Thank you for your interest in the Open Rivers Graduate Student Committee!
The Graduate Student Committee (GSC) is part of Open Rivers‘ commitment to providing opportunities for graduate students to explore public scholarship and publishing, develop professional skills beyond their academic discipline, engage in cross-disciplinary conversations and work, and consider how their academic skills might contribute to careers beyond academia and how their nonacademic skills might contribute to their work within academia, too.
Service on the GSC
The GSC is a year-long experience for graduate students. This volunteer position involves regular meetings with OR staff and other cohort members, professional development workshops, and a self-designed project.
The First Weeks
As members get to know the rest of their cohort members, they are invited to a kickoff meeting, during which OR staff introduces the journal, describes the plan for the year, and responds to questions.
Members start their work for the year by writing short summaries or “blurbs” for an issue of OR to familiarize themselves with the journal’s content and contribute to OR’s summary content library.
The first workshop members can attend is on public scholarship. In it, basic concepts of public scholarship are discussed and interactively explored through a series of exercises.
Professional Development and Project Planning
Cohort members continue to get to know one another through all-cohort or one-on-one meetings, attending office hours, and professional development workshops.
Professional development workshops may include topics such as:
- Images, Digital Media, and Copyright
- StoryMaps and Innovative Digital Storytelling
- Grants and Funding
- Developmental Editing: Giving and Receiving Feedback
- Non-Academic or Alternative Careers Panel
- Individual Development Plans
- Pitch Development for OR or Other Publications
- The OR Production Process
All committee members have the opportunity to develop and finish a project of their own choosing or design. Planning for the project starts early and is intended to accommodate the members’ year’s limitations flexibly.
Project Work
Work on the individual projects starts or continues. Individual projects may include:
- Writing an article for OR
- Review content in the editorial queue
- Network development or recruitment
- Prepare and/or post social media content
- Grant proposal development, prospecting, and editing
- Develop an innovative digital story such as a podcast, video, or StoryMap
Next Steps
As the year draws to a close, project work concludes, and meetings can start to address the members plans, and final questions!