Build Your Skills

The Graduate School features programs and events designed to support graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in their development, progression, and career outcomes. By focusing around the following transferable skills, graduate students and postdoctoral scholars can prepare for both academic and non-academic career pathways.

Communication

• Writing and speaking effectively for a range of purposes, audiences, and contexts
• Identifying, assessing, and using reliable and valid information sources
• Communicating with visual and digital tools effectively
• Signature programs:
  • Three Minute Thesis Competition
  • English Language Speaking Groups Program
  • Careers Beyond Academia Communicating Your Research

  Leadership & Management

  • Broadening awareness of self and others
  • Understanding and developing management skills
  • Negotiating and resolving conflicts
  • Developing and valuing diversity, inclusion, and cultural fluency
  • Signature programs:
    • ​Colman Leadership Program
    • Graduate Student Ambassador Program
    • Postdoc Leadership Program
    • Careers Beyond Academia

    Ethics & Integrity

    • Understanding and following professional codes of ethical conduct
    • Recognizing opportunities to apply ethical decision-making skills
    • Implementing relevant codes, principles, and standards in academic and professional settings
    • Signature programs:
      • Cornell Office of Research Integrity – Responsible Conduct of Research Training Workshops

      Balance & Resilience

      • Prioritizing self-care, health, and wellness
      • Cultivating life skills
      • Developing strategies to recognize and overcome vulnerabilities and gain self-confidence
      • Valuing and effectively balancing roles in multiple communities
      • Signature programs:
        • Big Red Barn Signature Events
        • Perspectives: The Complete Graduate Student
        • Graduate School Primer: Navigating Academia Workshop Series
        • Students with Families Programs

        Teaching & Mentoring

        • Defining goals and expectations
        • Assessing needs and progress
        • Fostering inclusive learning communities
        • Identifying, developing, and sharing best practices through ongoing reflection
        • Signature programs:
          • Building Mentoring Skills for an Academic Career
          • Future Faculty and Academic Careers
          • Center for Teaching Innovation GET SET Workshops
          • Future Professors Institute
          • Graduate Students Mentoring Undergraduates (GSMU)
          • Inclusive Teaching Institute for Graduate Students and Postdocs

          Community Building & Networking

          • Developing a sense of belonging
          • Creating inclusive academic, professional, and personal networks
          • Establishing yourself within multiple communities
          • Creating access to knowledge, opportunities, and resources through outreach and service
          • Signature programs:
            • Intergroup Dialogue Project
            • Summer Success Symposium
            • Empowering Women in Science & Engineering (EWISE) Symposium
            • Bouchet Graduate Honor Society

            Entrepreneurial Mindset

            • Maximizing resources to bring innovative ideas to fruition
            • Synthesizing information for calculated risk-taking
            • Collaborating with others to tackle critical challenges and transform systems
            • Imagining alternative solutions to effect change
            • Signature programs:
              • Entrepreneurship at Cornell
              • Rev Ithaca Start Up Works
              • Hackathons
              • Careers Beyond Academia
              • Commercialization Fellowship
              • eLab
              • I-Corps
              • Cornell Center for Technology Licensing (CTL) Startup Guide
              • Blackstone Launchpad Consultations
              • Careers Beyond Academia LibGuide to careers in entrepreneurship and innovation

              Land Acknowledgement

              Cornell University is located on the traditional homelands of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ Ɂ (the Cayuga Nation). The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ Ɂ are members of the Hodinǫ̱hsǫ́:nih Confederacy, an alliance of six sovereign Nations with a historic and contemporary presence on this land. The Confederacy precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York state, and the United States of America. We acknowledge the painful history of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ Ɂ dispossession, and honor the ongoing connection of Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ Ɂ people, past and present, to these lands and waters.
              This land acknowledgment has been reviewed and approved by the traditional Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ Ɂ leadership.

              Quick Links

              Affiliated Offices

              • Career Services
              • Center for Teaching Innovation
              • English Language Support Office
              • Graduate and Professional Student Assembly
              • Office of Global Learning
              • Office of Postdoctoral Studies