One of the biggest challenges in doctoral education is creating an intellectual community such that students can not only engage with their field and its pressing challenges, but can also learn how to become scholars with all the social norms, epistemologies, and ways of being and interacting in the specific community of one's discipline. This type of learning extends beyond the intellectual understandings of one's field and requires an ongoing social engagement with both novices and experienced scholars. Fostering an intellectual community takes an intentional effort that often runs counter to prevailing norms and practices of academia. This article describes a purposeful strategy which fosters reflection and community building with a newly matriculated cohort of PhD students enrolled in an educational research and policy program. Three faculty members agreed to the department head's request to create and facilitate a year-long extracurricular professional seminar--a series of coordinated monthly activities. This article describes one part of this intervention wherein faculty and new doctoral students met regularly to engage in an extended reflective activity. Examples of student work are provided.