Instructor of Record: Marc Ebelhar, EdD
Office: Graduate Education Office - Suite 301, Savant Building
Office Hours: By appointment, virtually through Microsoft Teams
Email: marc.ebelhar@grad.gatech.edu

Graduate Teaching Assistant: Anant Girdhar, Aerospace Engineering PhD student
Office Hours: By appointment, virtually through Microsoft Teams
Email: anantg@gatech.edu

Description

GT6000 is Georgia Tech’s small-group, peer-led, extended-orientation program for first-semester graduate students. This program is designed to promote a positive student experience through social interaction, familiarization with campus resources, and peer mentorship.

Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of GT6000, you will:

1. identify, explore, and prepare for stressors typical of graduate students;
2. develop plans for a successful and timely completion of your academic program; and
3. review key concepts related to and plan for professional development and a “whole-person” education.

Weekly Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion of GT6000, you will:

1. develop a support community of fellow graduate students,
2. examine the importance and intricacies of mentor and advising relationships,
3. reflect on professional goals and academic milestones while developing tools to meet them, 
4. create an awareness of common sources of graduate student stress and develop strategies to mitigate it, 
5. introduce the concept of resilience and develop methods to bounce back from setbacks 
6. explore the concept of inclusion while learning about campus resources that foster a sense of belonging, 
7. reflect on leadership styles, and
8. gain awareness of how to get involved and be engaged with the campus community 

Course Delivery Dates and Schedule

This course is offered during the S1 portion of the term which covers the first eight weeks of the semester. The fall 2024 course starts August 19 and ends October 11. Due to the compressed schedule of the course, the last day to withdraw from GT6000 with a "W" grade is September 17 by 4:00 pm Eastern Time.

GT6000 is organized into eight themed weeks covering content whose exploration will benefit a new graduate student at Georgia Tech. Group discussions, online modules, and workshops will be centered on these major themes:

Curricular Theme Descriptions

1. Building Community: You will be introduced to Georgia Tech, the city of Atlanta, and the GT6000 program. You’ll also get to know the members of your group.
2. Mentor/Advising Relationships: Mentorship in graduate school is key to developing as a student, researcher, and professional. Research-focused (i.e. thesis master’s and doctoral) students will learn how to work best with a research advisor while coursework-focused (i.e. non-thesis master’s) students will learn how to identify and learn from potential mentors. In any case, you will learn ways to maximize your mentor relationships.
3. Professional Development: Completing your academic program is not enough to guarantee a job when you graduate. You will identify your career goals so you can strategically utilize available professional development resources relevant to your planned career path. You’ll also learn how to create quality job application materials (e.g. resume, curriculum vitae, and cover letter).
4. Stress/Time Management: Graduate school can be stressful. Time management is a key skill that can help you avoid getting overwhelmed with coursework and/or research. You’ll learn about sources of stress for graduate students, ways to work through them, and campus resources available to help you.
5. Resilience: The academic rigor of Georgia Tech can pose significant challenges to new graduate students and many experience "impostor syndrome". You’ll identify your program’s support services, lay out a plan to make progress in and complete your program in an appropriate timeframe, and explore the more stressful milestones in depth to mitigate stress.
6. Inclusion and Belonging: Georgia Tech is committed to fostering and maintaining an inclusive educational and professional ecosystem where every individual can thrive. You’ll learn about how Georgia Tech supports an environment of inclusion as well as concepts that contribute to your sense of belonging.
7. Leadership Development: Today’s employers are looking for more than a good GPA or quality thesis. They want good communicators, leadership experience, and effective team members. You will assess and explore your own leadership style, learn how to best work on a team, and identify programs on campus that can help you tap into your leadership potential.
8. Maintaining Community: You have gotten to know your group over the eight weeks of the program, but how will you maintain and use this network moving forward? You’ll discuss how you will stay in contact and communicate and propose future social outings of your group to continue exploring Georgia Tech and Atlanta.

Delivery Format

GT6000 is a blended (i.e. half online and half in-person) course for fall 2024. Students will attend a once per week, 50-minute meeting of their group synchronously in person and complete a weekly (roughly one hour) module covering the curricular themes described above. Students must attend the synchronous meetings of their group in person. The course is delivered during the first half of the spring semester and will conclude at the end of the eighth week of classes (see Course Delivery Dates and Schedule above for detailed information).

Textbook

No course textbook

Grading

GT6000 is evaluated on a pass/fail grading mode. Points are awarded based on attendance at group meetings, participating in program workshops, completing online course material, and completing deliverables. Points are awarded as follows:

150 points – attendance at a group meeting                      1200 points possible

100 points – participation in a program workshop              500 points expected

100 points – completion of an online module                      800 points possible

100 points – completion of a course deliverable                 500 points possible

                                                                                                     3000 points possible

Online modules will introduce fundamental concepts related to each week’s theme so you can effectively participate in discussion at your group meetings. These modules will be a foundation to build on as you explore deeper in group meetings and workshops.

Program workshops will expose you to subject-matter experts from offices around campus that you’ll want to get to know. They’ll help you solve challenges, develop your professional skills, and efficiently get you to graduation.

Course deliverables will put into practice the skills you develop during the program. Examples will include self-reflections, career-related tools like a resume, and planning your academic program to completion.

Group meetings will put you face-to-face with the other new graduate students in your group to help you socialize and think through your experience starting in your graduate programs.  Your Group Leader will guide discussion to dive deeper into topics related to the theme of the week and expand on material you’ve already discovered in workshops and online modules.

A student will pass GT6000 if their point total at the end of the program is greater than or equal to 2300 points, and they accumulate points in all four of the categories listed above.

Course Deliverables

1. Grad School “Bucket List” – What non-academic experiences or things do you want to do or accomplish while in graduate school? This will be a brief reflection essay/list completed during the beginning of the program that you can share with your group members. Maybe you can check some of these off during GT6000.
2. Professional Goals and Resume – Through the Professional Development content, you will reflect on your professional goals and (current) intended career path. In this assignment you will outline those goals, identify campus resources you will use to assist you in accomplishing them, and revise your resume.
3. Academic Program Plan – Every academic program at Tech is unique. You will map out your proposed program milestones and timeline, identify academic support services and advisors within your program, and collect/review important policies or information for the most important milestones.
4. Leadership Style Reflection – Within the Leadership Development content, you will assess your leadership style ability to work on teams. Here you will briefly reflect on your leadership abilities and consider the resources on campus you will use to develop them further. You will also update your resume to better reflect your leadership and teamwork skills.
5. GT6000 Summary Reflection – What are the most important concepts you will take away from GT6000? What has been most beneficial to you?

Academic Honor Code

Tech Policy Library Academic Honor Code

"Having read the Georgia Institute of Technology Academic Honor code, I understand and accept my responsibility as a member of the Georgia Tech community to uphold the Honor Code at all times. In addition, I understand my options for reporting honor violations as detailed in the code."

GT6000 is a reflection-based course. As such, this course assumes that work submitted by students will be generated by the students themselves, working individually or in groups as directed by class assignment instructions. The following constitute violations of the academic honor code: a student has another person/entity do the work of any substantive portion of a graded assignment for them, which includes purchasing work, hiring a person or company to complete a submission, and/or using generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT) for any submission.

Course Attendance Policy

GT6000 is most beneficial to students when they attend scheduled group meetings and program activities.  As such, attendance is a significant graded component of the program and will count towards the pass/fail course grade. 

Students should make every effort to attend the meetings of their group as they would any other class. In the event that a conflict arises (e.g. a doctor’s appointment, family emergency, etc.) a student may get credit for a missed meeting by requesting a make-up from another Group Leader and attending their group meeting or requesting an excused absence for the week. To make a request, the student must follow the procedure outlined below. 

1. Submit a request through the Absence Request Qualtrics Form, which may be found in Canvas, at least 2 business days prior to your section’s weekly meeting time. 
2. You will receive an email informing you if your request has been accepted or rejected. If rejected, submit a request to a different Group Leader. 
3. If accepted by the make-up Group Leader, attend the meeting and you will receive credit. 

It is strongly recommended that the student attend a make-up meeting unless it is not possible to do so during the same week as the missed meeting. In that case, the request will be reviewed by the Instructor of Record, Dr. Marc Ebelhar, to determine if the absence can be excused. 

Read the Institute Attendance Policy for general procedures and policies on class attendance.

Georgia Tech Inclusive Values Statement

At Georgia Tech, we see diversity of backgrounds and perspectives as essential to learning, discovery, and creation. We strive to remove barriers to access and success, and to build an inclusive community where people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to learn and contribute to our mission. As outlined in our strategic plan (https://strategicplan.gatech.edu/values), we want to create an environment of holistic learning where all individuals can grow and learn to lead healthy, purposeful, impactful lives.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

If you are a student with learning needs that require special accommodation, contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) 404.894.2563, dsinfo@gatech.edu, or disabilityservices.gatech.edu, as soon as possible, to make an appointment to discuss your special needs and to obtain an accommodations letter.

Mental Health in Graduate School

As a graduate student, you may experience a range of challenges that can interfere with learning, such as imposter syndrome, strained relationships, increased anxiety, substance use, feeling down or depressed, difficulty concentrating, and/or lack of motivation. These mental health concerns or stressful events may impact your ability to attend class, concentrate, complete work, take an exam, or participate in daily activities. If you are struggling, here are some ways you can ask for help:

• Talk to your Group Leader. They can help you work through some challenges and can connect you to campus mental health resources.
• Contact the Center for Mental Health Care & Resources. Located on the first and second floor of the Smithgall Student Services (Flag) Building, the Center for Mental Health Care and Resources is the primary resource for mental health support at Georgia Tech. Services are available during the office hours of Monday through Friday 8-5:00 PM. To access CMHCR services, please call 404-894-2575 or walk-in to schedule an initial assessment. Students seeking any form of mental health support to include Stamps Psychiatry need to visit the Center for Mental Health Care & Resources first for an initial assessment and referral to on and off campus mental health and well-being resources.
• Access Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP) benefits. Students covered by the SHIP have access to unlimited, no-cost, tele-medicine services including mental health counseling. These resources can be accessed via the United Healthcare Student Resources portal.