PFL logo Career Skills Teaching Programs Responsible Conduct of Research

Preparing Future Leaders (PFL) is the Graduate School’s premiere professional development initiative. By providing transferable skills across three crucial themes of professional development—career skills, responsible conduct of research, and teaching programs—PFL helps prepare graduate students and postdocs to compete in the global market and readies them for fulfilling and successful professional lives after they earn their degrees.

blue hexagon logoLearn more about Career Skills.
green hexagon logoLearn more about Responsible Conduct of Research.
red hexagon logoLearn more about Teaching Programs.

PFL Goals

  • Promote and provide opportunities for students to learn transferable skills to make them more competitive in the global economy.
  • Bring together people from many disciplines to discuss ethical issues society will confront.
  • Establish partnerships with real-world organizations, businesses, and industries by applying education and research to address the needs of society.
  • Support individual and collaborative teaching, mentoring, and internship experiences.
  • Provide programs and resources to support professional excellence in teaching and learning.

The Graduate School’s Vision
PFL is designed to implement and advance the Graduate School's vision. The Graduate School of the future will prepare career-ready students with a competitive edge through a new focus on professionally oriented training designed for the real world. We place motivated, talented scholars in a hands-on learning environment that emphasizes original research, scholarship, extension and engagement, real-world partnerships, teaching experiences, and mentoring by graduate faculty members.

Additional Professional Development Resources

Office of Postdoctoral Affairs logo Preparing Future Leaders partners with the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs to provide a range of professional development opportunities for postdoctoral fellows.
Professional Science Masters logo PFL also collaborates with the University of North Carolina Professional Science Master’s Initiative to offer specialized programs.

All Preparing Future Leaders logos designed by Michèle Wong Kung Fong (Master's of Graphic Design '08).