The Tiger 9

The Tiger 9 focus areas encompass the essential transferable skills at the core of graduate education and professional preparation for any employment sector. Use the Tiger 9 as a guide to strengthen your existing skills and to develop new competencies relevant to your academic and professional goals.

Career Development and Exploration

There are many things to consider when preparing for your next professional position or the launch of your new career. Events in this focus area are designed to help you :

  • understand the difference between a resume and curriculum vitae (CV);
  • prepare for digital and phone interviews;
  • strengthen skills essential for successful interviewing and negotiating in academe or industry; and
  • network.

Personal Health, Wellness, and Financial Literacy

Creating strategies to effectively manage change and demands in your personal, professional, and academic lives leads to resiliency and balance. Events in this focus area are designed to help you:

  • practice self-awareness and mindfulness;
  • develop empathy and compassion;
  • improve physical wellness and vitality;
  • create supportive environments;
  • plan and prepare for your financial future.

Research and Innovation

An implicit expectation in graduate education is that students be able to conduct original and independent research in academic and non-academic related professions. Events in this focus area are designed to help you:

  • conduct responsible research;
  • gain the fundamental skills necessary to be an effective mentee;
  • master a range of skills to successfully complete graduate milestones (e.g., qualifying exams, theses, and dissertations);
  • find funding sources; and
  • present and publish your research.

Professionalism and Ethics

An individual's identity as a professional and a scholar matures with time and experience. To be a steward of your discipline, you must protect the integrity and uphold the standards of your field. Events in this focus area are designed to help you:

  • demonstrate integrity and trustworthiness;
  • enforce codes of conduct;
  • employ etiquette in U.S. and international settings;
  • understand and prevent sexual harassment, sexual violence, and sexual misconduct; and
  • demonstrate personal accountability, discipline, and work habits.

Leadership and Management

Developing leadership and management skills is tantamount to career progression. Events in this focus area are designed to help you:

  • identify, define, and understand different leadership styles;
  • create a vision, mission, and goals;
  • lead diverse teams;
  • practice mentoring; and
  • resolve conflict.

Teamwork and Collaboration

Building dynamic teams and collaborative, professional relationships with colleagues and clients from various demographics, disciplines, and perspectives is one pathway for success. Events in this focus area are designed to help you:

  • understand team roles and contributions;
  • learn group behaviors;
  • facilitate group processing and assessment;
  • apply team organizational tools; and
  • critically think and problem solve.

Teaching and Learning

Understanding your audiences, regardless of the discipline, affects your choices about what and how you teach. The nature of your audiences also asks you to consider how one learns. Events in this focus area are designed to help you:

  • better understand your students;
  • identify and develop learning outcomes;
  • employ diverse teaching modalities;
  • learn instructional pedagogies and methods;
  • manage classrooms, behaviors, and incivility; and
  • create inclusive spaces for optimal participation.

Oral, Written, and Intercultural Communication

Having the ability to communicate complex topics in a clear and engaging way with those in and outside of your own discipline is critical to improved understanding by diverse audiences. Events in this focus area are designed to help you:

  • create and deliver professional presentations for academic and non-academic settings;
  • debate for learning;
  • write theses and dissertation proposals;
  • develop skills for the effective use of digital devices;
  • understand explicit and implicit bias; and
  • practice people-skills in a global context.

Social and Global Responsibility

Graduate education and subsequent careers are global enterprises. Events in this focus area are designed to help you :

  • learn how to define social and global responsibility;
  • identify new approaches to engage in the life of civic communities;
  • deconstruct power, privilege, and oppression; and
  • be an effective ally and advocate for social justice.