structure and support all summer long at the first inaugural Thrive PhD summer camp!
two week sessions to work with your schedule and your goals so that the summer doesn’t slip by…
are you…
worried that you will blink and miss your summer?
concerned about making progress in the most precious and rare time between terms?
want to make sure that you also have some fun and get some rest while you can?
feeling a little lonely or isolated and looking for new aca-friends?
then i made summer camp just for you!
why summer camp?
i really love running writing groups - but summer time (at least in the northern hemisphere) can be a really tough time to commit to 8 week stretches! and i also know that it can be really valuable to have sprints where you pick a goal and focus on it - with community support to make that feel less isolated and a lot more fun.
so this summer, i’m hosting two week sessions of summer camp: think a two week sprint (with all the goal setting, evaluation, and adjustment that entails) with community, activities, and support like a writing group would have. i'll host 8 of them over the course of the summer, so people can take sessions off or enroll in multiple sessions for a discount.
what you get
a sprint planning course that you can go through live, or on your own time, to set reasonable goals for the two week period
a daily roll call to post about your progress and get support
small group “cabins” to make friends and have people to hang out with
a mid sprint reset course to check in with your goals, and adjust what you need to so you don’t have too much drift
a fun camp theme with pop up challenges, prompts, suggested activities to add a little spice to camp
live salons where i host conversations to share resources and offer support
a sprint retrospective course to explicitly close down camp and launch you into a break
what it will help with
summer can really stretch on - this breaks it down into manageable chunks with reasonable goals, and lots of chances to adjust
have a place to check in and make it easy to stay on track - all the planning structure and rhythms are done for you, you just show up
you decide how much to push - there are people working with big deadlines, just getting started, and in the messy middle - but there’s tools to help you no matter what stage you’re in
just like trying activities you’ve never tried at summer camp, this gives you space to try out new schedules and tools that might feel harder to implement or even imagine during the term
adding a little bit of fun and levity can really lighten up a long, hot, season!
schedule
session 2 - deep space thrive!
may 26 - june 9 enrollment closed!
session 4 - wild wild west!
june 26 - july 7 enrollment closed!
session 6 - toy time!
july 24 - august 4 enrollment closed
session 8 - rainforest royalty!
august 21 - september 1 enrollment closed
session 1 - enchanted forest!
may 15 - 26 enrollment closed!
session 3 - camp candy land!
june 12 - 23 enrollment closed!
session 5 - dark academia!
july 10 - 21 enrollment closed
session 7 - sports superstars!
august 7 - 18 enrollment closed
“I was surprised to find that roll call was my favorite part of camp. It was so great to know I had a place to go for a bit of community each day. I also loved the sprint planning course - I found it so useful.”
“I love the summer camp! Thank you Katy for always being so creative to help us get through the process of being scholars without forgetting that we are also humans! I could not do it without you and all the members of this amazing community”
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as private as you need to be! you can set your own display name in our community, and control how much you share about your work and your life. i will also be setting explicit expectations for the group about privacy and confidentiality - so important with works in progress!
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nope! we have MA students, PhD students in all phases, post docs, adjunct and tenure-track faculty. if you’re working on academic work, you’re welcome!
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it’s my summer too! i’m in camp every day, commenting, hosting events, and answering questions! i do all the hard work of organizing so you can just show up!
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nope!! summer camp is flexible - one session you could focus on your grant proposal, the next a conference paper, and another syllabus prep. each sprint you’re also encouraged to set goals for your human self, and to get a little brain sparkle too!
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you can buy individual sessions, or sign up for three and get one free, or sign up for the whole summer (all eight sessions) and get two free AND a free 45 minute session with me. all sessions are also on a sliding scale, so you pick the price that best fits your budget.
about katy
writing in community, with support, was the most important thing i did for myself during the dissertation process - something i wrote about here - and the PhD i have proves that they work. i know firsthand how isolating it can be to feel like the only one who doesn’t get it, who is struggling, who finds all of this really really hard - so i made Thrive PhD and especially summer camp for everyone who is feeling that way and doesn’t want to anymore.
Thrive PhD started in 2017 and has touched thousands of people all around the world in all kinds of fields. read more about my background and mission here. when i’m not at my desk, you can find me gardening, hiking, reading on my porch, or taking a nap with one of my cats. as far as summer camp goes, i was a water kid so sign me up for all the canoeing, lake swimming, lifeguarding, and beach-book-reading you have!!
