Discover Rackham
Student Spotlight: Ryan Wade
Ryan already went to grad school. He earned his Master’s in Interpersonal Practice and Mental Health from the School of Social Work and became a clinical social worker. He loved it and found work helping individuals to be rewarding. But he needed more. He says, “It...
Alumni Spotlight: Vivian Sangunett
You want Vivian in your corner. Spend a little time with her and you’ll understand just how deeply her passions run and how strongly she serves as an outspoken advocate for those issues. She’s integrated this dedication into all of her life as her career and family...
Is There No Hope for Student Evaluations?
Studies paint a pretty bleak picture for student evaluations, as I noted in my previous blog post. An instructor’s race and gender have well-documented effects on evaluation scores, and that doesn’t even scratch the surface of the ways that sexuality and gender...
Student Evaluations (Huh, Good God, Ya’ll!), What Are They Good For?
Now, before anyone breaks into their best Edwin Starr impression, let me preface this by saying that I don’t think the answer is “absolutely nothing.” But, I do think we need to consider what student evaluations are really measuring, because evidence suggests that it...
Alumni Spotlight: Antonio R. Flores
After more than 20 years as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Antonio R. Flores offers his reflections on his graduate education at U-M and how that experience helped shape his career and the...
Student Spotlight: Sara Meerow
As an undergraduate student at the University of Florida, Sara wrote an honors thesis on the ‘natural resource curse’ in Africa that shifted her perspective. “I examined countries whose economies were dependent on oil and minerals and how that dependence correlated...
Note to my first-year grad student self
Dear first-year grad student me, I think of you wistfully every now and then, remembering your boundless enthusiasm for genetics and optimism about the world. You naive young thing, you. I’m so glad you don’t know what lies ahead. Ignorance IS bliss, but don’t tell...
Graduation After Incarceration: a Rackham Student Earns His Ph.D.
People slowly fill up the seats in a green and gold room before Jay Borchert even arrives. It’s the day of his dissertation defense, a day that is perhaps the most important milestone in a doctoral student’s career, a culmination of five or more years of intensive...
Aggression at a Local Bar: What Are the Community Implications of DE&I?
What do diversity, equity, and inclusion mean at the University of Michigan and to the larger Ann Arbor community? When we (Naomi, Princess, and Jallicia) wrote this piece, it was before many of the racially motivated aggressions appeared on campus. We want to publish...
Dealing with Impostor Syndrome
Have you ever thought to yourself, do I belong here? Am I good enough to be a graduate student? What will happen when everyone realizes I'm not as smart as they think I am? Everyone else really seems to know what they're doing; how come I don't?...