The most transformative aspect of my time in graduate school was the numerous opportunities I was given to engage with the university administration in leadership and advocacy roles.  These experiences shaped my perspective on how academic institutions function, how they can be improved, and where my true academic passions are.  Throughout my time serving as a graduate student leader and advocate, I discovered that I was no longer interested in conducting my own academic research in my career, but rather that I want to devote my career to developing and enhancing initiatives to support students, faculty, research, teaching, and the other myriad endeavors of an academic institution.

My most impactful leadership opportunity as a graduate student was my time leading the Yale Graduate Student Assembly (GSA), the democratically elected graduate student government.  I was first elected to the assembly as a representative for the Psychology department  in 2016 at the start of my second year of graduate school.  I quickly became involved with the assembly through work on the Academic and Professional Development (APD) committee, where I collaborated with another representative to assemble a resources guide for graduate student teachers, as well as through work on various university and graduate school committees.  After two years as a representative, I was elected to be Chair of the APD Committee.  After serving in that position for one year, I was elected as the Chair of the Assembly and led the assembly for one year in that position.

As Chair of the GSA, I was granted unparalleled access to the inner workings of the university in my role representing graduate students to various university stakeholders.  In leading regular meetings of the assembly (which has 50-60 active members at any given time), I developed my skillset as a leader, including organizational, conflict management, time management skills, among many others.  As both a the representative of the graduate student body, I balanced interfacing effectively with university administration as well as communicating with and advocating for graduate students.

Yale’s Graduate Student Assembly 2019-2020