Autocorrect is Wrong: My Dissertation IS NOT in Disarray

My Beautiful Writing Group: Helping Each Other Stay Focused

I type the word "dissertation" into my iPhone at least twice a day while searching, texting, and communicating with my rather large support group who are with me on my journey to doctora. The Latinas Completing Doctoral Degrees Facebook group now has over 900 members and counting.

Without fail, the autocorrect function, which is usually spot on (yeah right) wants to change the word "dissertation" to "disarray" every time. It got me thinking about the doctoral process in the midst of real life. No matter how focused I try to stay, life happens and then it does begin to feel like my dissertation is in complete disarray.

I recently violated one of the many deadly sins of dissertation writing: I started a new job! Forget about disarray, the dissertation process was at a complete standstill for a whole month while I got acclimated to my new role as Dean of Students and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs. It was an opportunity of a lifetime that happened because of my dissertation and I could not pass it up. Yes, it's true. While gathering data for my dissertation on how race, ethnicity and gender impact the career path and aspirations of Latinas in mid-level administration in student affairs, I discovered some of my own self-imposed limited aspirations. These amazing 26 Latinas who participated in my study provided a much needed mirror for me that showed me how much I had been doubting my professional experience and not reaching for senior level leadership positions.

Without revealing too much of my findings since I am writing about those in my dissertation, it became clear that I was putting my career in the hands of others while I should have been taking control and putting myself out there. So I started applying for positions I once thought were too lofty for me and for which I did not previously think I would be qualified. My research made it clear to me that I was qualified and the amazing thing that happened was that not only was I getting called for first round interviews, I made it to finalist consideration for two senior level positions and ultimately I accepted one of them.

Despite having changed jobs during the dissertation process, thus somewhat delaying the process for me, I have no regrets. I love my new position and I am back on track with my writing thanks to three supportive Latinas and members of the Latinas Completing Doctoral Degree Facebook group, with whom I formed a writing group over the summer.  We have all been encouraging, nudging and what I like to call, having chancleta moments to keep us motivated. (chancleta means sandal in Spanish and a form of parental discipline some of us in the group instantly recognized).

I am exactly where I need to be and I honored my research by taking action in my life because of it. I wouldn't have it any other way. My journey continues and I do see the light at the end of the tunnel with a bonus advancement in my career to boot!

Guest Blogger: Marie Nubia Feliciano at the First International Latina/o Studies Conference

Guest Blogger: Marie Nubia Feliciano

This week’s special guest blogger Marie Nubia Feliciano shares her story about her recent trip to Chicago to attend the first International Latina/o Studies Conference.  Marie also shares a little about her balancing act of being a doctoral student, partner, mom and employee.  I send this amazing woman positive energy, strength and the courage to persevere and use all support systems available for her to achieve her goals, including completing her doctorate and advancing in her career. Marie, we are all behind you and can’t wait to add you to the Galeria de Doctoras Latinas as the future Doctora Feliciano.  Pa’lante hermana!

 

Marie Nubia Feliciano shares her affirming experience at the International Latina/o Studies Conference.  Please read on:

Marie Nubia Feliciano and Dra. Ylce Irizarry

This July, I attended the first International Latina/o Studies Conference with the theme “Imagining the Past, Present and Future."  The conference ran from July 17 to the 19 and was held in Chicago’s Palmer House Hotel. It was the first time I presented on my dissertation topic, the college going experiences of Afro-Borinqueñas both stateside and in Puerto Rico. The experience was very good. I received good feedback on the presentation and was able to hand out my recruitment flyer to those who attended the presentation. I also ran into a fellow Facebook friend from the Latinas Completing Doctoral Degrees Facebook group, Doctora Ylce Irizarry. 

During my time there, I was also able to connect with some fabulous women from the National Conference of PuertoRican Women (NACOPRW) in Chicago. I was first treated to a brunch at Nellie’s, a Puerto Rican restaurant. In the afternoon, I got a tour of Paseo Boricua, the cultural hub of the Puerto Rican community in Chicago. 

The hospitality was overwhelming…I hope to be in the position to pay it forward someday soon.

My journey to where I am today has been full of challenges. With two children, a partner, two cats, and a house to attend to, I am well entrenched in my private self. That often leaves little room or time for the development of my public self. As Michel Martin wrote in the recent National Journal (http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/when-the-conversation-about-having-it-all-begins-and-ends-with-white-women-20140725), I am part of the “transitional generation,” the one who is benefiting from the work of previous generations of women and men who struggled to get the doors of academia open just enough for us to squeeze through. They are now holding the doors open with their sheer will and grit. They hope that enough of us get through so that they can let go and the door will stay open. I am part of that transitional generation who is now charged with doing the work of keeping the door open.

However, being part of that transitional generation also means that I have to deal with 21^st century realities of job insecurity, daycare expenses, and student loans. It means dealing with the microaggressions that have the potential of shortening my life expectancy. It means still having to work twice as hard to be considered half as qualified as a white faculty or graduate student. The struggle continues and I am hopeful. I am hopeful because I am intentional in my engagements with others. 

 

I recently reached out to a faculty person at CSU Pomona to see if we can work together on a project. He said yes and  that this could be a mutually beneficial relationship. I stopped him and said that I am not in the business of trading favors...I'm not big on transactional relationships. I will help him just because I like what he does and want to support a fellow colleague of color advance in the academy. I like to start from an authentic place as often as possible. I put that sense of authenticity out to the world in the hope that it will be returned to me. That is what I lay my hope in. That is what I hope will contribute to the changes that need to happen in academia. I see this as my contribution to keeping the door open for others to follow.

It Takes a Village: Why Asking for Help is Essential to the Dissertation Process

The 700^th person just joined my Facebook group: Latinas Completing Doctoral Degrees, and I am both amazed and humbled at the same time.  Almost a year ago I started blogging about my dissertation journey in hopes that I would find support for my extrinsically motivated self.  The Facebook group then seemed like another way to find additional help and maybe even comfort from a community that I could trust.  Like many other doctoral students, there are myriad feelings that come up for me when I realize that I can’t complete the dissertation on my own.  And when I do admit that I need help, I am careful about to whom I reach out.  This got me thinking: what holds us back from asking for help?

After completing the coursework and comprehensive exams in our doctoral programs, we are told that we should now be prepared to complete a dissertation.  But I don’t think I was unique when I got that terrifying feeling that the task that I was about to embark on was going to be daunting, to say the least.  Luckily, there are now numerous books available (see reference links below) that try to simplify the dissertation process by providing tips, tricks and insight into what goes on in the mind of a dissertating student.  This is one kind of help that works if you are a person that is self-motivated and can follow structured directions like a robot.  However, I am one of those “people persons” with a need for human interaction and ongoing feedback and I already admitted that I am also an extrinsically motivated person.

Unfortunately, the usual dissertation committee setup does not always provide that constant support.  I do feel fortunate that I have an amazingly supportive dissertation mentor and a wonderfully reassuring committee, but they all have many other responsibilities and it is not appropriate for me to expect constant check-ins and reminders.

There are many other instances in our lives that we don’t think twice about asking for help.  For example, I had a recent knee injury that needed a team of people to come together to help me get back to “normal.”  My primary care physician, surgeon, physical therapist, co-workers and most importantly, my family formed the dream team to get me back on my feet literally and figuratively. Everyone did their part to assist me when I needed it and even when I refused to admit I needed it.  There is nothing more humbling than hobbling around on crutches and becoming so much more conscious of the privilege that I have as an able-bodied person (but that’s a blog post for another day). I learned to ask for help and not feel guilty or undeserving of it.  That was more challenging for me than I thought.

So back to the question about what holds us back from asking for help in the dissertation process.  These are some thoughts I came up with:

External Issues: Our intuition tells us that we will be judged and those stereotypes about who does and does not belong in academia begin to show up in the ways that we are or are not actively supported.  The problem is that when we ask for help we are doing a few things:

• admitting we can’t do it alone
• making ourselves vulnerable
• relying on others who may or may not actually be able to help

Internal Issues: Our feelings of inadequacy might creep up and we begin to believe that if we are asking for help we:

• are not capable of doing it ourselves
• don’t know what we're doing
• should have known better than to think we could dare to aspire to accomplish such a significant achievement

I think on both sides of these equations there are some truths, but the bottom line is that NO ONE has ever done anything significant ALONE. Every great invention or accomplishment starts with an idea, but the final version of any great thing came to be because of a team of people who believed in the idea and then used their variety of talents to make it happen. 

This summer I decided to post a question in the Facebook group about creating summer writing accountability groups and I honestly thought that maybe 5 or 6 others might reply with interest.  We now have almost 60 Latina doctoral students from all over the United States, organized in 10 groups.  These writing groups are designed to support each other and provide a variety of online (and some in-person) check-in mechanisms to ensure a productive summer.  I am one of those people who is already benefiting from this initiative. My group has motivated me to spend time in the library and keep going at night when I thought I was too tired to code and write. (Thank you Darleny, Shirley and Daphnie!)

By reaching out for help and seeing my dissertation as a collaborative process I opened up a world of support, hope and love (yes love) that I could never have imagined.  I am grateful and look forward to celebrating more milestones with my newly found support group, um, I mean, summer writing accountability group. ;)

As referenced above, here are some useful dissertation writing resource links:

http://www.abdsurvivalguide.com/dissertationresources/

http://thesiswhisperer.com/2010/11/18/5-books-to-help-you-with-your-phd/

http://juliopeironcely.com/archives/top-42-books-phd-graduate-students.html

http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/dissertations/

One Major Key to Success for Doctoral Students: Building a Supportive Network

I am excited to share that I recently finished collecting data for my dissertation and the finish line is now in sight. I must say I owe it to my amazing committee, my understanding family, my helpful colleagues and a very supportive online network. About a year ago, I was still in the dissertation proposal stage feeling very isolated and alone in the process. As I described in my first blog entry, I was searching for a way to connect with others having similar struggles and could not find it.  My frustration prompted me to start blogging: www.doctoralatina.blogspot.com. The Doctoralatina blog then lead to the creation of the Facebook group Latinas Completing Doctoral Degrees and I am proud to say that it has grown to over 600 members. I am humbled by the idea that new members are joining every day looking for what I couldn't find last year - a support network that understands the unique challenges of Latina doctoral students. With so much interest growing daily, could it be possible that a major factor to doctoral degree completion is forming a strong support network?  I say yes - absolutely!

The beauty of my doctoral program is that it was perfect for someone who needed the flexibility of completing a degree while holding a full time job. The downside was not having a set cohort to bond with, commiserate with and motivate each other to a common goal: completing the doctoral degree. What this means is that it then becomes essential to build your own supportive network.The tricky part is that the people in this network need to understand your unique circumstances. I would venture to say they also need to be one with whom you can be vulnerable and ask questions without the fear of being perceived as incompetent. 

This reminds me of a recent impromptu dinner gathering that happened when I attended a national student affairs conference.  A group of us who did not really know each other before decided to go to dinner together.  It was a very comfortable conversation. We shared work and life challenges and gave each other advice.  It was like we were old friends and could share our stories without fear of being judged. What did we all have in common? We were all Latinas with a shared understanding of the unique issues that we all face in higher education.

I feel the Facebook group has taken a life of its own and has become a place where Latina scholars ask questions, celebrate milestones and share challenges in a supportive and affirming environment. There is something special about having a space to share these experiences, hopefully minimizing the feelings of isolation and the lonely writing process. You can't find this kind of network everywhere and if you don't find what you seek - create it!

So my advice to new (or not so new) doctoral students is to get to know their fellow students and build a social support network as early as possible. Find people with whom you have things in common. For example, if you are a parent, find other parents; if you are juggling classes while working full time, find others doing the same. There are so many commonalities that can connect people enough to form that supportive self-created cohort that can lead to successful completion of the doctoral degree. 

I wish I had found this network earlier in my doctoral program, but no need to lament at this point.  I have not only created the network I needed, but have fully thrived through it and have finished collecting data and am on my way to writing my final dissertation chapters.  I have my faculty, supportive family, helpful colleagues and the amazing online network, Latinas Completing Doctoral Degrees to thank.  Finally, the most important group to thank are the amazing Latinas who agreed to be interviewed for my dissertation study. I can’t wait to tell their stories, so on to coding and analyzing! (More about that in my next blog post - stay tuned.)