Tag Archives: graduate Students

CARED Perspectives: Impact of COVID-19 and Vaccines on Underserved Communities and Graduate Students

This post is a part of the series, “CARED Perspectives,” developed by the APAGS Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity (CARED). This series discusses current events and how these events relate to graduate students in psychology. If you are interested in contributing to the CARED Perspectives series, please contact Terrill Taylor, Chair of APAGS-CARED.

By Asia Perkins, Georgina Rosenbrock, and Sonia Rehman

We are swiftly approaching the anniversary marking two years of sheltering at home. At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, it appeared that we were all in this together, that the virus was an equal opportunity offender, and that in a relatively short period of time, things would go back to normal. However, one thing that has been made clear since then is that our communities of color and other marginalized populations are disproportionately affected by this public health crisis. Specifically, members in our Black and African American, Latine, Indigenous Peoples, and Criminal and Juvenile Justice communities have been placed at higher risk for exposure to coronavirus due to lower rates of educational attainment, income, healthcare coverage, and the ability to consistently maintain social distance. For our students from underserved communities, we also witnessed a disproportionate impact on the quality of their virtual education compared to students from more privileged backgrounds (e.g., White, higher socioeconomic status, heterosexual, cisgender). Overall, pre-existing disparities across multiple domains have been, at best, highlighted, and, at worst, exacerbated by this pandemic. 

It is no secret that there is a long history of medical mistreatment, abuse, and torture against marginalized communities, especially against Black, Indigenous, and Latine populations (e.g., Tuskegee Syphilis Study, forced sterilization, lack of anesthesia during surgeries and experimentation). As a result of this pattern of cruelty, infrahumanization, and dehumanization, many individuals who identify as racially or ethnically minoritized have been understandably hesitant to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. However, since the death rate for COVID-19 is highest among communities of color due to numerous systemic factors, this vaccine hesitancy has been particularly concerning. Individuals who did choose to seek out the vaccine faced their own series of challenges. Across the country, the COVID-19 vaccine has been disproportionately distributed to White communities. Additionally, we have observed a disturbing trend of wealthy, White individuals using their money and power to secure vaccine doses that were originally meant for poor communities and communities of color. These trends placed additional pressure and stress on graduate students of color as we watched our communities fight for health equity and struggle to place trust in a system that has consistently mistreated us.

The issues surrounding students are further intensified when it comes to international students in the U.S. For example, the impact of the U.S. government’s executive orders restricting travel from several countries in 2017 was widespread. A recent study showed that international students had to change their travel plans for conferences and visiting families. It also perpetuated fears about their ability to secure jobs after graduation to legally remain in the U.S. (Todoran et al., 2020). International students were experiencing similar fears during COVID-19 pandemic, including worries about maintaining visa status during virtual learning, graduating on time, and finding opportunities to secure optional practical training (OPT) after graduation. In addition, increased loneliness has also impacted these students. Research shows that loneliness affects individuals’ feelings of happiness, cognitive functioning, and physical health (Yeh, 2017). From early 2020, international students experienced isolation from family and friends with decreased opportunities to work on campus and increased expenses due to longer stays in the U.S. While many campuses have reopened for the fall semester of 2021, it is imperative to continue providing guidelines to individuals about the ways to enhance social connections to prevent loneliness.

Much like the communities we serve and reside in, graduate students from marginalized backgrounds have also been disproportionately impacted during the pandemic. The unexpected nature of this pandemic has brought additional costs for technology, housing, and training. Combined with increasingly limited opportunities for university funding and lost wages from off-campus employment sources, our low-income students have perhaps suffered the most when acclimating to this “new normal.” Many of us also lost access to systems of support that promoted our overall well-being, resulting in heightened depression, anxiety, stress, grief, and trauma. Taken altogether, these experiences have called for institutions to better support marginalized students’ emotional, health, and financial needs so they can continue to meet the challenges of pursuing graduate degrees while maintaining their health and well-being.

Overall, these past two years have been incredibly tough and stressful for many of us. While it is unlikely that 2022 will provide all of the solutions for our struggles, we hope that it will offer some moments of peace and healing through self-care, connecting with your community, and structural change.

References

Anderson, G. (2020, September 16). Low-income and students of color in greatest need of pandemic relief. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/09/16/low-income-and-students-color-greatest-need-pandemic-relief

Baggaley, K. (2020, September 18). America has a long history of forced sterilization. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.popsci.com/story/health/forced-sterilization-american-history/

Bhavan, K. (2021, February 4). COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: How to overcome the culture of mistrust. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://utswmed.org/medblog/covid-19-vaccine-hesitancy-mistrust/

Ellis, N., & McPhillips, T. (2021, January 26). White people are getting vaccinated at higher rates than Black and Latino Americans. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/26/us/vaccination-disparities-rollout/index.html

Goodnough, A., & Hoffman, J. (2021, March 4). The wealthy are getting more vaccinations, even in poorer neighborhoods. Retrieved March 8, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/health/white-people-covid-vaccines-minorities.html

Impact of covid-19 on minoritized and marginalized communities. (2020, October 7). Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/health-equity/impact-covid-19-minoritized-and-marginalized-communities

Jane Addams College of social work. (2020, April 29). Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://socialwork.uic.edu/news-stories/covid-19-disproportionate-impact-marginalized-populations/

Laidler, J. (2020, October 30). COVID carries triple risks for college students of color. Retrieved February 24, 2021, from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/10/covid-carries-triple-risks-for-college-students-of-color/

Nuriddin, A., Mooney, G., & White, A. I. (2020). Reckoning with histories of medical racism and violence in the USA. The Lancet, 396(10256), 949-951.

Todoran, C., & Peterson, C. (2020). Should They Stay or Should They Go? How the 2017 U.S. Travel Ban Affects International Doctoral Students. Journal of Studies in International Education, 24(4), 440–455. https://doi.org/10.1177/1028315319861344

Yeh, C. S. (2017, January 13). The power and prevalence of loneliness – harvard health blog – harvard health publishing. Harvard Health Blog. https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-power-and-prevalence-of-loneliness-2017011310977

Submit Your Convention Proposal to APAGS!

Hello Graduate Students!

This year APA Convention will be IN PERSON, in Minneapolis, MN from August 4-6, 2022. The APA2022 Call for Proposals is now open! Submitting a proposal to APAGS as a graduate student is an excellent way to share your research and ideas with a national audience and looks great on your CV!

Any graduate student may submit a proposal to APAGS. APAGS only accepts proposals for programs (symposia, conversation hours, and workshops) and posters (empirical, literature review meta-analysis, theoretical, and case studies) –no paper proposals.

As an additional bonus, all APAGS member first authors receive a one-time registration waiver for APA2022 (you will not be eligible for this benefit if you have received the waiver at a previous APA Convention). When submitting through the online portal, please select “GS” to send your proposals to APAGS for review.

Benefits of submitting a proposal to APAGS:

  • First authors do not have to pay for registration!
  • APAGS does not require sponsorship from a full APA member to submit.
  • You will be presenting your work to a national audience.

Requirements:

  • At least one presenter must be an APAGS member, however, you do not have to be an APAGS member to chair a session.
  • Program proposals should be broad and student focused.
  • Abstracts should be 300 words or less.
  • Theoretical and methodological studies should include: Purpose, Description, Assessment, and Conclusions. Use citations, include a reference list (not included in the word limit).

For more information, check out the APAGS FAQ about submitting a proposal and the APA blog post: Tips for Writing an Effective Proposal.

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.

Continue reading →

A Victory for Graduate Students! A Victory for APA!

On behalf of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) Committee, I am thrilled to announce that the APA Bylaws Amendment “Voting Privileges and New Membership Category for Graduate Students” has passed, securing 68.4% of votes in favor despite the pro-con statement! As a result of this vote, APA graduate student members will soon be eligible to vote for elections for APA President-Elect and Board Members-at-Large, bylaw amendments, and apportionment ballots. This is a huge victory for graduate student members and the Association during a tumultuous year.

As APAGS, we would like to share our gratitude with student leaders who joined with us in spreading the word about this historic vote by sharing it on social media, advocating with your Divisions and State, Provincial and Territorial Psychological Associations, and encouraging your faculty, advisors, and colleagues to vote yes to enfranchise graduate students in APA. This vote could not have passed without you!

The overwhelming support and encouragement from our Association community led APAGS to bring this bylaw amendment to a vote again this year. We would like to recognize the amazing support and say a heartfelt thank you to our allies across the Association and beyond. Thank you to the APA Board of Directors, the Council Leadership Team, the Council of Representatives, numerous APA boards and committees, the APA presidential candidates, and the National Latinx Psychological Association. A special thank you to Divisions 9, 10, 15, 17, 29, 32, 35, 37, 40, 41, 44, 45, and 54 and Arizona, the District of Columbia, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, Connecticut, Oregon, and Washington SPTAs who have publicly supported this bylaw amendment! We would not be celebrating without you!

I cannot overstate the importance of this bylaw amendment and what it means for graduate students and the future of APA. This change means that we will have a more inclusive, diverse, informed, and engaged APA moving forward. Student voices are critical as we seek to prepare the discipline and profession of psychology for the future. 

Our Membership Office has advised us that creating a new membership category for students will appear on 2022 new member and renewal applications. Masters and doctoral students will need to be members for one year before receiving voting privileges as early as 2023. When this happens, students can vote in elections for APA President-Elect and Board Members-at-Large, and on bylaw amendments and apportionment ballots. 

Again, I am so pleased to share this news with you. Our enthusiasm for APA’s future is renewed and our desire to strengthen APA through our voices has increased!  Please feel free to reach out to me or our staff if you have any questions. 

Yours in solidarity,

Blanka Angyal, M.A, M.Ed., Ed.S.

2020 APAGS Chair