Tomorrow’s Professor Today

Tomorrow’s Professor Today (TPT) is a professional development program for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. Designed to facilitate the transition from student to academic professional, the program focuses on improving preparedness primarily in teaching at the college level, with additional emphases in professional development and adjustment to a university career. Activities to support this endeavor include participating in a hybrid course design seminar, attending workshops, observing faculty and peers teach, preparing teaching documents, and peer-mentoring fellow participants. The program divides these activities into introductory and advanced tiers.

Participants gain enhanced teaching abilities and credentials, are introduced to many of the responsibilities faced by university faculty and administrators, attain a more comprehensive understanding of how the various components (i.e., research, teaching, service) of their graduate or postgraduate experience relate to one another now and in their future careers, and become better prepared for the challenges they will face in their future careers at a university or college. Participants are awarded a certificate for each tier they complete, and a letter certifying their successful completion of the tier(s).

Now centrally funded, the program was initially co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and School of Engineering & Applied Science.

Faculty Administrator: Adriana Streifer