UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — For graduate students, college can be a trying and difficult time. Students are often far away from their lifelong support system of families and friends. An effort that began three years ago in the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) is helping to elevate the experiences of graduate students within the college.

In 2018, EMS launched a collegewide survey to improve the living, learning and working experiences. Those results flagged the graduate student experience as an area for improvement.

Two materials science and engineering graduate students, Alex Vera, who recently earned his doctorate, and Cierra Chandler, a computational material science researcher in her final year, dove into the survey data, talked with fellow grad students across the college and drew upon their own experiences to determine that a graduate student engagement program would fill a need.

“One of the things we wanted to tackle was reducing graduate student fatigue and isolation, which were identified as the top reasons for why graduate students considered leaving,” Vera said. “We wanted to give students tools to combat fatigue and isolation through an engagement network aimed at building the graduate student community across departments.”

They pitched the idea to Victoria Sanchez, associate dean of educational equity, and Elizabeth “Libby” Kupp, now a retired associate teaching professor and then chair of the EMS Diversity Council.

“Cierra and Alex were thorough in their research and had a keen sense of how such a program would decrease the sense of disconnectedness that graduate students often experience, particularly underrepresented students,” Sanchez said. “This was an easy proposal to get behind.”

Working with the Diversity Council and the Office of the Associate Dean for Educational Equity, they launched several activities to improve the experience, including field games, welcome retreats and a peer mentoring program. The goal was to bring together students from varied disciplines within the college to find common ground outside of their research. Bonding over things like volleyball and ice cream socials, Vera said, would lead to lasting relationships that spilled over into academic experiences.

The program proved very popular with graduate students from the start, Sanchez said, and since has grown and evolved according to graduate students’ interests.

“We’ve been able to build connections across the EMS community that may have otherwise not happened through our program and bring a little more awareness to the issue of graduate student isolation,” Vera said. “We were able to be most successful through collaboration. EMS has built a genuinely friendly environment where most students and staff are willing to help or collaborate to make graduate student life better.”

One lasting result is the graduate student roundtable. It’s a group of student leaders who meet to discuss ways to continue efforts to maintain and still improve the graduate student experience.

Chandler, who will continue in her role of graduate engagement network coordinator as she earns her doctorate, said the roundtable is a great way for students to bounce ideas off one another while amplifying efforts when those leaders engage with their peers.

“All of our efforts to increase graduate student engagement began with roundtable discussions and were executed by those leaders,” Chandler said. “There’s a trickle-down effect in that these students helped create opportunities for students to meet each other and build lasting relationships.”

EMS students interested in participating in the network can find more information on LinkedIn and on Instagram and X.