Graduate students in higher education and student affairs can be placed in assistantships through the Student Personnel Assistantship program in the Office of Student Life, located in the Ohio Union. Credit: Sandra Fu | Photo Editor
At Ohio State, the approach to career development for graduate and postdoctoral students is a team effort.
The university offers numerous career management and professional development resources across its different colleges, from the Fisher College of Business to the College of Veterinary Medicine. Nancy Thompson, director of Buckeye Careers in the Office of Student Life, said these colleges and their accompanying resources all share one goal: supporting student success.
“It really does take that village to find those resources that really support students,” Thompson said.
Beyond the Graduate and Professoriate resources
Two of the resources Thompson touched on, the “Beyond the Graduate” and “Beyond the Professoriate” career-training platforms, were adopted by the university roughly a year ago.
Available for all faculty and students, Beyond the Graduate and Beyond the Professoriate are designed to help master’s, doctoral and postdoctoral students quickly build their skills and prepare for career success through on-demand, online workshops and resources, Thompson said.
“I think what’s nice about it being online is knowing that our graduate students and our doctoral students are really busy,” Thompson said. “Some of them have assistantships in addition to their full course load, so this allows them to have access to resources based on their schedule.”
Thompson said she credits her colleagues in the College of Arts and Sciences for bringing these resources to her attention.
“After sitting through the [Beyond the Graduate and Professoriate] demo, asking some questions and then talking to people who work very regularly with graduate and doctoral students, they were impressed with the tool,” Thompson said. “So, we said, ‘You know what, let’s make this available.’”
Students seeking out personal coaching through Beyond the Graduate or Beyond the Professoriate can schedule one-on-one virtual sessions via Handshake, Thompson said.
Student Personnel Assistantship Program
The College of Education and Human Ecology has collaborated with the Office of Student Life to offer the Student Personnel Assistantship Program, which assists students in the recruitment, programming and assistantship processes, according to its website.
Through the SPA program, students are matched into a two-year assistantship with a university department. One such department is Buckeye Careers, which allows participating graduate students to work alongside professionals and tackle current challenges within higher education.
Kayana Jones — a first-year graduate student in higher education and student affairs — was matched to Buckeye Careers as a graduate teaching associate. In her role, she helps students with career-readiness tasks like resume reviews and interview preparation.
Notably, Jones said the program helps her apply what she has learned in the classroom to gain hands-on experience working with students.
“That’s what I want to do with my degree,” Jones said. “I want to work in a student support role, in a student support office.”
And graduate students aren’t the only ones to benefit from the SPA program, as participating students are imperative to the operation of university departments that participate in the program, Thompson said.
“And the great thing is, [the students are] getting paid, and they should be,” Thompson said. “They are doing great work. They’re really integral to the success of student life, and they really are the future for our industry.”
Thompson said the program gives students a valuable chance to immerse themselves in other areas of student affairs, particularly those that lie outside the program or department they study in.
“Something greatly important to me, as a supervisor for grad students, is to learn [about what] their interest is,” Thompson said. “So, if they’re interested in another area that’s outside of our department, I take it as a personal responsibility and professional responsibility to introduce them to other areas of student affairs or student life, because it’s really important that they get some more exposure to areas that may be of interest.”
Overall, every opportunity offered through the program is designed to help students expand their professional networks, Thompson said.
“That’s what so much of what this is, is helping to build their network,” Thompson said.
For more information about Ohio State’s digital career resources, visit the Graduate School webpage.
