"Welcome" Mini-Orientation Sessions for New Postdoctoral Scholars on Campus
Honors, Scholars & Fellows House, Room 3008, noon (12 pm)
REGISTRATION is now OPEN
The next welcome will occur on Monday, April 29, 2024
Are you a new postdoctoral scholar on campus? Come join us for the next new postdoctoral scholar "Welcome" that is at the end of the month. The "Welcome" format of orientation serves to give you the basics of the full required orientation program in the spans of an hour over the lunch period. It is designed for scholars that initiate their training during the year rather than in synchrony with the start of the school year in August. You can converse with Human Resources representatives about initiating your employee benefits within the 60-day onboarding window, learn about support for global engagements, join the leadership team of our postdoctoral assocation (PDA), and hear about opportunities for fellowships, travel awards, and professional development activities.
Hope to see you there! -
Debi, Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs
Agenda:
General PD Opportunities, Expectations, and Professional Development (Fadool)
International Engagements (Schaad/Lawson)
Program in Instructional Excellence (Kelly)
Human Resources - Health Insurance and Retirement Benefits (McLaughlin/Atkins)
Join the PDA!! (Mansfeld)
Spring Event - "Mentoring: The Core of the Research Enterprise"
Friday, May 4-6, three progressive sessions from 2 - 4 pm, Online Zoom Communication
Friday, May 17, 9 am to 12 pm noon in the Nancy Marcus Great Hall, Honors Scholars and Fellows Building
REGISTRATION Now OPEN - Register for one or both events by May 3, 2024
The OPDA and PDA are jointly hosting the Annual Spring Event focused on the theme of “Mentoring: The Core of the Research Enterprise”.
This year we will have two different activities - you can register for one or both events through the registration link above.
1. May 6 - 8th (2 - 4PM): Postdoctoral Research Mentor Academy directed by Dr. Rachel Goff-Albritton, Assistant Director, Research Development and Mentoring and Program Lead, FSU Office of Research. This 3-day training program is limited to an enrollment of 20 postdoc scholars and will be held via zoom. It structured around a series of interactive learning sessions on topics relevant to successful mentor-mentee interactions: You can read more about this nationally recognized program here - Research Mentor Academy - or direct inquiries to Dr. Golf-Albritton.
- Aligning Expectations
- Fostering Independence
- Maintaining Effective Communication
- Promoting professional Development
- Enhancing Work-Life Integration
2. May 17th (9 - noon): Mentoring workshop by guest lecturer Dr. David Purpura, Director of NSF-sponsored postdoctoral training program at Purdue University.
Dr. David Purpura will share how mentoring is far more than just advice bestowed from individuals more advanced in their careers. In his words, "it's the fundamental piece of all that we do in advancing our research enterprise and it must be a continual process across the entirety of our career and is bidirectional." We are excited that David, as an FSU alumnus will return to campus to discuss his perspective on mentoring, ideas for how to become better mentors and mentees, and provide opportunities for discussion. As part of the morning program, there will be a Q&A panel of current FSU faculty across multiple disciplines focused on integrating mentorship best practices within research settings.
Dr Pupura's Biography - Dr. Purpura is a Professor of Human Development and Family Science at Purdue University and the Director of the Center for Early Learning which is a research, practice, and policy center. He earned his doctorate at Florida State University in Clinical Psychology. Across the last decade, he has directly mentored seven graduate students and 12 postdoctoral fellows. He has been the PI on over $10 million in grants from federal, state, and foundation sources including on a current NSF-funded postdoctoral training grant in STEM Education. His research is focused on how young children learn mathematics and the development of methods for identifying children likely to experience difficulties and intervention tools to support children's learning.
Morning Schedule -
9 am – 9:15 am: Welcome and Opening Remarks
9:15 – 11 am: Mentoring: The Core of the Research Enterprise – Dr. David Purpura
11 am – 11:50 am Faculty Q & A Panel
Dr. Vasa Misra – Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS)
Dr. Lisa Magruder – Florida Institute for Child Welfare
Dr. Lenore McWey – Education
Dr. Sarah Lester – Biology
(Dr. Purpura is welcome to join as well)
11:50 – 12 pm Closing Remarks
12 pm noon All Welcome to join for community lunch at the FSU union!
Parental Leave Survey - We want your input!
The PDA and OPDA invite faculty and postdocs to follow a survey
FACULTY SURVEY - HERE
POSTDOC SURVEY - HERE
A literature review conducted in 2017 found that paid parental leave was associated with improved infant and maternal health outcomes (Heymann et al., 2017). In 2018, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 17% of all civilian workers had access to paid family leave, and 89% had access to unpaid family leave (inclusive of maternity and paternity leave, adoption leave and caring for a sick relative) (Statistics, 2019). Under federal law, postdoc fathers and/or mothers who have worked at FSU for at least 12 months have the right to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in accordance with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Currently, tenure-track faculty at FSU have access to 16 weeks of paid parental leave. However, there is currently no paid parental leave policy in place for FSU postdocs.
We are interested in learning more about the thoughts and opinions of faculty members regarding a proposal for paid parental leave for postdocs. Please answer several questions to allow us to better understand the opinions of faculty. Your answers will help us in formulating a proposal for postdoctoral parental leave tailored to the needs of our institution. We will share the results of the survey with the Postdoc Advisory Board that governs postdoctoral scholars at FSU.
Please note that this survey is anonymous and you will not be able to be identified.
This survey should take approximately 5 minutes of your time.
Thank you!
Shannon Montgomery, PDA President
References
Heymann, J. et al. (2017) ‘Paid parental leave and family wellbeing in the sustainable development era’, Public Health Reviews, 38(1), p. 21. doi: 10.1186/s40985-017-0067-2.
Statistics, U. S. B. of L. (2019) Access to paid and unpaid family leave in 2018. Available at: https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2019/access-to-paid-and-unpaid-family-leave-in-2018.htm (Accessed: 24 March 2021).
Diversity and Inclusion Survey
The PDA and OPDA invite you to follow a survey Posted HERE
Diversity and Inclusion is of utmost importance to the FSU Postdoctoral Association (PDA). Our survey (5-8 minutes completion time) will help us assess and report on the diversity and inclusion of the postdoc population at FSU. Only the FSU PDA and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPDA) will have access to the data, which will be secure and anonymous. To protect the privacy of all postdocs, the survey responses will be anonymized and collated with the responses of all other FSU postdocs, so that no individual's responses will be tabulated.
We hope the data will guide us to enhance the diversity and inclusion of FSU postdocs!