You want to teach your Scholars to master time management and organize their grad school application materials.
Now, imagine having 9 weeks of pre-recorded lessons, a workbook, and interviews with current grad students that your students can revisit at anytime to help them with time management and their grad school application process.
Background
Effective time management has been associated with stronger academic performance as well as lower levels of stress and anxiety in students. However, many undergraduate students find it difficult to balance their coursework, extra-curricular activities, and their interpersonal relationships. The lack of time mastery and productivity skills can translate to early struggles in graduate school. The philosophy of The Academic Society LLC is that mindset, time management, and productivity are the most essential tools for grad school success.
Learning Outcomes
The students will learn and implement a repeatable time management method for breaking down big goals into smaller, more manageable steps. The students will learn how to create realistic timelines and set up accountability measures to achieve their big goals.
Goal
The students will build out a digital grad school application roadmap in Trello to follow from the McNair Summer Research Program until they are accepted into a graduate program. Trello is a free, digital project management tool that helps to organize and keep track of big picture ideas as well as small details. Features of Trello include checklists, calendars, and progress reports.
Summer Community and Grad School Prep Series
May 31, 2022 - July 8, 20222
The McNair Summer Virtual Community and Grad School Prep Program is hosted by Dr. Toyin Alli from The Academic Society LLC and designed for McNair students to learn three essential tools to prepare for success in grad school: mindset, time management, and productivity. The lessons will be delivered in 8-weekly videos with actionable steps for the students to complete each week. There will also be a Facebook community just for the students in the program to connect with other McNair scholars across the country. All resources will be hosted on a website specifically for the program.
The McNair Summer Virtual Community and Grad School Prep Program includes the following:
Weekly video lessons
Topics will include reflection, goal setting, big dream mapping, time management, productivity and follow-through, accountability, weekly planning, wellness, and grad school preparation. The videos will be hosted on the website for the program as well as in the Facebook community to foster engagement and connection.
Week 1: Reflection
The students will answer reflective questions about their undergraduate experience so far to discover which courses and subjects they are most interested in learning more about. The goal of this lesson is to help the students narrow down what field they would like to study in grad school.
Week 2: Projections (Big Dream Mapping)
In this lesson, the students will learn a visualization technique to choose a possible career path and map out all of the necessary steps to go from undergraduate sophomore or junior to professional in the field of their choice. The students will then create a Trello board for their big dreams.
Week 3: Goal Setting (Building a Grad School List)
The students will research graduate programs in their field of interest and create three lists of schools they are interested in attending: dream schools, safety schools, and target schools. The students will then learn how to add these lists to their Trello board.
Week 4: Practical Time Management Tips (Making a List of Admission Requirements)
The students will learn the basic principles of time management and create a list of admission requirements for each school on their list. Then the students will break down the list of requirements into tasks and subtasks and create checklists in Trello.
Week 5: Creating a Plan
The students will learn to draw a visual roadmap or timeline for their big goal of applying to grad school. They will set a deadline to complete their big goal and set deadlines for smaller milestones and tasks.
Week 6: Productivity and Follow-Through (Schedule Deadlines in Trello)
The students will learn how to use their roadmap or timeline to set realistic goals and use the Calendar feature within Trello to schedule the start dates and deadlines they created in the previous week.
Week 7: Accountability
The students will learn that the bridge between setting goals and actually following-through with those goals is accountability. The students will choose an accountability partner and learn about co-working sessions.
Week 8: Grad School Prep
The students will complete the final touches on their grad school application roadmap in Trello and learn why students are underprepared for grad school and how to prepare themselves.
Week 9: Recap
In the final week, I will recap the time management and organization process independent of the grad school application context so that they understand how to repeat it for any future goal.
Weekly Q+A Sessions with Grad Students
Grad students from The Academic Society LLC’s community will host grad school question and answer sessions. Students will be able to submit questions before a live question and answer session and recordings will be made available on the program website and Facebook community for students who cannot attend live.
Online Community and Website
All of the resources, videos, and content will be available on a custom website. Students will be encouraged to engage further by accessing additional resources, sharing progress, as well as building community inside a private Facebook group.
additional resources
Students will receive a coupon to enroll in The Academic Society LLC’s grad school survival course for free. This course is a digital course that teaches students all of the mindset, time management, and productivity skills necessary to succeed and excel in graduate school. The course is designed to give students an idea of what to expect in grad school and then to rewatch the lessons as they reach new milestones in grad school.
Total Price: $5000
Deadline to Register your Students: Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Toyin Alli is a McNair Scholar who received her PhD in Mathematics from the University of Alabama. She is now a full time Lecturer at the University of Georgia. Toyin started The Academic Society LLC to help graduate students succeed in grad school through time management, productivity, and self-care. She reaches thousands of grad students through her digital programs, online social platforms, YouTube channel, and website.