23: Moving Away From Home for Grad School With Jessennya Hernandez

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All right. Welcome, everyone. Today I have a special guest. I'm really excited to introduce you all to Jessennya Hernandez, who is here to talk about her experience moving away from home for grad school, so moving out of state. Before she can get started with chatting a little bit about what it's been like moving away from home, navigating grad school, as someone who's also low income and first gen, and URM. I'm going to provide her bio and then we'll get started.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Jessennya is a Brown Xicana PhD candidate from Southern California. She's a first generation college grad student, and she's in her fourth year in the sociology department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests lie in sexuality and gender, race, ethnicity, urban sociology, Latino/Latina studies, political economy, resistance, women of color feminisms, queer of color theory, intersectional feminisms and transnationalism. Nice. Her current dissertation research focuses on people of color, primarily working class queer Latinx femmes, and women in greater LA and how they create space for themselves, as well as engage in creative artistic practices to navigate various forms of oppression in their everyday lives. Her goal is to highlight marginalized forms of knowledge, elevate queer people of color, and increase resources and access to higher education for black and brown communities through research, teaching, and mentorship. Wow. Welcome so much Jessennya to the podcast.

Jessennya Hernandez

Thank you, I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for reading all that. I know it's a whole lot.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I love it. I love your interests. I think what you're doing is amazing. So just to get started, if you can just tell us a little bit more about yourself, your trajectory and applying to grad school and how you are managing that transition of moving from California to Illinois for grad school.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes, I'll go ahead and do all of that. But I do just want to give a caveat that I only applied to sociology programs and anthropology programs. I can't really speak to people who are applying to the STEM fields, so this is based off of that experience. So I'll go ahead and start with why I even applied to out of state programs, and then like why I accepted my particular program, and then my overall experience. So starting off with why I applied to out of state programs. So I was in the McNair program, and they told me- the advice that they told me, they told me two things. That it's best to apply to as many schools as possible if they're a good fit, of course. So for me, a lot of the schools that I applied to in California, you know, there were only so many, so I had to start looking into programs out of state. And they were really good programs out of state too.

Jessennya Hernandez

Another thing that they told me was that if I wanted to end up back in California- being a professor in California, which is my goal- then it would be more marketable, or I'd look more well rounded if I had an out of state doctorate because it gives me an outside perspective. So I took that advice and really ran with it. I was only accepted into three programs, and none of them were in California. So I had to choose one that was out of state. I chose my program, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, because they gave me the best financial package. Basically, I had to follow the money. They gave me a really good deal, actually. They gave me a package where I didn't have to work my first three years.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Wow.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, so most grad students have to, you know, they have to be a teaching assistant or do some kind of paid work on top of doing their core coursework, and their research. For three years, I didn't have to do that. So I really was able to get all of my classes done. I was able to get ahead on my research. It was really a sweet deal. So I kind of had to go with it, or at least I felt that way. That's really why I ended up- that was really my deciding factor of going to Illinois.

Jessennya Hernandez

Now I'll just kind of talk about my overall experience moving out of state. Again, this is a midwestern state. It's not Arizona. It's not like a place that we understand as like- you know, the Midwest kind of has this stigma of being very white and conservative. For a lot of states, that's very true. So my experience reflects a lot of that, even though Illinois a little bit more, quote unquote, liberal. It's one of the better ones, I think. Thinking about that. But my experience, I have- just kind of to be organized- I have pros and cons. I have two cons and three pros. Starting with the cons, one of the more difficult things for me was my first year acclimating to a PWI in the Midwest. It was really hard for me at first. You know, culture shock, 100% culture shock. The city looks different. It's not really a city, it's more like a town. It looks different. There's not a lot of people of color, and the people of color who do live there,who are from the town- very segregated too. Not like how it is here in LA, in Southern California. Even in my department, there's not a lot of people of color. There's not a lot of woman of color. It took me a while to find my community. A suggestion for, or advice with that is, I would suggest doing the work to find that community as soon as possible. If you're not being on top of it, then you can really find yourself just kind of feeling isolated, feeling lonely.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And what are some examples of -when you say, do the work to build or find community, what would you recommend? Sometimes when you move to a new place, you don't even know where to start. You're like, where are the people of color? Where are the women of color?

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, you're absolutely right. That is how I felt. I didn't even know that there were even places to look. But there are. Especially at universities, there's always going to be- or not always- but usually, there's cultural houses. There's organizations or clubs that they have. So my university did have these things. It just took me a while to actually start looking for them, because, for other reasons, I really wasn't doing that work. So my suggestion is to go to those cultural houses. In my university, they have this cultural house called La Casa. So there's always going to be a place where you to go where they have events. They do lunches, you know, come in on Wednesday and they give you free lunch, and they give presentations about people doing research about Latinx people. So there's these things that you can find- even just feeling community. You know, maybe you don't make all these friends here, but you can just go and everyone's nice. It's something to do, so that you don't feel like you don't have your community there, because they are there.

Jessennya Hernandez

Also, in my program, there are other women of color that I feel like I could have started earlier getting to know them. Like doing work together, asking for advice. There are people out there. Even though it's just like two or three, it's important to still make those connections and do that. Once I did that, I felt so much better. But it took me a year to do it, and that's one of the things I wish it didn't take me so long. But yeah, there's also particular programs for grad students, like Latinx grad students. Which is a little bit different than the cultural houses, because a lot of them - or a lot of the people who go are just undergrads and you kind of want grad students to connect to. Even though they're you know, Chicanos and Latinos, that's great. But I want somebody who understands my grad school experience.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's something actually that I was gonna mention too, because when you said I'll go to La Casa or whatever is the equivalent at that university. I've noticed that a lot of universities really cater to undergrads. So for me, it was so easy to make friends and build community and socialize in undergrad, but in grad school, it was much harder. I felt like I couldn't. I was kind of like- well, for me, I went right out of undergrad, so I felt too young to be a grad student and too old to be an undergrad. So it was hard for me to connect. I'm glad that you're pointing that out.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes. Thank you for saying that. But yeah, finding these other grad students who you can study with, or you can talk to about your research, and they understand and the little things they get. So yeah, that's one of the other big things that I suggest for doing the work. Another culture, or element of culture shock had to do with the microaggressions that happen all the time, even the sexual harassment. This was from my own freakin- I'm sorry, for language.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

It's okay.

Jessennya Hernandez

Okay good, because that was a question that I had. From my own department, from other grad students who were just from the Midwest, and then the people who live in the city. We call them townies. But they're not a part of the university. They just grew up there, and a lot of the times they never have interacted with Latinas. So it's just microaggressions, and stuff like that happens a lot. I will say that I think that I was hyper aware of them, because I already felt different.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Yeah.

Jessennya Hernandez

But I mean, this stuff exists everywhere. So my suggestion with that is really just like with any new experience, or anybody who deals with these things, self care is a huge theme. Checking in with yourself, learning to choose battles. When to tell somebody off and when to just be like, you know what, let me not get into this right now. Advocating for yourself is super important, because a lot of the time, I just wouldn't really think that I needed to. But that's really important. Then knowing knowing how to create boundaries is a big thing. But again, finding your people, finding your community, because just venting to them is super important. Just like looking out for each other. Again, it goes back to finding your people and your spaces to feel comfortable.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Another question- oh, actually, sorry. Go ahead and finish up and then I'll ask you a follow up question.

Jessennya Hernandez

Oh no, I'm done with that.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Okay, I was just gonna say another thing that I think some students are worried about- they've talked to me about that when they think about moving away from home- is just how their family members are going to react to them moving. Then you know, is my family gonna be accepting? Am I gonna become more distanced from them, because I'm physically away from them? How has that been for - just in your experience? I know every experience is different. Some folks are more supportive than others. But have you been able to manage that okay, or do you feel like it has been harder to connect with family because you're away? I'll tell you this, I don't live that far away from my family, but it's far enough that I don't see them regularly. For me, moving farther away actually brought me closer to my family, because living with them, I couldn't stand them. So I don't know. I'm just curious about what it's like for you.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes, I completely identify with that. I agree 100% that moving away really helps with you being able to see things more clearly, and try to make these bigger, these larger understandings about your family, and where you fit in your family. That's actually the next thing I was gonna say, so I'm so glad that you asked that.

Jessennya Hernandez

The second con that I was gonna say is dealing with hardships in general is hard, because I was away from family. And part of the reason was I, like other children of immigrants and low income families, we have to learn to be self reliant at a young age. Whether that's getting a job really young, or learning to deal with things on your own, or not wanting to create more problems with your family, because you know there's already stuff going on. That definitely extended to when I went to grad school. I really didn't have that good of a communication with my family when I left, so that kind of continued too in my program. However, I did start to learn little things of how to communicate better with my family. For example, my dad calls me all the time and it's really nice. So I talk to him more than I talked to him before, you know.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's so interesting.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, because he calls me. He misses me and he'll do the work to make that connection. But for example, my mom, on the other hand is super, super busy and very consumed with work. So actually the communication with that has really gone down. It's not the best, but there's good and bad with it. But again, I do suggest making the time and the effort to create that communication, if you do lack that communication. Literally having conversations and saying, look, can we find a way to talk once a week? Or maybe your parents are calling you too much. Telling them, look, I'm really tired this week. I'll call you next Monday or something. However it is,however much you want, it can all be negotiated. You just need to have those conversations. I really suggest doing that early on rather than waiting for it to be, you know, when you're feeling really isolated, and you feel like oh, you know, I don't have anybody. But really, they're there for you. You just need establish that communication with them. Another example that I have is dealing with hardships, being away from family, my grandpa died my first year.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Oh, wow. I'm sorry.

Jessennya Hernandez

Oh no, it's okay. But he helped raised me, so being out there away when he got sick, the funeral. I would travel back and forth- I was constantly traveling. However, it was really hard, you know, being away from them. My family being all together, and going through that together. It was hard being away from them. But at the same time, when I would go back to Illinois, it was actually easy for me to process everything and not get so caught up in all of the pain and the sadness and everything that my family was going through. Itsounds weird, but the distance helped me heal a lot from it. So it's like a blessing in disguise.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's not what I thought you were gonna say.

Jessennya Hernandez

I mean overall, looking back, I realized that it was-I feel like if I was in my program here in California and that happened, I feel like I wouldn't have been able to focus at all on my studies and my coursework. I probably would have taken a break or something. But it was kind of like out of sight, out of mind. I wasn't trying to do that, it just happened that way. It maybe was a blessing in disguise, because maybe I wouldn't have been able to finish that semester if I was here. I don't know. I'm just speculating at this point. But overall, again, my family understands it's hard and we've come to a point where if I tell them, oh, you know, I gotta go do this for this reason. They're like, oh, do what you got to do. They don't ask all these questions. They're not like, oh, I don't get it. Why do you have to do this? All that. They've given me a lot of freedom. Like right now I'm in California. I'm traveling a lot to do my interviews for my data collection. So they give me a lot of freedom with you know, I come in and out of the house all the time. And, we've come to a point where they see the work I'm doing and they know that it's important. So they let me do all that stuff, you know. I think at first they really were not sure how to go about it. I don't think that they wanted to add any other pressure. So I don't know. We've come a long way, pretty much. It's been slow, but it's definitely been happening. You know, it's been four years.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I was gonna say, yeah, it's not like it's your first or second year. You've been there a good while.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes. Again, creating those conversations to either get closer- to get to make the communication- or, you know, creating boundaries. You know, when I come home for the summer and for the winters, I still have to do work. So, you know, if I can't go to a coffee shop today and I'm doing work in my room, you have to create those boundaries. You have to tell your parents, please for the next three hours, don't come knocking on my door. I'm really- it's my time to do my work. If you want to ask me something, can you wait three hours to do that. Creating those kinds of boundaries is super important. It's really hard. It's hard, but it's necessary for you to just be able to have mental health and preserving your energy.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I know that you said you've been doing this for four years. But I'm wondering if could maybe think back or look back at when you accepted, and knew you were gonna go to Urbana-Champaign for grad school, and just how overwhelming the thought is of moving cross country. Like even just the logistics of how do I afford that? How do I move my stuff? I'm wondering if you can just give advice to students who are either considering or in that process right now of- oh, wow, I'm gonna go to grad school out of state. I have no idea how to do this. I've never moved away before. Some students sometimes say, I've never flown on an airplane before. What kind of advice would you give them?

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, I'm so glad you asked that. It's been so long. I haven't even thought about all of that. But that happened to me too. Grad school, going to the- what is it, the recruitment visits- that was the first time I had even been on a plane before. I get that 100%. So thinking about costs and money and stuff, one of the advice that I was gonna give later is if you get into a program, apply to or check in to see if they have any summer programs. I got really lucky because in my university, they offer this program called the summer pre doctoral institute where underrepresented students who are coming here for grad school, there's a program where you basically become acclimated to grad school, to the area, they help you find apartments. It was kind of like McNair, to be honest.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's amazing. I don't hear about programs like that a lot.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes, it is so amazing. I'm so thankful because they helped so much. I met so many friends there, one of my best friends I met there. She became my roommate the first year. She really helped me. The whole program helped me and one of the biggest things was that they paid for your travel.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

What?

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes. That's right, they paid for everything. And they gave you a stipend for the summer. It was a really good stipend. And part of the requirements is that you start to do a little bit of research in your department, so you got to already get your foot in the door with faculty there, too. It was very amazing. I do think that other programs have this, but I knew a lot of people who didn't even know about the program who were 100% qualified. They just didn't know about it. So one of the things that I suggest is looking into these programs, or looking to see if your school has one of these programs. One of the things I was gonna say is that there's money out there for underrepresented students, especially in these really big institutions. They have the money. So don't be afraid to ask if they have scholarships or fellowships, or any kind of free money for people who are just underrepresented. You know, being underrepresented has made it super difficult to get here, but you can also use that position to get money out of it. Find the money because it's there for you in the institution. So yeah, that's one thing that really helped.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I was gonna say, it's interesting that you mentioned that because actuall, one of my students just last year ended up applying, getting in and going to Urbana Champaign too. He's in the statistics department, and he was struggling with the move and how am I going to afford the flight, etc. So he reached out to the department and told them, I'm doing the best I can to try to find a summer job. I'm struggling to be able to book my flight in advance to arrive there. And just out of nowhere, they offered to pay his flight, essentially, to get there.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, exactly. You just gotta ask.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

He wouldn't have recieved that if he hadn't opened up to them and asked , are there other funds available? Is there another way that I can apply for funding or whatever. He didn't have to apply to anything. They just said, okay we'll book your flight. Give us your details, and we'll do it for you.

Jessennya Hernandez

That's amazing.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Yeah.

Jessennya Hernandez

That's another thing with even the grad school applications. If you don't have a fee waiver, sometimes you can just email the secretary and ask, do you have any kind of fee waiver or anything? I remember doing that, and I remember my friends doing that too when I was applying. And they did, they gave it to - and not everybody did, but some did. Even that is something. But yeah, so those were my cons. I wanted to start with that, and end with the good things. Did you have anything else?

Jessennya Hernandez

You should definitely share your pros. I feel like there there were pros in your cons, too.

Jessennya Hernandez

That's true. I tried to not make them that bad. But I have three pros. The first one is that the- going back to thinking about like money and stuff. Once you get there, there's that whole thing, and I could share more about that, too. But once you get there, the cost of living is so so cheap. You know, California is one of the most expensive places to live. So out there, I've never had to pay anything more than $450 a month for my apartment. Yeah, that's right.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That hurts a little.

Jessennya Hernandez

I know, I'm so sorry to say it, but-

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

No it's good, so folks can be open to moving out of state.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, so I know that they don't pay grad students very much anyways, but it's still enough for me to live comfortably. I can pay all my bills. I still have money to go out every now and then, and I don't feel like- oh, my god, I have to check my bank account to see if I can go to the bar. I can do that and still feel comfortable. That's one of the biggest pros about out there, living out there. The second pro that I have about living in a small- yeah, it's basically being in a small town, in the quiet environment. It's really good for productivity. I know all of my local coffee shops. They know my name. Everyone's really nice, for the most part. There's genuine people out there. And I can get a lot of work done. When I come home to Cali, it's really nice. I get to be with family, maybe I do a little bit of work. But when I go back for the semester, to Illinois, I get so much of my work done faster, more efficiently. I don't have all these distractions. Ultimately, I want to finish my program as soon as possible to come back. So being out there in a quiet environment, there's not a lot of places to go. There's not a lot of things to do. So it's actually helpful for getting everything done faster.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I feel like you can turn that around. I heard some folks who are like, oh my gosh, I could never live there. I'd be so bored. I'm just like, actually, you don't have time to be bored in grad school. If anything, it's a good thing to not be distracted by the big city.

Jessennya Hernandez

Exactly. That's something that other people have told me too, other people who are coming from big cities. I have some friends who are from big cities outside of the United States- like Egypt. There's really big cities in India that coming here, they're like, oh, it's so small. It's so quiet. But I like it because I get all my work done. At the same time, Chicago is really close. If you do want a big city experience, you can just drive over to Chicago and get that. It's not like you're trapped, you know.

Jessennya Hernandez

My last pro is a big one. It's a huge one for me, and it's the biggest one for me. Being away from home and family and where I feel, you know, like my home, it really made me grow up so much. I became so much more independent and I really came into my own, or who I feel like I'm supposed to be in a sense. Being alone and all of that, it really kind of forced me to figure myself out and what I really want for my personal life, but also my academic life. I was kind of forced to ask these questions, and that's really how I came to my research. I'm really passionate about my research. I feel like if I wasn't forced to ask all these questions, I don't think I would have been able to come to the project that I'm doing now.

Jessennya Hernandez

And I found my advisor. It took me a while to find him, but I found him and he really advocates for me. He's an amazing mentor, and he's made my experience much better, too.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's important, too.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes, it was so important. My mentor before him was so trash. She's trash, and she really did not understand who I was. She doubted me a lot. It was really not a good experience. But I'm thankful that I was able to feel- I mean, I'm not thankful. It's hard to explain. I felt really crappy at certain times. I felt imposter syndrome all the time. I felt like, you know, these people don't want me here. I don't want to be here. I might leave the program. I went from feeling all of that to being forced to realize- this is my place. I do belong here. I know why I belong here, and I understand that even just being here, even just my presence here, is important. So I'm thankful that I came to that conclusion. But I don't know if that would have happened if I had stayed in California. But yeah, I just learned a lot of skills about how to advocate for myself, and when to identify when I need support and just how to become more sustainable. I really do think that I have such a great support system and community now, and I'm really proud of that. But yeah, even just learning about myself, just on a personal level. You know, growing up in kind of a conservative, strict home, I didn't really get to figure myself out. So living alone, living away from home, I really was able to explore myself more freely and openly. That's another way that I kind of just came into my own and figured out more about myself in that sense. And I was able to heal a lot from traumas from home,

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Wow.

Jessennya Hernandez

and move past those things. Like we were talking about earlier, I was able to kind of look at things, take a step back and look at things more clearly. So that really helped me too, with figuring myself out.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That is such an important pro to mention. I think that a lot of us, at least those folks that I know who are Latinx, who have immigrant parents. We grow up in sometimes sheltered homes, or sometimes we're stuck in a bubble. A lot of us, not everybody, but a good portion of my friends, they're from a certain part in SoCal, and then most of their family lives in that part in SoCal. So everybody's kind of very well connected, and it's a tight knit family. But because of that, few people in the family actually move away. And sometimes it doesn't allow for the same level of growth or even the pace of growth. So I think you probably grew up and became way more independent in your first year in grad school than you would have maybe if you were still close to home. Maybe it would have taken you a little longer to get there.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I think there's definitely a lot of benefit to that, where you're just like, I've done it on my own. I know I can handle this. It opens you up to even more possibilities because you're like, I've handled it before I can handle it again.

Jessennya Hernandez

Absolutely, yes. I'm so glad that you said that, because I really identify with that. I do think that I've become more confident and sure of myself, because I know that I've done these things. Even my friends will say things like, damn, you've done that? And to me I'm like, yeah, I had to do it. So I'm not like, oh, yeah, look at what I've done. You know?

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Yeah.

Jessennya Hernandez

But there's others, like there's this new student in my program. She's a first year right now and I'm mentoring her. And she talked about that. She recently emailed me saying that she just finished her first year. She's also a Latina from Chicago, you know, from a very- there's a lot of Latinos in Chicago. It's kind of a similar experience. But she said the same thing. She emailed me saying, she just feels so much more confident. Last year was really hard for her, but she is at this point where she's like, I've done a lot. I'm proud of myself. I feel more sure of myself, because she's been forced to do all of this and make it work.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

It's almost like exposure therapy. A fuerzas, you're like, oh, I've gotta do this. There's no other option.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Oh, wow. Well, since you just shared your cons and your pros, I just wanted to see if there was anything else. Any other kind of advice you would give to undergrads, or folks recently out of undergrad who are interested in going to graduate school, interested in applying- either away from home or out of state? Is there anything else you'd like to share with them?

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, I have a lot of tips that I just remembered from when I was applying, so I'll just go through them. And I know that you give these tips as well, so I'll just quickly go through them.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Yeah.

Jessennya Hernandez

These are all tips for people who are applying. These are things that I remember being told, and I think that really helped me get into my program. Ask your professors, faculty, graduate studies offices at your own institution who supports students, ask them for resources. Don't think that you're doing this alone. Make sure to ask the resources on your campus for help, and look at support from your own departments. That's one thing that helped me.

Jessennya Hernandez

Apply to as many as you can. That really, obviously, increases your chances. One way to manage all of these different applications is to get organized. I had an Excel sheet, where I put all of the important information of each program I was applying to, like name of the program, why are you interested in applying to them, because that's something that you need to know for your personal statement, deadlines of when to submit to the program, names of the faculty you want to work with, etc. All of that on one Excel sheet to help you get organized. That really helped me.

Jessennya Hernandez

For the personal statement, you just really need one really good personal statement, and then you just change it up to adapt it to the programs that you're applying to. The things that you change up are reasons why you want to get into the program, who you want to work with there, what you can contribute to the program, etc. Something that I was told was, how you write it is more important than what you write, or just as important as what you write. It should flow in a way that makes it seem that all of your experiences are bringing you to this program now. That's something I remember them telling me. And that's not how it works, but that's how you have to make it work.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

You have to frame it like that. That's true.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, and it doesn't have to be this poetic, crazy experience. You can start off talking about something like a mundane experience, as long as it shows why you care about research and why you want to go to grad school and why that's the next step for you. That's the most important thing. Then have a lot of people read it. Have faculty, have other students who know your field read it. Also have your friends who don't know the field read it, just so that it makes sense, that there's not weird, confusing run on sentences. Then I remember them also saying that it should be concise. So each sentence should be saying something meaningful. That's something that I remember.

Jessennya Hernandez

Let's see. There's so many things. The GRE exams. It's more important how you take it rather than knowing every single vocab word. Something that really helped me was- I'm a slow reader. I did not read growing up. I was outside in the streets playing with my friends. SoI don't think I'm a good reader. I had to actually practice reading, because a lot of the GRE pages, they're timed. Like for the writing section, you have to read something and then you write. But those are times aimed. I had to practice learning how to read fast in a way that I'm still retaining the information. Those kinds of skills are things that can help you get a better GRE score. Again, a lot of times, GRE scores don't matter. But that's just a tip.

Jessennya Hernandez

And I remember you saying this as well, you really don't have to pay to get into grad school. That's something that they told me all the time, and I really was like, I'm not going to pay. They offer fellowships or scholarships to students who are in our position, so take advantage of that. Don't pay if you don't have to.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Definitely not. I don't recommend that at all.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes, exactly. It's been so hard for us to get to this position. We don't have to pay. Another thing they told me was to email faculty in the programs that you want to get into. So send them an email two months before the deadline. I think two months before the deadline of when to submit, maybe before. I'm not sure, but, but definitely contact them. Email them that you're interested in their research. Tell them what you're interested in. Tell them you're an applicant, and maybe ask them a question or something that engages in their work. Tell them the things that you do that are related to their work. Even if they don't email back, it's still something that they see. When they are looking through the applications, that's something that puts you out there. That's going to be helpful, because there's going to be a lot of really great applicants. If there's something that gives you a leg up, that's something that can do that.

Jessennya Hernandez

One of the last things I have to say is knowing how to handle rejection. You know, I'm gonna be honest. I'm a little embarrassed to say it, but I applied to more than 15 schools. I got rejected to all but three.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

That's so common. Just FYI, that is very common. I only got into three as well, only one of them was a PhD. So just FYI. You're right. The rejection thing is a very big one, because a lot of us maybe were high achievers, maybe got into a bunch of four year universities for college. We're not used to getting rejected by most programs, and just having maybe one or two programs. So yes.

Jessennya Hernandez

Exactly. Iot about if you're qualified or not. It really isn't. I'm sure everybody who applied is qualified, and you've definitely overcome so much. So it's not about that. It's really just about little bureaucratic things, like maybe they're only accepting two people. Or maybe they don't have no money, and they're not accepting anybody. Sometimes that happens, or the person you want to work with, they're not accepting anybody. LThere's so many things that go into it. So never think that it's because you are lacking anything. That's not it. Don't go there. That's one thing that I have to say about that.

Jessennya Hernandez

And then, I think you don't have to go to grad school. It's not for everybody. But if you are wanting to do it, do it. Frad school has given me so many opportunities. It can give you a better life and a more exciting life. But even just beyond your own life, you're going to be gaining a lot of experiences. A lot of power, a lot of privilege with a degree. So you can make big differences, whether that's making your family proud or being upwardly mobile, increasing representation in higher education. Or like my goal, creating courses. When I teach, I want to create courses where I get to teach radical theories and history about resistance and abolishing systems of oppression. I think that that is such a great opportunity. I think it's important. S if you're thinking about it, do it. Use these things to motivate you, because there's times where you're gonna be like, maybe I don't want to do this. But if you do think it's important, remember these things. Remember these bigger things, and don't lose sight of them. Just remember that you're badass. That's my last advice.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I know, especially when you think about how far you've come. A lot of us, we don't realize how far we've come and then we're like, dang, I did that? Dang, I got the A and I had no idea how to even get into college?

Jessennya Hernandez

Exactly.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I'm thinking about a PhD and I didn't even know that existed until a year or two ago?

Jessennya Hernandez

Yeah, 100%. And something that people always tell me that I forget all the time is celebrate the little things. You finish writing a personal statement, celebrate that. Be proud of that. That's hard work.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

And it's hard to celebrate, because a lot of us are not taught to celebrate or to take care of ourselves. That's important too.

Jessennya Hernandez

Yes, yes.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

Well, I want to thank you so much for your time, for your willingness to open up and share with my listeners. I'm just really grateful to you. I think that you've provided a lot of wisdom and a lot of really excellent advice that I completely agree with. I hope that we'll be able to stay in touch and reconnect soon. So thank you so much Jessennya for coming on today.

Jessennya Hernandez

Thank you so much. This is amazing. What you do, it's so important, and I feel so lucky and thankful to just be a part of this. So thank you, 100%. Thank you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

I'm happy to have you on in the future, if you've got any other topics you'd like to share.

Jessennya Hernandez

Thank you. Thank you.

Dra. Yvette Martínez-Vu

All right. I'll talk to you later. Bye.