Join the PyPhD Family
Become a member
We are fortunate to work with some of the most passionate grad students, who are dedicated to improving their community and their own communication skills. Grow your professional development with our high-impact, low-time model.
About us
Learn about Presenters
Learn about Organizers
What We Do
Early Student Engagement
We know that many young students may not even know a scientist. So we designed a presentation to engage them in the process of thinking like a researcher and inspire their scientific minds!
Build Community Networks
PyPhD was founded with the mission to bridge the Waco and the Baylor communities. We do that by collaborating with dedicated educators, communicators, and locals alike.
Linking CUrriculum to Research
It can be hard to answer the “why do we have to know this?” question. We do our best to match our research to what you are teaching in the classroom or to students’ interests.
early Career Science Communication
Our Structure
Presenters
Organizers
These members initiate and facilitate all Present Your PhD presentation events (classrooms, volunteering opportunities, community events, etc). Organizers are expected to consistently bring in new collaborators and be on the search for ways Present Your PhD can connect with the local community. Organizers are responsible for maintaining contact with collaborating groups and organizing presentation times and participants.
Executive Leadership
Organizing Present Your PhD requires a lot of behind-the-scenes work in order to continue on a trajectory of growth. As an organization, we promise low time commitments, so the responsibility of maintenance falls on the shoulders of the Executive Leadership. The three members comprising this tier are undeniably passionate about outreach and community involvement. They have unrestricted access to Present Your PhD email and Box accounts. They each put in approximately five additional hours of work a week. This role is held until graduation or choosing to step down. After being a member with Present Your PhD for at least one semester, members can apply for Directorship.
Our Mission
Education systems today are limited to structures that inhibit creative thinking, exploration, and lasting retention of ideas and concepts. Research shows that young learners must be engaged with the ability to motivate, inspire curiosity, and foster supportive environments to overcome obstacles to achieving positive attitudes about STEM research and related fields.
Furthermore, society endures a pervasive idea that it is possible – and easy – to separate and distill ideas presented in the media to reflect one’s personal beliefs. This confirmation bias then promotes the spread of misinformation and an inaccurate narrative about science. This is a major driver of the widespread lack of science comprehension among adults, resulting in general distrust.
We found and grew this graduate student-organized outreach mechanism to support community connection and the promotion of scientific literacy and inclusivity of learners of all ages. There is overwhelming support for the value of hands-on, interactive education and its positive influence on memory, retention, and educational impact, which is the basis of Present Your PhD’s work. For instance, negative outlooks at any age are reversible with efforts to demystify and personalize science via widespread programming, face-to-face interactions with scientists, and approachable science journalism
Our mission is to empower young learners, especially young women and underrepresented minorities, to envision themselves as future scientists and to inspire the community to envision themselves as driving partners of research in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Learn More About Present Your PhD
Contact us
Our Top Priorities
Present Your PhD is dedicated to empowering young learners, especially young women and underrepresented minorities, to envision themselves as future scientists, to inspire the community, and to create driving partners of research in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
EARLY STUDENT ENGAGEMENT
We know that many young students may not even know a scientist. So we designed a presentation to engage them in the process of thinking like a researcher and inspire their scientific minds!
Community Networks
PyPhD was founded with the mission to bridge the Waco and the Baylor communities. We do that by collaborating with dedicated educators, communicators, and locals alike.
Grad Leadership
Present Your PhD empowers our members have full control over their success, and, therefore, the success of our collaborations. We are proud to have a diverse and passionate member base.
Curriculum Matching
It can be hard to answer the “why do we have to know this?” question. We do our best to match our research to what you are teaching in the classroom or to students’ interests.
Building Skills
Have you ever wanted to share your research but weren’t sure how or where to start? Does your writing lack broader impacts? Join us to enhance your graduate school experience and training.
Why SciComm
Science communication (scicomm) is the practice of informing, educating, sharing wonderment, and raising awareness of science (or STEM)-related topics. It can be used to generate support for a scientific study (think grants), inform decision making (policy), and generate a sense of community (outreach). It goes beyond explaining the figures and the data; scicomm is about storytelling, addressing misinformation, and/or inspiring change or action.
The skills needed to become an effective science communicator are not inherently developed throughout early science career training. Most graduate programs do not include scicomm classes outside perhaps grant writing. Yet, the skills gained from practicing science communication expand far and away beyond writing academic papers or grants.
Academic Uses of SciComm
As an early career scientist (or STEM professional), academia is likely where you'll be spending most of your time. It makes sense that you'd want the skills your're building as a communicator to be immediately useful. Consider the following:
- Giving a poster presentation
- Networking at a conference
- Presenting at a seminar
- Contributing to a grant (hello, broader impacts!)
- Teaching a class or instructing a mentee
- Breaking down an article during journal club
- Meeting with collaborators or committee members
- Elevator pitches
Can you think of any other times during grad school that you need to talk about your or someone else's research or findings? The opportunities to practice good communication are truly endless! If you make your mark as someone who can bring people into these conversations and help them understand the jargon, the methods, and the importance of the results, you'll quickly become a go-to for future opportunities that will look great on a resume or CV!
The challenge, however, is that these big events (conferences, posters, collaborator meetings) are not frequent and the smaller opportunities tend to be more interested in critiquing the research than in giving presentation feedback. Engaging in scicomm through Present Your PhD can help give you the pointers needed to excel when it counts and feedback to improve along the way.
Beyond the Academy
The unspoken reality is that not everyone will or wants to stay in academic research (less than 20% of new STEM PhD's can expect to find a tenure-track job). But, how do you know if you'll be able to catch that industry recruiter's eye or stand out when considering a governmental lab? What if you don't want a future that is research-heavy, or that includes research at all? What are the skills needed to thrive and be successful in fields where publication numbers may not be the only metric that'll earn you the interview?
Being able to transmit a message clearly and concisely so that it is understood in invaluable. Name any job in or adjacent-to STEM and it is likely that, at some point, someone will need to learn some science really quickly and doesn't have time to digest the whole narrative. Becoming the person who can create those bursts of information that are also engaging will make you essential to the team.
Scicomm isn't just journalism and writing, too, though that seems to be how many academics brand it. While these are incredibly important, they don't encapsulate the oral or visual components of translating an idea. There is always a market for someone who can create a compelling slide deck or captivating image. To do so accurately is to have strong scicomm skills and an understanding of what the important message or story is to convey.
The evidence for the importance of scicomm skills is in the number of training programs out there to help develop these tools. Below is a list of a few of these programs, but luckily, Present Your PhD is free, local, and non-competitive, ensuring that you can get the access and support you need to thrive.
- iBiology Young Scientist Seminar Series
- Escape from the Ivory Tower: A Guide to Making Your Science Matter
- English Communication for Scientists
- AAAS Mass Media Fellows Program
- Communicating Science: Tools for Scientists and Engineers
- #GradSciComm: How COMPASS is Answering the National Demand for Science Communication Training
- Building Buzz: (Scientists) Communicating Science in New Media Environments
- Practical Science Communication Strategies for Graduate Students
- Successful Science Communication: A Case Study
- Communication Breakdown
At the end of the day, it's not about your ability to use Twitter, maintain a blog, or even change minds. Having an ability to practice and use scicomm during graduate school heightens your ability to think about the big picture and move a project forward. And that is a skill that, when you've done it well and in a variety of ways, will look incredible to the hiring committee.
Jen is an Associate Professor at Emory University who focuses on RNA research, leadership development, and scicomm.
Don't just take our word for it
Scicomm is happening all over the world, and the world has a lot to say about it. Below are just a few examples of why having a scicomm skillset is adventagous:
Science communication is part of a scientist’s everyday life. Scientists must give talks, write papers and proposals, communicate with a variety of audiences, and educate others. Thus to be successful, regardless of field or career path, scientists must learn how to communicate. Moreover, scientists must learn how to communicate effectively. In other words, to be a successful scientist, you must be an effective communicator
-Scientific American, link
At its most aspirational, science communication has the potential to kick start a stronger fusion of public and scientific values, locking our field into the public conscious in a manner similar to the omnipresent tech giants Google and Apple. This will certainly lead to better scientists, research, funding and hopefully better science articles in the newspapers
-Nature, link
The demand for ‘technical writers,’ which includes the various forms of science communication, will increase by 11% over a decade, which is faster than the average.
-Bureau of Labor Statistics, link