Some have asked me about my day job. As much as I don’t want to think about work on the weekend, it is probably a good idea to offer a bit about what I do when I’m not writing as it makes up a large part of my day. As you might have seen from my author’s bios and the about section on this website, I work at MIT. This is my 13th year at the Institute and my 8th year in my current role. My title is Director of Graduate Fellowships for the Office of Graduate Education.
Dealing with graduate student finances was never something I planned on doing, and it is not a position that is particularly common in higher education. I was the first in this newly created position and had to build everything from scratch. I am a creative person in general, and the start-up feel of the situation attracted me. Past roles lent themselves to teaching me some good program development skills, and I was interested in interacting with the community at large. MIT’s graduate education is very decentralized and this position was an attempt to centralize certain aspects of the process and provide helpful resources for when a particular fellowship opportunity crossed disciplines.
What is a fellowship? Think scholarship (which is mainly a tuition award) with a living stipend component. It is one of the three key ways MIT funds graduate students- the others being Research Assistantship (working in a lab for compensation) and Teaching Assistantship (being paid to teach). The value of fellowships is that they provide graduate students with the flexibility to work on the projects they want to work on without spending time and resources teaching or working on their advisor’s projects.
I started at MIT in their Sloan School of Business. At the time, I had just come back from living in China, and I needed a job to help support us while we were graduate school (funny enough, my wife went into higher education too, and now also works at MIT). The program I worked for was part of their International Programs Office dealing with a faculty exchange program with various universities in China and Korea. My experience living in the Middle-Kingdom meshed well with this program. I had a command of the culture, knew the language, and the work was interesting. I worked full-time and was also going to school part-time to get my Master’s degree while living in a small studio with my wife. It was an adventure!
After that, I used my Asian and program management experience to obtain a position in the MIT-Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) collaboration office. SUTD was a brand-new university that the Singapore government hired MIT to design. This was quite a revolutionary concept. It had been some time since anyone tried to start a university and was a place for MIT to try out some very innovative educational designs. We had a whole research arm that evaluated and cataloged the process for posterity as we were building. In the collaboration office, I served as the Student/Academic Administrator charged with running several graduate fellowship programs. SUTD was going to be primarily an undergraduate university, but they still wanted to maintain the graduate student mentoring feel. They, therefore, sponsored several graduate exchange fellowships to bolster the research aspects of the curriculum. These programs are where I wet my feet in the fellowship realm.
From SUTD, I joined the Graduate Education office, first as manager, then associate director, and now director. Currently, I serve as a central resource for anything fellowship related at the Institute. What does this look like? Well, I do quite a bit of outreach, running presentations that provide tips and hints on how to apply to fellowships. I also meet with students to talk about their research and background and help them identify resources suited for their particular situation. Once they have identified opportunities applicable to them, I coach them through the application process and help review their application material. Finally, once they receive the awards, I administer them financially and ensure everything runs smoothly, which means solving problems. My team currently manages fellowships for over one-thousand graduate students and serves as a resource for all 6000+ graduate students at MIT. For example, the largest fellowship that comes under my care is the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP). This multi-discipline fellowship is the largest in the country and supports research broadly in the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). It is a bit of a herculean effort for a small office, but MIT is very much about drinking from the fire hose.
As I mentioned, I never expected to end up working in Higher Education as a career, and certainly not dealing with fellowships, but it is the path that life brought me. The work is interesting as it touches many aspects of the University and leaves room for creativity. I also help students with their applications, so I am still involved in the writing craft. Working with students also means there is never a dull moment, especially during COVID times. But the most fulfilling aspect is that I get to help some of the brightest people in the world, people who will change this world for the better, achieve their greatness!
Cheers!
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I took a similarly roundabout path to my somewhat related role as a grant program manager for a major medical device company. The world is a funny old place; we do remarkably similar things, in very different ways — both in our writing and in our day jobs.
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It’s funny how the world works sometimes. I don’t know about you, but people at work are always so surprised when then find out that I write fiction, or do anything other than focus on my career.
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Yep, I mention that I write historical fiction and often the response is “Really? Why?”
Another one is “Really? Have I read anything you’ve done?”
My managers inevitably learn that I use most of my vacation time doing research, and they’ve been supportive. It’s my peers that seem to be most amazed.
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Thanks for the chuckle! Historical fiction is indeed an uphill battle. I try to promote that history is a wellspring of inspiration and that it can be just as thrilling as modern time. It also gives the writer some interesting tools to work with, especially without modern communication devices, modes of transportation etc.
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I like you! We have a lot in common. I’m responding (in the wrong post) to “Folly or Desiny”. Honestly, I could have written the post myself. It made me feel better knowing someone was feeling similarly. I completed book 2 last November and have written the 3rd book since then. I thought COVID would allow me the time at home to get more accomplished. Ach, well!
I started off blogging like you 8 years ago because I was told to have a writer’s platform and build a community. I found that no one wanted to read about how I wrote or asking to buy my book.
When I gave up trying to inform people how to write, I said screw it and opened up my blog to what my hobbies are–movies, photography, traveling, and reading. I found people of likemind commented on my posts. I returned the courtesy. I looked for bloggers who liked my interests and commented on them. They have become my friends, my cheering squad, and they have all bought my book. Still nothing to reward the money I’ve invested in editing, professional cover, reviews, etc. But I’m not giving up. I write because it is who I am. I like holding my book and it’s real. It’s an accomplishment that no one can take away.
Best wishes in your pursuits !
Cindy
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Thanks so much for sharing your path with me. It is always nice to hear from others on similar journeys. The cards are stacked against us, but it id nice to have a community to share our difficulties and our few victories!
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