Tag Archives: graduate school

Dear Graduate Student

Our COVID-19 anniversary has come and gone. What exactly did we all endure? I am sure there has been an array of thoughts and emotions. As students…

We navigated a new world.
We cradled our pets.
We watered our plants.
We sat in virtual meetings.
We started a new hobby.
We tended to our families.
And maybe we lost motivation along the way.

We received our diplomas through a screen.
We cheered while reviewing acceptance letters.
We had dived into our research.
We passed our competency exams.
We defended our dissertations.
We matched.
We got our dream post-doc job.
Or maybe we grieved because… we didn’t.

We welcomed new agendas on the horizon.
We felt a sense of self.
Maybe we lost our identity and faith in the world.

We shared disappointment as well as delight.
We divided.
We bound.
We were strong.
We were tired.

It has been a tough year, and I simply want to acknowledge what you have encountered as a graduate student. Your lives are dynamic and beautiful.

With that said,
I validate the feelings that you are having.
I honor your story and experiences.
I encourage you to find safe supports with whom to share your triumphs and pain.
I invite you to embrace the present moment and breathe.
I stand with you precisely as you are.

Finally, I would like to remind you that:
You are capable.
You are loved.
You are enough.
…That is all.

Grant-Writing 101 for Graduate Students

Mary A. Fernandes, Leslie S. Gaynor

During graduate school, many psychology graduate students will have the opportunity (and necessity) to pursue grant funding in order to support their training or thesis projects. Approaching the process of grant writing can require an immense amount of time and preparation, and it can be daunting when you are writing a grant application for the first time. Below, we have provided some basic steps to help you organize your efforts. 

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The Only Queer Latinx in Ohio: The Start to My Graduate School Experience During a Global Pandemic

This blog post is a part of the series, “So Good,” developed by the APAGS Committee for Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. This series will discuss current events and how these events relate to LGBTQ+ graduate students in psychology. If you are interested in contributing to the “So Good” series, please contact Mallaigh McGinley (they/them).

Going into graduate school during a global pandemic was not in my plans when I was applying to programs in the fall semester of 2019; it was also not in my plans when I received an acceptance to a Ph.D. program in Counseling Psychology in February 2019. What was in my plans was the fear and process of needing to find a community of queer people of color in a new location. Surprisingly, this process was easier than expected despite being in a time where isolation is sanctioned. While this pandemic has created much uncertainty and anxiety in my life, it has also opened my eyes to the importance of community. The Latinx community I grew up with all my life prepared me to understand that community provides support and can relate to experiences I thought I was going through alone; this is what I needed as I began my journey into a new graduate program as the only queer Latinx. Over the last nine months, I have seen my grandparents lose their income source, I have moved to a different state, and I have never had more access to a supportive community than I do now. 

My birthday was the first day of quarantine in the state of Illinois back in March 2020; it was also the day I realized my maternal grandparents had lost their source of income. Ever since my grandparents moved to the United States from their hometown in Aguascalientes, Mexico, they have been working as photographers – taking photographs for baptisms, confirmations, quinceñearas, and weddings in churches in Chicago. Unfortunately, they have not been able to earn an income since the start of lockdowns. Thankfully, the Mexican community in Chicago is very community-oriented, and because my grandparents are well known with many Mexican Catholics in the area they have received a lot of support. Their connections in the community were not evident to me until I helped my grandma pick up food at a Chicago Public School food drive and we were waiting in line. During the one hour it took for us to go through the line, my grandma talked to all those around us, about how their daughter was doing, how they were dealing with lock down, and memories from Sunday church, among many other things. Even during a time of uncertainty and isolation, my grandma fostered connections to others and thrived emotionally from a social distance. In my experience, I always understood that being Mexican meant being in a tight-knit community that supported each other, but the depth of that connection did not hit me until I saw my grandmother smile through her face mask while talking to others in the line.  

I regretted not forming that kind of connection at home with others who shared that identity as I began my journey to moving away from home and my family for the first time. Moving from Chicago to Akron, Ohio was a terrifying endeavor, not only because I would be in a place I had never been to before and away from those I love, but because I did not know how much those around me would accept me. A queer Latinx is not a new concept in the middle of a big city, but was it new to a small city in the Midwest, much less my program? It has felt like it as I have looked for panaderias on Google and have only come up with the Wonder Bread factory 0.7 miles away and a Starbucks located on campus. It has felt like I was the only nonbinary individual at my university every time I have needed to correct a professor about my pronouns. I know I cannot be the only queer Latinx in Ohio, but this is how I felt as I began navigating my first semester of graduate school. I did not inherit my grandparents’ ability to find community wherever they went and this was clear with every pang of homesickness. 

My circumstances were not all that hopeless as I did have a supportive cohort and graduate program. Ever since the interview weekend, I introduced myself with they/them pronouns. While I have heard my professors slip up in using them, they continue to do better and catch themselves when they make a mistake. My cohort members have been consistent in using my pronouns, even offering to correct our professors if they use the wrong pronouns. Although these people have been the ones I interact with the most, they are not the only supportive group I have found. Surprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has opened many doors to me for finding my community, and it has done so virtually. Through social media, I have been able to join groups where people share my identities and share resources. One of these resources has been virtual meetups to network with others, one of which was specifically directed at transgender and nonbinary graduate students in psychology. Here, I was able to ask questions that no one in my graduate program could satisfy, such as “Should I disclose my pronouns to my students?”, “How open are you about your identity with faculty?”, and many others. There have been so many more groups I have been able to join through virtual means that have helped me to feel closer to those in my communities and my own identity, even if I am living in an unfamiliar place. 

Almost a year since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I have seen my grandmother still feel connected to her neighborhood, I have become the first in my family to move out of state and to pursue a graduate degree, and I have felt connected to my identity through the support of my cohort and from those online. Despite living through a time where isolation is expected, I have never felt more linked to others in my life. Knowing what I know now, I would advise my younger self and others that face similar challenges to find their community and supporters. While it may not look how I expected, it turned out better than I could have hoped. Going to graduate school during a global pandemic was never in my plans, but I am glad to have gone through my first semester knowing I have others I can look to for support and I am excited to continue doing so for the next five years. 

Janessa Garcia is a doctoral student in counseling psychology at the University of Akron. They received their bachelor’s degree in psychology and women’s & gender studies from Roosevelt University in Chicago. Their research interests are focused on the evolution and exacerbation of post-traumatic stress symptoms for those who experience gender-based violence. 

Introducing the “So Good” Series: Sharing LGBTQ+ Graduate Student Perspectives

The APAGS Committee for Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (CSOGD) is proud to introduce a forthcoming blog series exploring the unique needs of LGBTQ+ graduate students in psychology, including experiences at the intersection of multiple minority identities. The series, titled So Good, will showcase narratives authored by winners of the first-ever APAGS-CSOGD Writing Grant. The initial inspiration for this series was based in admiration of the consistent, timely, and informative blog posts shared through the CARED Perspectives series, sponsored by the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity. The series was also intended to build upon prior blog contributions by CSOGD under the leadership of J. Stewart to support LGBTQ+ research and psychology.

Our vision for this series was to provide a space for LGBTQ+ students to share their diverse personal and professional experiences, with the explicit intent of amplifying voices that have historically been excluded from dominant narratives of the “typical” graduate student experience. Culturally inscribed understandings of leadership traits and styles are often grounded in white dominant norms (Ospina & Foldy, 2009; Parker, 2005) and APA leadership, including graduate student leadership, tends to be predominantly white. Such representation does not reflect the increasing diversity of psychology graduate students, who embody a range of racial and ethnic minority identities (Michalski et al., 2019; Bailey, 2020), as well as sexual and gender minority identities. As such, we were determined that this project go beyond an illusion of diversity, as is often true of institutionalized projects of “multiculturalism” (Ahmed, 2006, 2012; Stewart, 2017). Thus, this series reflects nuanced depictions of students’ lived experiences, integrating rich personal narrative with exploration of unique research areas salient to the student authors. Another goal of this series was to provide students with support in navigating the authorship process. As graduate students we are aware that it can be challenging to publish in a peer-reviewed journal as an early graduate student. We hoped this series would provide students with the opportunity to engage with a formal submission and review process, including built-in editorial support, and result in an additional item for their CV.

The Current Project

This series emerged from discussions with the CSOGD 2019-2020 members as students navigated a challenging year through the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing racialized violence targeting Black folx, and the 2020 presidential election – in addition to the typical stressors of graduate school. As we planned the series, we were aware that LGBTQ+ people, especially LGBTQ+ people of color, have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, across various safety and financial concerns (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; Katz-Wise, 2020). Given the disproportionate impact on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) LGBTQ+ graduate students, we prioritized these narratives in our call for submissions. We therefore also felt it important to provide financial support to the student authors for their time and for sharing their stories. Obtaining funding to pay people for writing is a complicated task, particularly in a large system like APA. We were lucky enough to work with APAGS staff who supported our vision for and values underlying this project, and through their dedication and ongoing collaboration we were able to secure a small grant to award the hard work and openness of our writers.

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International Students in Psychology: An Overlooked Group?

The number of international students enrolled in U.S. universities declined since the 2016/2017 academic year (Institute of International Education; IIE, 2019). While data for the years 2019/2020 are yet to be released, there is no doubt that trend will continue to decline given the abrasive conditions that foreign students continue to experience in the U.S. With the addition of a pandemic, systemic racism and police brutality, and specific policies differentially targeting immigrants and immigration, international students’ concerns are currently exacerbated by substantial threats to the continuation of their academic journeys and ambitions.

International students in psychology have been uniquely impacted by the institutional changes in response to the syndemic. Some of the direct effects to this population span across the areas of their immigration status, academic responsibilities, career opportunities, financial stability, safety, and mental health and wellbeing. Often these concerns are overlooked or not prioritized.

International Status: The stringent immigration and visa regulations applicable to international students in psychology have compelled them to limit their experiences and access to opportunities. The current syndemic in the U.S. only exacerbates this system. Students are unable to renew their existing visas and/or obtain authorizations for further training, disrupting the sensitive timelines for foreign students and professionals to commence and/or complete training; it also interferes with their ability to remain within status thereby creating extreme worry about lawful presence and work in the U.S.

Academic Responsibilities: Given the unsettling current presentation of COVID- 19 in the U.S., home governments have requested that certain populations return home. While programs have offered online instruction to these students, the significant time differences between the U.S. and students’ home countries have made learning an arduous task and minimally satisfying. Additionally, the inability to be physically present interferes with international students accruing practicum hours to secure externships and internships. As such, international students may be severely hindered in their practical experiences and hour accumulation, ultimately being disfavored when applying for internships and externships.

Career Opportunities: Students in various stages of their program encounter unique situations posed by the syndemic. Those nearing the conclusion of their program (often in the phase of dissertation and/or internship completion) are having to make critical yet unfavorable choices about the future of their career. After having invested 5-6 years of their life in the U.S., often away from family and friends, these students are absolutely hopeless about securing further training positions in the U.S. The current hiring freeze has resulted in international students in psychology returning to their home countries in seek of job opportunities. Further, given the status of psychology in their countries and the students’ subspeciality, these positions may or may not be related to their educational background.

Financial Stability: The budgetary cuts to university grants resulting from the syndemic have directly impacted international students. As a population who by default experiences an array of severe restrictions to the type of work, hours of work, and types of funding they can receive before the syndemic, the budget cuts have threated their financial stability the most. Students are having to rely on family and personal funding to fuel the continuation of their graduate education and livelihoods. These personal funds have to amount to tens and thousands of dollars to meet the unjust semester course requirement and outrageous out-of-state tuition expenses.

Mental health and wellbeing: There is, by default, a natural burden to the one’s mental health and wellbeing that comes with being a foreign student. Having to leave family and friends and start an educational journey while also attempting to maintain academic tasks, obtain financial stability, adjust to the cultural differences, navigate the international paperwork and immigration updates, and find social support are just a few. Unfortunately, the syndemic only worsened the circumstances for this population, where students are unable to travel to visit their families or fear the return to the U.S. upon leaving. Additional stressors are related to the lack of support and direction international students are receiving from their programs, departments, and international offices on campus, often leaving students to advocate for themselves. Furthermore, the same time zone and physical presence restrictions that impact practicum work restrict the ability of international students to access campus resources, even when they are available. These times can be truly isolating.

International students are truly resilient, persistent, and fearless individuals (Lee, 2013) and under the toughest circumstances, they are also helpful to one another. However, this population is needing and deserving of more systemic and institutional regard to navigate these new regulations, now more than ever. By providing limited to no support or advocacy, governing bodies, programs, departments, and intuitions are neglecting and overlooking a population that significantly contributes to a portion of the cultural and ethnic diversity in the field of psychology.

References:
Institute of International Education. (2019). Open Doors 2019 infographics. Retrieved from http://opendoorsiie.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Open-Doors-Graphics-2019.pdf

Lee, K. C. (2013) Training and educating international students on professional psychology: What graduate programs should know. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 7(1), 61-69. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0031186