onboarding: student assistants

Welcome

  • welcome!
  • community
  • work
  • principles
  • upcoming

Community

Your cohort:

  • Ahmed
  • Amina
  • Anais
  • Cristian
  • Yu

Go around the room

Community

Key idea: we consider you part of the research group here and see this as both a support and a developmental position

Community

That means:

  • Take part in the intellectual life: welcome to come to brown bags, talks, in general any events.
  • Group meetings periodically (calendar in prep but: ca once a month and for research components)
  • You should be learning all the time: keep track of what you are doing and make sure it connects with learning goals. make sure you understand the purpose of any work you do. Minimize mundane work.
  • Expect mentoring
  • Presenting your own work: your own research is on your time BUT we would love you to present and get feedback once in fall and once in spring; and discuss with anyone and everyone all the time
  • Sometimes: even deeper engagement in projects works out

Mentoring

Initial allocation: revisit as necessary

  • Anais - Lisa
  • Amina - Alex
  • Ahmed, Cristian - Macartan
  • Yu - Yuequan

Schedule regular checkins; clarify developmental goals; check in on what’s going well or badly; seek career advice

Work

Let’s present some projects:

  • Alex
  • Lennard
  • Macartan
  • Nora
  • Yuequen

We have an initial mapping of people to projects. Make sure you have long to do list.

Principles

  • Supportive: give and expect constructive feedback
  • Respectful: with everyone in the house on research and support sides
  • Clear communication: Say when things are going well or badly; say when you have too much or too little on your plate; say when you cannot find a solution to something; say when you thnk the task is not for you; don’t ghost

Principles

In case of problems: come to Director, or Wilma, in case of serious problems, there is an ombudsperson team and more support. You should feel good at work and if not, we should find a solution

Norms

Presence: The norm in the group is to be in and work from the office. Everyone has a right to work from home one day a week. Ideally this is a specific day and is recorded in the calendar!

These are just FYI and you are not requirements!! (in fact we disagree on some of these)

  • Doors: Door open means feel free to drop in ask questions. Door closed means do not disturb
  • Lunches: The norm is to gather to eat around 12:15. All welcome but none required. Norm tends to be to not talk about, or exclusively about, work!
  • Nice: if you make a pot of coffee invite others.
  • Birthdays: Bring a cake!

Looking forward

  • Onboarding with Luise and Muege; onboarding with Wilma
  • 17 September we have presentation with new president
  • 18, 19 retreat
  • 20 climate project