In the Fall of 2018, the ZSR Library began partnering with the Graduate School and Graduate Programs in Biomedical Science to offer graduate students a “Thesis Boot Camp” and in the Spring of each year since then, we’ve also offered a “Shut Up and Write” session over Spring Break! We held our 2020 “Shut Up and Write” event just prior to the global pandemic and we had to skip our Fall 2020 event, but we came back strong last week, with a new series of workshops for graduate students that we’ve branded as a “Graduate Student Thesis Research Retreat!”

On Tuesday, March 2nd, one of our two Spring “pause” days this semester, we held four synchronous workshops via Zoom, across two tracks, with a lunch break that included a Zoom chat room for students looking to connect with other graduate students! We had 38 students register for this event! Since we couldn’t offer lunch to these students, we created some gift bags for them to pick up in the Library or at 525@Vine. Each bag included a WFU blanket in a string bag and a ZSR Library coffee mug!

While we missed seeing the students in ZSR, we were thrilled to offer these sessions online (along with links to the recordings after the sessions!) Thanks to our synchronous session instructors, Kyle Denlinger, Dr. Heather Barnes, Dr. Ashley Heffner, and Dr. Ryan Shirey! And special thanks to our two asynchronous instructors who recorded sessions in advance of the event, Molly Keener and Dr. Carrie Johnston! We’d also like to thank Dean of the Library, Tim Pyatt, Dean of the Graduate School, Dr. Brad Jones, and the Director of Graduate Programs in Biomedical Sciences, Dr. Erik Brady for their continued support of this event!