Episode 59: Productivity during your PHD with Allante Whitmore
Introduction:
Hey friend, the time has come to finish your dissertation, graduate and become doctor. Welcome to office hours with Dr. Lacy where we talk about how to finally master this time management thing so you can stay on top of it without losing your mind. Every Wednesday you can find a new episode wherever you listen to podcasts. Make sure you hit the subscribe button to make sure you never miss an episode. I'm Dr. Marvette Lacy, your dissertation writing strategist here to be with you along every step of the way and I would like to thank you for coming to today's office hours. Let's get started on today's episode. Hey, before we get in today's episode, I want to let you know about finish your dissertation. Do you know about it? It is my signature group designed to take you from being candidate to doctor. I'm talking about getting the structure you need in your dissertation process so that you can show up every week consistently and focused on achieving your dissertation goals. We meet on a weekly basis to really make sure that you're maximizing your time and that you know the exact activities you need to focus on to move your dissertation forward and best of all the community is the best thing out there. I mean, we're talking students who are dedicated, who are supportive, who will hold you accountable when you need it, crushing their dissertation goals . So if this sounds like anything that you would be interested in and you could use a little bit more focus and accountability in your dissertation process, then you need to come on over to Marvettelacy.com and learn more about the finish your dissertation group? Also, you can schedule your next step call while you're there so that we can have one on one time to talk and discuss skill your dissertation in your needs to make sure that finish your dissertation is going to be a good fit for you. Again, you can go over to Marvettelacy.com to learn more. Now let's get on to today's episode.
Meet Our Guest!:
Welcome back everyone to a new episode of office hours with Dr. Lacy. I'm so excited to bring to you another interview. And today it is fun because you meet people or you follow people online and you're like, I wonder what they're like in real life. I don't know, but I'm just gonna keep following them and supporting them along the way. And that is true of today's guest. So I'm going to allow you to introduce yourself. Who are you, where are you and what do we need to know about you?
Guest:
Sure. Well, Dr. Lacy, first of all, thank you so much for letting me even come onto your office hours. My name is Allante Whitmore. I am a third year joint PhD student in civil engineering and engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. And I also host a podcast where if I talk about my experience as a Back grad student, but I super excited to be talking with you today and sharing my experience so far.
Going For The PhD (Dr. Lacy):
Yes, thank you so much for being here. I'm excited. So my, one of my favorite questions to ask people is like, why in the world would you go get a doctoral degree?
Guest:
And I don't recommend it to everybody. I promise. I have friends often, Like should I go back to grad school? I'm like I have a whole list of reasons why you shouldn't. But for me personally, I decided to go back to graduate school in 2016. One reason was because my GRE scores were about to expire that I took in 2012 and I was like, okay, if I'm going to be this PhD thing, this is the year to do it. So kind of having that in the back of my mind, knowing that my GRE scores are going to expire, I decided to, I was working at the time. So I finished my master's degree in biological engineering in 2014. And I was working in Detroit running the McNair Scholars program at Wayne State university, which is a local university in the city. Well, while I was there, I was literally sending students off to PhD programs. Sending them to master's programs. Um, helping them prepare for graduate school and getting really excited for them but also like a tinge sad because I realized like, man, you know, I definitely still have this dream of getting and earning my PhD. So with that kind of being committed to me every day working in the grad school kind of prep space and then knowing that my GRE scores were going to expire, kind of solidified that the 2016, 2017 application cycle was going to be my cycle. And I spent some time that summer prior to the application cycle, actually volunteering to make sure that I enjoyed research. So every Friday I took the day off and I drove up to the University of Michigan to volunteer at a chemical engineering lab, at a lab there at University of Michigan just to kind of get back into the swing of things and like confirm that I loved it, loved the process of research and creating knowledge and doing research in like the environment that is present in research. And I realized if I'm willing to do this for free, uh, and on my day off or taking the time off of work to do it, then I think I'm pretty committed to it. And that was kind of the beginning of getting everything ready for applying.
Dr. Lacy:
So in a past life of mine, I also thought I was going to be a chemical engineer.
Guest:
Oh, wow!
Dr. Lacy:
I went to my, between my junior and senior year of high school, I applied and was accepted into the minority engineering program at MIT and cause I was like, I'm doing this so I'm going to go to the place where you learn how to do it and at least see if I have the chops for it. That six weeks taught me a lot, not only about myself, but about like I didn't want this life. It's what I said and so I left there saying, you know what? A chemistry high school teacher, that's what we're going to do. Cause I didn't want to leave the hard sciences, but I was just like, nah, I did my first all nighter and I was like, you know what? I'm, I'm good. I'm good on that. Um, and I'm going to teach the people how to be scientists. Um, so I think that's funny. Yes. Well we we need, we need to, we need to, I love this piece of, let me go and see if I like the idea of research. Um, I was just having this conversation earlier with someone about you don't know what you don't know and people have all of these misconceptions about different programs. So especially as we get into like the social sciences and people start thinking about PhD, EDD, like which one is right and people have these stereotypes about each one. And it's like if you don't have any experience or relationship with research, you really don't know what you would be into. You don't know if you can be in a lab all day. You don't know if you can conduct research. If you like it, you have these ideas, but until you start it, you don't know. And so I really love that you were like, let me go and see on my free time if this is going to work out for me or be something that I would really like to engage in.
Guest:
And honestly it was useful because I realized and that experience that I did not like the lab anymore and I didn't want to do that type of work anymore. I, but I still wanted to be in the research space. So like even for someone who might be thinking about like, well what if I don't like it? You can still glean something from that experience. Like I said, clearly I'm not in chemical engineering now, but I still was like, okay, I do like the research. I like the aspect of creating new knowledge so I can hold onto that and let's pivot on what exactly we're doing for the research. And I also recognize a privilege I had to have a position so flexible where I could go volunteer. So I understand that everyone might not be able to do that. But even if you are joining the calls for like a research group, which most professors are, you know, they can't like they'd be open to that if you're just joining in on the calls. If they have 'em on like the group meetings and they're available through zoom or whatever. Just something to kind of keep in mind for those listening who might be like, well I don't have the free time to go to a lab, but maybe you can be a part of the journal club that that particular lab or group is doing.
First Year PhD Experiences (Dr. Lacy):
Oh, I love this. Thank you for that tip. So I'm curious, you did this work, you're like, listen, the scores are about to their about to expire. That was also my story too. I think I got them like the last month. And you did this and you got in. How were your expectations met or not met when you got into that first year of the program?
Guest:
Right. So I, since I took the time to work between my masters and PhD program, I was, I feeling very uh, anxious about my ability to perform in a classroom again. I also, because I was working at a university, I did take like a class, but I didn't take it as seriously because I kind of knew that I was taking it as practice. So it wasn't that helpful. But I will say my expectations were exceeded in the rigor. Like I kind of, you kind of forget how rigorous grad school is until you are back in it. And the program that I'm in engineering and public policy, that particular program is a little different than like your traditional engineering classes. So even at the graduate level, engineers are still pretty much in lectures. We still get homework, we still have exams. I know in social sciences it's a lot more papers and discussion. That is not usually the case for engineering courses. With the exception for me, uh, was my engineering and public policy core classes, they had to generate a curriculum because that's not like, it's very interdisciplinary. So it's not really like your typical engineering structure. And so those classes were heavy discussion and essays, which I just did not have to do before. You can kind of just answer the question and with a lot of engineering stuff, it's math two plus two is four every day, all day. Whereas when we started talking about the nuances of policy and science policy and technology policy, which is what we really focus on in that particular program, not only was the content, um new for me also the format, so I spent a lot of time my first year just kind of getting comfortable with speaking up in class because I was used to just not really having to do that.
And I think I just kind of struggled at first with the amount of reading and the amount of the, just the, the just the complete overload for, this is just one class of like three I was taking that semester. So I still had my normal format of engineering classes. So I think in that way my expectations for the rigor were exceeded because it was just so much new to me and being a little, a couple of years out the game threw me off a bit. So I think that was probably the first thing. But socially I was anticipating like this really, really excessively isolated experience. And I will say the program that I'm in, both civil and EPP, those departments in at CMU make a point to at least attempt to be really inclusive and like they have a social events and a lot of things. So there were opportunities for me to really get to know the people in my cohort and in my department. Um, and, and especially that the cohort is very tight knit. And so that actually really, really was a surprise for me. I expected to kind of just be by myself, um, where now admittedly I can self isolate but it's not because the opportunities aren't there. So that has been, that was something that also exceeded my expectations with going there.
Dr. Lacy:
Yes, come on positive experiences because I mean I feel like what usually rises to the top are people who have not so positive experiences and they make it seem like the only way to go through this process is to be miserable and lonely and like there's nothing that's good that comes from it. And so it's like, why would someone then want to follow your footsteps if there's like nothing positive around it. Right. So what, where are you currently in your process?
Guest:
So I'm in my third year, um, because I already had a master's degree when I joined the civil engineering department. I actually took my comprehensive exam that semester, like the fall semester after the fall semester between fall and spring, I took my comprehensive exam for civil. Then the following break between fall and spring I took my EPP is the shorthand for engineering and public policy, comprehensive exams. So I'm done with that. I'm wrapping up coursework and I'm planning to propose my thesis this summer. And so I'll be writing away my life for the next about year and then I'll be done.
Transition To The Thesis (Dr. Lacy):
So do you, and maybe you don't have one, but you have any thoughts about how you're gonna plan your time or just your approach to writing your thesis? Because it can be a transition for folks who are coming from classes, coursework into writing.
Guest:
I, I haven't thought it all the way through admittedly but something cool with the departments I'm in is we actually have a three paper dissertation. So, um, what that means for anyone's who's not familiar is we write three papers with the aim of publishing all three and then we put those together. I think we might add like a background, lit review kind of chapter and that is the dissertation. So I've already completed really like one and a half papers. The reason I say half is one paper technically is my lit review, but we're trying to get it published because the work that I do is like relatively novel, but that doesn't really count as my three. So I have to write, I've written two and I have two more to write. So technically we'll have four papers but only three were really count in this, this structure that just explained. So I have the goal is to get the second, I mean you see the third paper like off the ground, the first paper is in review. The second paper needs to, I submitted it at one place. I'm trying to find a new home for it. Hopefully by the end of the semester I could have that figured out. The third paper is structured and analysis is taking place. And in the last paper I would love to start by like the end of the year and then spend my last year finishing up those last two and getting it together. That's kind of what hoping for, but we'll see how it goes. Timeline wise, I feel like what I have learned is in grad school, whatever timeline you make, be ready to be flexible.
Tell Us About Your Research (Dr. Lacy):
Flexible. Yes. Um especially when you're having to navigate publications and their timelines or lack of timeline, that's real. That is awesome. Would you be willing to share a little bit about your research?
Guest:
Oh yeah, absolutely. So what I look at is how we are going to deploy autonomous vehicles. So driverless vehicles specifically as it relates to them being integrated with public transit. So when we have shared autonomous vehicles on the road or autonomous vehicles on the road period, the least ideal situation is if those vehicles are, everyone's driving their own vehicles the way that we do now. Because if everyone driving their own autonomous vehicle, the same transportation issues we have now with traffic and congestion or with, well really that was traffic and congestion are just going to exist except you get to, you don't have to worry about it cause you're in the car. Whereas if we have a shared approach where our autonomous vehicles are on the road in a kind of Uber pool, Lyft line kind of structure and they are connected to an integrated with public transit, not only will, um, we have a better system but we can maybe potentially incredibly reduced traffic and congestion and as well as like greenhouse gas emissions from single occupancy vehicles. And really the main culprit of a lot of our issues and the pollution that takes place in the transportation sector as it relates to like just regular travel is because so many of us just drive our own vehicles everywhere. So my work, what I hope for my work is to motivate a deployment of driverless vehicles, autonomous vehicles in a way that really improves mobility for everybody equitably and actually like improves our transportation situation as a whole. So a lot of my work has literally looked at like what does that look like? How would these systems be put in place? What are the operating costs that are associated with that? What are the environmental impacts are associated with that and kind of things related to that area.
Dr. Lacy:
Has there been any pushback or anything from folks as you've been engaging in this work?
Integrating Stakeholders' Thoughts (Guest):
Not directly, no, but I, I try to make sure that I keep my ear to the ground about stakeholders, different stakeholders and their thoughts on the work that I'm doing or just about, you know, shared mobility and autonomous vehicles. And a lot of the concern, you know, at least from the perspective that I'm looking at is like the future of the labor workforce as it relates to transportation. And I think like that's outside of my scope. But I know it's really, really important. It's something we're really going to have to figure out. And another concern is like trust in the technology. Personally, I think that the real missing piece is just a lack of exposure. Not like I've been riding around in a bunch of like share time vehicles or shuttles because I haven't, but I have written in one or two and I felt comfortable in one or two. And I think that as we, you know, transition, it might be the same as people going from, you know, street cars to drive to vehicles or like just one personal vehicle when Ford came out. I bet there was push back going from horse to automobile, you know, and so of course it's gonna be pushed back from going from automobile to driverless vehicle. So I think as we just continue as early adopters get into it and we see the data and if it's gonna not going to be that hard of a transition after that first hump. So I, I'm not that I discount the distrust factor, but I just think it's literally just because of a lack of exposure and understanding then like just true distrust or, um, like fear.
How Do You Write? (Dr. Lacy):
So when you think about, I, I'm, I'm curious always about how people approach writing and working. What is your personal approach to be able to do so? I mean you have, you know, what one could say a lot going on and we could definitely, we will definitely get to some of that. Um, but just curious about how do you keep yourself making consistent progress, showing up to write, um, and not getting too stuck in your head to be able to continue to produce writing.
Guest:
Dr. Marvette, we might have to change this into a session because I, I struggle, I struggle. Okay. That's, that's the honest to God truth. But I definitely make a point to, I believe in like being true to self and I know I work better in batches so that means sitting down and just getting a bunch of stuff done versus like incremental progress. Now I'm trying to make more, get more batches and increments if that makes sense. Because the truth of what I've understood is like writing is such a big task. Um, as it relates to like finishing graduate school and getting this, earning a PhD that I cannot sit down, you know, in six months and write my whole dissertation like that is not going to be a good idea. So I do really well with like challenges or like accountability groups. Those are things that really helped me to stay accountable with my writing and having to tell someone what I've done and that I've, that I've completed what I want it to complete. Writing wise, I also maintain a writing log. So I read a really good book called Becoming An Academic Writer by Patricia Goodson. And I really recommend that book if you're someone who doesn't feel like you're writing is the strongest.
That's definitely something that I am working on. Um, as I, as I go through graduate school is just like improving my confidence as a writer. But that was one of the exercises that she introduced near the beginning and it has been really helpful in helping me like think through what I'm writing and the way it's flowing. And so really I would just say the writing log and kind of wanted to start a streak plus the accountability kind of are the things that keep me motivated and keep me writing consistently. Now as it relates to my work, I again, um, implement like a batching process. So like Monday and Tuesdays are research days because my meeting with my advisors are Tuesday afternoon and then Wednesdays and Thursdays and Friday, half of Friday is like my classwork. Saturday is my podcast and Sunday is my, is another work day. So it's not perfect. I work every day. I do, but I'm typically, my pace is good. So I don't mind working every day cause I find my pace is pretty good. And then, um, I travel to take breaks. So that means there might be weekends or three or four days where I'm just, I, I don't get anything done. But that is my break since I worked every day.
Dr. Lacy:
I love this and I want to, I don't know if people could hear me hitting my mic, but I want people to pay attention to a few things that you said. One, you have a schedule that you stick to and people get into this thing of like it has to be perfect and that it has to be planned all the way to the last detail and sure if that's your style, it's your style. But here, what I want folks to realize that you have a schedule that you follow consistently, even if it's not like that every week, but it's some, you know, that you can go back to this system. Two you spoke about like writing accountability groups and needing that outside support and accountability for someone and be like, Hey girl. Hey, what'd you doing? Did you do it? You said you're going to do this. Did you do it? Or even just knowing that you're gonna show up, um, you're gonna meet other people, right? That's a big thing of, Oh, I can't just be like, Oh, I'm going to sit here and watch TV because I told so and so I'm gonna meet them, or whatever that's on Zoom. Wherever that is. And then planning your time around your chair so that you can show up with something. A lot of times people are wasting their whole chair's life and time by going in there and you keep talking about the same thing every week, but you ain't did nothing between the meetings. So I love that. I love it. Thank you.
Journaling Helps (Guest):
Yeah, it's not perfect. Like you said, there are weeks when my productivity wanes and I have to address it. Right. And for me that, that looks like journaling. I have to live, like I used to kind of avoid writing, writing about my struggle with writing or writing about my challenges in school and my journal. But I feel like at least this year it's been really helpful and clearing my mind. Cause sometimes it's just a bunch of like, I'm overwhelmed. I just need to write that. I mean literally just write that down. Like I am overwhelmed with all that I have on my plate, but then I'm able to, seeing it as like, okay, well let's, let's, let's troubleshoot this. How can we change our mindset about this? And typically I find if I'm getting, I find myself really, really stuck, I will do that. Or, um, even like as I read a book or something, read something that'll motivate me to move forward. But yeah, the schedule, the scheduling is key for sure.
Dr. Lacy:
Yes. And again, we didn't have a conversation before this. Um, but I like joke all the time that my clients get mad at me cause I'm like, you need to journal. And they're like, Oh, I don't know what to write. Your thoughts, if you don't like this right now, write that. So like you said, like I'm overwhelmed. You write that people think like I don't have the time, this, that's not going to be helpful. And I'm like, see that's why you sitting there at your laptop right now you can't write because you have all this happening in your mind. Get it out. Yes. So thank you. Listen. I just need to just cut that and just play that for everybody. So they, they, they get it. Now you in addition to being well I'm sure an awesome student, you also decided, you know what? Blk + Grad School, that's why we don't do that too. How, why, how, and why. How do you do all the things? Tell us how did it come to be all the things?
Creating Blk + Grad School (Guest):
Surely, surely. And let me, I want to just still shout out like Dr. Lacy because she was like definitely top 10 Twitter accounts. Like first top, first 10 accounts, I followed when I started the podcast. Like I've been following for so long on Twitter, it's kind of like blowing my mind that were actually talking and meeting digitally. But the way I started the podcast was it was like a coming of a lot of different parts of my life. So I am definitely someone that I, I self identify as a serial entrepreneur. I've had a couple of dabbles in entrepreneurship prior to graduate school and none of them just really took off or like even were as fulfilling as I wanted them to be with the exception of when I used to do a pop up brunch that I really, really love. But um, you cannot really be that social in graduate school. So I had to transition. So I wanted to like continue like in this entrepreneurship creative space. Like I just realized I was always drawn to it. Um, in addition, I participated in a program called a new leaders council. So it is a progressive training program for millennials who, um, they want you to be kind of change makers and policy or like any part of the world. There end up being a lot of like lawyers and educators and like healthcare professionals, kind of like the Detroit cohort. And, um, and the very first week we about a concept called life entrepreneurship. And in that session it was kind of just the idea of like, what do you love? What are you passionate about, where your gifts and talents. And it was like, well, I really love creativity and storytelling I'm really passionate about this whole academic life.
Um, but I'm also very passionate. Well, and I'm very passionate about like Black folk, Women of Color. And I had already tried blogging and blogging. I, you see, I really struggle with my writing and my research, so I was not going to put more writing on my plate, vlogging, power to all the people with YouTube pages. I am low key stiff in front of a camera when I'm trying to record. Um, and so I was like, well, I'll try podcasting. So that was really how Blk + Grad School came together was like the creative space, that academic piece and um, Black, Black, wanting to serve Black ,Indigenous, People of Color, women in the graduate school experience in addition to just like not having the best experience in my master's program and wanting to like at least leave something so everyone will have to have the exact same experience that I had as it relates to like being a Person of Color and typically being with the lonely only in a program. So that's really much how the podcast was born. I've been doing it for a, it's two and a half years now.
Passion For Podcasting:
Yes, that is awesome. Listen. So my first round at this podcast I was like, I got it, I got a system and then editing started to catch up with me and I was like, I don't have it. I don't. And I like took a whole, I think maybe like a year more off because I was like, how do people do this? And how do people who are releasing multiple episodes do this? And so I guess opposite of you, to me, videos were easier even though we're not, I was not doing that, but I've found editing videos easier. It was just still time consuming. But blogging um in my mind I was a self proclaimed writer since I was three and I was like, Ooh, a keyboard or a typewriter. Really. Um, showing my age. Um, what, um, I just was fascinating the way that, fascinated by how you could use words. Uh, and people, the other piece too that people don't realize is that blogging and academic writing are very different and it requires you to switch back and forth. I'm sure people right academically or vice versa, you know, do you. And but I just, I loved it. I love just sitting down and just writing things. And so blogging became my main platform, but then, you know, I'm really, I'm realizing that people don't read as much for whatever reason. Um, and so that's why I went back into picking up the podcast cause I'm like, you're going to do this while you're doing other things too. Um, and so like, still wanting to get that message out, so with you, Oh, two and a half years that's an OG in the game. Right? I mean Like in terms of podcasting like people because it's real people. I mean just like me, like people will be like, Oh they did it for a hot year and then you don't hear from them anymore. Um, and so like what are some things or practices that you use to not only maintain this podcast and all the social events that are associated with it and keeping up in school?
Guest:
Well, the beautiful thing is my podcast feeds into my schoolwork, right? Like I can't really say F this homework and go on a podcast talking about a grad school experience. So it's a really positive feedback loop. I will say that. And then like, I think when I share my schedule, Saturday is my podcast day. So I mean I'm up like every other day of the week on Saturday to do the podcast. So I tried to do all my social media content, set up emails. I have a community that I serve, get their things squared away for the next week, answer emails, you know, what have you. And because I kind of like compartmentalize it all to like one day, uh, it just has to get done. And Whatever doesn't get done that day has to wait until the next week. And sometimes I'll do my Thursday nights and set it aside for recording. But that's about it. I don't do a lot cause I know some people don't want to spend their Saturdays doing what I don't mind doing. So that I wish I had like a or sophisticated answer, but it's kind of like whatever doesn't get done one Saturday just has to get done the next. And if I'm traveling that means the Saturday before, I'm probably not going to go out and I'm just spending my whole day on the podcast. But it's really gratifying. So that is really, that's really been the helpful part is talking to people, connecting, meeting people. You know, even like you, Dr. Lacy and like having those relationships makes it all like not a problem. And it's cathartic for me too. I get to sit down and talk about what's going on and I get to let it go sometimes and I hear myself in the way that I'm talking about things and that helps me self-correct as well. So it's been useful in a lot of different ways as really like a positive reinforcement for my experience and um, makes me want to keep going and satisfying that creative piece that I, I don't get as, you know, an engineer. So, um, that, that's really my approach through the podcast.
Business and the PhD (Dr. Lacy):
No, I think that's a perfect answer because I think it's for many people is the hardest lesson to learn. Like you give yourself a certain amount of time to do a task. If it doesn't happen, guess what? You just got to wait for the next time. And that is, to me, that is the essence of discipline and knowing the importance of the big picture of your goals. So as we bring this to an end, um, I have a lot of folks who come to me who, you know, they're in their programs, they're working on their dissertations and they're like, this is going to be a business for me when I finish. Um, and so a lot of times I think they have to wait in order to start whatever that business venture is going to be. As someone who is marrying the two, do you have any words of wisdom, advice, things that you wish you would've known before you got started that you would be willing to share with others?
Guest:
The difference I think for me is like what I'm doing now, I do still see as a integral piece of like my future in addition to like my, my main career. So for me, I don't know if I'm even the most equipped person to offer like direct advice for those who want to make it a business. Because there are moments when I, I honestly don't even feel that equipped to talk about the work that I do or talk about my experience because I don't have the language of a social scientist who studies like the experience of, you know, Black women earning a PhD from HBCUs getting us, you know, cause I know that you all exist and do amazing and important work. Um, and give voice to my experience in a different way and in a way that is accepted by faculty and, and, and able to navigate. And so for those of you who I feel like are in that particular camp and taking your work, and you're going to be applying it in that way. You are light years ahead of me, okay, number one.
Twitter For The Win! (Guest):
And I think that if you are in grad school right now, the number one piece of advice I could probably give you is to get on Twitter. Everyone is on Twitter that is in the academic space. And talk about what you're doing right now as you're doing it, you know, share interesting, you know, um, tweets, tweetable content from papers you're reading or share your thoughts on certain things. Or if you go to like a seminar from someone you want to get to know, figure out their Twitter handle and just boom them with the, with like a blow by blow of their session. Twitter I think is underutilized by Black academics and that is a way to really get your name out there to really, you can make connections with some major people without having the introduction or the school or whatever else you think you need to have by getting on Twitter. Of course LinkedIn is really useful as well. But I think the thing about Twitter is it still is like, it has an informalness to it, but I promise the academic Twitter space is literally crazy. And just that alone, if you're not ready to make any other content or have a blog or any of those things, that is gonna really put you light years ahead and ready with a solid network that you can literally DM and, and make those connections and moving forward.
Dr. Lacy:
Listen, I keep trying to get back into Twitter and I'm like, I just, but I don't want to, I just want to stay on Instagram and I know that I need to be on Twitter. And I think it's just, I need to just step up my, my block game of like muting certain conversations and people because that is what makes me for both Twitter and Facebook. I'm like mmhmm. Uh, thank you for that reminder. And the other thing I want to say to you is you keep sharing your story. Um, because when, when I have people who are coming up to me who are saying the whole business things, they're outside of the social sciences, but they don't have anyone who speaks their language or who understands what it's like for them to try to make that transition. And as someone who was doing this at the same time and like to have a podcast is like I have like a space for people to come and hear themselves and see themselves reflected and that you're doing a beautiful job of putting that information out there and making connections and navigating all of these worlds and spaces. People need to see that they need to, they need to hear. You don't need to hear your voice. They need to hear your story. And not to say like you need to do additional, all this additional labor, but just even in these moments and when you're talking with people, just let them know what you're doing. Cause it will just bless someone's life. Now that I'm trying to turn this into a coaching session, I really wanted you to know that. Like that people are waiting to hear from you.
Guest:
Thank you. I received that affirmation. I appreciate it.
Where Can we Connect With You? (Dr. Lacy):
Yeah. So if people want to, they want to catch up with you, they have some questions. They want to see what's going on with you. What would be the best way for them to do so?
Guest:
Yes. So I am on all channels as Blk + Grad School. Um the name of the podcast is black and in grad school. So it's Blk + Grad School, but on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, you can follow me at B L K I N grad school. Um, I answer all DMs um, you know, don't shoot your shot, but you know, questions um, insight. I am eager, always happy to answer and talk with you and just support folks trying to get through this grad school thing.
Dr. Lacy:
Yes. Thank you again for giving your time and being on the episode and that is gonna do it for this week.
Guest:
All right. Thank you so much Dr. Lacy for having me. I really appreciate it. Thanks.
Dr. Lacy:
Thank you for joining in for today's office hours. Make sure you come on Instagram and tag me at Marvette Lacy, let me know what your thoughts were on today's episode. Until next time, do something to show yourself some love. I'll talk to you next week. Bye for now.