SWE Graduate Community Blog Series for a Diverse and Inclusive Campus:
How graduate student organizations helped me feel like I belonged in my Ph.D. program
Dear SWE Graduate Community,
As part of the GradSWE Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) blog series, the D&I team has interviewed Mikayla Moody, a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Mikayla share with us how graduate student organizations can help to develop a feeling of belonged in a Ph.D. program.
Interview:
Can you please tell us more about your experience on participating in student organizations, how it started? Were you invited directly from other students? Did your campus or department encourage you to join student organizations?
Before entering graduate school, I knew that getting a graduate degree could be a very isolating process. While searching for graduate schools to apply to, one of my requirements was that there were organizations for graduate students. The University of Connecticut met that requirement. One of the organizations there is the Student Association of Graduate Engineers (SAGE), where graduate students from all the School of Engineering departments could come together as a community to learn and socialize. Another organization unique to UConn is the John Lof Leadership Academy (JLLA), which is a two-year program where engineering graduate students can learn leadership skills. However, with this program, I had to apply to get in, so I made sure to be involved with SAGE when I started my PhD before any decision was made about my application to join JLLA.
A few months after starting my PhD, I was accepted into JLLA, which was very exciting because I knew this experience would not only help me grow as a person and a leader, but also, I could connect with other engineering graduate students. However, I decided to stay in SAGE as well since I had friends that weren’t in JLLA that would attend SAGE events with me.
I remember one SAGE event that was a highlight of my first semester at UConn—the Halloween Social! I dressed as a Private Investigator, but also acted like Principal Investigator (PI). It was fun to hang out with new friends I had just met and to not think about lab work and classwork for a few hours.
The beginning with SAGE and JLLA created a cascade to join other organizations and to even take on leadership roles. At UConn, I am now involved in the Graduate Chapter for Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (Grad SHPE), Graduate Chapter for Society of Women Engineers (Grad SWE), Graduate Students of Color Association (GSCA), and Graduate Organization of Latinx Students (GOLS). I got involved in these organizations due to graduate students creating advertisements via email or in person. Instagram was also a great resource for finding organizations.
Can you please describe some of the activities you did in the organizations? What roles were assigned to you?
For my third year of my PhD, I actually became president of SAGE, which is honestly still a shock to me, even though I was in this position for the past year. The responsibilities of this role were to make sure the other executive board members were doing their tasks, helping think of events to do, and helping run events. It was a lot of responsibility to make sure that everything was going smoothly, but I had a great team and it was fun to meet new people within and outside of the organization. Also, this past year, I was the secretary for the Grad SHPE. I had to take notes at meetings, help plan events, and run events. I had a little bit less responsibility compared to my position in SAGE, but it was nice to interact with people who understood me because we shared similar cultures.
For these organizations, we both had social and professional development events. For example, Grad SHPE recently had a carne asada, which is a Latin/Hispanic BBQ, that was very fun. People outside of SHPE were there as well, so it was nice to interact with familiar and new people. Moreover, SAGE had their annual poster competition with UConn’s School of Engineering where almost 50 engineering graduate students presented their work to faculty as well as people in industry and entrepreneurship. I had to recruit volunteers for the event as well as create advertisements to encourage students to present.
From your perspective, how are these student organizations implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives to achieve student engagement?
Most of the organizations I am a part of, such as Grad SHPE, Grad SWE, GOLS, and GSCA, embrace diversity because they are organizations that are geared towards welcoming marginalized folks. SAGE is fairly inclusive in terms of allowing anyone and everyone that are graduate engineering students to join the meetings. Grad SHPE tries to be inclusive by allowing those within STEM, and not just engineering, to join.
However, I think the organizations I am a part of can have more conversations around DEI work at the university and beyond. By existing, we do a lot in providing welcoming and inclusive spaces. However, I definitely think more work can and should be done. The only problem is that graduate students already do so much, so that would be adding extra work on our shoulders that we might not have the energy or time to do, unfortunately.
Can you share some activities or circumstances that you experienced in these organizations that made you feel that you belonged in your Ph.D. program?
I would say that Grad SHPE had made me feel like I belonged in my PhD program. SAGE was very eye-opening because I got to meet other engineering graduate students, but most of them didn’t look like me or understood me in terms of my heritage. When I got to help establish Grad SHPE and help plan events with the executive board, I then started to realize that I do belong in my PhD program and that I am not the only Latinx student doing it. This was especially solidified when the UConn Grad SHPE e-board went to the SHPE National Convention last year. We got to meet with other wonderful Hispanic/Latinx graduate students in engineering from around the world who are studying in the United States. At that moment, I knew I wasn’t alone and that if they could do it, so could I.
What piece of advice would you like to give to another grad student looking for a student organization involvement, and why?
I would suggest first looking on social media, especially Instagram, to see what organizations are out there. Many organizations have an Instagram page and post about events that they are holding. Additionally, don’t delete those emails you get from your university detailing events happening this week/month. A lot of organizations tend to use these various advertising avenues, and this could be one of them. You could also ask/email a more senior graduate student or your department head to see if your department has a graduate student association (GSA). Lastly, most universities have a central location where all of the organizations are listed on a website. Take a look at that website to see if any organizations spark your interest.
Is there any additional comment you would like to add?
I would like to add that having a support group can be a game changer during graduate school. You don’t have to find it in an organization, your department, or even your lab, but it is nice to have people you can talk to about your experiment failing, how tough it is to write a manuscript, etc. It is easy to isolate yourself during a graduate program, so sometimes you just have to put yourself out there in order to find your group of people.
Bio:
Mikayla Moody (they/she) is a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut Health Center. They obtained their B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University in 2018. Their current research/career interests are in biomaterials, science policy, and science communication. Mikayla is currently researching the effects of acidosis on the skeletal system. Their current project is developing an explant model using mice femurs in order to determine how acidic media affects cellular and physiochemical bone dissolution. Outside of the lab, Mikayla likes to watch TV, travel, hike, and cuddle with their cat. They have been fortunate to be able to travel around the United States as well as to Australia, Portugal, and Venezuela.
Contact information:
Email: mikayla.moody@uconn.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikayla-moody-53700a134/
Twitter: @matsci_mikayla
Yareni Lara-Rodriguez (she/her/hers)
Content Creator- @YareniLara
Diversity & Inclusion Team -SWE Graduate Community
As part of the GradSWE Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) blog series, the D&I team has interviewed Mikayla Moody, a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut Health Center. Mikayla share with us how graduate student organizations can help to develop a feeling of belonged in a Ph.D. program.
Interview:
Can you please tell us more about your experience on participating in student organizations, how it started? Were you invited directly from other students? Did your campus or department encourage you to join student organizations?
Before entering graduate school, I knew that getting a graduate degree could be a very isolating process. While searching for graduate schools to apply to, one of my requirements was that there were organizations for graduate students. The University of Connecticut met that requirement. One of the organizations there is the Student Association of Graduate Engineers (SAGE), where graduate students from all the School of Engineering departments could come together as a community to learn and socialize. Another organization unique to UConn is the John Lof Leadership Academy (JLLA), which is a two-year program where engineering graduate students can learn leadership skills. However, with this program, I had to apply to get in, so I made sure to be involved with SAGE when I started my PhD before any decision was made about my application to join JLLA.
A few months after starting my PhD, I was accepted into JLLA, which was very exciting because I knew this experience would not only help me grow as a person and a leader, but also, I could connect with other engineering graduate students. However, I decided to stay in SAGE as well since I had friends that weren’t in JLLA that would attend SAGE events with me.
I remember one SAGE event that was a highlight of my first semester at UConn—the Halloween Social! I dressed as a Private Investigator, but also acted like Principal Investigator (PI). It was fun to hang out with new friends I had just met and to not think about lab work and classwork for a few hours.
The beginning with SAGE and JLLA created a cascade to join other organizations and to even take on leadership roles. At UConn, I am now involved in the Graduate Chapter for Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (Grad SHPE), Graduate Chapter for Society of Women Engineers (Grad SWE), Graduate Students of Color Association (GSCA), and Graduate Organization of Latinx Students (GOLS). I got involved in these organizations due to graduate students creating advertisements via email or in person. Instagram was also a great resource for finding organizations.
Can you please describe some of the activities you did in the organizations? What roles were assigned to you?
For my third year of my PhD, I actually became president of SAGE, which is honestly still a shock to me, even though I was in this position for the past year. The responsibilities of this role were to make sure the other executive board members were doing their tasks, helping think of events to do, and helping run events. It was a lot of responsibility to make sure that everything was going smoothly, but I had a great team and it was fun to meet new people within and outside of the organization. Also, this past year, I was the secretary for the Grad SHPE. I had to take notes at meetings, help plan events, and run events. I had a little bit less responsibility compared to my position in SAGE, but it was nice to interact with people who understood me because we shared similar cultures.
For these organizations, we both had social and professional development events. For example, Grad SHPE recently had a carne asada, which is a Latin/Hispanic BBQ, that was very fun. People outside of SHPE were there as well, so it was nice to interact with familiar and new people. Moreover, SAGE had their annual poster competition with UConn’s School of Engineering where almost 50 engineering graduate students presented their work to faculty as well as people in industry and entrepreneurship. I had to recruit volunteers for the event as well as create advertisements to encourage students to present.
From your perspective, how are these student organizations implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives to achieve student engagement?
Most of the organizations I am a part of, such as Grad SHPE, Grad SWE, GOLS, and GSCA, embrace diversity because they are organizations that are geared towards welcoming marginalized folks. SAGE is fairly inclusive in terms of allowing anyone and everyone that are graduate engineering students to join the meetings. Grad SHPE tries to be inclusive by allowing those within STEM, and not just engineering, to join.
However, I think the organizations I am a part of can have more conversations around DEI work at the university and beyond. By existing, we do a lot in providing welcoming and inclusive spaces. However, I definitely think more work can and should be done. The only problem is that graduate students already do so much, so that would be adding extra work on our shoulders that we might not have the energy or time to do, unfortunately.
Can you share some activities or circumstances that you experienced in these organizations that made you feel that you belonged in your Ph.D. program?
I would say that Grad SHPE had made me feel like I belonged in my PhD program. SAGE was very eye-opening because I got to meet other engineering graduate students, but most of them didn’t look like me or understood me in terms of my heritage. When I got to help establish Grad SHPE and help plan events with the executive board, I then started to realize that I do belong in my PhD program and that I am not the only Latinx student doing it. This was especially solidified when the UConn Grad SHPE e-board went to the SHPE National Convention last year. We got to meet with other wonderful Hispanic/Latinx graduate students in engineering from around the world who are studying in the United States. At that moment, I knew I wasn’t alone and that if they could do it, so could I.
What piece of advice would you like to give to another grad student looking for a student organization involvement, and why?
I would suggest first looking on social media, especially Instagram, to see what organizations are out there. Many organizations have an Instagram page and post about events that they are holding. Additionally, don’t delete those emails you get from your university detailing events happening this week/month. A lot of organizations tend to use these various advertising avenues, and this could be one of them. You could also ask/email a more senior graduate student or your department head to see if your department has a graduate student association (GSA). Lastly, most universities have a central location where all of the organizations are listed on a website. Take a look at that website to see if any organizations spark your interest.
Is there any additional comment you would like to add?
I would like to add that having a support group can be a game changer during graduate school. You don’t have to find it in an organization, your department, or even your lab, but it is nice to have people you can talk to about your experiment failing, how tough it is to write a manuscript, etc. It is easy to isolate yourself during a graduate program, so sometimes you just have to put yourself out there in order to find your group of people.
Bio:
Mikayla Moody (they/she) is a Biomedical Engineering Ph.D. candidate at the University of Connecticut Health Center. They obtained their B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University in 2018. Their current research/career interests are in biomaterials, science policy, and science communication. Mikayla is currently researching the effects of acidosis on the skeletal system. Their current project is developing an explant model using mice femurs in order to determine how acidic media affects cellular and physiochemical bone dissolution. Outside of the lab, Mikayla likes to watch TV, travel, hike, and cuddle with their cat. They have been fortunate to be able to travel around the United States as well as to Australia, Portugal, and Venezuela.
Contact information:
Email: mikayla.moody@uconn.edu
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikayla-moody-53700a134/
Twitter: @matsci_mikayla
Yareni Lara-Rodriguez (she/her/hers)
Content Creator- @YareniLara
Diversity & Inclusion Team -SWE Graduate Community
