Blk + In Grad School

This HBCU grad and advocate is changing the narrative of HBCUs one student at a time. Meet Kendra, a second-year Ph. D. candidate at Jackson State University pursuing a degree in Urban Higher Education. Kendra has served in various capacities at HBCUs including North Carolina Central, Wilberforce University and Livingstone College. She currently serves as the Director for Career & Professional...

If you find yourself experiencing setbacks that are making you rethink or pivot your grad school journey, this episode is for you. Meet Kim Ford, a media entrepreneur with over a decade of experience. Kim is a TV host, freelance writer, speaker, author of her self-published book “It’s Never Too Late”, a blogger on her website, iamKimFord.com , and a grad student at Georgia State University studyin...

You’re getting the education you need, but do you have the experience to land the job you want after grad school? Will you end up with multiple degrees in one field, but end up on a career track that has absolutely nothing to do with what you studied?  If you answered yes to either or both of these questions, this episode is definitely for you! Meet Dr. Ashley Adams! Dr. Ashley is a Senior Directo...

This episode is the episode we KNOW we needed but didn’t know we needed! Let me introduce you to Lauryn! A four-time Olympic athlete, Lauryn is now a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), a Student Loan Advisor at Student Loan Planner , the owner of the financial firm, Worth Winning , AND a host of the Worth Listening podcast! You may be wondering how this three-time Olympic medalist transitioned int...

Ya girl is a new big age, thirty-two! I asked folks on Insta what they want to know and quite a few questions rolled in! So this week I tried to answer every question I received about grad school, the future of the podcast, and even my go-to beauty hacks. I share some major podcast news (gotta listen until the end!) Don't forget to register for the GRE session with me on Friday 4/23 at 1:30 PM EST...

Meet Rarosue, a Ph. D. student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of South Florida! In this week’s episode, we talk about Rarosue’s passion for Global sustainability and her plans to help convert everyday waste to energy. Rarosue finished her undergraduate studies in Chemical Engineering in her hometown, Nigeria. After graduating, she completed one year of Core Service. Wh...

Online school is nothing new, people like Keri have been completing degree virtually well before the pandemic. She's a senior budget analyst for the Internal Revenue Service that started her educational journey in pharmacy before deciding to pursue psychology while at Howard University. We talk about her experience earning her MBA online from Champlain College, entrepreneurship and the beauty indu...

This episode is super special because I get to introduce you all to my sister, my soror, and my dear friend, Makenzie. An International Program Manager at Microsoft, Makenzie is a North Carolina A&T double alum with a B.S. in Biological Engineering, and an M.S. in Technology Management with an emphasis in Operations and Manufacturing Systems. We dig deep into Makenzie’s decision to pursue her...

Navigating academia, science, and everything that’s going on in the world around us as a Black woman can be a lot to handle. This week, I had an honest conversation with my internet friend, Jazmine I. Benjamin, about the two different hats Black female scientists wear. Jazmine is a fourth-year Ph. D. student who is pursuing a Ph. D. in biomedical science. Her research focuses on the effects of fee...

Do you love supporting Black businesses? Of course you do! On this week’s episode I had the pleasure of chatting with Marshay, the CEO and founder of Buzzoms, a clothing company designed to support a life that all women want - the ability to wear clothes that support you no matter the size. Marshay recently obtained her MBA from Columbia Business School where she studied Entrepreneurship and Techn...

If you’re a first-gen college grad this episode is especially for you! In this week’s episode, I talk with Dr. Eve, a first-gen college grad inspiring, empowering, and promoting personal transformation and entrepreneurial development through her business and podcast, The First-Gen Lounge. A native of Charlotte N.C, Dr. Eve received her Ph. D. in Higher Education Administration at the tender age of...

Dr. Nehemiah Mabry, PE is a Structural Engineer, STEM Educator, and Entrepreneur. He's the brilliant mind behind STEMedia, a multimedia company that provides technical and creative content for the STEM/STEAM community. His experience includes over 8 years of research at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and currently works as a Bridge Design Engineer. This week we talked about his graduate jo...

This week listen in on my convo with Amonté, a third-year Ph. D. student studying Forestry Resource and Conservation at the University of Florida. Amonté shares a story unlike any other on the podcast, mostly because his original life plan didn’t include a career in academia, but football. But after getting his GED, a Bachelor’s in Agricultural Business and Economic Landscape and Design from Flori...

A journalist by trade, Jalisa, aka Jae left a career in radio when she decided to move to Atlanta and earn her Ph. D. She is a third-year doctoral student at Clark Atlanta University, where she is studying Humanities with a double concentration in African American Studies and Political Science. Her research focus is Digital Discourse Surrounding Sexual Agency of Black Women in Southern Hip Hop. Sh...

Marquis is an advisor and program coordinator at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, writer, and host of @detroitworldwidepodcast. His journey started as a freshman conditionally accepted to Wayne State University. He says he bloomed where he was planted, serving students as a peer mentor which inspired his career path to serve minoritized, first-gen students as a career. Listen to this week...

Quianna grad school journey started in a centerpiece of Black American culture, the shop! A hairstylist turned social worker, she was always finding resources to help her clients. When she decided to go back to school in 2006 to finish her Bachelor's degree, she then realized that social work was the career that would allow her to amplify and empower voices. She got more than she bargained for whe...

Nicole ( @_nicoleblah ) is working on her PsyD in Clinical Psychology at Mercer University where her research focus is black women's wellness and perinatal mental health. We talked about her path to psychology from another path and really demystify the clinical psychology education process --which at her university is different from the usual research-dissertation process we think of. She then sha...

When Bianca ( @bjesus89 ) went away to college with aspirations to teach, but when she realized K-12 wasn't for her she pivoted to Higher Ed and hasn't looked back since. Her career moved her to Pittsburgh back in 2017, and she decided after 7.5 years in the profession to pursue an Ed. D. Bianca is now in her second year of her Ed. D. at the University of Pittsburgh focusing on the development of...

Sam is one of my Detroit homies. We met about 7 years ago (gasp!) after he accepted a job at General Motors where he's moved up to Reporting Analyst. He finished up an MBA in Information Systems and Global Supply Chain and is now a second Master's in Marketing Business Analytics. We discuss his work-life balance -- because let me tell you, Sam lives it up!--as well as his decision to pursue a seco...

Adebukola Ajao (IG @baddisparateyouth) is a graduate student at Northeastern University set to finish her Master’s in Digital Media this month! She was awarded the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fellow which fully funds her studies in exchange for work in her community. It doesn’t stop there though, Adebukola works full time as a program advisor at a local high school, runs her multimedia agency. She'...

The letter of recommendation can be a great tool in telling your story in a graduate school or fellowship application. You want to include a skill/character they could speak to. Providing what you want each recommender to speak on (and the angle they address the skill/character) can assist them with crafting their letters. Professors are super busy and organized emails with this specificity help t...

Are you or someone you know heading to grad school? Hopefully, you or they know how important funding is for grad school. Some schools are great about funding, others are..not so much. Either way, securing funding is very important. I hosted a webinar a while back covering a bunch of strategies I've used and taught about funding.   Graduate school can be really expensive, on average a graduate deg...

Nowadays, it can sometimes feel like an undergraduate degree is not enough anymore and that you need a graduate degree if you want a decent job. Or you may feel like you need a break and may get burnout from so much school. These are two of many legitimate concerns that you need to explore for mapping out your educational journey for this round of applications. If you’re considering secondary educ...

Sit and relax as you listen to Aya share her thoughts on diversity in academia and strategies that universities can implement to truly embrace and embody diversity. Aya Waller-Bay is a sociology Ph. D. student at University of Michigan examining the identity narration of black students in the application process. On this episode Aya and I discuss the personal statement that students submit for sch...

When Indira finished high school in the U.S. Virgin Islands, she was not planning to attend college and now is an emerging thought leader in brain health disparities across race and ethnicity. She is currently a postdoctoral research scientist at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. She earned her Ph. D....