Mental Health Matters
Asking for Help & Reaching Out
Encountering setbacks while gaining crucial research skills, struggling to keep up in that one class where you have no prior background, fumbling your way around a new campus during a conference, and preparing last minute for group meeting presentations — these are just some of the common day-to-day grad school challenges. The types of challenges […]
If something feels wrong, speak up
How I used my story to advocate for grad students
This post is part of a special issue: “Mental Health Matters: Asking for Help & Reaching Out”. My first year of grad school at MIT was no piece of cake. I struggled to understand what was going on in lab, classes felt like they were ganging up on me, and everything came to a head […]
Surviving grad school for the strong of mind
A year with anxiety and depression
This post is part of a special issue: “Mental Health Matters: Asking for Help & Reaching Out”. It was New Year’s Day ’17 when I first set foot at MIT for a one-week intensive Quantitative Biology Workshop. Little did I know that it was the experience that would change the course of my future. From […]
Overcoming anxiety
How my first year of graduate school pushed me to reach out for help
This post is part of a special issue: “Mental Health Matters: Asking for Help & Reaching Out”. Hey there! I’m Jessica, a current 3rd year graduate student and PhD candidate, and I have anxiety. I choose to say this in the first sentence because it needs to be out there in the open and talked about. […]
Taking engineering too far
Food, weight, and body image in grad school
This post is part of a special issue: “Mental Health Matters: Asking for Help & Reaching Out”. I can’t remember a time in my life when I wasn’t trying to lose weight. When I’m sitting in my office and can’t focus on my work because I can’t stop thinking about how much fat I have […]
