Ambassadorship & Approved Proposal

September 25, 2023

My APA Campus Ambassador pin
Hi beautiful people and Happy Fall to you all,

I know the leaves haven't started doing their thing but I am in love with the season already - specifically the rain, and the cooler weather. I am also loving all the conversations I am still having thanks to the connections I made during the UN General Assembly week in New York. And yes, I am still working on the second part of that series - if you haven’t, please read the first part here.

I have a couple of school things to catch up on before I get to that post - and I was busy doing that when an email I have been waiting for popped up. The contents made me so happy, I decided to do a quick post with updates on what is happening in the school-sphere.

My poster proposal got approved

1. Over the Summer, I was toying around with the idea of reworking my Sociology in Mental Health essays into a proposal for PASSHE 2023 DEI Summit (PASSHE is the collective that brings together all the 10 state universities in Pennsylvania - learn more about my essays, PASSHE and the Summit here). Well, the way my Summer was set up, this idea ended up not being feasible, so I let it go...until one morning, the last day of the extended deadline to be precise, when I learnt that the deadline had been extended - and I basically had until end of day to submit something, if I was interested.

The email I received this evening informed me that my proposal had been approved...yep, I will be doing my first academic presentation this November. I am super excited about this...and as usual, will give you updates along the way.
With one of my favorite Kenyans; Dr. Shikoh founder of Qhala (in the bob) and Estefania Palomino, Director - Aspen Global Innovators Group (New York, September 2023)
2. While my Sociology of Mental Health essays were on general issues international students face, I decided to focus on health disparities and help-seeking behaviour among Black - African International Students for the PASSHE Proposal, which is the topic I am working for my semester long Research Methods class project. The end product for this class is a Literature Review, so we are reading lots of material as we learn about research strategies, sampling and all the nice things Psychological Researchers do. 

While I was in New York last week, I had a rendez-vous with Dr. Shikoh Gitau, one of my favorite Kenyans and Founder of Qhala. She was very encouraging when I shared my plans to start my PhD next year and had a couple of insights about my topic area and the application process (after I shared my ‘loose’ PhD Application plan - which as you may have noticed, I am making up as I go). Remember that part of my plan that I mentioned felt like a Hinge/Tinder thing? Well, she encouraged me to reach out to people whose papers I am loving as I read papers for my Research Methods class. I like this approach better because it puts purpose into how I am picking schools and advisors. I purpose to be in conversation with the authors of the papers I am reading (and liking) before I send out my applications.
Goodies from American Psychological Association (APA)
3. I am reading are from PsycInfo and most of them are published in the various APA journals (if you are not sure what APA is, read this post for my initial take about the organization and this one with highlights of the 2023 Convention which I attended virtually). 

Besides linking me with interesting articles, APA has linked me with a code that you can all use to get free membership - simply click on the image in 'Join APA on my Tab' box on the side this blog and you will get free membership for one year. If you have seen that box there for a while, it is because I got 'appointed' at the beginning of the academic year and I have been waiting for the info posters to come in the mail.

Learn more about the membership benefits from the posters below (will be taking them to school) and take advantage of the offer.

Poster highlighting APA Member Benefits for Students 

Join APA for FREE poster to hang on campus

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