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University Equity and Inclusion
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OASIS Leadership & Professional Development Program

About OASIS

The OASIS Leadership and Professional Development program supports Rutgers' mission to retain and advance a diverse faculty combating isolation through community. The program is designed to attend to the unique needs and challenges women face in academia through 6 months of intensive career development support via interactive workshops, mentoring and leadership coaching.

Benefits

OASIS combats the unique challenges women in academia by providing intensive support to:

  • Enhance leadership and communication skills

  • Build supportive networks in the Rutgers community

  • Increase scholarly productivity

  • Increase satisfaction with work and life

  • Advance their careers

An african american woman being mentored at an OASIS event

Testimonials about OASIS

“Through OASIS, I strengthened critical skills such as communication, time management, leadership, negotiation and academic writing.”

“Because of OASIS, I am better able to use my time more effectively because I prioritize my goals, set boundaries more often with colleagues and students, and whenever possible, make work I do ‘count twice’ for productivity.”

  • "For me, the chance to practice the skills of negotiation and to think of oneself as capable of negotiating a better deal for myself and counteracting the challenges women face in negotiating was very valuable."

    “The OASIS program allowed me to strengthen critical valuable skills such as time management, negotiation, writing, speaking, and presenting. It is also a great forum for networking, and just plain fun. I would highly recommend to anyone interested in additional career development."

     

  • "The peer groups make you realize you're not the only one that struggles with some of these issues. We would talk about things like how do I make time to exercise because we have all these kids at home to take care of and husbands.  It’s the realization that, oh wait, it's not only me who is going crazy.”

    “Not only do I now have a wonderful peer group, I also established two scientific collaborations and got three papers off of my desk."

    "I leveraged the skills gleaned from my participation in OASIS to strategically grow inter-professional research collaborations. In the months since the program's completion, I have developed several original research projects with both internal and external partners, developed multiple manuscripts for submission …"

  • "I started writing an hour or so every day, and it has really changed my life. To limit distractions, I write in the morning before going to the office, and I turn off email. Now no matter what else is going on, I make steady progress on things that really matter (papers and proposals). It has definitely improved my productivity and reduced my stress levels.  Thanks to OASIS!"

    This was such a positive, transformative experience. Thank you for the opportunity! I feel I am able to use my time more effectively because I prioritize better, set boundaries better, and try and make work I do ‘count twice’ for productivity.

  • "The peer mentoring was thought provoking. It really made me consider my work-life balance and try to be strategic, not just putting out fires but try to plan a little more and look at the bigger picture rather than just day-to-day."

    "It was helpful to build a supportive network of women who were experiencing similar issues, and brainstorming for each other how to best handle certain scenarios. Hearing how other people approached their issues helped to bring new ideas - as simple as a whiteboard with monthly goals on post-it notes, or other strategies to organize and create work/life balance."