Your GRADstory

What is GRADstory?

GRADstory is a platform for graduate students to share their experiences and thoughts about different aspects of graduate studies at the University of Waterloo. It will create a collection of stories, where graduate students address topics relevant to their peers, providing guidance based on their own successes, struggles, and what they’ve learned.  

We want to gather stories about what you have learned as a graduate student, achievements you’ve made, challenges you’ve experienced, and opportunities that you’ve taken advantage of. We will record these stories so that other graduate students can learn from them and become better equipped to thrive within their own graduate studies.  

Some examples of what your GRADstory could be about are… 

• Your experience learning how to be a Teaching Assistant or Course Instructor, navigating your role as both a student and a teacher. 
• Participating in a professional development program, and how that has helped you plan out your future career. 
• How you have struggled to balance your responsibilities while maintaining your mental health, and what kinds of resources or services you’ve accessed for support.  
• Finishing your comprehensive exams and what you learned that might help other students prepare for theirs.  

By participating, you will have an opportunity to answer a few questions about your time at Waterloo. We will use your responses to create a written profile discussing your experiences related to one of the following topics: 

• Completing graduate coursework 
• Conducting graduate research 
• Writing a research proposal 
• Preparing for/completing comprehensive or qualifying exams 
• Writing a Master’s thesis or research project 
• Writing a PhD dissertation 
• Preparing for a thesis defence 
• Next steps after graduation 
• Creating social connections in grad school 
• International graduate student experiences 
• Maintaining physical, mental, and/or social wellness
• Maintaining positive supervisory relationships 
• Managing work/life balance 
• Mature student experiences 
• Teaching as a graduate student (TA or course instructor) 
• Working as a Graduate Research Assistant  
• Other – feel free to suggest a topic that you want to talk about! 

Why share your GRADstory?

GRADstory is primarily an opportunity to help other graduate students. No matter what struggles or successes you’ve had in your studies, there will be peers at Waterloo that can learn and benefit from your experiences. By sharing your GRADstory, you will be able to: 

• Provide valuable advice and insight to students experiencing the same milestones, opportunities or challenges you have.  
• Inspire others to pursue opportunities or take advantage of resources and/or services that can support them in their graduate studies.  
• Promote your experiences, work, or research more widely.  
• Receive a $20 gift card to the W Store if you are one of the first 20 students to participate, as a small thank you for your time and enthusiasm!    

How does it work?

​​​​​​Participating in the GRADstory project is quick and simple! You will have multiple options for sharing your story in whatever way is most comfortable for you, and participation should take no more than 20-30 minutes total. Follow the steps below to share your story today! 

1. Complete the GRADstory participation web form to indicate your interest in participating. This should only take a couple of minutes. 
   1. You will be asked what topic(s) you are interested in discussing, so think ahead about what experience(s) you’d like to talk about!   
   2. Be prepared to upload a high-quality photo of yourself.  Visit the 5 tips for taking great selfies web page for more information.
   3. You will be asked how you would like to share your story. You can either fill out a written questionnaire or participate in a short virtual discussion over Zoom.  
2. You will be contacted by the Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA) communications team within ten business days. We will provide you with written questions based on the topic(s) you’ve selected, along with further instructions. 
   1. If you’ve chosen to participate through writing, you will be asked to reply via email with short-written answers to the questions provided. This does not need to be polished writing, as GSPA staff will support editing your responses for publication.  
   2. If you have chosen to participate in the virtual discussion, we will set up a virtual meeting based on your availability, where a staff member will ask you questions about your experiences and use the recorded transcript to create your GRADstory profile.  
3. After meeting with you or receiving your written responses, GSPA staff will draft a profile about your experiences, either paraphrasing the details you have provided or quoting your answers directly, as appropriate. 
4. You will be contacted once your GRADstory is ready for publication. You will have a chance to review the completed draft before it is published on our website, to ensure the information is accurate. 

How will your story be used?

Your GRADstory will be showcased on the GSPA website, as part of a resource page for current students highlighting the diverse experiences, successes, and struggles of our graduate student community. The main purpose of these GRADstories will be to provide practical advice or inspiration to your peers, who can learn from the experiences of other graduate students like you.  

Other examples of how your GRADstory might be shared include:  

• The Graduate student e-news  
• University of Waterloo social media channels. 
• Faculty or department websites 
• Future student program pages

Contact us

If you have any questions about GRADstory, or how to participate, please contact Sarah Howard (Manager, Postdoctoral Affairs and Programming Development).