Educational Psychology Doctoral Candidate Rochelle Roberts
When I decided to participate in the IE Pre-Graduate School Internship
for
this semester, I had anticipated that the experiences I have had so
far as
a fourth year doctoral student might be helpful to my intern. What
I
hadn't necessarily anticipated, though, was how incredibly helpful
my
intern would be to me.
Over the course of the semester, my intern and I attended weekly research meetings led by the Graduate Adviser in my department, participated in the National Reading Conference held in Austin this year, and had countless discussions about graduate school on a weekly basis. I can only hope that those experiences and my advice and answers to her questions helped her feel more confident about her decision to apply to graduate school.
However, I already know that her questions alone have helped me remember why I myself decided to attend graduate school. One distinct example was when she requested to see the statement of purpose I had written to apply to graduate school as she worked on her own application. I don't think I had read my personal statement since I had submitted it in early 2004. It was so refreshing to be reminded of my enthusiasm and passion to pursue a higher degree. Now in the midst of working on my dissertation, I have realized I sometimes forget to take a step back and remind myself of my long term goals of attaining a PhD in Educational Psychology and helping to improve teaching and learning in higher education. My intern helped me reflect on those goals as she sought her own, and I am especially grateful to this Internship experience because of that.