Category Archives: Graduate School

A Personal Letter to Students from your Chair

*Disclaimer: The following document does not necessarily represent the views of the APAGS Committee or APAGS staff.

To the student community:

It is with a heavy heart that I write this message to you in the wake of the Hoffman report. The report’s claim that some leaders in psychology were involved in inhumane or unethical actions that in any way supported torture is inexcusable. As your Chair and current Board of Directors representative, I believe it is my responsibility to include you in my personal process, and certainly in the actions of APAGS.

I am acutely aware of my privileged status and want to own this before delving into this letter. My position within APA affords me additional information and understanding of our organization that few students have. As a Board member, I have had access to the report for a longer period of time, giving me additional space to work through my thoughts and feelings.

Speaking to my personal process, at different points during my reflection I have felt my faith in psychology shaken almost to its core. The last month or so has been the most difficult and challenging time of my professional career. I personally was shocked, discouraged, and appalled while I read and digested the findings of the report. I went through periods of denial and anger. I often feel confused and unsure of how to effectively move APAGS forward through this crisis and represent you all well. I feel unclear about how to be a good leader in these difficult moments and am turning to my mentors and fellow leaders for support and guidance.

Like me, many students feel lost, confused, disappointed, and unsure of how this organization can continue to be a home for their professional careers. Some students are wondering what these findings mean for their futures. These feelings are legitimate, and the questions students have about whether to remain involved in APA are fair. Indeed, the following weeks, months, and years will be difficult times for our APA community. Although I certainly do not have all the answers for how to move forward at this time, I do want to let you know explicitly what action steps APAGS is taking now to ensure that the student voice serves as an active agent of change in APA.

Our current action steps include:

  1. The APAGS Chair-Elect and I co-wrote an informational post that can be found on the gradPSYCH blog.
  2. I am co-authoring a blog post with Angela Kuemmel, Co-Chair and Public Interest representative of the Committee on Early Career Psychologists, on reasons to stay involved with APA. This post will highlight the unique position students and ECPs are in to create change within the organization. When this is available, you can access it at the same link as above.
  3. Your elected and appointed APAGS Committee and Subcommittee Chairs are holding calls to discuss the report and work toward actions steps APAGS can take.
  4. The APAGS Committee is formulating the best and most efficient way to collect feedback from students and deliver this feedback to APA governance so that student recommendations have a prominent position in the decisions being made by APA.
  5. We are discussing creating an APAGS position statement after eliciting feedback from members like you.
  6. We are encouraging continuing student presence in governance and encouraging you to reach out to us. Please know that you and all fellow student members of APA are represented on APA’s membership council, the Council of Representatives, by me and by Christine Jehu, Chair-Elect of APAGS. You should feel free to contact us anytime (emily.voelkel08@gmail.com; christinejehuapags@gmail.com).
  7. To all fellow APA Convention attendees:
    1. Provided that Council is in open-session, please come by to listen in to the governance process. The schedule and format of Council is still being created, so please understand it is possible an open-session might not occur.
    2. I encourage all my peers to attend a town hall meeting on the Hoffman report Saturday, August 8th from 3pm to 4:50pm in the Convention Centre to process your thoughts and feelings openly about the report.
    3. As I write this, APAGS is actively discussing holding a students-only forum in addition to the general town hall. Stop by the APAGS booth for updates and location information about any of this.

As you digest the report and reflect, I hope you will find ways to remember why you have been proud in the past to be a part of this Association and continue your membership so that you can influence change. I know that despite the wealth of good APA and APAGS does on a daily basis, the report’s findings cast a shadow over that goodness. It is our collective challenge to hold both the good and the ugly together. It is our duty to steer APA in directions that restore our confidence and preserve the field of psychology for the future. I have full confidence that the involvement of students and ECPs is necessary to right this ship and create an APA based in integrity, ethics, and a commitment to human rights. When and if you are able, I encourage you all to join with me in hope. Hope that we can create a better APA together.

Emily Voelkel

A Message from your APAGS Leadership in Response to the Hoffman Report

Fellow students,

The last few days have not been easy ones for our APA community. As many of you are aware, David Hoffman’s independent review report became public Friday (you can view the report and the Board of Director’s response here). If you are like us, you have likely experienced a variety of emotions while reading the report and conclusions. It is a sad and difficult time for us all.

In the coming weeks, APAGS is committed to providing you updated and additional information as it becomes available. The Executive Committee of APAGS (the current Chair, Chair-Elect, and Past-Chair) and staff are working diligently on the best ways to communicate with our membership and ensure the student voice is heard throughout this process.

In the interim, we wanted to highlight a few things:

  • There are many voices responding to and framing the findings, particularly the media. We encourage you to read the report in its entirety so you can be fully informed and respond with all the information.

  • Actions are being taken with the future of APA in mind, particularly to ensure a strong APA for students and Early Career Psychologists (refer to the initial action steps in the report from the Board)

  • The student voice has been, and continues to be present, heard, and valued throughout this process as members of the APAGS Executive Committee are at the table in our roles as Board member and Council Leadership Team (CLT) representative

  • For those of you attending Convention, we encourage you to attend the planned Town Hall meeting to voice your opinions. We will post information about the Town Hall as it becomes available.

  • On the APA website related to the Report of the Independent Reviewer, a public comment section was added where anyone can add comments and those comments can be viewed by members and the public.

We remain hopeful that through this process we can learn and grow together, creating a strong and vibrant future for psychology and our association.

Sincerely,

Emily Voelkel (APAGS Chair, Board of Directors) and Christine Jehu (APAGS Chair-Elect, CLT representative)

 

Finding a Mentor @ APA

vision-communityWhat is a mentor?
I’ve had several mentors in my grad school career, but I don’t always realize it. The number is often higher than what I typically think, because, like many of us, I tend to think of mentorship as a formal relationship with someone who is more senior in terms of age or authority. The first that comes to mind is an academic advisor, a dissertation chair, or a clinical supervisor. It’s important to remember that some mentoring relationships are between folks who are fairly equal in age, position, or other status; the mentorship can also be rather informal (e.g., meeting a colleague or peer for coffee). As APA’s guide for mentors and mentees sums it up, a mentee is simply someone who learns from another.

Why should I look for a mentor?
I turn to different mentors for different things: how to manage work-life balance, thinking about academia and family, how to respond to a particularly snarky reviewer letter, how to return low grades and difficult feedback to my students. Some mentors give me concrete advice and assist me in developing skills, others model how to cope with stress and validate my work boundaries of saying “no” to extra tasks. Speaking as a woman, finding lady-mentors in the field has been extremely helpful: most of us tend to feel more motivated and identify more with mentors who share similar qualities and identities as us. More than this, the research shows that mentoring works. Those with mentors tend to do better and feel better on the job compared to people without mentors (Clark, Harden, & Johnson, 2000; Elman, Illfelder-Kaye, & Robiner, 2005).

This raises the (valid) issue: what if you don’t have a reliable mentor in a particular space or job? Navigating jobs and academics as a graduate student is made more difficult without guides. That is why being intentional about networking with potential mentors at APA can be so important.

Being Intentional: Looking for Mentors @ APA
If you are like me, you are rather introverted. The term ‘networking’ makes you want to crawl into your snuggie and watch five episodes in a row on Netflix (see my post in the coming weeks on networking!). Mentally prepare yourself:
• Reflect. What support do you most need at this stage in your training? What type of mentor (formal, informal; clinical, academic) would be most beneficial, and what do you need from them?
• Don’t forget to think horizontally! Remember that mentors can be other students. Making connections for academic, social, or emotional support and feedback with a student outside of your home program can lend you new perspectives on things.
• Set a plan. Look through the Convention programming to see where you could best network to begin a mentoring relationship. This includes APAGS programming (check out the Food for Thought programs!).
• Remember your manners. A lot of people like to mentor in a variety of ways, but the bottom line is they are still providing you with their time. It’s up to you to initiate contact and to be up front about your goals. APA has made a handy chart (which also shows the do’s and dont’s for mentors, if you want to see how the other half should operate!) for you to consult.
• Don’t take it personally. Some people are just so awesome we all want them to be our mentors (I’m looking at you, Dr. Brené Brown). To be that awesome takes a lot of time, and so sometimes a potential mentor may say they cannot develop a mentoring relationship with you.
Resources:
This post mostly focused on a brief overview of what and how to look for in a mentor at APA. Here are some great, graduate student-oriented resources on mentoring relationships:

• Getting Mentored in Graduate School, by W. Brad Johnson and Jennifer M. Huwe. This is a book written by a mentor-mentee duo and they use their own experiences to write the chapters.
• Sticky Situations in Mentoring, a blog post by gradPSYCH staff Jamie Chamberlin. The post takes readers through how to identify problems in a mentoring relationship and how to switch mentors if necessary.
• Building Mentorships for Success, a blog post by Melissa Dittman, gradPSYCH staff.

I hope to see you in August in networking mode!

References:

  1. American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Mentoring (2006). Introduction to mentoring: A guide for mentors and mentees. http://www.apa.org/education/grad/mentoring.aspx
  2. Clark, R.A., Harden, S.L., & Johnson, W.B. (2000). Mentoring relationships in clinical psychology doctoral training: Results of a national survey. Teaching of Psychology, 27, 262-268.
  3. Elman, N.S., Illfelder-Kaye, J., & Robiner, W.N. (2005). Professional development: Training for professionalism as a foundation for competent practice in psychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36, 367-375.

Editor’s Note: Stephanie Winkeljohn Black is a student at the University of Louisville and a member of the APAGS Convention Committee.

Internship: Thoughts from the Thick of It

Internship: Thoughts from the Thick of It

by Christine Jehu, MS

I have read many accounts from students about the internship application process and what life is like after internship, but I have not seen much written from interns who are in the thick of it. I want to share some of what I have learned over the last nine months that I hope will help those who are preparing to go on internship. To provide a bit of context, between October and January I lost my father, uncle, and grandfather, which offered considerable ups and downs during the last five months of my internship experience. Some key experiences and relationships stand out that helped me through this year, which I try to capture for you in the list below. My hope is that regardless of the circumstances you face while on internship, the takeaways below will help you in some way during our internship year.

In no particular order, here are my 7 takeaways from the thick of internship:

  1.  Your internship cohort is critical. The truth is we aren’t all going to be pals or best friends simply from matching together. Intentionality is critical when building a foundation within your cohort. Take some time to consider what you want and what you need from your cohort, and clearly communicate that early in your time together. – Our cohort decided personal and professional support was important to us. Each week we take a group selfie, go to lunch together, celebrate holidays, and explore the city together. We say that we hit the “intern jackpot” and it feels completely true! Our collective intentionality has fostered an amazing year and friendship between us.
  2. Find an ally on staff. Make a point to cultivate relationships with people on staff. Find someone who you feel safe with and you feel you can turn to. This could be, but does not have to be your direct supervisor or training director. Be clear as you establish each relationship and share your hopes for the relationship as they become clearer to you. – Having a trusted member on staff has been a saving grace for me on many days when I needed to cry and had the space for it, or needed to have an honest and supportive reality check from someone who has witnessed multiple cohorts of trainees. These relationships can be life changing, personally and professionally.
  3. Imposter syndrome is real folks, be ready for it. You’ve probably heard it before, possibly when you entered your program or maybe on your way out. For me it hit full force smack in the middle of internship. Everyone kept asking, “so what’s next?” or “are you doing a post doc?” I would smile and simply respond with, “I’m not sure yet.” When inside I was thinking, “oh my gosh, can I really be a psychologist? Who let me get this far?!” For about a month I wrestled with imposter syndrome, and man was it rough. Remember that trusted ally in #2 – key player during that month!  I can tell you all day long to be ready for it, but the reality is everyone’s experience of imposter syndrome is different and it strikes at different times (likely when you least expect it). What I can tell you, is YES you are supposed to be right where you are. YES you are meant to be a psychologist. NO you did not get where you are now on a fluke. Reach out for support, remember your why you started this crazy intense rewarding journey, have your freak out, and keep moving! You’ve got this!
  4. Maintain your connections. Many of us have to relocate for internship. It is really easy to pack up your home, get in the car, and never look back or keep in touch, because the immediacy of these relationships significantly decreases. Friends, please work to maintain your connections with people in your program cohort, your faculty, friends you made in the city where you went to school, and your family. People in your program and faculty know you and who you are as a developing psychologist. They are the people you want in your corner when the imposter syndrome strikes or when you are applying for post-docs or jobs and cannot for the life of you articulate strengths or growth areas. Just as in #1, intentionality is key. Write it in your planner or put reminders in your phone to call, text, or email these people once every two months or so to touch base. – I’ll be honest. I have not been awesome at this. When my dad died, I lost touch with many people. I am slowly rebuilding those connections, and the past few months have been tremendously different.
  5. Find YOUR balance. I trust you’ve heard this time and time again, and probably find yourself telling your clients this very thing. How many of us truly take our own advice? You know yourself. You know what it takes for you to thrive under pressure – you’ve been doing it for at least the last 3-5 years (thank you graduate school). You don’t lose that when you change cities and become an intern. Stay true to you and do what you need to stay healthy, focused, and balanced. It’s okay to set boundaries, to say no to invitations, and to have fun. Do what works for you.
  6. Be clear about what you want and don’t try to do it all. When you start internship you will write out a set of training goals, identify areas you want to improve in, and then you will be offered a shiny beautiful list of everything that is possible to get involved with on internship. I felt like a kid walking into a candy shop! Everything sounded awesome. Three months from the end of internship I can assure you that you will not have time for it all and you will be okay. Stay true to yourself. Remember your goals for the year and the goals for the few years following. Use those to help you make decisions, and when in doubt talk with your training director about what makes sense for you.
  7.  My final suggestion, and you may have picked up on it throughout, is to be true to who you are! You’re entering a new situation. You will be offered many unique opportunities. If your cohort is geeking out about something but it’s not your jam, that’s okay! If you are the person who likes to go to the gym on a Friday night rather than happy hour, go to the gym! Be you, 100% you.

Editor’s note: Christine Jehu, MS, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Memphis and is currently the Chair-Elect of APAGS.

 

Living at the Intersection: Reflections on the Graduate Student Experience

Welcome to APAGS‘s new blog column on intersecting identities! Each of us has a complex combination of personal identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability status, and other life statuses like parenthood. We hope through this series to give voice to those complexities. Each month a student author will share reflections on their experiences at the intersection of their many identities. Join us each month to hear new stories and insights from students across the country!

Two Chairs, One Life

Vanessa Martinez-Morales_ASU Counseling PsychologyGuest columnist: Vanessa Martinez-Morales, Arizona State University

I invite you to join me in my counseling room where I have invited myself to engage in a two-chair exercise for two of my identities; one is for the proud Mexican-Cuban first generation American and another is for the burgeoning bisexual woman. Both these women share a parallel process: my denial and acceptance throughout the years. I brought these women here today to discuss their most recent endeavor in graduate school. I sought to explore their challenges and experiences in navigating this new environment. The two are in unchartered territory; they are both strangers and family; self and others; in synchronicity and in isolation. Today they focus on one conversation and one understanding.

Mexican/Cuban: Starting graduate school I felt pressure to perform and to prove that I, and others like me, deserve these kinds of opportunities. I wondered if I was accepted for my abilities or for the marketability of a program that accepts “students of color.” I felt a weight on my shoulders to be the best “Latina psychologist” I could be. I struggled with the absence of one image of what that would look like. And I began to search for that image.

Bisexual:  I was fearful that others would find me out and cast me off as “unprofessional, confused, unstable, attention seeking, and dishonorable.” I had no worries that my presence gained me admittance into the program, but rather fear of exclusion. I thought I could easily separate myself from the graduate school experience and let you take over. After all, I believed you were who was best equipped for this sort of thing, at least out of the two of us.

Mexican/Cuban:  I felt you “shy away” and I wanted to include you but I didn’t know how. I could barely find a “Latina psychologist” to model myself after and I admit I didn’t want to complicate my search any further. So I let you have your own friends and enjoy yourself socially, and I stayed in class, attended the faculty parties with my male partner, and worked hard to establish our academic identity. I resented your freedom.

Bisexual: You thought I was free! How do you think it felt to bite my tongue anytime sexuality was discussed in class? To only share my questions with myself? To seek only this underground railroad of friendships where I could be assured safety? To feel your doubt and questioning anytime I showed even a glimpse of myself? At times I felt I needed to be free of you and your worry that we wouldn’t be seen as a “real Latina” if I joined the conversation.

Mexican/Cuban: I am sorry. My heart races when you speak but I want you to join me. We will create our own image; our reflection.

It has taken three years for the two of you to begin this conversation. I only ask for the courage to continue and the maturity to understand that reflection on our disintegration will lead to our integration.

This column is sponsored by the APAGS Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity and the Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity. Are you interested in sharing about your own navigation of intersecting identities in graduate school? We would be happy to hear from you! To learn more, please contact the chair of APAGS CSOGD (Julia Benjamin, jzbenjam@gmail.com) or CARED (James Garcia, jjg0136@gmail.com).