NGAPS+ Activities
NGAPS+ strives to help our members and the greater Goddard community by providing resources, programs, and more. Activities are usually divided by sub-committee (though sometimes we have cross-committee collaboration!). Please read below to learn about the sub-committees and their activities.
Do you have an idea for a new initiative that NGAPS+ could support? Want to get involved in any of the sub-committees listed below? Reach out to one of our officers and let us know!
Division Liaisons
The Division Liaisons are division-specific points of contact for early career researchers to interface with Division (e.g., 610, 660, 670, and 690) Leadership. They also welcome new hires and can help connect you with people and resources within the division. To figure out who your Division Liaison is, please contact the NGAPS+ officers.
Social Sub-Committee
The Social Sub-Committee is in charge of events that are outside the scope of work and happen outside of working hours. Previous events NGAPS+ has hosted include taking hikes in the DMV area, visiting museums, doing escape rooms, seeing movies in theaters, and social hours at local cafes. This sub-committee is always looking for ways to engage our NGAPS+ members outside of work, so if you have an idea or you'd like to help contribute to this sub-committee, please don't hesitate to reach out!
Advocacy Sub-Committee
The Advocacy Sub-Committee listens to the experiences of early career researchers at Goddard. This support takes on many forms, including compiling and creating resources, and advocating for early career concerns to division, directorate, and center management. They have created resources such as the Foreign National Guide and Buddy System and various other Guides (e.g., Salary, Benefits, Housing). They also drafted the NGAPS+ Code of Conduct and lead the code review process. They conduct the bi-annual NGAPS+ Work Climate and Culture Survey. As a result of this survey, they are able to advocate on our behalf to various levels of management to improve our work situations and benefits.
Communications Sub-Committee
The Communications Sub-Committee is in charge of keeping NGAPS+ communications with its members flowing smoothly. They are in charge of the NGAPS+ Mailing List, running the various Social Media accounts, and maintaining this website (hi!). This sub-committee also runs the Quarterly Early Career Check-In meetings.
Professional Development Sub-Committee
The Professional Development Sub-Committee helps NGAPS+ members work on skills that are key skills one needs to maintain a healthy career in science. They occasionally host career panels and workshops, which are aimed at helping people make a CV or create a website. This sub-committee is also in charge of the Early Career Scientist Spotlight series (see below).
Early Career Scientist Spotlights
Early Career Scientist Spotlight ("ECSS") articles showcase the early career scientists working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The ECSS articles are intended to highlight the research interests, science motivations, and achievements of the early career scientist community, and are a great way to learn a bit about some of the wonderful and interesting people working at Goddard!
Check out the ECSS articles here!
NASA-PEER Post-Bac Mentorship Program
NGAPS+ is partnering with NASA-PEER to provide mentorship opportunities to post-baccalaureate (post-bac) researchers here at Goddard. Post-bacs are early career researchers who have a bachelor's degree (or possibly a master's degree) but do not have a PhD. NASA-PEER helps post-bacs decide what their next steps are, whether that is graduate school or employment, and then works with post-bacs on their applications. Early career mentors recruited from NGAPS+ are matched into small group “mentorship constellations” with other early careers and postbacs to provide multi-faceted support to our postbac community.