Why We Created a Virtual Support Group for PhD Students in CSD

No one ever said being a doctoral student is easy, but getting support from your peers along the way makes a big difference. Based on personal experiences navigating the first four years of two different doctoral programs, we realized how much the support of other PhD candidates in communications sciences and disorders (CSD) will help us succeed as future independent researchers and university faculty. Doctoral programs involve a significant amount of “learn-as-you-go” knowledge not directly passed on by your academic mentor or through courses. Peers provide a safe space to ask questions we might hesitate to ask to a professor or mentor, test out not fully formed ideas, and get advice about navigating tricky academic situations. After realizing how much we both relied on our own close-knit student groups as we worked toward becoming clinician-teacher-scientists, we decided to create a social media space specifically for CSD doctoral students. We chose Facebook groups as our platform where we can share resources and support one another in completing the PhD journey. PhD Students in CSD is a Facebook community for speech-language pathology, audiology, or speech & hearing science doctoral students and postdocs to network, share resources, and ask questions through public or anonymous posts. More than 300 current PhD students belong to the group and we average 15 posts per month. Students share useful tutorials for statistical analysis and data visualization; discuss wher...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Academia & Research Audiology Slider Speech-Language Pathology communication sciences and disorders Professional Development Source Type: blogs