OPA Program

Take a break from work to play 4-5 rounds of challenging games and trivia with your fellow postdocs! Games may include old favorites like Family Feud, Cranium, Scattergories, quick thinking games, Jeopardy, logo trivia, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, and many more! What a great way to meet other postdocs in a fun and invigorating way! Games will be different in each of the Games & Trivia sessions.

Stanford Players -- Register HERE

Think outside of the box and exercise your problem-solving skills to answer as many MENSA-style puzzles, riddles, and trivia questions as you can with a team of fellow postdocs. The smartest team wins!

Quest around the world in 60 minutes! Team up with fellow postdocs to explore the world’s best museums and historic sites via amazing websites as you search for clues to answer scavenger hunt questions.

In this scavenger hunt, you will visit the Sydney Opera House, the Great Barrier Reef, the Taj Mahal, New Zealand’s Weta Workshop, of Lord of the Rings fame, the palatial Raffles Hotel in Singapore, Angkor Wat in Cambodia, Yasaka Pagoda in Kyoto, giant pandas in China’s Wolong Grove, and an array of lesser-known but amazing places!

During the lunch hour, play 4-5 rounds of challenging games and trivia with your fellow postdocs! Games may include old favorites like Family Feud, Cranium, Scattergories, quick thinking games, Jeopardy, logo trivia, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, and many more! What a great way to meet other postdocs in a fun and invigorating way! Games will be different in each of the Games & Trivia sessions.

Stanford Players -- Register HERE

Through the language they use, instructors create classroom environments that have the potential to impact learning by affecting student motivation, resistance, belonging, and self-efficacy. However, despite the critical importance of instructor language to the student experience, little research has investigated what instructors are saying in undergraduate classrooms.

From watching television shows and movies to their experiences in college classes themselves, students recurrently encounter stereotypes that, more often than not, convey a narrow view of who participates in our fields of study. We might wonder, then; what are the impacts of these messages on students and what, if anything, might faculty do in response to this messaging?

The Winter 2021 Preparing Future Professors Program Application  -- Opens September 4, 2020 and closes October 7, 2020.

Description of Program:

Your postdoc training is more than just research! Apply design thinking to the wicked problem of a comprehensive postdoctoral training plan and make a bold plan that amplifies your interests and values as you transition to your career of choice. The work we do together will support new perspectives, identify mentoring needs, and ensure that your individual development plan is thoughtful and balanced.

Note: there is approximately an hour of required prework for this session. You will receive details for the prework upon registration.

II: Professional & Academic Writing

Prerequisite: Oral Communication

Fall Session: Tuesdays, October 13 - November 17, 9:00am-11:00am

This  course on academic writing for publication focuses on learning to write coherently, clearly, and concisely. It will also include some practice in writing effective emails, letters, and short proposals. The course includes two 30-minute individual tutorials with the instructor.

IV. Accent Reduction

Prerequisite: Oral Communication

Fall Session: Thursdays, October 15 - November 19, 1:00pm-3:00pm

This class helps non-native speakers to recognize and practice American English sounds, stress, and intonation patterns in order to improve comprehension and intelligibility. This is accomplished through identification of problem areas, focused practice and recording of exercises for instructor feedback.

Course topics: