WORKSHOP FOR EARLY CAREER GEOSCIENCE FACULTY: STRATEGIC PLANNING AND SUPPORT AT THE BEGINNING OF ACADEMIC CAREERS

A key approach to educate and prepare students for geoscience careers is to support early-career faculty, thus catalyzing a career-long impact on the faculty and on their future students. New faculty members are at a pivotal stage in their careers as they step from being research-focused graduate students and post-doctoral scholars, towards being independent faculty. New faculty commonly, and not unexpectedly, feel overwhelmed as they face challenges to establish themselves in a new environment, prepare new courses, begin new research, and develop a network of support. Early-career faculty benefit from hearing tips from other faculty, and by making strategic plans for the first few years of their academic careers.

The workshop for Early Career Geoscience Faculty: Teaching, Research, and Managing Your Career has been offered annually since 1999. The workshops are currently offered through the National Association of Geoscience Teachers On the Cutting Edge professional development program with additional support from the NSF, AGU and GSA. This five-day workshop, with associated web resources, offer guidance for incorporating evidence-based teaching practices, developing a research program, managing professional responsibilities in balance with personal lives, and making a strategic plan for their careers. http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer

Since 1999, more than 850 faculty have attended the Early Career Geoscience Faculty workshop. Participants and leaders are from across geoscience disciplines, and include two-year colleges, four-year colleges, comprehensive universities and research universities. Faculty, and in turn their students, benefit from learning more about the career options represented by this range of geoscience disciplines and institutions. The percentage of women (~50%) and underrepresented participants (~8%) are higher than in the geoscience faculty population. Collectively, participants report that they are better prepared to move forward with their careers as a result of the workshop, that they plan to incorporate evidence-based teaching in their classrooms, and that they leave the workshop with a network of support and the resources needed to enable them succeed.