Speaker 1: Welcome to Grad Life Grind. If you're new to this channel, thank you for checking it out, and if you're already a subscriber, thanks for coming back again. In this channel, I talk about my life as a PhD student in clinical psychology and bring you information about the mental health field. As some of you may already know, I'm a first-year student in a PhD program in clinical psychology. Earlier this week, I had to write a paper for my social psych class about how I got to my PhD program and really analyze some of the factors that were barriers or facilitators for me. So I make a lot of videos about what it's like being in a PhD program and what classes I'm taking, but I thought it would be helpful to share with you guys all the things that I did or all the people that were in my life that helped me get to this point. So I first want to start with some of the barriers or challenges that I faced in my PhD program. So I'm going to start experience because I think that every student can relate to that. Anyone who's interested in graduate school or medical school or really any kind of career achievement is going to face some kind of adversity. In the paper, I had to analyze things that were directly affecting me and then some like macro level influences over my life, and some of the things that I came up with were the fact that I was raised by a single mom in an urban area of New York City. Money that we had increased over the years, but wasn't always a lot. And so that affected the things that I was or was not able to do at certain points. And representation is something that's super important to me, primarily because being Latina, you don't see a lot of psychologists who are from the same background as you. And so even though I had a lot of role models in my life, including my mom, I didn't have anybody who I knew growing up who did what I wanted to do and look like me. So being Latina is certainly a barrier because we aren't well represented in academia. What I wrote in my paper was about media representations of Latinas and how it's getting better, but overall, Latinas are represented as vixens or sexy in the media, not as intelligent or high achieving. So I'm obviously in a PhD program. I've come this far, and so I was able to defy the odds in that way. But there have been instances in my life that have made my culture very apparent to me, especially in academia. And I think everyone can relate to hearing some things when you're younger and you don't know them. And so I think that's much of it. But then when you get older, things kind of carry over. So when I was in college, I wore a suit to see my advisor because I was talking to her about my PhD applications and interviews. And she told me that if I was going to wear that suit, that I should change my mind and get a new one because the way that it fit my body was inappropriate to go to interviews in. And it was the suit that got me into the program I'm in now. But she literally turned her computer and showed me all these other suits on white models. And I didn't think anything at the time. And then when I went home and told my mom, she was like, she's making a comment about your body and your curves. And I realized that that was kind of a microaggression that I didn't realize affected me until later on. And when I did go to interviews for PhD programs, I noticed that I was like the token Latina, or I was the only person in the room who was from my background. And so I think that there are definitely barriers relating to my culture, related to the resources that were available to me when I was growing up. So another barrier that I had to face was that the advisors and some of the faculty at my college didn't think that I should apply to graduate school when I did. And that was really challenging for me because I really believed that I was ready. And I thought that I was a good candidate. And I think that I got a lot, I heard a lot about needing more experience, being too young. And I think that thankfully I didn't let it stop me. And I ended up getting into a program right from undergrad. But I understand the reason why that advice was given to me, because you really do need, like, it is really so competitive to apply to clinical psychology programs. And it's harder to get in than med school. So I think that the people who gave me that advice weren't trying to discourage me. They were trying to help me out. But in the end, I think if I were a different person, I may have listened to them and I would have missed out on the opportunities that I was given. So of course, I think anyone faces barriers, whether it's media representations or direct treatments or information that you experience. Thankfully, I don't feel like I had that many barriers to face because the women that came before me, like my mom and my grandmother, experienced different adversities that I didn't have to, like immigration, like limited financial resources, like language barriers. All those things were things that I didn't have to deal with because I was born here. I grew up in New York. I spoke English at home. I was always healthy. I never had any, like, disability or physical challenges that made life more difficult for me. So all those things contribute to how you get to the place where you are. So despite the challenges that I did have to face or that my culture or the people in my family had to face, I think that there were a lot of things contributing to my success and working in my favor when it came to applying to graduate school and getting into graduate school and just the education and training that I got before ever considering applying. I went to private school when I was growing up and my mom was able to figure that out and afford it for both my brother and I. And in that process, I had really dedicated teachers who saw me as a candidate for one of the top high schools in New York. And I didn't know anything about that school until my teachers suggested that I apply. And when I got in, shout out to Townsend Harris High School, I got in and the workload was crazy. But part of the benefit for that is that all the classes were honors, AP, and we also had to take some college classes. So by the time I got to undergrad, I had almost a year of credit and I got a full scholarship to college, which not a lot of people have. So I was able to get a full scholarship and have the privilege or are afforded that opportunity. But that was amazing for me because I didn't have to worry about how I was going to pay for school or get loans or incur any debt. So that's one of the biggest blessings that I've had in this whole process. And in college, I was able to graduate in three years instead of four because of the credits that I came in with. And I still had to put in some major hours in terms of like doing summer classes or taking 18 credits at one point in order to graduate in the three years. But once I set the goal, I was like, this is happening. There's no reason for me to wait longer when I know that I want to go to grad school. So while I was in college, I worked for about three years at a medical center and did research on CBT for psychosis. I did my undergrad thesis there. So just the fact that I had to do a thesis was a huge opportunity for me that made me look so much more competitive, I think, on applications because it's hard to do research that is your own when you're an undergraduate. But it was a requirement that my college had. And I already had a connection at this medical center. So I put the two together and I had amazing mentors who really believed in me and helped me overcome the doubts that other faculty members had. And I just worked my butt off and I learned so much from everybody that I could. So throughout my journey, there were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of stress, a lot of tests, a lot of papers, but also a lot of amazing people who helped me get where I am now and just opportunities that were given to me. So the high school that I went to, I was able to do a lot of things. I was able to do a lot of things. I was able to do the college that I went to and the cost of it, which was zero for me. The fact that I came in with credits, which saved me time and money. The fact that I was able to afford applying to graduate school, because as I've said in previous videos, applying to grad school is very expensive. The ability to do research assistantships while I was in college, being a U.S. citizen, speaking English, being healthy and able-bodied. There are a lot of privileges that come with the work that I'm able to do now. And I just thought it was really cool to reflect on that in the paper, but also share that with you guys, because it takes a lot of work and you have to be smart and you have to be dedicated and you have to be goal-oriented. But at the same time, there are some things that contribute to your success in ways that you may not even consider. And I think this is really important to think about because we make assumptions about why people take the paths that they do. And we say like, this person maybe didn't do this because they weren't smart or they weren't hardworking enough. And it's more than that. And I think it's really important to think about that. And I think it's important to think about that. Sometimes people don't have the same opportunities. And this is a social equality issue, because I think that if I were my grandmother or my mother, I would have had a lot more barriers of not speaking the language, being an immigrant, not having a lot of financial resources. And I think in society, we don't think about how big a role those things play. And we think that people in certain social groups just aren't hardworking or smart, when in reality, they're just not given the opportunities. So I think I will share a little bit more about the details of my journey in the future. But for now, I hope that it's helpful to hear all the things that contributed to my admission to a PhD program and the path that I took. I also hope that you'll take a look at your own life and where you are now and think about what barriers you overcame and how you did that. And also what opportunities or privileges you have in society that help you succeed. It's really, really important to be self-reflective. If you plan to have a career in psychology, you're going to have to be self-reflective. If you plan to have a career in psychology or mental health in general, self-reflection and self-awareness is one of the biggest tools that we have. And understanding if you're going to work with clients, understanding how your position in the world is different or the same from your clients. Everybody sees and thinks about the world and experiences the world in a different way. And we often make judgments from our position in the world, not considering other people's. So if any of you have questions about the things that I mentioned from my thesis to the high school I went to, courses I took in college, or if you have any questions about the things that I would love to answer that, anything that's helpful for you guys, if you're applying to graduate school or if you are in graduate school or you're thinking about a career in psychology, I'm happy to answer that. And I'm happy to answer any questions that you guys have about anything or any other future videos that you would like me to do. So I really appreciate you watching this video. Again, my name is Arielle. My goal is to inform you, to inspire you, to spark an interest in you, and hopefully also entertain you. Thank you for checking out Grad Life Grind, and I hope you'll be back soon. Bye.