Musings of a Ph.D. student

  Journal Prompt: Where are you on publishing? What are you interested in researching? What is one thing you can do to advance your research this semester?  How can you share your research now?    Because I am a brand-new Ph.D. student (1 st semester), I do not have an agenda for publishing.   I want to do a poster presentation first.   I want to attend conferences like NCFR so that I can spark ideas that will guide the direction of my research.   I also wish to reach out to my professors to help them with their research.   By doing this, I will get some ideas for the research I want to do.   My interest in researching right now is to do a qualitative interview study about educating parents to be advocates for their children when it comes to school reentry after cancer.   How they deal with their children’s childhood will significantly impact and influence the student-patient’s whole life.   Now, I would like to researc...

 So, on Tuesday,  I encountered a roadblock with my research.  I am working on a Research Proposal for my Advanced Stats class.  We have to find and use a data set to work on for our assignment.  I wanted to use the Rosenberg Scale of Self-Esteem.  That was a green light!  However, the Stats professor informed me that my project on the self-esteem of adolescent cancer survivors with alopecia might not pass IRB approval because of HIPAA and the sensitivity of the issue. So, I want to go in another direction.  I want to study school re-entry support from the medical team, administrators, and teachers for children with cancer.  I have not specified which age group yet.  I would have to read all the literature that I found today!  This might be harder to study! I want to incorporate Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory.  I am still not sure how I will collect data or where I will reach out to. I will reach out to the Cancer S...

What do you wish you would have known about other people’s research (or anything else for that matter) before starting graduate school? Although I have witnessed all the aspects of my mom’s career as a professor and how much time she spent working a week, I didn’t realize how heavy and hectic her schedule was, until today when I looked at the Qualifying Exam Policy online—especially the portfolio.   In the portfolio, you also keep track of scholarship, teaching, and service.   It is also amazing all the training she did for her Ph.D. program. She would exceed her 40-hour workweek schedule by answering all students’ emails, even on weekends.   She would go to Methodist Hospital Dallas every week to visit her students—to see if they are meeting their learning objectives, how much they’re learning, their workload, the fairness of assignments, meeting preceptors to get feedback on how students are doing, and listening to any grievances. Dr. Dutton told us that publ...

  What topic are you exploring in your literature searches? My proposed dissertation topic is familial support for adolescent cancer patients with alopecia and the family’s effect on adolescent self-esteem.   So far, I’ve been using the ProQuest Dissertation & Theses Global database.   My keywords are “alopecia and cancer.”   I also looked up a dissertation authored by a TWU student, which Dr. Dutton recommended.   That was found under alopecia AND adv (Brock).   Brock was the dissertation advisor.   So, I have a total of four dissertations that were authored between 2016 and 2024 that are closely related to my topic of interest.   I noticed that one dissertation was done at an online university, so I don’t know how much of the process was done online or in person.   I guess I would have to read the whole dissertation from front to back to form an educated opinion. I also hope to conduct some more new literature searches this week....

  Who do you currently have on your team? What area of your team do you want to build this semester? What steps will you take to intentionally build your team?   I am lucky to have mentors on my team who can coach me along this Ph.D. journey.   I would like to have a truly interdisciplinary team.   These individuals are: ·        Topic Persons – Dr. Catherine Dutton and Dr. Kathryn Cantrell .   I would like to marry the subjects of family studies and child life.   Dr. Dutton is my professor for HDFS 6303, Academic Life and Scholarship.   She is my Ph.D. advisor and has already suggested new directions to go in.   Dr. Kathryn Cantrell was my professor for multiple Child Life courses, one of which I wrote a paper on the positive self-identity of adolescent cancer survivors.   She is also the former executive director of the Journal of Child Life . ·        Method Persons – Dr. ...

Identify your post-doctoral career aspirations. What has influenced this choice? How do you plan to obtain this goal? Do you think your graduate coursework has prepared (or will prepare) you for this career choice? Why do you think you are suitable for this career? What expectations do you have for this career? Does anything worry you about entering this career field? My post-doctoral aspirations are to become a professor with both a Ph.D. and a Certified Child Life Specialist.   My role models are Dr. Kathryn Cantrell and Dr. Elizabeth McCarroll.   I’ve always grown up around academia because of my mom, who is a newly retired Nursing professor.   I didn’t always want to do it because I don’t like the idea of grading a bunch of papers.   However, I want to be a professor because my professors have all collectively imparted a lot of knowledge on academia, on career, on life, and on family.  I plan to obtain the goal of Professor by getting a head start on doin...

  Journal Reflection #1 Academic Life and Scholarship Class What did you learn? There were many takeaways from the first class in Academic Life and Scholarship.   I gained a basket full of knowledge: One aspect is that different schools differ in how they are categorized based on how much funding they receive.   A good resource on how schools are categorized is through the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.   I learned that there are R1 institutions, R2 institutions, and D/PU, which are Doctoral / Professional Universities.   R1 universities have very high spending and very high doctorate production.   R2 is considered high spending ($5 million) and high doctorate production.   And then, below that level, research colleges and universities may spend around $2.5 million. I asked a couple of questions to my professor and students.   How do we know what schools to apply to?   Will I get a job in academia at the end ...