Activities
Pathways students and faculty have access to several programs that are designed to fully integrate each System school into the Pathways to the Doctorate program so that each school and its participants contribute to and benefit from the program:
Pathways to the Doctorate Orientation Day.This activity is planned early each Fall semester to welcome Pathways Fellows and help them to embark on their graduate school program and introduce the program to all the interested undergraduate and graduate students.
Pathways to the Doctorate Mentoring Program. This program integrates at multiple scales and leadership venues the senior system faculty with graduate students, undergraduate students, and K-12 OUTREACH teachers. During the initial phase of the Pathways program, System Graduate Deans will invite faculty members who are exceptionally committed to graduate education and graduate students to serve as mentors. As the program matures, interested System graduate faculty and graduate students may apply to become mentors; all who are selected will receive formal, ongoing training in how to mentor.
Pathways to the Doctorate Seminar and Workshop Series. The seminar and workshop series presents students with an integrated overview of the interrelationship of science, society, and government. Some of the seminars and workshops focus on standard professional development activities. Others, such as those focusing on research in specific academic disciplines, will vary according to the needs and interests of current Pathways graduate students. The series fully integrates community outreach. As the series rotates from one System school to another, area K-12 teachers are encouraged to participate in seminars and workshops dealing with special topics of interest to them.
Pathways to the Doctorate Research Symposium. This symposium is hosted by a different System school each year to provide opportunities for Pathways faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students to meet their peers and to learn about one another's schools, resources, research activities, and community outreach.
Pathways to the Doctorate Exchange Program. This exchange program is flexible in length and enables faculty and graduate students to spend time at other System schools. Short-term exchanges allow faculty and graduate students to further their research by working closely with collaborators at other System schools and by making use of unique facilities and resources not available to them in their home institutions. Long-term exchanges permits faculty and graduate students to teach at other System schools, thereby giving them the opportunity to work with a more diverse group of graduate students and to enrich and re-invigorate both their home and exchange school's academic course offerings.
Pathways to the Doctorate Internship Program. The Texas A&M University System offers tremendous research expertise that ranges from basic and applied sciences and technology to quickly emerging areas of national importance such as homeland security. In addition, the System has developed strong relationships with a number of national laboratories and industries. By drawing on these strengths, the Pathways program is well positioned to connect students with a wide variety of internship opportunities. Such internships will not only renew students' commitment to their chosen disciplines, but also help them transition to the workforce, be it in academe, industry, or government.