What the GradHackers Are Thankful For

Alex Galarza

I am thankful for the support my family and friends during a difficult fall semester. It’s been both exciting and challenging to transition from fieldwork abroad to a new teaching position, new city, and writing my dissertation. Yet, I’ve been lucky to count on the support of new friends and colleagues in Grand Rapids and at Hope College. I am also thankful for the GradHacker team, who continues to do amazing work for an expanding audience.

Katy Meyers Emery

I am thankful for my mentors who have helped me to succeed and provide me with endless support. Over the last year I’ve gone from taking comprehensive exams and defending my proposal, to starting to do my dissertation analysis and writing. I’m grateful for my advisors and mentors who have helped make this major transition easier for me. They consistently challenge me to do better in everything, push me to learn more about statistics and teaching methods, and have faith that I’ll be a successful colleague one day.

Kelly Hanson

This year I find myself thankful for my colleagues and friends, who provide endless support, ideas, and inspiration for research and teaching. I am especially grateful for graduate students ahead of me who provide so many examples, possibility models, advice, and support for those of us navigating difficult areas of graduate school for the first time—from our first year teaching, to comprehensive exams, to writing a dissertation, to attending our first national conference or organizing our own panel, to navigating applications for teaching positions, fellowships, and jobs. Indiana's English Department has an incredibly supportive group of graduate students and professors, and the community support is incredible, whether we're all here in Bloomington or supporting each other from afar. Thanks for being awesome, y’all.

Justin Dunnavant

I am thankful for each delicately roasted black bean of coffee that kept the caffeine running through my veins as I struggled to stay awake during mid-terms.

Natascha Chtena

I am endlessly thankful to my advisor for his faith in me, his patience, guidance, and wisdom. I am thankful for my friends and colleagues who dare to dream big, think outside the box, and question the status quo—you guys inspire and amaze me every day. I am thankful to my students who challenge and push me to become a better teacher, and who bring so much joy to my life. Thank you all.

Hanna Peacock

I am thankful to the people who made it possible for me to move to Belgium this year. I’m grateful to my family, friends, former labmates, and MSc advisor for encouraging me to do something a little bit crazy, and for keeping me calm in the weeks leading up to the move. I’m thankful for my new promotor and colleagues who have been exceptionally welcoming, helpful, and fun to work with.

Lesley McCollum

I am thankful for my husband—for his endless support, keeping me company during weekends in the lab, and listening to too many practice seminar talks. I could not have made it this far without him. I am also thankful for a supportive and encouraging mentor. I had no idea how valuable the balance of trust, independence, and guidance that she offers me would be to my graduate career.

Erin Bedford

I’m thankful for my alarm clock. It deserves a mention since it seems to receive an unfair share of my anger—despite the fact that without it, my days of research may never begin.

Katie Shives

I am thankful for my wonderful, supportive spouse who always helps me keep perspective on what really matters in the face of the demands of graduate school; and for my two crazy dogs who are always a source of boundless joy no matter how things go in the lab that day.

Michelle Lavery

This year I am thankful—incredibly—for grad school and the opportunities it affords. We can often lose sight of what it means to be a researcher, and Thanksgiving seems as good a time as any to appreciate what an honor it is to be creating knowledge.

Jason McSheene
Over the past year, I have been incredibly fortunate to find welcoming communities outside of graduate school and scientific research. I am thankful for those who continue to cheer me on as I conclude my research. I’m also grateful for a partner who has refused to let me give up on the hardest days and a cat who rarely judges. Also coffee.

Maura Elizabeth Cunningham

This is probably a little bit impolitic to say at a site for graduate students, but I’m thankful to be finished graduate school! My path to a PhD was a long and circuitous one that spanned a decade, and I’m immeasurably grateful to to the family, friends, and mentors who cheered me on as I careened down the home stretch and crossed the finish line. I could have never made it without their encouragement and support, and I wouldn’t trade a minute of the past ten years.

(Well, maybe I could have done without qualifying exams.)

Best wishes to all over the upcoming holiday season.

[Image via Wikipedia and used under the Creative Commons license.]