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Dawn graduated from the Department of Integrated Studies in Education in 2012. She is currently a professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Q: What made you interested in doing a PhD in the first place?

I was working in state government in New Hampshire and did my Master鈥檚 degree. By then, it was pretty clear that I wasn鈥檛 going to be satisfied with just a Master鈥檚 degree. What I saw myself doing in the future required a PhD. We had always loved Montreal鈥攚e visit sometimes more than once a year鈥攁nd we liked the multicultural environment, especially for raising our daughter.

My husband has a PhD, so the other part of it was just competition with him. He can鈥檛 have a PhD without me having a PhD鈥攚e needed to equalize the expertise! Finally, when I was getting my Master鈥檚 degree, I saw the funny hats that certain people were wearing at graduation. They told me that I needed a PhD to have one of those hats. So clearly, I needed to do that because that hat is something I am going to wear. So these were all the reasons I ended up having a PhD.

Q: What is your current position?

I鈥檓 a tenured professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. I鈥檓 the program director of the early childhood program. I teach classes and I do some research, but not as much as my advisor wished that I was going to end up doing.

Q: Did you ever consider a non-academic route or were you certain you wanted to be a professor?

I was certain of being a professor鈥擨鈥檝e always known that I wanted to be a teaching professor, much more so than in a research track. I don鈥檛 know what the average age of a PhD student is, but I think I was forty two when I did my PhD, so I had a pretty good sense of what I could do, but also where I wanted to be in my professional journey with an understanding that I had other things to fall back on. I had policy experience, so if the academic thing just didn鈥檛 work out, there were other positions affiliated with early childhood that I had done and could do again.

Q: Who would you say were your most important mentors during your PhD?

Certainly my advisor Teresa Strong-Wilson. She was really grounding. She was the perfect fit for me in terms of temperament and personality鈥攕he knew how to push me, but not push me too hard. Another person who entered the program at the same time as me, Maija鈥攚e were a very good match together, went on to write an article together, and still stay in touch. I would say those two got me through the program. I don鈥檛 know how the program is now, but there wasn鈥檛 really a ton of opportunity to get to know other people鈥攊t was kind of insular.

Q: Did you feel as though you were part of a community?

I had the attachments to the one or two people that I was attached to. But in terms of feeling like there was a strong graduate community, I mean, I would hang out at the grad house every once in a while. But I didn鈥檛 really feel particularly super attached to the grad culture at McGill. I don鈥檛 know if it was due to my age. I was moving into my late thirties with a kid and I was managing her transition from being in a monolingual culture to suddenly having half of her day in French. It was kind of a shock for everybody. It may have been different if I was a Montrealer who was transitioning into graduate school, but I had other life stuff I was managing on top of graduate work.

Q: Is there any kind of mentorship that you would have found helpful prior to starting your PhD?

I think some of those emotional things that happen when you鈥檙e a PhD student aren鈥檛 really touched on much. Depending on your discipline, it can be much more cutthroat鈥攅ducation was a little less. But I still think it鈥檚 good for us to acknowledge that there are people who are experiencing pitfalls. So I think even getting together once a month to talk about how you are doing鈥攖alk about depression, mental illnesses, mental health stuff in the PhD population鈥攖hat sort of stuff might have been helpful to have.

Q: What do you value most about your time in graduate school?

I think that I valued the space to read and think through the connections to what I was reading. And then to have additional theory layered onto that, and then go 鈥淥h! Yes! Oh my god! That connects!鈥� I don鈥檛 have that sort of time to meander through foundational philosophies in the same way that I did during grad school because I鈥檓 helping to make sure that 350 undergrads make it through their program. I loved going out for drinks with Maija and just being like, 鈥淟et鈥檚 think about how we can combine these two ideas together.鈥� So, you know, to be very clich茅, it was that sort of Life of the Mind stuff.

Dawn reflects on what she valued most during her PhD.

Q: Did you have any particular experiences that have been valuable to you since you graduated?

I think that I was lucky that Teresa brought us in on her research projects and she rigorously had us publishing with her. She would then take us with her to present at various venues. That was super helpful because it did that soft acclimation of the skills you鈥檙e going to need in further academic life. It also gave us a stepping stone towards getting our own publications rolling.

The other thing that I think was helpful in the program was the TAships. They were really helpful in showing me how the classes flowed and what those expectations were. It also, in some cases, reminded me of the way I did not want to teach a class. It helped me visualize what I was going to do moving forward.

Q: What would you say has been your biggest challenge after you graduated?

I think the most challenging thing for me came about year two of being a professor when I no longer had any releases. I think at that time, because I was a more junior faculty, I was doing more teaching and supervision of student teachers. But in addition to that sort of teaching and workload, the service workload was really ramping up. I think that鈥檚 really hidden because students are never going to really understand the service obligations of faculty members, like committee work and all of that behind-the-scenes work. That service part is a massive part of my job that nobody really knows, unless you鈥檙e an active faculty member.

Q: What advice would you give someone working on their PhD?

I think for women in academia, you need to learn to be very prepared to be assertive and stand your professional ground. Another advice is to really take care of your mental health, because if you鈥檙e not mentally able to just keep yourself fed and watered, then doing research and writing is impossible.

Q: If you could go back to before you started and tell yourself something, what would it be?

I would say to enjoy it more. Don鈥檛 fight so hard against everything. I was thirty six when I entered and I had been working and I just resisted the whole first two years. I was like, 鈥淲hy do I have to do this?鈥� But I have to do this. I wish I had enjoyed it more. I wish I enjoyed that transition to being a student more.

Know that it鈥檚 going to be just truly exhausting, but that you can do it. And then on the other side of that comes the job search, which is really refining who you are as an academic and what you want to accomplish and what鈥檚 important to you. Teaching is really important to me and it鈥檚 what I am really good at, and that鈥檚 okay. Not every academic has to be a researcher.