Tag Archives: APAGS

5 Tips to Start Your Graduate School Year Off Strong

By Ashley Wojcik

The beginning of a new school year can bring about a mix of emotions. It is normal to feel excited about the start of a new chapter, but also anxious for what is ahead. Graduate school specifically invites financial, social, personal, and intellectual challenges that can be difficult to manage. In this post, we have compiled some tips for surviving and thriving in a new year of graduate school. 

  1. Communicate With Your Support System Before Starting School 

Before going into a new or stressful environment, it can be helpful to talk with your family and friends about how you are feeling and what they can expect in terms of your availability. Some people struggle to garner support from those around them in their pursuit of graduate education, so you should be prepared for those difficult conversations. Remember to be honest about why it is important for you to go back to school, what you hope to accomplish, and how they can best support you. 

  1. Prepare for a Busier Schedule 

Going back to school as a graduate student can be a different experience than your undergraduate years. In many cases, you may have already spent time working and will have to readjust to the academic lifestyle. If you have a family or children, this can be another commitment to juggle. Even if you have gone straight into graduate school, you may find that the combination of research, courses, and other responsibilities such as being a TA is a heavier load than you experienced as an undergraduate. It is important to set realistic expectations so you can be kind to yourself. Forgive yourself in advance for the late nights and busy days, while also remembering to build in some time for self-care.  

  1. Give Yourself Grace in the Beginning 

Summer breaks notoriously lead to some loss of information learned in the previous school year. This depletion only increases if you have taken more time off from school. When starting graduate school, you should be ready for an adjustment period academically. Prepare yourself to endure a learning curve in the beginning and to allow yourself time to review previous material before you can learn new concepts.  

  1. Understand That Student Life Has Changed 

If you spent time out of school, you may quickly recognize that things have changed since you were last a student. Student culture, expectations, and resources are changing all the time. Additionally, the graduate student experience is inherently different from the undergraduate, so even if you went straight into graduate school, you should prepare for those differences before you begin. For example, many people complete their graduate degrees while working or juggling other things, so the schedule may be different than you are used to. Your curriculum may be more research-based, with smaller classes, and closer connections to your professors than you were used to at the undergraduate level. 

  1. Keep an Open Mind 

Like anything else, your mind is subject to change in grad school, and you should be open-minded when going into graduate studies. Your area of focus may shift or change completely through your education, and you should be prepared for that and welcoming to it. After all, that is the benefit of a graduate education. The stress you endure is the cost of the knowledge you gain about yourself and the impact you want to have on the world. 

APAGS Asked the 2023 APA Presidential Candidates Questions about Grad Student Issues…. Here is What they Shared

2023 is a huge year for graduate students in APA! For the first time, Graduate students that have been APA members for at least one year can vote for the 2023 APA President-Elect, APA Board of Director’s Members-at-Large, Apportionment Ballots, and Bylaw amendments since being enfranchised in Fall 2020. 

To help graduate students learn more about the candidates and their stances on issues at the forefront of graduate student members, the members of the APAGS Elections Work Group have asked candidates to submit their responses to the following three questions:

  • As APA President, what do you envision graduate students’ roles being in APA’s response to ongoing threats to human rights amidst changing societal circumstances (e.g., affirmative action, removal of EDI courses)?
  • Given research data suggesting financial burden is a significant burden for graduate students, as APA President, what would be your role in responding to the growing student debt crisis?
  • With increased graduate student representation across APA, as APA President, how would you foster leadership development for graduate student members in leadership?

As a committee, APAGS thanks all candidates for their responses and commitment to graduate students! Please note we have organized candidates in alphabetical order based on their last names. You can also view all candidate statements here.

As APA President, what do you envision graduate students’ roles being in APA’s response to ongoing threats to human rights amidst changing societal circumstances (e.g., affirmative action, removal of EDI courses)?

Eric Butter

Central.  Graduate students are central to our work on protecting and expanding human rights.

Our graduate students are our most credible spokespeople and advocates for responding to the multitude of threats to human rights. APA’s graduate students are more diverse, more globally represented and connected, and more cohesive in their perspective on human rights than any other generation of career status within the Association.  Additionally, APA’s graduate students have a responsibility to our future that underscores their standing when addressing human rights.

We should not ask graduate students to stand alone however.  We must invite graduate students to co-design our responses to each threat to human rights we encounter and even the ones we can anticipate encountering. These co-designs should be on-going, planned, and ready to execute. We need to respond, not react, to these threats with a verve reflective of the urgency of our next generation of psychologists and the deliberateness of a collaborative, action-oriented response developed in concert with APA staff and all relevant governance groups.

With graduate students centered in this work, we have the opportunity to not only engage our most motivated and impacted stakeholders, but also our most informed by emerging frameworks, models, and research.

Debra Kawahara

With the ongoing threats to human rights amidst changing societal circumstances, I believe that graduate students can be active participants in APA’s response to critical social issues. The direct impact of these issues on graduate students’ lives, physically, emotionally, and mentally, as well as on their education and training, is real. Many may feel invalidated, threatened, and disenfranchised by the current threats, and I have seen firsthand how graduate students can effectively advocate, protest, and be activists. As APA President, I would like to harness this energy and dedication by forming an advisory/consultative group of graduate student members to provide me with the information about how best to give voice and empower graduate students to act. I would seek a diverse group in terms of an intersectionality of identities, specialties, and stage in their graduate studies. I will listen to what graduate student members believe is the best way to mobilize their efforts in promoting change and advancing human rights in APA and beyond and then work collaboratively with the graduate student members to put this into action.

Margaret Kovera

The recent Supreme Court decisions eliminating considerations of race in college admissions just made diversifying higher education much harder. And the attacks on LGBTQIA+ people and DEI material in Florida classrooms is appalling. But as psychologists, we have the tools to fight these trends and I include graduate students in that “we.” As psychologists, we have the expertise to develop new ways of evaluating admissions materials that will allow us to identify a diverse student body that is prepared for graduate study. We must continue to find new avenues for disseminating our science supporting human rights in this very polarized political environment. With attacks on gender-affirming care, DEI initiatives, and reproductive care, we need to make our science known. As inaugural chair of the Amicus Chair Expert Panel, I have been working to involve students in doing environmental scans of our state and district appellate courts for cases that can be informed by our science. We recently submitted a brief in Colorado in an attempt to protect minors from conversion therapies and are actively seeking a case in which we can weigh in with our science supporting access to reproductive health care. We need help with this environmental scanning, and whether I win this election or not, I would welcome APAGS members to contact me if they wish to play a role in our judicial advocacy efforts.

Grant Rich

Graduate students are the future of psychology. They must be involved, and psychology must be more than merely an intellectual exercise.  Our specialized research and journals are valuable, but psychologists must resist siloes and communicate and advocate for positive social change. Such work means utilizing research to challenge threats to affirmative action and DEI courses. This also means communicating with policymakers and the general public. Psychology graduate students are more diverse than a generation ago, in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, religion, national origin, LGBTQAI2S+ status, disability, and age. Involving our diverse body of graduate students in meaningful ways, such as participation as full, voting members of committees and workgroups will be positive steps towards effective advocacy, and for building our leaders for the future. Graduate students who have recently benefitted from affirmative action, DEI courses, and LGBTQAI2S+ materials in high schools/colleges also provide essential points of view to share with psychology leaders of today, policymakers, and other groups involved with the decision-making. I am optimistic, that working collaboratively with graduate students, APA divisional and national leaders, psychology and society can move forward through these challenging societal circumstances. 

I also advocate for more divisional student listservs and social media outreach.

Given research data suggesting financial burden is a significant burden for graduate students, as APA President, what would be your role in responding to the growing student debt crisis?

Eric Butter

Free.  Graduate training in psychology should be free.

While we must continue to advocate for loan forgiveness programs, we must also explore new strategies to mitigate the financial burden of graduate training in psychology to begin with.  Loan forgiveness is only addressing the challenge after debt has been accrued. I have heard no conversation about alternative funding models for graduate education in psychology. 

Private, for profit graduate school tuition is crushing. It hobbles a career and a life before it starts.  There are too few public university, tuition wavier programs available and too few slots in those programs. Our nation’s greatest public universities have abandoned scientist-practitioner and practitioner-scholar programs for clinical science programs with highly selective admissions.  We have allowed our institutions of higher education to ignore their duty to the public good. 

APA can help our country imagine something different.  With the mental health crisis gripping our nation, public funding for professional training in psychology is a compelling issue. With a combination of direct funding to graduate schools and expansion of service learning programs where national and community service could earn tuition waivers, free graduate school is not a delusion. We should aim high and be bold.

Debra Kawahara

Student loan debt is a serious issue for many individuals who pursue higher education, and President Biden has been proactively seeking to address this issue through student debt forgiveness. However, this action does not address the future. As APA President, there will be several actions that I will facilitate. First, there are congressional representatives who are proposing the elimination of federal work study. APA, along with other professional organizations, should immediately advocate against this action as it would significantly hurt students who rely on these monies as they matriculate through their graduate studies. Also, APA can continue efforts in advocating and soliciting for more funding and scholarships for graduate psychology students from both public and private entities such as philanthropic foundations, healthcare organizations, and public and private organizations or corporations. Another possible idea is for APA to advocate for a program that provides tuition support for students instead of students signing educational loans. In return for the tuition, students could agree to work in areas that are in high need of psychological services or with populations that are underserved. Working with APAGS, the APA Advocacy Office, and the APA directorates and offices will be critical in moving these actions forward.    

Margaret Kovera

In the past, I have participated in APA advocacy on the Hill to increase loan forgiveness funding and would continue and expand on those activities if elected President. Unfortunately, there is only so much APA can do to set costs and funding opportunities at universities, but APA could be proactive in providing educational materials for graduate students that address financial literacy, including the tax implications of fellowships, small grants, as well as costs of attendance (e.g., conference travel), so that students have the requisite knowledge to make difficult financial decisions.

Grant Rich

In my view, step one is for psychology faculty and administrators and APA divisional and national leaders to be better informed about the changes in student expenses in higher education, such as tuition and fees, and the student debt crisis. Some psychology faculty may assume that the challenges are similar to what was present a generation ago. The reality is clear; evidence shows dramatic and disproportionate increases in expenses for students recently, far outpacing general inflation and cost of living increases in broader society.

I firmly believe higher education institutions must clearly and transparently communicate costs and fees to students and must be clear as to post-graduation realities. Colleges and universities must annually conduct surveys to assess information about average student starting salaries and pay trajectories for students and alumni in psychology, and facts about student placements (such as in academe, or outside of academe, and visiting vs. tenure track positions).

I will advocate for national APA level committees and workgroups on this topic, and will advocate for student representation on these groups; I believe representation from multiple, diverse graduate students will be most beneficial as student experiences vary widely. APA can disseminate results from such fact-finding inquires.

With increased graduate student representation across APA, as APA President, how would you foster leadership development for graduate student members in leadership?

Eric Butter

Coaching.  Coaching is underutilized for our graduate students.

For graduate student leadership development, we need to support a learning culture across APA governance that goes beyond mentorship.  Mentorship is important and it happens.  Student leaders gravitate toward dynamic, more senior leaders who are generous with their time and resources. We have formal mentorship programs as well. Often mentors become sponsors.  Many graduate students impress more experienced APA leaders as well as senior APA staff who sponsor them for future opportunities.  This is important.

Yet, mentorship implies a hierarchical relationship.  Typically, an “expert” and more senior professional is providing advice, guidance, answers, skills, and solutions to a more “junior” professional in training.  Coaching is more deliberate, student-centered, and amplifies the student voice.  Coaching can be bi-directional. The coach helps the student become the best version of themselves, while the mentor helps the student become a good version of the mentor.

As President, I would initiate a “culture of coaching”.  Our graduate student leaders would have an opportunity for a confidential, coaching relationship where each student could focus on their own development as a leader, developing their own wisdom, learning from their successes and mistakes, and finding their own way in APA.

Debra Kawahara

Fostering leadership development for graduate student members is important as I believe that graduate students are the future of the field and APA. In August 2022, the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) was created, and the next steps were outlined. As APA President, I would work collaboratively with APAGS and LDI to conduct a needs assessment to identify and communicate established and future programs for leadership development of graduate student members. In addition, providing more leadership opportunities for graduate student members within APA and beyond is important as these experiences build leadership skills. These would include, but not limited to, establishing graduate student positions in the APA directorates and offices; key agencies, foundations, and funding sources such as NSF, NIH, NIMH, CDC, VA, DoD, EPA; public and private organizations; and local, state, and federal departments. The leadership opportunities will hopefully cover the wide range of specialties within our field and permeate those diverse areas with psychologists and our science and knowledge. Lastly, for all of my presidential initiatives, I will have at minimum one graduate student member on each of the initiatives to ensure that the graduate student members’ voice and presence are represented.  

Margaret Kovera

I have experience creating opportunities for graduate student leadership during my previous Editorship of Law and Human Behavior (creating a student editorial board, where student reviewers were mentored by editorial board members so that they could learn the ins and outs of peer reviewing). I would include student members on task forces and other leadership groups so that they could learn through participation in leadership. When mentoring my own graduate students, I find that treating them as colleagues from the very beginning helps them grow their leadership abilities. I would hope to continue such an approach if elected. 

Grant Rich

I have an abiding interest in education and student success; this is clearly demonstrated by the fact I have three co-edited books on diversifying/internationalizing the teaching of psychology, and many chapters/articles on the topic, including in American Psychologist, and am a Division 2 Fellow (Teaching). I have extensive experience- over 25 years- teaching both in brick and mortar and online formats, and have received strong positive evaluations for my teaching both in the USA and abroad. I have supervised many dissertations and theses at several institutions.

My experience tells me that we must do a better job of supporting and involving graduate students early on and through their process, and beyond to the ECP (early career professional) stage. I will work at the APA and divisional level to assess graduate student leadership opportunities and endeavor to build more and better such roles!

Providing students with adequate financial and academic support will free up time for graduate students to more actively and fully participate in research, publishing, and committee workgroup opportunities that build careers, by facilitating graduate student participation in activities where they not only work with APA and divisional and faculty leaders, but also are taking on leadership roles now!


We hope that you will find this information useful as you decide how to cast your vote. Your voice matters! Look for ballot information via email. If you do not receive a ballot, please contact Aliza Epstein.

June Pride Month Twitter Campaign… Presented by APAGS CSOGD

By Liz Deibel

The APAGS Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity is facilitating a Twitter campaign for Pride Month from June 5th to June 9th focusing on the positive aspects of being LGBTQ+. If you have something you want to share about what you’re proud of as an LGBTQ+ graduate student, feel free to post photos, affirmations, or anything else using the hashtags below. Show off areas of PRIDE, whether within graduate school or in everyday life!

Some ideas on how to celebrate Pride:

  • Create art about LGBTQ+ identity and joy
  • Read books about LGBTQ+ characters in positive contexts
  • Attend a Pride event or festivities in your local community
  • Listen to a playlist of music by LGBTQ+ musicians or podcasts by LGBTQ+ hosts
  • Host your own LGBTQ+ film festival with friends
  • Learn more about LGBTQ+ history

Ways to celebrate yourself for Pride:

  • Keep a gratitude log for the month (broad or tailored to your accomplishments)
  • Read over your CV or letters of recommendation to remind yourself of how hard you’ve worked
  • Journal about your growth and what you’re proud of yourself for
  • Connect with an art form or way of expression that makes you feel empowered
  • Take a day off and engage in self-care
  • Wear an outfit that makes you feel powerful and expressive

What are you proud of? Participate in our Twitter campaign using one or more of the following hashtags:

References:

  1. A Brief History of LGBT Social Movements
  2. How to Build Resilience as a Queer Person
  3. How to Celebrate Pride Quietly When You Aren’t Totally Out
  4. Queer joy: what is it and why we need more of it
  5. Celebrating Queer Joy During Pride
  6. Celebrating Queer Joy: Oregon State highlights significant moments in LGBTQ+ history

Announcing the 2023 APAGS PSRG Grant Winners!

It is once again time to announce this year’s winners of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) Psychological Science Research Grant (PSRG)! Every year, graduate students apply for $1,000 worth of funding to provide support for their psychological research endeavors. This year, we are proud to announce a total of 107 applicants were considered for the $12,000 of funding: $9,000 awarded to student researchers with an additional $3,000 awarded to innovative research dedicated to topics on diversity and minoritized populations.

Here are PSRG winners for the general category:

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APAGS-CSOGD: Advocating for LGBTQ+ Graduate Students in Psychology

by Liz Deibel

What is APAGS-CSOGD?

The American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS) has five specialized subcommittees: the Committee for the Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Diversity (CARED), the Advocacy Coordinating Team (ACT), Convention Committee, Science Committee, and last but certainly not least, the APAGS Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity (APAGS-CSOGD). APAGS-CSOGD works to advocate for LGBTQ+ graduate students in psychology as well as the LGBTQ+ community across the United States.

Ongoing Projects:

Resources for LGBTQ+ Students:

Who We Are:

Troy Kearse (he/him), APAGS-CSOGD Chair, is a Ph.D. Student in Social Psychology at Howard University. His research interests focus on understanding how cultural/contextual factors inform individual cognitive processes (stereotype activation) and larger psychological outcomes (stigma) that uniquely impact health of Black, gay/bisexual men using an intersectionality lens. As a member of the LGBT+ community and doing research that centers the voices and experiences surrounding those who are LGBT of color, he is in strong support of the mission and values of APAGS-CSOGD. He is thrilled to be able to help shape and move toward a more equitable and safe future of psychology for graduate students who are a part of diverse sexual orientation and gender communities. 

JD Goates (they/them) is a 3rd year Ph.D. student in the counseling psychology program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Both their research and clinical areas broadly focus on identifying and addressing the impact of systems of power and oppression through multicultural-feminist and liberation psychologies. They are passionate about APAGS-CSOGD because it is one of many possible avenues to engage in critical movement for the overall well-being and joy of queer and trans graduate students.

Lexie Wille (she/her) is a 5th year counseling psychology Ph.D. student at The University of Texas at Austin. She has been serving as a member of APAGS-CSOGD since December 2021. Her clinical and research interests focus on improving the quality and accessibility of healthcare for LGBTQ+ people. She is passionate about APAGS-CSOGD because she believes the committee offers crucial support and resources for her fellow LGBTQ+ psychology trainees.

Tom Schlechter (they/them) is a 2nd year student in the counseling psychology Ph.D. program at Colorado State University. Their research interests include improving SOGI data collection methods, and examining informal and community help-seeking behaviors. Their clinical interests center on providing gender-empowering care informed by Liberation Psychology and Queer Theory. They are passionate about APAGS-CSOGD because they believe that building community and providing mentorship opportunities is essential to supporting the work of LGBTQ+ graduate students and other professionals in psychology.

Liz Deibel (she/her) is a 2nd year clinical psychology Psy.D. student at Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL. She began her work in the APAGS-CSOGD at the end of 2021 to continue her advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights, especially given the ongoing difficulties with accessible gender- and sexually-affirming care. Clinically, she is interested in conducting psychotherapy with LGBTQ+ individuals and relationship dynamics with a relational-cultural theoretical framework. She is proud of the work APAGS-CSOGD does to promote policy change, continuing education, and supportive environments for LGBTQ+ clients and graduate students.

Anna Maralit (she/her) is a 3rd year clinical psychology Ph.D. student at the University of Missouri. Her research interests focus on understanding how dynamic impulsive processes contribute to risky alcohol use. She also has an interest in gender-related diversity issues in the field of addiction. Her passion for APAGS-CSOGD because she believes strongly in elevating the voices and experiences of LGBTQ+ trainees to address long-standing issues of underrepresentation in the field of psychology.

Want to Know More?

If you are interested in becoming a member of APAGS-CSOGD, we will be accepting applications for 2024 in late summer, early fall. If you have any ideas regarding new projects or collaborations for CSOGD to consider, please contact Troy Kearse, the APAGS-CSOGD Chair. Click here for more information.