#postgradlife

TL;DR: I’m thinking of ditching my job and going to grad school/trying to become a professor and would love some general advice on the process (especially from US citizens going to grad school in the UK/Europe)!

Day 1 of posting something until I get my Master’s degree. 

Technically I’m writing this for 20/04/2021. I had a hectic day and barely had any sleep working on the assignment my supervisor gave me. I worked overnight and fell asleep at 7am only to wake up at 9am to continue my work.

By 10.30am I did what I could and took a shower. Got ready in 30 minutes and headed out to meet my supervisor.

The meeting was chill, but she gave more work for this week on top of my already piled up work. 

I had to contact so many people that it almost made me had a panic attack. What saved me was the fact that my brain was already in mush so it couldn’t really comprehend the severity of my anxiousness while making 20+ phone calls within the last 5 hours.

I had a quick lunch and dived back into getting in touch with people from the faculty, the department of finance, the postgraduate department, etc. I felt like a flat volleyball being passed around from one person to another. They led me in circles and every time I managed to get in touch with someone and explained my problems, they would say that my problem are not within their scope and told me to contact *insert name of other department*. Soon, after being passed around several time, I came back to the first person that I contacted, and they flat out told me it wasn’t their problem. 

Whelp.

I was finished with the phone calls around 4pm and decided to give myself a break and fell asleep until 8pm.

I woke up groggy and tired. But thankfully, it was already passed Iftar, so I can have dinner with my room mate. 

Infant-Toddler Climate of Healthy Interactions for Learning & Development (I-T CHILD)

Bilingual Postgraduate Associate

The Zigler Center in Child Development & Social Policy under the Yale Child Study Center brings together a diverse group of researchers and practitioners in an effort to improve the well-being of children and families by bringing objective child development research into the policy and public arenas. We are currently seeking a bilingual (English/Spanish) Postgraduate Associate (Postgrad) to contribute to a randomized controlled trial of the I-T CHILD in New York City.

At the height of the pandemic, the Zigler Center launched the Infant-Toddler Climate of Healthy Interactions for Learning & Development (I-T CHILD) proof-of-concept in home-based child care programs in New York City. The I-T CHILD is used by early childhood mental health consultants when they work with childcare providers. It is designed to boost healthy brain development by providing childcare providers with practical strategies that support children’s mental health and social and emotional skills.

Training

During the fellowship year, the Postgrad will be trained in research and evaluation activities that include participant recruitment, project coordination (within and outside of Yale via telephone, web-based and in-person communications), data collection, data analyses, and reporting. The Postgrad will participate in manuscript writing for publication in journals and annual reports; assist with presentation development, including the opportunity to present at professional conferences; and assist with grant writing.

Postgrad will be trained and certified on the use of the CHILD Tool that objectively assesses the “mental health climate” of early care and education settings, and will participate in training and reliability sessions.

Didactic training will consist of directed readings in equity/bias within the context of early care and education settings, early childhood mental health consultation, preschool expulsion, and social and emotional learning.

The Postgrad will attend regular team meetings relating to projects they are involved in, as well as talks and workshops such as weekly Child Study Center Grand Rounds on topics related to child mental health, development, and psychiatry. As an option, the Postgrad is free to participate in other areas of research and professional development as they see fit and as time allows (not required).

Mentoring

Under the mentorship of Drs. Chin Reyes and Walter Gilliam, the Postgrad will be guided in developing independent research ideas that draw upon extant data from Zigler Center projects. By the end of the fellowship year, Postgrad will be expected to submit abstracts for conferences and to contribute to authorship of scientific manuscripts.

Education

This position requires the ability to fully communicate in both Spanish and English, including written, oral, and comprehension skills. The ideal candidate will have a strong work ethic, excellent time management skills, high attention to detail, superior written and oral communication skills, the ability to give and receive feedback as well as to work independently and in teams. They will have at least a bachelor’s degree, preferably in psychology, education, social work, or other related field; and proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite (including Word, Excel, PowerPoint). Knowledge of Adobe suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Captivate, In-Design, After Effects and other programs) is a plus.

The Postgraduate Associate position is one year in duration with a salary of $35,700.00.   Postgraduate positions are open to those who have recently received a bachelor and/or master’s degree, but not doctoral degrees.Candidates ideally demonstrate interest in applying for an advanced degree in the future.

This position may start remotely in accordance with Yale University guidance around COVID-19.

Yale University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity employer. Yale values diversity among its students, staff, and faculty and strongly welcomes applications from women, persons with disabilities, protected veterans, and underrepresented minorities.

Application Process

To apply, please e-mail us at [email protected] with subject line, “I-T CHILD Project Bilingual Postgrad Position”.  Interested applicants should submit a cover letter addressed to Dr. Chin Reyes, along with a CV and at least two letters of recommendation.

Please indicate your level of proficiency in comprehension and written and oral communication in Spanish and what type of translation experience you have, if any. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.

I never thought I would start a blog of any kind. I was always taught to keep my life close to myself and being too open was a bad thing. I think that’s bullshit now. 

Let me introduce myself. Hi, my name is Kat. In May of 2020 I graduated from FSU with a bachelor’s of science in environmental studies. Studies? You my ask. Yes. I didn’t pursue environmental SCIENCE because I was just too lazy and unmotivated to work hard in any science classes. I hated school really. I didn’t like the constant pressure from peers, teachers, and especially my parents. I liked learning in the classes that mattered to me. Classes about the environment and climate change and oddly statistics. 

Now that I’ve been done with school for almost a year, you’d think that either I went back to school or have a salary job or at least live on my own. Nope. Not even close. I didn’t back to school -refer back to paragraph 2,- I still work at the same part-time beach lifeguarding job that I’ve been doing every summer for 6 years now, and I still live with my parents. And I bet you guessed why I’m at a life standstill. The global pandemic happened and my situation is probably a ton of other people’s situation and some have it worse. I know I’m one of the lucky ones.