Welcome to UCI! During your time here, don’t forget to go out and try different activities on campus. Through these experiences, you can learn many valuable skills that will benefit you in the future! The upcoming orientation in September will provide you with a glimpse of the diverse opportunities available on campus. However, there are also other options to find out organizations or programs that interest you, so let’s look into some of those approaches to get involved.
Walk Around Ring Road
The easiest way to look for opportunities is to simply walk on the main campus road–Ring Road–during the welcome week. This is the time when many clubs start recruiting for new members. Check out the posters by the road, talk with the people next to the booth that interests you, and find out if that is something you would like to try! Also, there is a student organization fair called “Anteater Involvement Fair” during Welcome Week, which is another option to explore the organizations on campus.
If you want more selections, you can go online to see a list of registered organizations on campus on this website. Some of these organizations may only cater for undergraduate students, but there are still many organizations welcoming graduate students. One of the examples is the graduate organizations for students from certain countries. You might not see them on the ring road, but they definitely will welcome graduate students!
Associated Graduate Students
If you are interested in running student government, advocating for fellow students, planning social events for your peer, or just trying something new, you can look into the graduate student government at UCI—Associated Graduate Students (AGS). AGS provides services for different aspects of graduate student life, including social aspects, professional aspects, policy advocates, and much more. AGS is always looking for new people to get involved, and it is a place where you can gain practical skills. They will hold several events during Welcome Week, where you will have opportunities to learn more about them.
Department Organizations
On the other hand, your departments, division, or a program relevant to your interests, may also have organizations and programs that you can join. For example, in my department (Biomedical Engineering), we have a graduate student organization, GABES. This org. plans social, professional, and outreach activities throughout the academic year for students. In my broader discipline, biomedical science, there is also a program called GPS-Biomed, which aims to help students succeed as graduate students and in their future career. There are also programs on campus that match your interest. For example, if you have a passion for teaching, then the Center for Engaged Instruction will definitely be one organization that you want to check out.
Advertisements
Your email may occasionally feed you with interesting opportunities to get involved. Both the all campus and graduate weekly newspaper has advertisements for organizations, and once in a while, you might find some program soliciting students to apply. In fact, if I remember correctly, this is how I registered for the GradInterconnect program. So next time when you receive those emails, don’t just delete them. You might find some opportunities that could enrich your graduate life in UCI!
Graduate Resource Center (GRC)
The Graduate Resource Center is another great resource to get involved with. In addition to providing helpful services for you, it is also a place where you can find different programs from the Graduate Division, such as GradInterconnect (helping international students to transition to the graduate student life in UCI), DECADE (helping diverse students to succeed in graduate school), GPS (Graduate Professional Success), and more. So check out the Graduate Resource Center next time if you have time, maybe you will find something that will make a difference in your years in UCI.
Start Your Own Organization
Finally, if nothing interests you, you can always take the initiative to start something. You can create a new campus organization to recruit people with similar interests, or participate in off-campus programs that match your aspirations. There are so many amazing opportunities on or off campus, so take some time to explore the different options, and hopefully you will find something that will make a difference not only in your graduate life, but also in your future!
Atrouli Chatterjee says
August 31, 2017 at 8:53 amFor engineering in general, you receive e-mails from the department (I believe once a week, once you’re officially enrolled), that has a whole list of activities, funding opportunities, and outreach. The e-mail itself is just a list, but you can click the link in the e-mail to read about a variety of opportunities!
Duc Phan says
August 2, 2017 at 9:24 pmIf you are PhD students within School of Biological Sciences, School of Medicine, School of Engineering (Biomedical Engineering department), and School of Physical Sciences (Chemistry department), there is a professional and career development program called GPS-BIOMED (gps.bio.uci.edu) that you should check out and join. It’s a very well-organized program for PhD students and postdocs within these schools and departments to explore career track, broaden skill sets, connect to people in the field, and search for internships/jobs. I’ve been participating in the program for the past 2 years and I have learned and received so much supports for my career preparation.
Technically master students in biotechnology/biotech management programs cannot officially join GPS-BIOMED because funding to support this program is only restricted to PhD students and postdocs. However, you can reach out to Emma Flores (Look for her contact information on the website), the program’s associate director, to ask if you can attend events/workshops hosted by GPS-BIOMED and receive limited support from the program.