Our world is a complex place. Navigating education and careers is particularly difficult. We are committed to undertaking small actions that will build up to have larger impact.
Teaching
Teaching PLS100A Metabolism of cultivated plants has been fun as this upper-level class occurs at the right time to impact student career trajectories:
We have a 5 minute Careers component to every lecture aimed at helping all class members, that includes:
- career perspectives both university and non-university
- career preparation exercises
- informational topics and adverts
- and many other content items
We have created two useful resources:
An action list for bringin Careers into classroom teaching:
- A near-peer career panel recording for Plant Science Undergraduates: https://video.ucdavis.edu/media/Plant+Sciences+Career+Panel+2022/1_3bhuqueu
Mentoring / grad students
Matthew teaches PLS217 (Spring quarters) Field Techniques in Plant Physiology which is a hands-on lab-class focused on helping graduate students develop research methodologies.
Matthew teaches HRT200B (Spring 2023 onwards) a core HAGG course which focusses on cropping systems and improving student's ability to communicate.
Matthew is a long time graduate academic advisor for the GGHA and deals with graduate issues routinely.
As 2021-2023 Chair of the UC Davis Graduate Council Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Scholar Welfare Committee, Matthew had the pleasure of working on guidance for 299 units, including documents that went to CCGA (UC system wide graduate council), syllabi templates now used across campus, and revision of the campus QE policy.
Please contact Matthew if you would like to chat about these topics.