Valuable support for women in math

Assistant Professor of Mathematics Rachelle DeCoste has been awarded a $6,000 grant from the Mathematical Association of America/Tensor Foundation that will support a newly created workshop for women in mathematics. The workshop will be held at Wheaton College from July 27-29. The application deadline is May 1.

The Career Mentoring Workshop is a three-day annual event for women who are entering their final year in graduate school in mathematics. It aims to educate women on the job search process in a setting that allows them to form relationships with other women in mathematics. The goal is for each participant to leave with a good understanding of the process of finding a job and with mentors and peers from across the nation who can provide additional support.

DeCoste, who joined the Wheaton faculty this fall after teaching at the United States Military Academy at West Point, was inspired to create this workshop because of her own experiences. She conducted the first mentoring workshop at West Point last August.

"After I finished my Ph.D.," she said, "I would run into women I knew from graduate school or other math programs I had been affiliated with as they were finishing their Ph.D.s, and they were on the job market. They would have the usual stress that goes with finding a job and felt like they had no one they could talk to. So I would share my experience honestly, and that included discussing all the doubts I had. A couple of them told me afterward that these honest, open discussions really helped them.

"Each person finishing was going through similar things but felt like she was alone and no one had ever had the same doubts and stress, which really made the whole experience worse."

Well, no more.

In addition to offering a network of support, DeCoste hopes the workshop will give graduate students a broader view of their career options.

"I don't think that grad students really know about all the different kinds of jobs that are out there," said DeCoste. "They think they want a tenure-track job right out of grad school, and I know people who felt like failures when that didn't happen. Often people don't know about things like teaching postdocs, or jobs like the one I had at West Point. I applied for about 80 jobs when I was finishing grad school—which was ridiculous! I was paranoid I would not get a job, so I applied for anything that sounded remotely interesting even though I really didn't want to move to say Minnesota. If I had known better, I really would have focused my search and saved myself (and hiring committees) time and money—both of which are much-needed in graduate school."

Wheaton will receive additional support for the workshop from the Department of Mathematical Sciences the United States Military Academy, which will fund travel for five participants and send senior faculty to help with the program. Also, Wheaton's Office of the Provost will provide room and board on campus.

Download applications at http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/CaMeW/application.html