VPGE's professional development programs span a wide range of topics and formats. There's something to meet your needs and schedule, from information-packed Quick Bytes lunches, to multi-session Negotiation Matters workshops, or week-long Stanford Graduate Summer Institute courses. Browse these offerings and use the Grad Grow Professional Development search tool to find more learning opportunities.
Programs & Funding
Communicating Effectively with Your Advisor
Want to learn skills to communicate better and resolve issues with your faculty advisor? Communicating Effectively with Your Advisor workshop helps you develop a healthy and productive relationship with your faculty advisor.
Crucial Conversations
Through a dynamic mix of theory, demonstration, and practice, this two-session workshop provides a solid foundation for more principled, persuasive, and successful conversations in a variety of contexts.
Designing the Professional
Once you get your degree, how do you get a life? What do you want out of life after Stanford? Wondering how to weave together what fits, is doable, and will be truly meaningful? Then join us for Designing the Professional, offered in several different formats as a program or course.
Diversity Works
Come together with academic leaders to discuss issues related to diversity and excellence in higher education at Diversity Works.
EPIC Resilience: Surviving & Thriving in Chaos
Prepare for working in an era of relentless change
Fellows Forum
Expand your academic and professional skills and meet new people at Fellows Forum. Designed for early-mid stage doctoral students, and open to all graduate students.
Finding Purpose and Meaning During Challenging Times
Explore the science and art of purpose and practice essential tools for living a life of authenticity, connection, and impact.
Impostor Syndrome: "Am I An Impostor? And If So, So What?"
Hear about real life experiences with impostor syndrome from Professor Margot Gerritsen and discuss steps toward overcoming it.Negotiation Matters
Learn how to negotiate with colleagues, bosses, partners, friends, clients, and many others. Through a dynamic mix of theory, demonstration, and practice, this two-session workshop provides a solid foundation for more principled, persuasive, and successful negotiation in a variety of contexts.
Preparing for Faculty Careers Course (EDUC 343C)
How will you prepare yourself to obtain a great faculty job - and to thrive as a professor once you begin your career? The Preparing for Faculty Careers course (EDUC 343C, Spring Q) is designed for advanced doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars from any discipline who are considering a faculty career.
Preparing Future Professors
What does it take to be a faculty member at a teaching-focused university or community college? Preparing Future Professors gives you a chance to experience faculty life first-hand by shadowing a faculty member at Foothill College, Menlo College, San Jose State University, San Francisco State, West Valley College, or University of San Francisco.
Quick Bytes
Gain valuable professional development skills that you can apply right away! Quick Bytes sessions cover a variety of topics.
Slide Design Mini Boot Camp
Elevate the aesthetic appeal and communicative force of your slide deck to make your message stand out.
Stanford Ignite
Got innovation? Learn how to formulate, develop, and commercialize your ideas with Stanford Ignite. Led by the Graduate School of Business, Stanford Ignite is a certificate program that provides the business fundamentals necessary to succeed at any entrepreneurial or intrapreneurial venture.
VPGE Pop-Ups
Staff and faculty can invite VPGE to present a professional development workshop to your graduate students.
WISE and WISSH Groups
Since June 2001, Stanford has sponsored mentoring groups for women doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars in science and engineering (WISE). For the past several years, a similar program has also been available for women PhD students and postdocs in the social sciences and the humanities (WISSH).Funding
| Eligibility | Process | Application Period | |
|---|---|---|---|
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DIF is a program that supports Stanford graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in the development of a project that will advance diversity within those populations.
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All Students, Postdoctoral Scholars | by Application | Spring quarter |
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SCORE Academic Innovation Funds support faculty-led innovations in core areas of graduate education.
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Faculty | by Application | Applications welcome anytime |
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SPICE funds support graduate students' efforts to build and expand their intellectual communities at Stanford.
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All Students | by Application | Spring quarter |
