Professional Development
Hands-On Experience

1. To foster a better understanding of faculty roles and responsibilities, participants need to do one of the following three things:

a. Attend a workshop on faculty governance. A qualifying workshop will be offered at least once per year. Following the workshop, complete Form 1: Documentation for Workshops to document your attendance.

b. Attend a departmental, faculty senate, faculty council or committee meeting involving faculty. After the meeting, complete Form 2: Event Attendance Form to document your attendance at the meeting. The best place to start in finding a faculty meeting is with your advisor or department. If needed, the CFT can assist you in finding and attending a faculty meeting. Contact one of the CFT's Graduate Teaching Fellows for more information.

c. Complete a faculty interview about the roles and responsibilities of faculty members. Please select a faculty member from a different department and of a different rank (i.e., assistant professor, associate professor, lecturer, etc.) than the person you interviewed for the Mentoring section requirement. (Three interviews are required in the Professional Development Track--the two others are included in the Mentoring section and the Partner Institutions section.)
Use the Sample Questionnaire for Faculty Interviews to guide your interview.

2. Since communicating the contents of research is a vital skill for those on the job market as well as for those in faculty positions, participants are required to give talks about their research in one of two ways:

1. Prepare for and deliver a presentation of their independent or co-authored research at a disciplinary meeting. (In the notebook, include a copy of the abstract and the name of the conference attended, or the journal where the article was published.) For information regarding how to procure funds to attend conferences, see the Graduate School's Application for a Graduate Student Travel Grant.
   
   
2. If presenting research at a disciplinary meeting proves impossible, participants have the option of presenting at the Graduate Student Research Day (GSRD) Conference held annually at Vanderbilt. In the notebook, include a copy of the abstract and the date of GSRD. Visit the Graduate School's Information for Current Students page for more information about GSRD.

3. Preparing documents for the job market is an important part of professional development. Participants can seek information from their advisors, faculty mentors, the Career Center, and/or the Center for Teaching. To fulfill this portion of F2P2, include the following in your notebook:

1. list of items in your teaching portfolio
2. teaching philosophy statement
3. sample cover letter
4. curriculum vitae

To assist in preparation for the job market, F2P2 members can participate in a Professional Development Cohort that meets 4 times during the semester to get information and feedback about teaching portfolios, cover letters, curriculum vitae, and the interview process. While participation in this Cohort is optional, many find the exchange of ideas and feedback valuable. Group size will be kept small. If you sign up for a Cohort, it is necessary to attend all four meetings. Attendance at the meetings will count towards fulfilling the Workshop hours in the Professional Development track (complete Form 2: Event Attendance Form). Announcements about the Cohort will be posted on the F2P2 listserv at the beginning of each semester.