Graduate education can be an exhilarating journey — but for many students, it also brings moments of self-doubt and uncertainty.

Graduate writing can feel like a marathon—long, demanding, and full of unexpected detours.

Let’s be honest, interviews can feel nerve-wracking.

Mentorship is one of the most critical components of graduate student success, and one of the best ways to design your mentorship experience is by creating a mentoring map. A mentoring map helps you identify your needs, clarify your goals, and build a network of people who can support you along the way. Think of it as a mentorship speed dial: a personal directory of individuals you can turn to for guidance, encouragement and connection.

Understanding how to make good decisions about a career is just as important as the decisions themselves. That’s why using tools like Individual Development Plans (IDPs) can be so helpful. They give you the structure to assess, reflect and plan intentionally.

For graduate students, mindfulness offers more than a popular approach to stress reduction. While it can certainly ease stress, its benefits extend much further — fostering resilience, sharpening focus and supporting success in every area of life, whether as a student, researcher, professional or individual.

Here are some tips for living a healthy lifestyle in the fast-paced world of academia!

Have you ever looked around a classroom or meeting and thought, “Everyone else deserves to be here more than I do”? If so, you’re not alone. That creeping sense of self-doubt despite clear evidence of your hard work and talent has a name: imposter syndrome. It’s something many graduate students experience, often quietly, while assuming they’re the only ones who feel this way. The truth is, imposter syndrome is surprisingly common in academia, and talking about it openly is the first step toward overcoming it.

Graduate students spend a significant amount of time reading, yet it is common to reach the end of a page only to realize the content has not fully registered. Developing strong critical reading skills helps turn those moments into opportunities for deeper engagement.

As the job market for academic professionals grows more competitive, a strong resume on its own won't cut it. During the latest Grad15 session, Amanda Athey, Director of Student Support Resources at the Graduate College, shared tips for leveraging your LinkedIn profile to build an online professional presence, learn about an industry, make connections, and build a personal brand to market yourself effectively to prospective employers.

Through the months of June and July, Grad15 will be examining professional and career development opportunities for graduate students. This week, Wiley Larsen, program manager for the Graduate College's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, introduced a four-step model for student entrepreneurs interested in marketing their research outside academia.

In our April 7 edition of the Grad15 webinar, Nika Gueci with the ASU Center for Mindfulness, Resilience and Compassion shared resources and tips on mindfully navigating times of disruption. More conversation than presentation, the session gave graduate students the chance to ask questions, share their challenges, and exchange strategies for maintaining mental health during our COVID isolation.