1. Structuring your early career as a graduate student
Introduction
Stefanie Kunze
Germany; in Flg since 2004
Love the outdoors, etc.
PhD in Political Science
GTS in my department (graduate teaching scholar)
GAPS (social coordinator, VP, interim P)
Research on genocide and Native American boarding schools; international relations.
Things I wish somebody would have told me at the start

2. Agenda for the session Reasons graduate school is great
Major differences from undergrad
Independence
Involvement
Self-care
Online presence
Student resources
Research
Changing
Tips and tricks
Open questions and answers
Briefly describe the agenda for the session

3. Welcome to your new reality!
Grad school is about motivation and determination.
Be organized
Communicate!
Cooperate and collaborate.
It can be challenging for many different reasons but you can do it! Keep your goals in mind and be open to new/different perspectives, opinions, thoughts.
Be smart.
Focus on topics that are either interesting to you or may be your thesis/dissertation. You can tailor assignments to some extent.
And once you finished that paper, make it better, and try to get it published.

4. Major differences from the undergraduate experience
Expect to feel lost and out of place
Difficulty level
Self-directed method of learning
Limitations in frequency of course offerings
Program of study
Scheduling
Planning, saying “no”
The most important thing about making it through the next few years is that you always keep in mind why you are doing this. You have a goal that you want to achieve. This will be your job and it will be your hobby. It has always helped me to view grad school as an 8-5 job and sometimes I had to work late (very late). I have always worked part or full-time during grad school, which make this whole idea even harder but it helps to have a set schedule that you need to stick to. If time is unstructured – you can lose control and your motivation. If you have a GA position, you will be still pretty flexible in your time use.
I know people who work best from home or elsewhere and schedule themselves to not have to come to campus at all for some days. Others work best if they are on campus, in the library or in their department. Figure out where you work the best and schedule yourself to be there.
Sometimes this will be overwhelming – talk to people.
Make sure that you plan out your course of study. If a class is offered that is not scheduled regularly, take it! Work with your advisor on a good sequence of classes and get it done. There can be a million of reason why you would like to postpone a class even though it has been recommended to you – take it!!
Be prepared to not do things and spend time that would normally not be a problem. Tell your friends and family to let you focus on school.

5. Independence You got yourself here, you will get yourself through
Advocating for yourself
Being on your own/independent
Autonomy
Probably the biggest change you're about to encounter is that your learning is now your responsibility. The professor isn't going to stand up in front of the class and explain things to you anymore. Now you are expected to have it figured out before you even get to class. This isn't to say that if don't understand something you can't ask for help, and that's where advocating for yourself comes in. You should, next week or sooner, set up a meeting with your advisor. Let me give you a tip here about meeting with faculty though: never go into a meeting with a faculty member without a list of specific questions and/or an agenda for what you want to talk about. Faculty hate having their time wasted, by both grad students and undergrads, but if you're a grad student they're less likely to be nice about it. Showing up and asking "what do I need to study for the midterm" is NOT going to fly. You will only succeed in annoying a faculty member and leaving a bad impression with them, which could be bad news later when you need them for your thesis committee. Being respectful of people's time and not bugging them with minor things that could be dealt with by someone else is a very good strategy.
In terms of dealing with faculty and classes though, this is the most important thing to remember: do exactly what you say you're going to do, but exactly when you said you were going to do it. At some point in your life, you're going to have to ask for an extension on something. If you go in to the "I need an extension" meeting and have a clear plan for how you're going to complete the project, and then you follow through, faculty will respect you for keeping your word, and be more likely to want to give you extensions and want to work with you in the future. If there is one secret to my success in grad school, strict adherence to that principle is probably it.
It's also really important to understand what you need to get through your program. Everyone has different learning styles, and its really important to know yours. You might be the kind of person who works best with hard deadlines, or maybe you work better with less strict deadlines but more brainstorming meetings. Figure out what you need, and then find a faculty member who matches what you need. The most important thing here though is that its all on YOU to figure this out. The only one who is going to get you through your program is YOU.
Source: illustrationsource.com

6. The importance of involvement
This is a MUST!
Don’t wait to live until grad school is over
Grad school is still a part of your life: LIVE IT!
Get involved
On campus, and off campus within the community
Graduate Student Government
Networking
Departmental gatherings
Honors societies
Getting involved in something outside of just taking classes can be really important. I think every department in SBS has a student organization, join it. This will help you get to know your colleagues and learn more about the department. You'll probably even get some free lunches out of it. There are tons of opportunities to get involved in things around campus, and I would encourage you to do that. Always be on the lookout for free things (particularly those involving food) you can check out around campus. I was involved with GSG for the past two years as the SBS representative, and it was a fascinating experience. I was able to sit on the University Graduate Committee, meaning I had exposure to all the grad degree granting departments on campus, and I got to meet a lot of cool grad students from other departments. Very cool, very glad I did it.
As a word of caution though, be careful to not get over involved. Remember, your degree is the most important thing, so do things with people (it is incredibly important to remember to be a person) but don't let your school work suffer!

7. Self-care Scheduling time for it Know when to “clock out”
Health on campus
Counseling center (928)
Health services (928)
Practicum lab (928)
Now that I've got you all scared about grad school, let me tell you how to keep it in perspective. Always remember that this is a part of your life, but it doesn't have to be your whole life. One of the main reasons people are miserable in grad school is because they don't take care of themselves and leave themselves time for themselves. After you get your school life figured out (meaning once you figure out what kind of work schedule works for you), build in time for things you like to do. Earlier I mentioned that I left myself one day a week to get caught up on things which sometimes resulted in being able to take the whole day off. Let me tell you, taking time off is the best thing you can do for your productivity. Having something to look forward to makes you work harder when you need to work, and helps you feel energized to take on the next week.
It's important to know when to call it a day, or as I like to say, to declare a time of death. Everyday, I stop working at 7 pm. No matter where I am or what I'm doing, I won't work later than 7 pm. That's because my self-care plan involves cooking a good meal for myself and relaxing before bed. You can only work on a paper for so long before it just needs to be turned in. So when I'm getting to the end stage of a project, I will say "This paper's TOD is 3 pm" and then I send it and let it go. Figuring out how to work on something, then turn your brain off to that thing and work on a different thing is something that's hard for a lot of people, but something that will make your life better.
Also, don't forget about your mental health. There are several places on campus to get methal health help, including the counseling center and campus health services. Also the practicum lab, which is where counseling students practice doing counseling is a great resource. Eat good food and remember to move sometimes! Sitting in a chair staring at a screen all day is not going to make you feel good. Take breaks, and go for a walk when you have a long day. It will make you feel better and make you more productive when you sit back down to work. Take care of yourself because YOU are the most important thing.

8. Consider your online presence
Have you googled yourself lately?
Enhance what’s already out there
Clean your social media accounts
Build what isn’t
Personal website
Blog, wiki, static, Twitter
Keep an updated CV available
“Demonstrate to the world what type of scholar you are, and what you do.” (Parry, 2009)
Engage virtually in your academic field
Blog posts and comments
RSS feeds for research interests
Hopefully this slide is fairly intuitive, but don't neglect your online presence. Faculty members will, if they haven't already, google you. Try to think of the internet as a way to help you achieve your career or academic goals, so if there is anything out there about you that will not help you, get rid of it! Make sure you check yourself out regularly as well to ensure there isn't a stray twitter account you forgot about that is showing up now.

9. NAU Student resources Cline library Graduate Assistantships
Health and Learning Center
Writing Center
Student Technology help
Computer Labs
Counseling Center
Departmental Administrative Assistants
Practicum lab
Faculty Mentors
Graduate College
Here is a list of resources that you should definitely check out. Though the library is kind of a confusing building, don't be afraid of it! Each college has a research librarian that we can utilize. Basically you send her a topic and she'll pull like every article ever about it and send them to you. The HLC has a really nice gym, awesome smoothie shop, pharmacy and doctors. The student technology people can fix your computer or help you with any other tech problem you have. If you have questions about your degree, or need institutional help, you can contact the grad college. Assistantships are a really great way to get free tuition and health care plus a stipend. If you don't have an assistantship through your department, check out the grad college website. They list assistantships that are available all over campus (i.e. the advising center, college athletics, the grad college itself). The writing center is a great way to get your papers checked before you turn them in. It's not just for undergrads so use that. There are computer labs all over, some of them are hidden. Talk to students who have been around for awhile to find where the hidden ones are in your building or area.
And then I would say the most important resource on this list is your department's administrative assistant. These are the people who really make the university work, and if you want the university to really work for you, your administrative assistant is the gate keeper. Get to know them. Be kind and say thank you when they do something for you. Get them a card on their birthday and chip in with other students to get them flowers on administrative assistant's day. Seriously I cannot stress this enough. Our administrative assistant has saved me probably over a hundred hours by helping me get forms and get them filled out and sent off with the correct signatures without me having to run all over campus to do it. She's found grading jobs for me, which netted me additional money last year. She can access my records so I was able to get unofficial transcripts without having to pay my Louie bill. Be nice to your administrative assistant, and they will be nice to you.

10. Conducting research Start planning research topics early (aka now)
Learn the research focus of the faculty if you haven’t already
Be realistic
I kind of mentioned this earlier, but today, right now, decide what you want to do research on, and do not waiver from that until you have a degree in your hand. Find a faculty member who has similar interests (if one is available) and get them on board with your topic tomorrow. This will save you so much time and stress later. If you have four or five final papers on, say, social movements, then when you go to do a big project like a dissertation or thesis, you have a literature review already done, you know what methods to use, and you might even be able to just pull those papers together to give yourself a basic outline. When it comes to doing research, think about efficiency. You've got to write final papers anyway, you might as well make them work for you. Also recognize that you're not going to do all the research about a topic in a single paper, maybe even in your lifetime. Be realistic about what you can accomplish, and talk to faculty about what you actually need to accomplish. You have the rest of your life to study what you want to study, so don't make your life harder than it needs to be right now. Keep it simple and work smart. You can also save yourself a lot of time by understanding university formatting requirements. The university publishes all theses and dissertations, so writing those documents in the format required by the university will make things easier for you later. You can find that information through the grad college website and I highly recommend checking it out sooner rather than later.

11. Keep in mind The Impostor Syndrome Change is okay, and expected
(Clance & Imes, 1978)
Change is okay, and expected
Talk with faculty, objective mentors, counselors, etc
If you are going to change, try to change early
Change happens
Changing emphasis areas
Changing programs
Changing schools
Taking a break
Now let's talk about impostor syndrome. This is when you feel like you're a fraud, and you don't deserve to be in the academy, and you're a failure, or a fake and you'll never finish. I can promise you two things about this: 1) You will feel this way at some point during grad school and 2) literally every academic everywhere has felt this way during grad school. I don't have a full proof way to combat this in my arsenal of grad school tricks, except to say again that this is a game of perseverance and endurance. Even if you feel like you don't deserve to be here, you do, and if you just keep going, you'll finish. Changes are going to happen, and you have to just accept them and keep going. Don't give up. You got yourself here not because anyone took pity on you or pushed you through. You are here because you worked hard and because a collection of people on an admission board believe you have what it takes to do this. And you do. You can do it, and when you feel like you can't, stop, take a break, watch your favorite sad movie and cry it out (that's what I do) and then wake up the next day and get back to work.

12. Assorted tips and tricks
Ask for help when you need it!
Reinvent yourself
SAVE EVERYTHING!!!
Utilize cloud storage, save syllabi
University politics
Involvement with a committee
Plan when you will be done. Stick to it.
Secret parking
Explore Flagstaff
A few last things for you to know about. Never be afraid to ask for help. Students who are already in your program are an incredible resource. We've been through all this and we made it, and if there's one thing grad students love talking about it's how to get through grad school.
Save every. single. thing. Save every syllabus, every paper you write, every reading list you make, and every reading list that other people in your program are willing to share with you. At some point, you're going to want to re-read that one article you read in class last fall because it holds the secret answer to everything in this paper you're working on now but you can't remember what it was called. You're going to want that syllabus. Save it. This probably goes without saying in 2016, but save everything in multiple locations, and don't put off printing until the last minute.
It also happens regularly that students lose all their work: computer crashed, internet crashed, USB drive froze, whatever… Storing your documents on Dropbox, Google Drive, or the like will save you much headache if/when that happens.
Set hard deadlines for yourself. If you want to finish in two years, do everything you possibly can to make that happen. Hold yourself accountable and get done as quickly as you can.
Parking at NAU is awful. Try to avoid it if you can. The Route 10 city bus goes through campus and students can ride for free. Parking passes are ridiculous, and parking tickets are $90 so avoid them. Also note that there are a lot of lots that are free after 4:30, so if you don't have to be on campus in the morning, don't be.
Last thing, get out and enjoy Flagstaff. This is basically the coolest town in the whole world and you should get out and explore it while you're here. There is something for everyone, even if you're not into outdoors stuff. When you're feeling really down about grad school and you hate everything, remember it's not Flagstaff's fault, so go be in Flagstaff and you'll feel better. I promise.

13. Open discussion
Stefanie Kunze, ABD