Frequently Asked Questions

Dunlop School of Biological Sciences

Samueli School of Engineernig

Donald Bren School of Information & Computer Sciences

School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

School of Physical Sciences

Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health

School of Medicine

Although most GPS-STEM events and activities are open to all graduate students and postdocs across campus, GPS-STEM members receive the following benefits:

• Priority access to career & networking nights featuring prominent PhD & Postdoctoral Alumni
• Free enrollment in UCI Continuing Education Courses ($700 value)**
• Priority enrollment in limited access certificate series such as STEM Business Concepts for Scientitsts, Science Policy & Advocacy, & more.
• Exclusive access to the GPS-STEM LinkedIn Group
• Exclusive access to our 1-on-1 Alumni Mentor Program**

GPS-STEM activities are never mandatory. Members are free to participate in the activities they see fit within a suitable timeline. We encourage attending career exploration events early on in graduate or postdoctoral training followed by higher level activities once specific career interests are determined. In order to help our members pinpoint careers of interest and build supportive networks, we require:

• Completion of the Science Careers myIDP skills, interests and values assessments
• Creation of a LinkedIn Profile

Members are also expected to provide on-going feedback by completing event evaluations (for the events attended).

We understand that each mentor-mentee relationship is unique and developed a PI-Trainee agreement to help our members establish honest dialogs with faculty advisors. The exercise (2016-GPS-Biomed-PI-trainee-agreement) was developed to foster discussion on the following topics:

• Careers of Interest
• Professional Development & Career Planning
• Balancing Academic & Career-related Goals

This agreement is recommended for members who would like to participate in GPS-STEM activities that require significant time commitments. Additionally, the Graduate Division offers a campus-wide Individual Development Plan (IDP_form) that is now required for specific graduate programs. If you are required to complete the Graduate Division form, we suggest using our agreement as a supplement for the career planning section (excluding the PI signature page).

More information about membership here

Registration form here

GPS-STEM program is funded by Schools of Biosciences, Medicine, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Provost office at UC Irvine. The program is continuation of GPS-BIOMED program which was funded by an NIH-BEST Award until Oct 2019. In 2012 the NIH published the Biomedical Research Workforce Report, which indicated ~23% of the biomedical workforce holds tenured or tenure-track faculty positions. That means almost 80% of PhD’s hold diverse positions beyond academia. These important findings prompted the NIH to create the BEST (Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training) Initiative aimed at better preparing biomedical graduate students and postdocs for success in diverse career fields including: Biotech & Pharma, Business & Consulting, Communications & Outreach, Government & Nonprofit, and Intellectual Property Law & Technology Transfer. Institutions across the country were encouraged to apply for BEST funding and the NIH select 17 schools to serve as research sites. Each site is conducting a series of experiments to identify new and innovative approaches to broaden career and professional development for graduate and postdoctoral training. The figure below represents the new model of biomedical research training BEST programs are implementing:

At the beginning of each academic year, GPS-STEM faculty leaders deliver brief program overviews at departmental faculty meetings to emphasize the added value, specifically to research efforts, our BEST program can bring. We continually provide language for training grant applications highlighting innovative professional development programming, and encourage faculty members to engage with lab alumni and industry partners to increase networks for our members. Following our most recent faculty survey (completed in August by 75+ faculty members), we found that 94% of faculty familiar with GPS-BIOMED (now GPS-STEM) believed their trainees are benefitting from the program. Program Successes: View deteiled program progress report from 2019 – 2020. View the list of members and alumni who received a NIH-BEST Professional Development Certificate. Checkout Alumni Spotlights Read about Alumni Career Outcomes

Please send an email to gps-stem@uci.edu.

Great! Please contact the Program Director and initiate a question. The GPS-STEM team is here to support your endeavors.

Some aspects you can get involved in:

1. Newsletter crafting
2. Marketing pieces
3. Multimedia (Video and audio editing)
4. Event building and coordination

Contact the Program Director and let them know you’re interested!