After fall orientation in 2019 in a talk at you approach, CGPS' orientation lead said "there has to be a better way". After recruiting a graduate student, having lots of conversations and and making many feasibility pitches, a re-evaulation of the college's approach to orientation ensued.

• A needs assessment and program development evaluation were conducted by Andrew Hartman, a doctoral student in applied social psychology. Andrew has continued to work on the GradHUB ever since.
• USask graduate students were surveyed and brought into the decision making process.
• Orientation models across Canadian institutions, reviewing relevant literature, and gathering input through questionnaires with faculty and staff, followed.

The collected data was used to develop the Grad HUB's framework, which initially took the form of a program theory explaining how specific activities are expected to lead to desired outcomes. The program logic model served as a template for our intentional thematic layout. The project expanded to include the HUB Lab and HUB Community. As the project grew, more graduate students joined, with many others informally supporting its ongoing development. Special acknowledgment goes to alumn Momo Tanaka for their contributions  to the GradHUB (including the hand drawn graphics).

Now, we think of graduate student orientation as onboarding using the Grad HUB as our key tool to an ongoing iterative and integrative process to help graduate students understand their environment, our USask culture and get answers to their questions (or pointed in the right direction) when questions arise.

• GradHUB Needs Assessment
• GradHUB Program Logic Model

Thank you to all the graduate students who supported the initial development of the Grad HUB and those students who continue to support us in meeting the needs of graduate students. We also thank the many USask partners and institutions who support the Grad HUB. 

Papers in refereed journals: 

Hartman, A. T., & Lisitza L. (2024) The grad hub: Applications or program theory in revisioning graduate student orientation in the 21st century. (submitted)

Invited talks:

2021, Canadian Association for Graduate Studies Annual Symposia, Building Paths of Self-Discovery & Development: Empowering Graduate Students Through a Digital Platform.

2023, Western Canadian Deans of Graduate Studies, Annual Conference, Graduate Student Onboarding and the Concept of a Connected Graduate Community.