Our Doctoral Journey

Nicole A. Telfer

Description

Data from the Education at a Glance in 2019 states that less than 2 percent of the United States’ and world’s population holds a doctorate degree. Germane to this fact, the National Center of Education statistics reported that, in the 2018-19 academic year, of the doctoral degrees awarded to women, only 10.9 percent were awarded to Black women compared to 63.6 percent awarded to White women in the U.S. Black women who are interested in pursuing a doctorate, already in doctoral programs, or in their field of doctoral work are in crucial need of resources, community, and support. For too long, Black women have faced many systemic barriers and various forms of racist exclusion and oppression in educational settings, which has often led to burnout, low sense of belonging, and low retention rates. This memoir, “Our Doctoral Journey: A collection of Black women’s experiences,” serves as a resource and toolkit for Black women doctors, future doctors, and professionals. Prepare yourselves to read transparent and ground-breaking stories from 24 co-authors, ranging from doctoral students to doctors to professionals, who, with great tenacity, have chosen to share their doctoral experiences. Undeniably, this memoir will give you hope, motivation, and determination to choose what is best for you and persist in your program or in your field of work. As the saying goes, “We’re all that we’ve got.”

Sujets

• Self-help

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 31 mai 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669827085
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Book Autobiography:
Data from the Education at a Glance in 2019 states that less than 2 percent of the United States’ and world’s population holds a doctorate degree. Germane to this fact, the National Center of Education statistics reported that, in the 2018-19 academic year, of the doctoral degrees awarded to women, only 10.9 percent were awarded to Black women compared to 63.6 percent awarded to White women in the U.S. Black women who are interested in pursuing a doctorate, already in doctoral programs, or in their field of doctoral work are in crucial need of resources, community, and support. For too long, Black women have faced many systemic barriers and various forms of racist exclusion and oppression in educational settings, which has often led to burnout, low sense of belonging, and low retention rates. This memoir, “Our Doctoral Journey: A collection of Black women’s experiences,” serves as a resource and toolkit for Black women doctors, future doctors, and professionals. Prepare yourselves to read transparent and ground-breaking stories from 24 co-authors, ranging from doctoral students to doctors to professionals, who, with great tenacity, have chosen to share their doctoral experiences. Undeniably, this memoir will give you hope, motivation, and determination to choose what is best for you and persist in your program or in your field of work. As the saying goes, “We’re all that we’ve got.”
Our Doctoral Journey
A Collection of Black Women’s Experiences
Nicole A. Telfer

Copyright © 2022 by Nicole A. Telfer.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022909918
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-2710-8

Softcover
978-1-6698-2709-2

eBook
978-1-6698-2708-5
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 05/27/2022
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
833739
Contents
Foreword
 
Chapter 1Nicole Telfer’s Story
Chapter 2Munazza Abraham’s Story
Chapter 3Sarah Adeyinka’s Story
Chapter 4Kenyatta Aldridge’s Story
Chapter 5Chanya Anderson’s Story
Chapter 6Toneille Bent’s Story
Chapter 7Angel Boulware’s Story
Chapter 8Juanita Crider’s Story
Chapter 9Dominique Garrett-Scott’s Story
Chapter 10Leeshe N. Grimes's Story
Chapter 11N’Dea Irvin-Choy’s Story
Chapter 12Elisabeth Jeffrey’s Story
Chapter 13Tabitha Esther’s Story
Chapter 14Lisa Marie Lee’s Story
Chapter 15Keila Miles’s Story
Chapter 16Gaëlle Pierre’s Story
Chapter 17Ivy Rentz’s Story
Chapter 18Kristin Robair’s Story
Chapter 19Shanel Robinson’s Story
Chapter 20Briana Spivey’s Story
Chapter 21Emmanuela Stanislaus’s Story
Chapter 22Deja Trammell’s Story
Chapter 23Charity Watkins’s Story
Chapter 24Johniqua Williams’s Story
 
For Black Women, Forever and Always
Acknowledgments

For our villages that made these stories possible
For all the little Black girls with big dreams who can’t quite see their path
For Black womxn across the diaspora who are fearlessly present
We are here. And rising, still.
FOREWORD
Written by Dr. Rahmatu Kassimu

 
F ROM MID-APRIL TO mid-October of 2016, I cried every…single…day. Sometimes, it was only eyeball sweat, and other times, I made myself a blanket burrito and bawled like a baby. Three seasons that year saw me become a shell of myself. Internally, at least. Externally, no one could tell the difference. You see, I laughed when I was supposed to. I told jokes like I was supposed to. I showed up and supported my friends in various adventures. I threw caution to the wind and jumped off cliffs in Jamaica. I went to work each day, greeted roughly 150 students with a smile, and delivered learning experiences with passion, precision, and enthusiasm.
But internally…
I was cracking. Cracked even. Broken.
I had lost my passion for everything.
I didn’t want to work.
I didn’t want to go to school.
I wanted to do nothing but retreat to my blanket burrito and cry. Crying never actually made it better, but it was a release. I was perpetually exhausted. I woke up looking forward to my after-work nap. I wanted to do nothing, but I kept doing it because the weight of expectations spurred me on and told me that I had to.
I cried for almost half a year before I allowed myself to admit what was wrong with me.
I was in a high-functioning depression. Shame kept me from admitting it. A sense of ungratefulness gripped me the first time I said it aloud, as if someone was whispering in my spirit, “How dare you?” But there it was. I couldn’t deny, hide, or intellectualize it away any longer. I was depressed. Funny thing, though, once I admitted it, I began to feel lighter. I took small actions each day to keep myself lifted and developed a system of care for myself that included social support, journaling, meditation, and prayer. It’s not a perfect system, and there are often slumps, but I never allow myself to sink as far as I did that year and bounce back rooted in my purpose and identity, always looking to the future.
What brought this on, you say?
Well, it was a combination of things, but the primary thing was writing my dissertation. No one tells you, probably because they don’t want to scare you, but writing a dissertation is a lonely process. No one understands what you’re doing or why. You partly don’t understand yourself. All you know for certain is that the question, “when are you graduating?” will cause an immediate anxiety spike. You simultaneously feel that you’re doing too much but also not enough.
The cohort of peers that you had to bolster you through courses is gone, each person moving at different speeds to completion. You’re floundering, but everyone keeps telling you that you have it and to keep it pushing. Well, I pushed until I hit a wall, and man, did the wall hit back. I had a conversation with my then advisor, and she basically told me that all the work I’d done, the work I felt was quality, was not enough. And well, that was the straw that broke my back, as it were—queue six months of fog.
When the fog began to clear, I intentionally approached my dissertation differently. I honestly approached life differently. I realized that I did not have to be “One Deep,” as Z-Ro would say. I had supports; I merely needed to tap into them. I tapped, trapped, and cemented my support group, and they have stood the test of time. They rallied around me across the PhinisheD line and have been with me ever since.
Here’s the thing.
My experience, while nuanced, is not unique. The experiences of Black women in graduate programs, particularly Doctoral programs, are often mired in challenges that equate to a mental health gauntlet. We’re often the only or the few charged with carrying the weight of our race in class discussions, data, and expectations. We’re inundated daily with biases, both explicit and implicit, and critical eyes forever assessing if we really deserve to be in these spaces. There’s an inner push to prove, confirm, and justify ourselves.
It…is… exhausting.
But we do it. We do it because we seek higher knowledge so that we can elevate and empower. We do it so that we can achieve more, be more. We do it because once we read a shirt that said, “I am my ancestors’ wildest dream,” and we made it our personal mission to make sure that statement could not be contested. We do it because we want to break generational curses, setting our future families up to flourish in abundance. We do it for Sankofa and the need to go and bring it back to the village, lifting us all.
When Nicole Telfer posted on Instagram about wanting to write a compilation of Black women’s experiences while completing their doctorates, I jumped at the chance. Through a series of fortunate events, I was given the opportunity to write this foreword. Not only that, but I’ve also been able to interact with a group of Black women whose stories will engage you, enrage you, entertain you, and inspire you. The stories that follow are tales of heartaches, trials, and triumphs. They are tales of women advocating for themselves unapologetically and walking in their excellence despite barriers placed in front of them. They are tales of Black women standing up and proclaiming that they will decolonize spaces with their voices, actions, and input because progress waits for no one. They speak to the indomitable spirit of Black women and the strength ingrained in our minds, bodies, and souls.
I hope that as you read these chapters, the strength, poise, grace, and tenacity of these women seep into your very marrow, encouraging you to pursue your wildest dreams.
Welcome to Our Doctoral Journey.
CHAPTER 1
Nicole Telfer’s Story

N ICOLE A. TELFER is currently a PhD candidate in Applied Developmental Psychology– with training in child and adolescent development– at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised on ackee and saltfish, Nicole is a proud daughter of Jamaican parents a