Serving on the Student Committee and as a Spotlight co-editor over the last two years has been an immense privilege, and ultimately, one of my favorite experiences from all of graduate school. Additionally, and in an unexpected way, serving on the Student Committee and as Spotlight co-editor ended up being one of the most stable components of my graduate school experience. Despite a global pandemic, a change in research interests, and a shift in career plans, the SPSP Student Committee remained a constant. I would like to share my three favorite parts of serving on the SPSP Student Committee:
1. A community of students
Graduate school can feel isolating at times. At my university there are only a handful of personality or social psychologists on faculty, so the doctoral students in this discipline are far and few between. Further, I was part of a really small cohort—just 3 students including myself. While I did form some wonderful friendships with lab mates and others in the program, these relationships occasionally felt undercut by feelings of being compared and fighting for publications, awards, and other scholarly opportunities. I also often felt removed from my friends from undergrad who went on to the “real world” right afterwards, working full time jobs with clear cut expectations and defined working hours. Even my family did not always understand that while although I was getting my Ph.D. in psychology, I was not going to be a therapist.
The SPSP Student Committee offered an instant and warm community of people who understood what it was like to be a graduate student. They understood the struggles of balancing research, teaching, writing, service, and a personal life within the realm of social and personality psychology training. In our monthly meetings when people would share highs and lows, I was blown away by the vulnerability, acceptance, and support that the committee offered one another. We would celebrate paper publications, internships, and positive teaching evaluations while commiserating over rejections, imposter syndrome, and burnout. I formed genuine friendships with several of my SPSP Student Committee members over the years and I am grateful for their presence in my life.
2. A glimpse inside SPSP
Serving on two consecutive Student Committees afforded me insight into the inner workings of SPSP. It was amazing to see not only how a massive academic conference comes together, but also the work and dedication it takes to deliver resources to the SPSP community year-round. The SPSP staff members and volunteers are some of the most dedicated, brilliant, kind, and passionate people I’ve ever met. The experience really opened my eyes to the coordination, conscientiousness, and flexibility that’s required to plan and implement hundreds of enriching programs. The people who work for SPSP genuinely care deeply for our community and we are lucky to have them supporting us.
Within the Student Committee in particular, I was consistently impressed by the selflessness of the groups. In my experience, committee members were always willing to help me find students or faculty for interviews, give their perspective on my articles, and help brainstorm new ideas for the newsletter. Additionally, volunteering to help with other members’ projects like the abstract check, Free-Form Friday sessions, and student awards were incredibly rewarding.
3. The chance to share others’ stories
By far my favorite aspect of this role was the chance to highlight the perspective of graduate and undergraduate students. Serving as a Spotlight co-editor allowed me to be creative in how I conveyed the experiences of my fellow SPSP student members. I was able to conduct and share interviews, run surveys within our SPSP community and share summaries, and lean on scholarly sources to offer advice to students in need.
The opportunity to write an article each month for two years allowed me to connect with interesting and passionate scholars at a wide range of career stages and positions. I was continually pleasantly surprised by how vulnerable and kind our community members were in sharing their stories, and it was an honor to write these articles each month. I was able to shine a light on topics I cared deeply about like burnout in grad school, the myth of a linear career trajectory, and discerning jobs in industry versus academia. Beyond this, I was also able to write about current events like when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred or the SPSP Student Committee’s response to George Floyd’s murder.
To sum up, I loved serving on SPSP Student Committee and in particular, serving as a Spotlight co-editor. I would highly recommend the experience to anyone who wants to spend time with intelligent, kind, passionate people working to improve our scholarly community.
Special thanks to H. Annie Vu and Stylianos Syropoulos for their encouragement to write this piece. Thanks to Hasagani Tissera, Sharlene Fernandes, Fernanda Andrade, Jan Kang, Joe Traglia, and Stephen Waldron for being wonderful thought partners in my experience as a Spotlight co-editor over the years.