Setting Up a Graduate Student Professional Development Program

[Cynthia Korpan]

Dear Colleagues, 

You are invited to join your colleagues in POD's Graduate Student, Professional Student, and Postdoctoral Scholar Development Special Interest Group (GPPD SIG) Professional Development Series! 

Our next session is:

Setting Up a Graduate Student Professional Development Program

Wednesday, November 26, 2025, 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. EST, 9:00 - 10:00 a.m. PST

Facilitators:  Dr. Cynthia Korpan, University of Victoria and Dr. Heather Merla, Queen's University

Register here: https://forms.gle/pP74tL8jiqqUccxm6 

Description:

In 2023, through a partnership with Academics Without Borders (AWB) and Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS) in Ghana, we began developing a graduate student professional development program. The aim was to address the university’s desire to equip graduate students with core skills to enhance their professional competencies and complement their degree-specific training to support student employability and success after graduation.

In this session, we will share our approach and process to setting up a new institution-wide program for this university. Upon completion of the session, participants will attain the following:

• What we learned from the literature review regarding professional development programs for graduate students
• Our approach to needs assessment
• Program design
• Delivery of training program 
• Next steps and assessment

Facilitators' Bios:

Dr. Cynthia Korpan is an adjunct professor in the Department of Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies at the University of Victoria and former Director of Teaching Excellence. Cynthia's research concentrates on emerging and early career academics learning to teach in the academic workplace.

Dr. Heather Merla received her doctoral degree in Art History from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 2018. After her PhD, Heather transitioned into university administration, working in Queen’s School of Graduate Studies where she manages several professional development programs for graduate students, with special emphasis on community engaged learning, work-integrated learning, and public scholarship.

Zoom link will be sent the day prior to the workshop.

We look forward to seeing you then,

Cynthia

Cynthia Korpan, PhD (she/her)

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology and Leadership Studies, UVic

Former Director of Teaching Excellence, UVic

Award-winning Educational Developer 2017 (EDC) 

Director, ITeach: Certification in Higher Ed Inc. iteachhe.com 

Secretary and Board Director, Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE)

Academics Without Borders Volunteer

Associate Editor, Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CJSoTL)

Committee Member, Graduate Student, Professional Student, and Postdoctoral Scholar Development Special Interest Group (GPPD SIG) (POD)

I acknowledge and respect the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples on whose traditional territory the university stands and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSÁNEĆ peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.

[Cynthia Korpan]