How to succeed in graduate school: Psychology professor co-authors chapter

If you want to know how to succeed in graduate school for psychology, Holly Tatum has advice for you.

Tatum, a psychology professor at Randolph College, recently co-wrote a chapter for Your Graduate Training in Psychology: Effective Strategies for Success, published by SAGE Publications this year.

Her chapter, “Setting Your Path: Begin With Your Dissertation in Mind,” provides advice that could help students save time by maintaining focus. “Sometimes in graduate school you get distracted by all the little things,” Tatum said. “It may be several years before you write your dissertation, but your activities should be framed by that ultimate goal.”

She wrote the chapter with Daniel Corts of Augustana College. They drew on some of their own experiences and lessons learned in graduate school at the University of Tennessee. “It was a good chapter to write because I made a lot of the mistakes that we wrote about,” Tatum said.

Thinking about the long-term goal of a dissertation can help beginning graduate students select an advisor, choose courses, and develop research skills that will be necessary for the dissertation, according to the chapter.

Tatum said the opportunity to reflect on her experiences helps her prepare her students for graduate school, and the final book is a good resource, too.

Psychology is one of the most popular majors at Randolph, where professors are well known for helping students prepare for graduate school through a rigorous curriculum and intense research programs. Among all undergraduate institutions, Randolph ranks among the top 14 percent for the number of graduates who go on to receive a Ph.D.

Katelin Shugart-Schmidt wins Virginia Tech Graduate Woman of the Year award

A 2010 alumna has won a prestigious award in graduate school at Virginia Tech.

Katelin Shugart-Schmidt was named Virginia Tech’s Graduate Woman of the Year. The annual award recognizes students who are deeply involved in the graduate community, contribute new knowledge through their research and teaching, and demonstrate a commitment to diversity.

Shugart-Schmidt said she was honored to receive the award, and that she traces her success in graduate school back to her undergraduate days. “It all came out of my experiences at Randolph,” she said.

Shugart-Schmidt, from Logan, Utah, majored in environmental science and minored in mathematics and biology during her time at the College. She participated in several research opportunities, including a summer internship with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She went to Hawaii to study algae blooms, coral reefs, and conservation efforts on Waikiki beach. For that project, she won Best Oral Student Presenter at the Hawaii Conservation Conference in Honolulu.

She also held leadership roles in Randolph’s honor system, which opened doors for her to be involved in the Virginia Tech honor system. She now serves as chief justice in that program.

Today, Shugart-Schmidt is studying methods for predicting how fishing regulations will affect fish populations, considering variables such as the weather and gas prices. She hopes to graduate in December. After graduation, she wants to help make conservation policies become more effective.

“I would really like to work in the intersection between policy and science,” she said. “I would love to take scientific information and translate that into a language that our policy makers and managers can understand and deal with correctly.”

2006 Alumna Profiled by the University of California, Berkeley after receiving an American Association of University Women's American Fellowship

Naomi Hollifield Ondrasek, a 2006 alumna, was recently profiled by the University of California, Berkeley after earning an American Association of University Women’s American Fellowship. The fellowship will provide funding while she completes her dissertation.

Ondrasek is an integrative biology doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley.

While at Randolph College, Ondrasek also earned the prestigious Udall Scholarship. She graduated with a biology major.
To see the piece, which was written by Richard Corten, a senior writer and editor for the University's graduate division, please go to http://grad.berkeley.edu/news/headlines/honors-awards/fellowship-winners/.

Photo by Thomas Ondrasek

Read another article about Ondrasek in Randolph magazine here http://www.randolphcollege.edu/x17438.xml