Exploring Well-Being in Graduate Education: A Rackham Symposium View Other Sessions

Attendees will explore and examine the intersection of mental health challenges and disability accommodations within academic environments and their impact on student success.

Moderator: 

Eva Albalghiti 

Ph.D. student, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Panelists:

Ann Jeffers

Associate Professor, Civil and Environmental Engineering 

Christine Exley

Associate Professor, Economics

Isabel Miller

Research Associate, Biomedical Engineering

U-M Alum

The Michigan Doctoral Experience Study (MDES) is a longitudinal study of Rackham PhD students that examines the process of academic socialization and scholarly development. The MDES survey asks students about their motivations, expectations, goals, experiences, and levels of well-being, among other topics. PhD students take the MDES survey shortly after they enter their programs and then each year of their program thereafter, which allows researchers to examine how students change over the trajectory of graduate study. MDES is also cohort-based, expanding to include new cohorts of PhD students each year. Now in its ninth year, the study contains data on over 6,500 students, making it a rich source of information on graduate student well-being over the past decade. This session will provide an overview of MDES’s findings on students’ mental and physical health, stress, intention to quit, and other factors related to well-being. By sharing recent research, we will examine how these factors change over time, across cohorts, and among students from different backgrounds. We will also share our working model of individual, program, and societal factors that influence students’ mental health, noting that relationships between these factors are complex and not easy to modify with quick interventions. We conclude by offering insights from the MDES data about conditions that are particularly supportive of graduate student well-being.

Though often treated as such, graduate students are not exempt from the mental health crisis present at institutions across the country (Evans et al., 2018). Among the myriad of factors that may contribute to this crisis, relationships and self awareness have been shown to mediate student well-being (Bal et al., 2003; Kaler & Stebleton, 2019; Joshi et al., 2024). The Seeking Emotional Grounding and Connection Workshop is a 90-minute practice-focused workshop facilitated by current graduate student, Adam Marino. This workshop incorporates a multimodal pedagogical approach utilizing reflective practices (Howell, 2021), active learning experiences (Strayhorn, 2008), and small group discussions (Pollock, Hamann & Wilson, 2011). The primary goal of the workshop is to create a conceptual bridge between social support and self-advocacy by reframing resilience and connection as tools for emotional regulation. Throughout the workshop, students will co-create understandings of key concepts (emotional intelligence, emotional regulation and resilience). Advancing understanding and application of these three concepts in daily life can help to improve relationships and personal well-being (Schutte et al., 2002; Graham, Powell & Truscott, 2016).

 The content of this workshop is largely adapted from the Sanger Leadership Center’s Resilience and Emotional Intelligence workshops designed for their Ross Leaders Academy. Students will spend some time engaging with the Sanger Leadership Center’s Resilience Model to create links between well-being, social support and emotional regulation (Durso, Afonso & Beltman, 2021; Ceglédi, Fényes & Pusztai 2022). Later, they will advance their understanding of emotional intelligence as an application for seeking connection with others (Bond & Donaldso-Feilder, 2004; Perkins, 2021). Students will interact with an expanded iteration of Robert Plutchik’s emotion wheel to understand the nuance behind characterizing emotion alongside this discussion. In this way, students will understand emotional intelligence as a vehicle towards accessing a more varied and effective toolkit in response to significant stressors (Pau et al., 2004). 

Students will apply the content to three exercises throughout the workshop: a personal temperament visualization, a nonverbal relation practice, and a Board of Directors activity. The temperament analysis allows students to construct an idea of personal well-being and engage with self-concept. They will physically demonstrate the cumulative detraction from and refueling of their self-concept and bandwidth that occurs through intake of negative and positive stimuli respectively. The nonverbal relation praxis asks students to recognize and name emotions with increased specificity, verbally and auditorily interpret emotions in others and exercise emotional intelligence as a tool for connection. Finally, the Board of Directors activity encourages students to articulate their current networks of social support as a method of exploring the support roles that are present and absent in their lives. Following these activities, students will be encouraged to reach out to these individuals and name the importance of their roles. Additionally, students will reflect on how to complete their networks of social support through naming their needs and seeking out specified support from resources around campus.

The goal of this session is to help advisors and students more deeply understand the concept of psychological safety, how it forms in advising relationships, and how it impacts graduate student experiences. Psychological safety refers to people feeling safe to be themselves and express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas without fear of negative consequences, rejection, or humiliation (Edmondson, 1999). Research shows that leaders play a crucial role in building psychologically safe environments (Edmondson & Bransby, 2022). In graduate programs, doctoral students often rely on leadership from advisors as they navigate coursework, milestones, and assistantships, making it important for advisors to foster psychologically safe environments. The presence of psychological safety is positively correlated with creativity, innovation, and the ability to cope with stress, which can reduce burnout (Edmondson & Bransby, 2022; Edwards et al., 2021). These skills are vital to the doctoral student experience, underscoring the importance of building psychologically safe advising relationships. 

We collected data through a survey and interviews with doctoral engineering students to further understand their experiences with their doctoral advisors, their feelings of psychological safety, and their personal and professional outcomes. Using one set of interviews, we have developed composite narratives that tell the story of PhD students navigating their program and their relationship with their advisor. These narratives provide a personal, tangible example of how doctoral students are impacted by their feelings of psychological safety with their advisors, and serve as an important teaching tool for faculty, staff, administrators, and students alike. In this session, participants will be presented with these narratives generated from real PhD students’ experiences. They will be asked to use these narratives to reflect on their own mentoring experiences and think more deeply about how psychological safety forms in mentoring relationships, as well as what steps both students and advisors can take to foster psychological safety. At the end of the session, faculty, staff, and administrator attendees will have a better understanding of psychological safety and how to foster it in their own advising relationships. Student attendees will have a framework to better advocate for themselves and understand the roles of their mentors. Attendees will also understand the critical role of psychological safety in advising relationships and how psychological safety impacts student outcomes.

Trigger warning: The stories shared in the student narratives contain information that may be distressing for some participants. Topics include, but are not limited to: bullying, micromanagement, unresponsiveness, unpredictable behavior, professional shame, emotional distress, yelling, immigration fears and concerns, funding uncertainty, threats, and academic rejection.

Graduate students face rising mental health challenges, including isolation, chronic uncertainty, and career-related stress, all of which have intensified in the wake of shifting immigration policies and academic pressures. While individual wellness interventions are valuable, strategies that integrate career support and community-building are essential to addressing the root causes of anxiety, burnout, and disconnection.

This interactive 60-minute workshop explores how two teams within the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies at the Medical School, Career and Professional Development (CPD) and Access, Success, and Engagement (ASE), support student well-being by offering programming that fosters professional development, connection, reduces isolation, and eases career-related stress. Together, they offer holistic support models that cultivate a sense of belonging, foster community engagement, and directly address the systemic stressors affecting graduate students.

Drawing on CPD's experience with career advising and cohort-based career readiness programs, the workshop will highlight how these offerings proactively support well-being by providing structure, peer validation, and a sense of agency amid career ambiguity. In parallel, ASE's work to build inclusive, culturally responsive communities through ongoing events, awareness campaigns, affinity spaces, and cross-cultural engagement provides a protective layer of social connectedness that is especially vital for international students.

Through case examples, data-informed best practices, and small group activities, participants will learn how CPD and ASE develop offerings in response to student feedback, recognizing that experiences of belonging and resiliency strengthen students as they navigate career challenges and the broader demands of graduate life. The facilitators will also share lessons learned from assessing student experiences, and discuss how to apply these strategies across different campus contexts.

This workshop aligns with the symposium's goals by promoting best practices that blend professional development and well-being through intentional, multifaceted engagement with students. It highlights inclusive strategies that build community via intercultural programming, mentorship, and affinity-based events, thus fostering belonging and reducing isolation. The workshop also explores persistent challenges, such as how immigration stress and cultural isolation uniquely affect international students, and how tailored support models can respond. Finally, the workshop will show how advising and programming address hidden gaps in the graduate experience, fostering resilience, empowerment, and help-seeking behaviors in ways that reduce stigma and promote well-being.