Cultivating a Strong “Team” of Social Support While in Graduate School and Beyond: You Cannot Do It Alone

By Ah Ra Cho, Senior Graduate Student Representative, Division J

PhD candidate in Higher Education (graduating May 2017), University of North Texas

“I did it all by myself” is not something one will hear any person who graduates with their doctorate.  If you happen to come upon the acknowledgement section of a dissertation, the individual will list multiple people who have supported them throughout their journey. This is analogous to professional sports. Not just one person coaches a professional sports team. There are multiple coaches, coordinators, trainers, nutritionists, and other support staff, who are all in place to carry out the different functions and needs of the team and individual athletes toward success.

Having your team in place is particularly important as one transitions from the coursework stage, where one regularly sees faculty and fellow classmates on a regular basis, to the dissertation stage, where that sense of routine, deadlines, and interactions are no longer in place. Graduate school is tough; it is a journey, a marathon. Social supports are key, both in the level and quality, in helping graduate students cope with stressful events and maintain good health (Goplerud, 1980; Hall, 1969).

What if you are a new doctoral student and unsure who comprises your “team”? Here are some various team members you can consider adding to your team.

Your Graduate Program

Your Peers/Classmates. Peer support networks are particularly critical for graduate and professional students (Hall, 1969). This includes the sharing of information and social value from the peer interactions that occur (Austin, 2002). Some of these social supports will be from fellow students, who are a semester, a year, or multiple years ahead of you and who are willing to let you “in the know” about the program—the culture and the information not readily provided in the open but are crucial to your success.

Some of the strongest bonds I have seen and personally cherish are the small groups or partnerships that form during graduate school. You will often recognize them always together at conferences. They write together, they commiserate together, they celebrate together. This is not bounded to graduate students alone. You will often see junior scholars and senior scholars publish together time after time, many of those bonds formed early on in these scholars’ careers, starting in graduate school. The power of technology nowadays helps keep those bonds going on even after graduation as your “squad/posse/group” go your separate ways to other institutions. These bonds form through similar research interests, possibly an established cohort model, or even organically.

Your Faculty. The quality of faculty-student interaction is an important aspect of graduate school (Hartnett, 1976). Faculty, particularly your advisor, can help you set your “action plan” both in how you proceed during your doctoral program and your future career aspirations. The field of higher education is small, and the networks that your current faculty have can be helpful in connecting you to other scholars in higher education.

Higher Education Groups and Organizations

For graduate students, the “continuum of involvement” in participating with organizations is a distinction that graduate students should consider as they can be incredibly helpful in building those social supports (Gardner & Barnes, 2007).

Get involved with national professional organizations. The main academically focused organizations in higher education include AERA’s Division J Post-Secondary Education and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). Join their graduate student networks and participate in the programming provided year-round such as AERA’s #DivJChat twitter chats or Conversations with Scholars. Both graduate student networks also provide wonderful programming specific to graduate students during the annual conferences which include graduate student sessions, fireside chats, and graduate student socials. Another is to be involved with practitioner oriented organizations, including NASPA and ACPA, which umbrella all of student affairs. There are a myriad of multiple other organizations in higher education that exist which focus on a specific area or specialty, and located at the state, regional, and international levels.

Networking/Social Media

The concept of social support from social media is something I have found to be particularly helpful in gathering a unique type of social support, from those near and far. In my experience, sending or receiving that limited 140 character “encouragement” on twitter can be quite reassuring. Interacting with a fellow doctoral student I have never met in person or seeing posts with hashtags such as #gradschool #sadoc #gradlife #gradschoolproblems has provided me a form of support that someone else in the world is likely feeling the same way I am. Seeing researchers on social media having interests outside of academia also help foster my own striving for a work-life balance in my own personal life. Also, social media is a great way to connect with other graduate students and researchers with similar research interests. This means is particularly helpful for those who have research interests that are unique or very few people in your own graduate program share.

Outside of Academia

The more obvious ones will be your family, significant other(s), etc. This further extends to your friends outside of academia and other social circles you are involved with. Even pets are a great source of support. Sometimes, the best thing to do while in graduate school is to get these people to take you outside of the graduate school bubble. It is important to have interests outside of graduate school, whether that be hobbies, a sport, or other people to count on when graduate school is too much to bear.

Self-Care/Health Resources

I cannot stress enough the importance of having a well body, mind, soul, spirit, etc. to get you through the process of graduate school. Graduate school is stressful and can have an effect on you for which at times, can seem unsurmountable. The feelings of imposter syndrome, loneliness, lack of motivation, and other life stressors can arise in anyone and can hinder progress in your graduate program. Multiple campus resources exist such as the health and wellness, counseling and testing, recreation centers, and a myriad of other areas on campus. Also seek out assistance outside of your institution if needed for therapy or health care issues. Be willing to get help as it is crucial for your overall well-being. Setting healthy habits and practices now will only benefit you towards success in the future.

Conclusion

There is no ideal equation, perfect formula or one-size-fits all of support one should seek from these multiple channels. It may also shift as you become more advanced in your studies, as the needs for a student entering the field will be different than those who are in their final stages of their doctoral program. Keep in mind your personality and specific social supports you need in place to succeed as it differs for everyone.

Finally, it does not stop after one graduates. You are creating a team which will carry you through graduate school and into your professional life. It is important to find an ideal team for yourself that helps set you up for success, supports you through the challenging aspects of graduate school, and celebrates your achievements and milestones for years to come.

To end, this quote by Leslie Knope, from the Parks and Recreation series finale, captures the essence of graduate school and success…

"Now, go find your team and get to work”.

References

Austin, A. E. (2002). Preparing the next generation of faculty: Graduate school as socialization to the academic career. The Journal of Higher Education, 73(1), 94-122.

Gardner, S. K., & Barnes, B. J. (2007). Graduate student involvement: Socialization for the professional role. Journal of College Student Development, 48(4), 369-387.

Goplerud, E. N. (1980). Social support and stress during the first year of graduate school. Professional Psychology, 11(2), 283.

Hall, D. (1969). The impact of peer interaction during an academic role transition. Sociology of Education, 42(2), 118-140.

Hartnett, R. T. (1976). Environments for advanced learning. In J. Katz & R. T. Hartnett (Eds., Scholars in the Making. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

A Post-Election Reflection from a Scholar Activist

By: Susana Muñoz, PhD 
Assistant Professor of Higher Education, Colorado State University

To accurately describe my current state of mind post-election would require more text than this blog allows. I will say, I continue to feel anxious, fear, anger, and disappointment, and with every new appointment made to the President-elect’s cabinet, I feel that I am living in an alternate universe. Yes, a world where education and relevant work experiences are no longer necessary for key cabinet positions, where common sense loses to impulsive reactions, and where white supremacy ideologies are permissible under the guise of free speech (not hate speech) and white pride. When folks urge me to give our President-elect a chance or encourage me to wait and see what happens before I make any assumptions, I immediately think to myself, “It must be nice to sit with that kind of privilege”.   In fact, urging people with minoritized identities to push past our pain, you not only enact privilege by erasing our right to feel/exist, but you also uphold white supremacy. For those of us still struggling and grappling with our new political reality, it’s ok still to feel what you feel. For those who are watching us struggle, offer your love and support constantly.

As an immigrant Chicana scholar activist, who works with and for undocumented immigrant communities, the last few weeks have been laced with both moments of hope and moments of despair. Days after the election results, undocumented students on my college campus gathered in solidarity to publically disclose for the first time ever that they are “undocumented, unafraid, and unapologetic.”  I beamed with pride and wondered if college campuses across the nation would show just as much courageous leadership in pushing the immigration discourse as the students on my campus demonstrated. I worry about the consequences our society will burden if colleges and universities remain silent on impending deportations, the elimination of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order, and registry for Muslims. Let me be clear and state that our country has always endured the public health impacts of deportation, immigration raids, and family separation, our President-elect just happens to be much more forthright about deportation than his predecessors. I caution educators and administrators from solely focusing on college students as our central position of advocacy thus creating the “deserving and undeserving” immigrant binary. Our focus must also include families, those who have been detained in deportation centers for minor infringements. We need to advocate and fight for all immigrant and religious minoritized communities and not just a privileged few.

Most disconcerting are the more overt anti-immigration actions and violence inflicted by others. I was devastated to hear that a member of my own community was at a local convenience store at night when he felt someone tap his shoulder. He turned around only to find a white-identified man who asked him, “Are you Mexican?” He replied, “yes” and then felt the full force of a punch across his face. Because he fought back and because he was undocumented this incident went unreported. In fact, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 867 hate incidents have been reported since the election. For most undocumented students I work for and with, I see pure emotional exhaustion as they grip to any sense of normalcy all while trying to wrap their heads around how much will change and the impact this change will have on their families and their communities after the inauguration day. While I’m grateful that over 500 college presidents have signed the Pomona College petition to support DACA and sanctuary campuses are emerging across the nation, I know deep in my heart these actions are not enough.  

Audre Lorde has taught us, “when we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” Colleges and universities can no longer be silent. Our education professional associations cannot be silent. We as individuals, cannot be silent. We need to mobilize and organize with our local communities. We need to take our knowledge and research to the streets. We need to engage with those who cannot access our conferences and classrooms. We need to stand up, demonstrate compassion, and speak out against these continued injustices happening in our communities and across the nation. I believe, in our current time, this is a character defining moment for higher education. If we fail to stand with the most vulnerable populations in our country than we need to ask ourselves, “what do we really stand for?”

Are we really delivering the U.S. classroom experience we promise to undergraduate Chinese international students?

by Gabriela Valdez, Ph.D, Consortium for North America Higher Education Collaboration, 
The University of Arizona 

 

Admission offices around the nation have discovered there is a huge demand of Chinese international students who want to study in Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) in the U.S. It was estimated that only 2% of Chinese students have access to higher education in their country (International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project, 2009), which creates a very competitive entrance process to Chinese national schools. At the same time, a large middle class who can afford to pay international student tuition paired with the perceived prestige of U.S. institutions, creates the perfect environment for U.S. recruiters targeting Chinese international students. But are we really delivering the U.S. classroom experience we promise to undergraduate Chinese international students? This was one of the questions that inspired my research around classroom experiences of Chinese international students in the U.S. and I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no, we are not delivering what we promise, well at least according to a group of Chinese undergraduate students interviewed.

Institutions of Higher Education in the United States have gone through a series of budget cuts in recent years. Just in Arizona alone, the state cut 99 million from universities and 19 million from community colleges in 2015 (Beard Rau, 2015). This and other reasons have forced IHEs to become more and more creative about generating funds. One common practice is to attract international students, especially Chinese international students, who tend to be self-funded (China Education Online, 2012) and who now represent the largest group of international students in the U.S. with more than 300,000 students in the U.S. higher education system (Farrugia & Bhandari, 2015). As U.S. institutions continued to attract more Chinese international students, the relevance of the quality of their classroom experience and their role in that setting becomes more important.

On my quest to answer the aforementioned question, I started by conducting a synthesis of research based on 15 peer-reviewed published studies about classroom experiences of international students, in which there was an overrepresentation of Asian students. It is important to say that my intention was to focus on Chinese international students, but the lack of published studies forced me to adopt a broader scope. After analyzing reoccurring themes that included classroom differences, classroom participation expectations, and denial of equity in education, I was able to identify six classroom practices that instead of including international students into the U.S. classroom experience, excluded them from these experiences (Valdez, 2016).

On another instance, I interviewed a group of Chinese international students about their classroom experience in a specific university. While most of the participants preferred the American classroom practices over practices in China, their perceptions about the way American students and faculty perceived them were conflicting, especially in relation to profiling and attribution of stereotypes. There was also a discussion about the internal identity conflict of being Chinese, which most participants linked to negative attributes in the classroom setting, and being “Americanized” which was linked to positive attributes (Valdez, 2015).     

I was also able to conclude that there was an overall sense among Chinese students interviewed of non-membership and non-belonging to the U.S. classroom environment based mainly on perceptions of classroom exclusion, low language ability, inability to meet unfamiliar expectations and attributions of stereotypes. Something very interesting was that after hearing from students about their classroom experiences and their perceptions of not being very active, I noticed that these students were very engaged in their academic activities, but were engaged in ways not visible to the mainstream classroom environment. As an illustration, participants reported studying an average of 19.5 hours a week in order to prepare for their classes, a number that they considered to be significantly higher than their American classmates. Their invisible engagement was also illustrated by their high engagement in written discussion of academic concepts and their ability to apply their knowledge to concepts in an international and intercultural perspective.

There is no doubt that with the presence of nearly a million international students in the classrooms of U.S. colleges and universities (Farrugia & Bhandari, 2015), professors have a great opportunity to internationalize their curriculum and classroom environment. Unfortunately, it takes more than just having an internationalized curriculum and having the presence of international students in classrooms to take advantage of a truly international classroom. As we internationalize and diversify our colleges and universities in the U.S., it is also important to diversify the way we teach and the pedagogies we use. It is unrealistic and unproductive to expect every underrepresented student to engage in the U.S. mainstream classroom environment which has been historically influenced by white male values.  It is now the time to start thinking about a critical pedagogy of internationalization that goes beyond the internationalization of the curriculum and reflects the complex and diverse ways of learning that are now represented in our higher education classrooms.

The implementation of a critical pedagogy of internationalization could potentially fully incorporate Chinese and international students into the classroom environment, their perspectives and their endless contributions. This is something that will not only benefit every student involved in that classroom setting, but will contribute to creating a richer learning environment.

Gabriela Valdez, Ph.D.

Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration

The University of Arizona

gvaldez@email.arizona.edu

REFERENCES:  

Beard Rau, A. (2015, May 13). Arizona Tops Nation in College Cuts, Tuition Hikes. The Arizona Republic, Retrieved from http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/05/13/midnight-arizona-tops-nation-college-cuts-tuition-hikes/27221021/

Farrugia, C.A., & Bhandari, R. (2015). Open Doors 2015 Report on International Education Exchange. New York: Institute of International Education.

International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project (2009). A Brief Description of the Chinese Higher Education System. Retrieved from http://gse.buffalo.edu/org/inthigheredfinance/files/Country_Profiles/Asia/China.pdf

Valdez, G (2015). U.S. Higher Education Classroom Experiences of Undergraduate Chinese International Students. Journal of International Students, 5(2), 188-200.  

Valdez, G (2016). International Students Classroom Exclusion in U.S. Higher Education.  Campus Support Services, Programs, and Policies for International Students. (pp. 35-56) Hershey, PA: IGI Global. Doi:10.4018/978-1-4666-9752-2.ch003