Are you interested in learning about career options for PhDs in government or scientific communication? Do you have a passion for helping broader audiences understand the importance of primary research studies? If so, the Penn Science Policy and Diplomacy Group or PSPDG may be the student group for you! Read on to learn more about PSPDG’s goals and activities from the group’s student leaders in the CAMB community.
What is PSPDG? When and why was this student group founded?
The Penn Science Policy and Diplomacy Group (PSPDG) is a graduate student-led organization creating opportunities for Penn trainees to gain hands-on experience in science policy, diplomacy, and communication. STEM trainees often lack formal training in communicating to lay audiences, advocating for science in policy, and incorporating science into global diplomacy.
PSPDG was formed in 2017 after the Penn Science Policy Group merged with the Penn Science Diplomacy Group. Since then, PSPDG has continued to grow, with student members across the graduate schools and partnerships with numerous campus, community, and national policy organizations.
Why did you decide to get involved with PSPDG? How has it impacted your grad school experience?
Rose Albert (Vice President): My background is in environmental justice advocacy, and I chose to pursue a PhD with the goal of providing scientific support to communities most impacted by the climate crisis. I quickly realized that my day-to-day work lacked training in certain scientific writing (memos, whitepapers, media), and I also needed to better understand policy processes to advocate for environmentally just decision making. My favorite aspect of PSPDG is that our initiatives are highly student interest-driven, and the leadership team has been extremely supportive of me developing programming related to my career goals, including an Environmental Justice and Policy Panel in Spring 2024 and our current Media Training Series for Scientists. I’ve learned of many policy opportunities and careers I hadn’t previously considered, and I’m now completing a FASEB Advocacy Fellowship that I heard of through the PSPDG network. PSPDG is also an amazing community of graduate students, and I’ve enjoyed the new friendships I’ve made through the group!
How can PSPDG help graduate students in terms of professional development and networking? What are some of the post-graduate roles that PSPDG can help prepare students for?
Miles Arnett (Science Policy Chair): One of the things I’ve appreciated most about being part of PSDPG is that it has opened the door to a whole field of connections and job opportunities that I might never have learned about otherwise. When you’re pursuing a STEM degree, and especially while you’re still an undergraduate, most of the career conversation is based around the dichotomy of academia and industry, with the assumption that almost everyone will fall into one of those two categories. But a scientific background, and especially a scientific PhD, prepares you for a lot more options than just those, including the ones we focus on in our club. In my branch of science policy, we’ve met scientific advisors to legislative offices, people working for executive branch agencies like the National Institutes of Health, consultants at scientifically-minded advocacy nonprofits, and many others, all of whom started their careers with a STEM graduate degree. And that’s just in science policy, science communication features important jobs in media and education, and science diplomacy career options are expanding with each passing year. In PSPDG, we try to both inform our members about these opportunities and help them develop the expertise they need to pursue them.
The main way we do this is by helping our members gain practical skills, writing samples, and contacts they can carry with them into the next stages of their career or training. We put on an extensive training series of workshops each year and have previously hosted external speakers such as Judy Swann for scientific writing and a variety of career and fellowship panels. Each year, PSPDG members travel to DC to meet with legislators and network at the AAAS conference. We also have working relationships with national organizations such as the Union of Concerned Scientists and campus entities such as the Perry World House.
Our alumni have gone on to pursue the Eagleton Science and Politics Fellowship, Science and Technology Policy Fellowships at USAID, and a variety of policy related roles including analysts and commissioners.
Has your involvement in PSPDG helped you to become more confident when communicating your research? What are some situations in which you have practiced communicating your (or other) research to a non-scientist audience?
Kaeri Martinez Medina (President): Yes, my involvement in PSPDG has helped me communicate my research. I think that a wonderful part of this group is that you interact with other scientists in completely different fields who share a common interest in policy, diplomacy, or communication. This kind of scientific diversity pushes me to better my communication skills so I can convey how important my research is and how much I believe in the power of science. As president, I have had the privilege of meeting policy and diplomacy experts on campus and at the AAAS conference. Often, these individuals do not have an advanced degree in my field of research but are still curious about what I do. I have had to condense my background and thesis project into a few quick sentences that are still understandable and interesting. This is challenging but still enjoyable.
What strategies have you used to balance your leadership position in PSPDG with your research responsibilities? Do you have any advice for other students considering becoming more involved in student groups?
Dimitris Boufidis (Science Diplomacy Chair): Balancing a leadership role in PSPDG with PhD research is challenging, but the group’s flexible time commitment helps. Some members only attend workshops, while others take on organizing roles, which is often the best way to learn. Those seeking deeper involvement can step into leadership positions. It's an exciting time for science policy, diplomacy, and communication, and that excitement motivates us to create meaningful programs. One challenge is that many advisors aren't aware of science policy, diplomacy, and communication as a career path for STEM PhDs, with most focused on the academia vs. industry debate. To address this, we're developing a guide to inform PIs and help students engage in these fields without compromising their research progress.
What are some of your goals for the future of PSPDG?
Kaeri Martinez Medina (President): PSPDG has been consistently creating programming for STEM graduate students for the past 10 years. We’re incredibly proud of the knowledge base we have built up and imparted onto curious students. As we continue to teach our members of SciPol, SciDip, and SciCom, we would also like to grow as an organization. For us, this means making Penn leadership aware of our activities, increasing our funding, maintaining our member numbers, and building connections with professors, non-profits, and other experts inside and outside of Penn.
What is the best way for interested students to get involved in PSPDG?
PSPDG has opportunities at different levels of commitment and prior experience for all students to get involved. We host monthly meetings with dinner and drinks where we provide updates from each of our branches, share upcoming opportunities, and discuss current policy and diplomacy events. We also host monthly social events that are open to all members of the Penn community, and these have included mini golf, picnics, movie nights, game nights, and more! The monthly meetings and social events are especially great, low commitment ways for new members to learn more about our team and work.
Our branch chairs lead a variety of training workshops, such as Science Policy 101, Science Diplomacy 101, Media Training with Scientists, and How to Meet with Legislators. We also hold reading discussions and foreign policy analyses on topics such as the Paris Agreement.
Students who are interested in gaining more leadership with the group can join or lead working groups that facilitate these workshops. The working groups are short-term commitments of 2-3 hours a week leading up to the event. We also have a variety of ongoing teams for memo writing, our blog, our podcast (Penn Talks Science- listen to us on Spotify!), and our Science Shorts Series. Students can connect with us on Slack, Twitter, Instagram, and our Website.
What are some upcoming group events that you are most excited about?
Kaeri Martinez Medina (President): My favorite events from PSPDG are the "Science Diplomacy 101" workshop and the "Science Diplomacy Simulation." I feel like they are the two best attended SciDip events that actually show students how interesting and impactful science can be in a diplomatic setting. It gives participants a chance to consider careers outside of academia or industry. It encourages them to think about how they want to use their expertise in the world. Both events are built to be engaging and teach students no matter their level of experience with SciDip.
Miles Arnett (Science Policy Chair): I’m most excited by how much the group has been expanding in recent years, and how we’ve managed to incorporate larger, more elaborate events into our programming. The Science Diplomacy Simulation is a great example of one such event from last year, and this year we have even higher ambitions, including trips to DC and Harrisburg, a Penn Science Policy Symposium, and a Science Policy Simulation. I think all of these could become fixtures of our programming for years to come.
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