Yesterday, San Diego Mesa College hosted a UCSD Psychology graduate student meet-and-greet for LatinX Heritage Month. I thought it was a massive success! I think it’s important to continue outreach opportunities with budding/curious/future researchers, especially when they come from groups that are underrepresented in academia.

The students were highly engaged, which made me happy. I think we could have gone an extra hour! The topics we covered were:

• financing graduate school
• what skills should be developed before applying
• classes to take before applying
• navigating adviser-student dynamics
• narrowing research interests
• pursuing research opportunities as an undergrad
• the pressures of graduate classes
• the impact of COVID-19 on research productivity and running human participants
• the common myths surrounding the graduate school experience
• separating self-worth from productivity and a study’s success
• mental health

If you are considering graduate programs in psychology, feel free to reach out to me via email (find my info here: contact). People helped me get to where I am. I’m happy to be that person for you too.

-A.Y.