are today.
My networking experiences and my CEF project were the most valuable parts of my CEF experience. Meeting these people provided an opportunity to practice my networking skills while getting to hear unique stories. These stories taught me that there are many career paths available to PhD graduates besides working in a lab. They also taught me that it is rare to find someone who had a completely linear path to their current role. My involvement in the SAS Summer Virtual Series made me more aware of the initiatives Penn SAS hosts and how they align with the mission and values of the office. It also gave me the opportunity to think about the intentionality that must go into programming geared to such a diverse audience. Heightened consideration for the logistics and facilitation of the graduate student panel was key for this event.
Students should apply to the CEF program if they want to gain experience and mentorship from a PhD in a field that is not necessarily connected to their current research. As a chemistry PhD candidate, there are plenty of internships available to me in the pharma and biotech industries. CEF provided me with the chance to experience a new career option that people in my position usually do not know about. My experience has reminded me that it is important to keep an open mind when it comes to career options because a PhD is a very versatile degree. While this has not drastically changed my long-term goals, it has given me a richer understanding of the range of fulfilling and relevant careers beyond the lab and the importance of exploring them early.
