On Thursday, March 20, the Graduate Center hosted a reception in honor of 465 doctoral students advanced to candidacy during the 2007/2008 academic year. President William Kelly and Acting Provost Julia Wrigley offered welcoming remarks to the guests gathered in the Dining Commons.

The featured speaker was Virginia Valian, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, who discussed long-term strategies for building and maintaining a successful academic career.

Among Valian's recommendations—establishing a circle of advisors rather than a single mentor; developing a flexible psychological plan for the dissertation period; treating the pursuit of successful work methods as an ongoing experiment; and developing an incremental approach based on the idea that everything can be learned.