Gaining experience through a graduate assistantship is one of the most rewarding ways to build your resume and develop professional contacts. Not only do students receive a stipend and tuition waiver, but they have the unique chance to connect with faculty members and staff, as well as work in various fields and departments. With an assistantship, there’s nothing quite like it!
Research Assistantships:
For graduate assistantships, you would partner with a faculty member on an exciting research project. This will give you invaluable experience in the research process, give hands-on practice with data collection and analysis, as well as develop your critical thinking and communication skills with other scientists.
Teaching Assistantships:
A teaching assistantship provides you with the opportunity to assist faculty in classrooms or laboratories. In this role, you’ll help prepare materials for their course, assist in delivering lectures, and grading papers. Furthermore, by working alongside experienced professors and helping them with instructional duties, you’ll gain invaluable insight into your discipline.
Administrative Assistantships:
Are you interested in exploring the world of administration? An administrative assistantship could be just what you need. You’ll have the chance to collaborate closely with a department head, dean or director on administrative duties or technical projects as well as gain invaluable experience.
You can be assigned to any University department, division or office that requires additional support. Your tasks will depend on your degree program and what the supervisor requires of you.
Your duties as an assistantship student should be clearly outlined in your job description. Your description should contain all tasks you are accountable for, along with their associated time frames. If you have any queries about specific duties and responsibilities for this position, feel free to reach out to either your supervisor or Graduate School staff for clarification.
Weekly Newsletters:
Each week, supervisors send out a newsletter to their General Assemblies with pertinent announcements, topical resources and other essential info. These messages aim to foster an interactive relationship between you and your supervisor.
The newsletter is also an ideal platform to discuss your own experiences as a graduate assistant and solicit feedback from your supervisor. They can provide valuable guidance on how best to manage the assistantship while building a productive working relationship.
Synergistic Supervision:
Your supervisor will evaluate your performance throughout the semester to assess whether or not you are meeting expectations and helping students learn and develop. They will assess growth across seven categories, such as your capacity for:
Lead and facilitate student learning, collaborate with other faculty members, engage students in meaningful conversations, utilize technology efficiently, and demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Your supervisor and you will have regular meetings to assess your performance as a graduate assistant and plan ways of working together for greater success. These discussions may take the form of individual or group discussions, or an amalgamation of both.
Make sure all arranged duties are included in the job description and clearly communicated by your supervisor. Doing this will enable you to manage tasks more effectively and stay abreast of all aspects of the position.