Dear All,
We invite applications for "To My Younger Self" (TMYS) 2023. TMYS is organized by WORMS and provides professional development to women-identifying doctoral students through online workshops, one-on-one mentoring meetings, and in-person activities that allows them to interact with more experienced women in the field. We call this program "To My Younger Self" because we imagine the invited workshop facilitators, mentors, and panelists will provide the sort of mentoring and professional development coaching they wish they had received earlier in their careers.
At the end of the year-long program, participants will 1) form a community of peer women across institutions; 2) have a network of connections with senior women across institutions that they will recognize as mentors and advocates; 3) be equipped with professional and self-care skills; and 4) feel confident in their abilities to succeed in our profession.
Six short virtual workshops will be held throughout the year, each on a different topic, for example: networking, work-life balance, mental and physical health, job market preparation, collaboration within and outside of industry and proposal writing. TYMS will offer paired mentoring for the students. Mentors will be selected from established women in our profession with a track record of excellent mentorship. Students will participate in a series of research talks to present their research to the group to get high level feedback and practice presentation skills. Participants, mentors, and panelists participating in the 2023 INFORMS Annual Meeting will be invited to a celebratory dinner to conclude the program. This will give participants the chance to meet face-to-face, solidify their professional relationships and build community. The program will offer a small amount of travel support to offset student participant costs to attend the Annual Meeting.
The primary contacts are Muge Capan, Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering at UMass-Amherst (mcapan@umass.edu), Rachael Alfant, PhD student in Computational Math & Operations Research at Rice University (rma10@rice.edu), Shirin Shahsavand, PhD student in Operations & Management Science at Washington State University (shirin.shahsavand@wsu.edu), and Shikha Safaya, PhD Candidate in Operations Management at Georgia Tech (ssafaya3@gatech.edu).
We are specifically interested in women-identifying PhD students in their third (or greater) year, but not final year, who are interested to continue their journey into academia or industry. We encourage applications from students whose academic programs lack a formal mentoring component, as well as students from underrepresented groups. Application must be received by Feb. 17 2023 and should be completed through https://forms.gle/R7mLn2atMGEKJTnQ7. Please attach a curriculum vitae, unofficial transcript, and a statement of purpose, stating why you are interested in joining this program, what your professional goals are, and the level of mentoring available to you at your home institution. About 10 qualified applicants will be chosen and notified by the end of February.
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Muge Capan
Assistant Professor
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst MA
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