Yesterday, I let off a little steam talking about my personal frustrations with my current situations. I'm not sure if that helps anyone at all. Perhaps it will serve as a reminder that it takes a considerable amount of resolve and courage to become a whistleblower. Whistleblowing isn't a decision that should be made lightly, and should ultimately be considered as a last resort, when you are convinced that things will not change at your institution.
In any case, I managed to stumble upon an interesting resource completely by random chance while looking through my blog analytics yesterday. Apparently, the National Institute of Health (NIH) has a subdivision within itself called the Office of Intramural Training and Education (OITE). One of the services that they offer is something that I feel should be brought to the attention of all students at the graduate and undergraduate levels; there is a lot of useful information in their webinar series which talk about how you can advocate and stand up for yourself. I think unfortunately, the problem is that programs like this are not often discussed in academia (institutions don't want to provide their students with resources that can make them be held accountable for their actions). Also, as far as I know, there is no obligation to share or divulge this information, making it even easier for schools to not even mention the OITE's existence.
After finding out about this organization, I have decided to subscribe to as many of their resources as possible. I am sad to say that I apparently missed an opportunity earlier this year to attend a workshop (which I did not know about), according to the OITE's website. However, because the OITE thinks that this information is invaluable to students they have provided the recordings for the webinar series online, free of charge. I will provide a link to a webinar series that I think would be especially beneficial for students that are reading through this blog:
As you can see, this virtual workshop is a 9-week course, which I'm sure covers at least some of the things that I discussed earlier in this blog, if not more. As time permits, I will go through this webinar series and try to summarize for anyone that doesn't want to sit through the entire lectures. This webinar series may also help me to come up with new blog post ideas in the future that I can further expand upon.
That said, if you were previously unaware of the NIH's OITE (like I was), I highly recommend taking a look through their website and subscribe to their e-mail notifications and newsletters, so you can stay up-to-date on interesting, new trainings that are available to the public for free. For those of you who do not know where to find their website, it is right here:
There are many ways to stay informed on their training topics without actually having to visit the website, including my personal favorites, RSS feeds (sometimes called ATOM or live bookmarks). Be sure to look through this website in its entirety; there are many other useful resources besides learning resiliency and self-advocacy. There are even post-doc postings here as well (post-doc positions are considered training, similar to PhD programs).
That pretty much summarizes my post for today. If you have any questions, or would like to know more about the offerings of this website, please do not hesitate to contact me. I am also certain you can contact anyone from the contact page for more specific questions, and they will be more than happy to help you. Thank you very much for reading my post today, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
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