Introduction to Msu's Caffe

There’s a question every member of the MSU academic community needs to know the answer to… “What is CAFFE?” Hi, Dan Nunez here on behalf of Julius Jackson, to tell you about an important shift in how we prepare graduate students and post-docs for successful academic careers. CAFFE stands for the Center for Academic and Future Faculty Excellence, which is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation. (the excitement surrounding our program has nothing to do with coffee) The goal of CAFFE, is to integrate your current disciplinary training, with a personalized curriculum of professional development, in order to prepare participants for the demands of a faculty position. In short, CAFFE is the difference between disciplinary research training, and preparation for a faculty career. On either side of the CAFFE are Consumers and Contributors and where they meet, is the CAFFE menu. This menu organizes opportunities for professional development into four main categories: EXPECTATIONS OF ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS FACULTY KNOWLEDGE ESSENTIALS ACADEMIC WORK SKILLS & RESPONSIBILITIES and, PROFESSIONAL ATTITUDES & ETHICS Next, contributors from numerous MSU programs and offices plug into CAFFE and populate this menu with relevant, upcoming workshops. We then organize those activities for consumers, and display the opportunities for each academic year on the frequently updated CAFFE website. Mentors can use CAFFE to build their mentee’s professional skill set, in conjunction with the research training their particular discipline calls for. Assigned workshops will be entirely dependent on the needs of the individual. For instance, a post-doc might need to learn how to write grants, and develop conflict resolution strategies. Their Mentor could use CAFFE to assign workshops like “Grant Writing Skills,” and “Conflict Resolution, Interest-Based Approach,” among others. It’s worth noting that some of the same workshops could benefit a graduate student, post-doc, or new faculty member; even undergraduates can take advantage of the same professional development resources our grad’ students and post-docs are being afforded. It’s never too early or too late to become better qualified. CAFFE aims to complement a student, or post-doc’s ongoing disciplinary research training. Individuals uninterested in professional academic development can still complete their research without any negative consequence. For example, if we “deCAFFEinate” Kim’s education, she can still graduate with her Ph.D... ... blissfully ignorant of the fact … …that, if she’d taken advantage of parallel mentoring, she could be graduating with her degree, and the skills required of a qualified faculty member. What is CAFFE? Unprecedented, University-wide collaboration, allowing professional development to be tailored to the individual. There’s never been a consolidated resource, allowing future faculty to better themselves in such crucial ways. If you’re interested in an academic career, the CAFFE is waiting. Thanks for your time. For more information, visit our website. Bookmark CAFFE online, or visit us in person and we'll bookmark you!