Toward a More Holistic Graduate Experience: Professional Service to the Discipline

As graduate students, we tend to divide time between reading, writing, and research assistant duties all in the pursuit of the end goal – finishing the degree. However, what is often overlooked by or unknown to graduate students is the opportunity to engage in service to the discipline. Service to the profession can act as a bridge for networking and building community outside of one’s graduate school and cohort. In this chapter we discuss the various service opportunities for political science graduate students. We go over service opportunities available within the various sections of the American Political Science Association (APSA) as well as those available through regional organizations, those through journals, and various others relevant to the discipline. This manuscript is part of "Strategies for Navigating Graduate School and Beyond," a forthcoming volume for those interested in pursuing graduate education in political science (Fall 2022 publication).