October 1, 2025 | GradWell Season 2 View transcript ⚠️ JavaScript is required to view the podcast player. Give this episode a listen and let us know what you think! Follow GradWell and join us on our journey to greater well-being for graduate students at the University of Michigan. Guest Dianna Alvarado (she/her) is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate in psychology, specifically in the area of personality and social contexts. Her research focuses on how students from marginalized backgrounds navigate challenges such as the impostor phenomenon and institutional barriers, and how cultural assets can help them thrive in higher education. Dianna currently serves as vice president of Puentes, a U-M graduate student organization focused on fostering community and professional development among Latinx scholars. After completing her graduate training, she aspires to become a faculty member at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, where she hopes to mentor and train the next generation of scientists. Resources Michigan-based Rackham Impostorism Workshop – available a few times a year – search Happening @ Michigan for its next occurrence Email us for the Companion Workbook for Impostorism Workshop Research-based Strategies for Combatting the Impostor Phenomenon in Higher Education CAPS Counselor Embedded at Rackham CAPS Counselors Embedded in Michigan’s Schools and Colleges Wellness Coaches CEW+ Virtual Mindfulness Sits Self-Compassion Group Therapy MARI at UMich Campus Mind Works Wellness Groups Wellness Resources Well-Being Management Checklists Outside the University The Impostor Academy Transcript Sam Hobson: Hey, welcome to GradWell, a limited series podcast that explores various ways the University of Michigan can support its graduate students and their journey to greater well-being in our everyday lives, brought to you by Rackham Graduate School. This season, we’ll be talking to members of our academic community whose research intersects various dimensions of well-being. Sam Hobson: I’m Sam Hobson, a PhD candidate and a GSSA in Rackham’s Professional Development and Engagement office. My fellow grad students, it’s time we start placing as much importance on ourselves as we do our work, you’re worth the effort. Dianna Alvarado: It’s like self-compassion is like that nurturing friend, and academic self-efficacy is like that other friend who reminds you, “You know what, you are all of that and a bag of chips.” Sam Hobson: Hello, hello. Today’s resource is Dianna Alvarado, a PhD candidate in personality and social context psychology. We’re going to be highlighting Dianna’s work on the protective strategies that can help mitigate the effects of imposterism as the second half of our segment on the imposter phenomenon, diving deeper into the intersections of the intellectual and professional dimensions of well-being. I am very excited to have y’all with Dianna and me today. All right, let’s get started. Sam Hobson: Dianna Alvarado, she/her, is a fourth-year PhD candidate in psychology, specifically in the area of personality and social context. Her research focuses on how students from marginalized backgrounds navigate challenges such as the imposter phenomenon and institutional barriers, and how cultural assets can help them thrive in higher education. Dianna currently serves as vice president of Puentes, a Michigan graduate student organization focused on fostering community and professional development among Latinx scholars. After completing her graduate training, she aspires to become faculty at a Hispanic-serving institution, but she hopes to mentor and train the next generation of scientists. Hi, Dianna. Dianna Alvarado: Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Sam Hobson: I am so excited to have you here today. So last episode, I spoke with your colleague, Danielle Rosenscruggs, about the specifics of the imposter phenomenon in higher education. Dianna, what is your work specifically about? Dianna Alvarado: So my work examines how students navigate imposter failings and the strategies they use to protect themselves from the harmful effects of the imposter phenomenon. So I focus on highlighting assets rather than deficits and exploring what helps minoritized students not only survive, but truly thrive in academic spaces. Particularly, I study what I call protective strategies. So those are the tools, the mindsets, and the support that empower students to succeed in environments that historically weren’t designed with them in mind. Dianna Alvarado: So these strategies often serve as a form of resistance, allowing students to maintain their well-being and agency while pursuing their academic and educational goals. Sam Hobson: Dianna, how did you get into this work? Dianna Alvarado: So actually, it’s kind of a funny story and I love sharing it because it shows how everyday interactions can spark those aha moments for researchers. So my advisor studies imposter phenomenon pretty extensively, and I had an initial interest in it as well, and I thought, “Oh, yeah, I’ve experienced that a few times here and there, as any graduate student.” As I was diving into the literature, I casually mentioned it, imposter feelings, to one of my undergraduate students, and I remember her just stopping and then looking at me and asking, “So what can I do when I feel like that? What do I do about it?” Dianna Alvarado: That question completely stopped me in my tracks because I realized I didn’t have a great answer. And when I looked at the research, there wasn’t a lot out there on how to actually combat imposter phenomenon, especially for minoritized students. So as someone who studies barriers to student success, I wanted to shift the focus on how students can thrive, not just what holds them back. And so that’s what led me to start looking at what I call protective strategies or the tools and support students can use to navigate imposter feelings and succeed in spaces that can feel unwelcoming sometimes. Dianna Alvarado: And of course, one size doesn’t fit all. So the literature on imposter phenomenon for students of color and other minoritized groups is pretty limited. So we can’t really understand or address this experience holistically without looking at those unique contexts. So talking with my students and peers and seeing how common these feelings were among friends and colleagues really underscored for me that we need research that not only describes the problem, but helps us identify strategies that work to combat that problem. Sam Hobson: Why do you think that there’s not that much out there currently regarding how to combat it? Dianna Alvarado: I feel like in a lot of literature focusing on minoritized students, there’s been a lot of very helpful literature looking at the barriers they face that goes beyond just your regular academic stressors like exams, courses, all of that stuff, but maybe things like discrimination or bias that they may experience. I think that a lot of attention and focus has been primarily on addressing those barriers, but I feel like we haven’t really looked at maybe ways that students already can incorporate those cultural protective factors or assets that they already bring to the table, so those strengths that they can use. I also want to really focus on not just saying, “Oh, students of color experience this, this, and that, these problems,” but also saying, “Well, they may experience this, but they also have these strengths and these resources and these assets that they can use to combat spaces that may be unwelcoming or spaces where they do experience discrimination or bias.” Sam Hobson: Hmm, I love that perspective. That is so empowering. We read so much literature, and it’s just about all of the awful ways that life gets us down, but there’s so little academic literature that’s about comes from a foundation of empowerment and the agency and authority that we have over our own lives and seeing the ways in which we live our lives as empowering even in the face of these, all of the stuff that gets thrown at us. Sam Hobson: So Dianna, I know that you hit on this a little bit, but can you go deeper into why study specifically students of color? Dianna Alvarado: So historically, students of color have often faced unique barriers in higher education beyond the typical academic pressures, as I mentioned. They may be navigating familial expectations at home, experience racial microaggressions, or be in environments where they’re underrepresented. So I want to study this group because much of the early work on imposter phenomenon focused on majority groups and often assumed that what works for white students automatically applies to students of color, which isn’t the case. Dianna Alvarado: So in addition to that, it’s really important to emphasize that students of color are not a monolith and there’s a lot of diversity even within the group students of color or even within racial ethnic groups. So they come from incredibly diverse cultural and socioeconomic and family backgrounds, which means that their experiences and the strategies they use to navigate higher education are not a one-size-fits-all type of scenario. So even within the same racial group, students’ needs and strengths may vary widely, and so my research tries to honor that nuance by looking specifically at Latinx students or maybe Black students or Asian American students. And even within those groups, there’ll be diversity as well. Dianna Alvarado: So another distinction is that for many students of color, the imposter phenomenon often feels racialized. So another difference is the role of perceived racial discrimination in their environment and how that contributes to IP feelings or imposter phenomenon feelings. It’s not just I’m not good enough in a general sense, it can feel like I’m being judged more harshly because I’m the only person in my background that’s in this space. And so racial microaggressions and subtle bias can amplify these thoughts and make imposterism or imposter feelings feel tied to identity in a way that isn’t always captured in literature based on white students’ experiences. Dianna Alvarado: And don’t get me wrong, the initial literature has been very helpful in understanding IP or imposter phenomenon, but it’s also important to note how imposter phenomenon may manifest in different racial ethnic groups because differences in culture play a role as well. Dianna Alvarado: So for example, while building confidence is important for everyone, for Latinx students specifically, they might benefit from connecting to a sense of purpose or seeing their success as tied to supporting their families or communities. So traditional imposter literature often focuses on individual traits, but with students of color who often come from collectivistic cultures, it’s better to focus on that collective success and ways of healing that introduces a more collectivistic approach for students and navigating those imposter feelings. Sam Hobson: So last episode, I spoke with your colleague, Danielle, and she was saying how imposter phenomenon in general in higher education is a really normal response to this experience of very high-achieving higher ed. And so what I’m hearing is that within higher achieving higher ed, which is a space that was not created with people of color in mind, that it would seem as if it would be normal exponentiate for students who come in with a racialized background. Sam Hobson: And so I feel like that’s a lot, I feel like that’s a lot. Grad school is difficult already, and from what we learned last time, it’s easy to feel like a fraud when you’re not racialized. And then to be in a space where that wasn’t built for racialized folks to try to exist, to try to thrive, this seems very like, oh, duh, of course. But then why is that not necessarily… why are we not talking about it enough, I guess is my question? Dianna Alvarado: Yeah, that’s a great question. I feel like there’s some, perhaps, shame attached to feeling like this because if you’re in a very high-achieving, often competitive space where you see everyone around you doing really well, and you’re like, “Well, I’m just floating above water, keeping my head above water, but this is really tough, and I feel like I’m not doing good enough,” or, “I’m not doing what’s sufficient or what’s expected of me,” or, “They made a mistake on the admissions committee and I was not supposed to get that letter,” I feel like that’s not talked about because there is a level of shame. I think there is a level of shame associated with feeling like an imposter because what do you mean you have all these awards and you got into this program and you still don’t feel like you are adequate enough to be here, or you feel like you’re a fraud, you feel like it’s all just like you were just pretending and they’re going to find out? Dianna Alvarado: So the shame is definitely there. And with being in spaces where sometimes egos can run a little high and you don’t want to really be vulnerable in a space, in an environment that prizes and prioritizes that academic success, students getting grants, students getting awards, and for someone to feel like that, it’s like, “Well, you’re still doing really well anyway, so just hide it under the rug and you’ll be fine, you’ll just keep going.” I feel like it’s very much an institutional kind of atmosphere that drives it, and it sucks that it happens. And I wish that more faculty would talk about it and departments too, because I feel like there’s a lot of where even when I tell my undergraduate students about it, they’re like, “Wow, I’ve been experiencing that. This is the first time I knew there was a name associated with that feeling.” Dianna Alvarado: I think institutions, specifically departments and faculty, need to do their task, I would say, is to name it, name the feelings, and it would be very validating for faculty even to share their setbacks and the times that they failed and been like, “You know what, there was a time that I failed something, I felt like an imposter. I wasn’t doing well,” or maybe, “I was doing really well, and I still felt like an imposter, and I overcame it by doing X, Y, and Z,” or, “I persevered, I persisted in my program, and now I’m here.” And so that would be nice to humanize departments in that way or faculty in that way, because it is very common with high-achieving people, people that have a very great track record of doing well academically, but still that doubt creeps in. Dianna Alvarado: And so having someone that’s already been through the process, like a mentor, a faculty member, someone, I guess, older than you talk about it, it feels like validating and helps to not have so much shame around it because then it doesn’t make you feel like you’re the only one experiencing this. Sam Hobson: Yeah, I can totally get behind that. What really stood out to me is when you mentioned that this requires a level of vulnerability, right? Dianna Alvarado: Yeah. Sam Hobson: And that’s hard. That’s hard, particularly in a space where you’re not supposed to be vulnerable. We’re only supposed to be intellectual. Vulnerability doesn’t exist here, right? Dianna Alvarado: Right, right. Sam Hobson: This seems very oxymoronic to recognize that perhaps in order to thrive, we have to engage in behaviors that we’re told explicitly and implicitly, but also explicitly that these are not the behaviors that you engage in here. How do you fight past that in order to get to your highest potential? And it feels really like we’re set up for failure a little bit, I don’t know. Dianna Alvarado: Almost, right? Sam Hobson: Yeah, yeah, it sounds really… there’s just so much energetic stuff that is happening within our programs that we have to navigate in order to really… Because we want to thrive. We’re not just here to survive and get through. We want to do well and feel good while we do it. Dianna Alvarado: Yes, thriving. Sam Hobson: And that feels like it takes more work than I wish it would. Dianna Alvarado: Yeah, it does feel like that. It’s like, well, on top of all the actual academic work I have to do, I have to make sure I’m still having fun being human. But it is something that I wish institutions would prioritize more, but if they’re not going to do it, then we as students can, at least, try to do it for ourselves because at the end of the day, we just got us. Sam Hobson: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we do, we do. Sam Hobson: In a previous episode, Terra Molengraff, she wrote a book about decoding the academy for first-generation students, and she was saying that although it’d be nice for the institution to give us what we need, we have to make it for ourselves, it’s our responsibility to get ourselves through this program, it’s our responsibility if we want to thrive. And I’ve been really processing that about… Because we want the institution to provide the environment for us to thrive, but sometimes she’s like, “But you’re here now, and so what do you do?” At the end of the day, we have autonomy. If we want to thrive, we got to make sure we thrive. So have these tough conversations, is what I’m hearing. Create spaces where vulnerability isn’t maybe so incredibly scary. Dianna Alvarado: Yes, normalize the conversation because I feel like imposter feelings will thrive in silence, people experiencing it in silence. So when faculty and peers openly acknowledge those feelings, it can reduce the shame that students might feel. And institutions too, not just faculty and staff at the departmental level, but institutions creating structured mentoring, having spaces like Trotter, the multicultural center that we have on campus, having those physical spaces is something institutions can do. Sam Hobson: I imagine in the future, you come in, and institutionally, they recognize imposter feelings are going to happen and they’re normal, and this here’s what we can do about it in a way that’s, like you said, we’re not in shame in a corner by ourselves trying to deal with this or pretend like that’s not happening, but then also navigating through it at the same time. So yeah, I see this as a thing that we as an institution acknowledge as just a normal part of graduate school. And then so because we’re able to acknowledge it, what can we do about it, right? Dianna Alvarado: Yeah. Sam Hobson: So speaking of what we can do about it, this episode is about protective strategies that help us navigate the difficulties that we experience in our lives. I know you explained it a little bit, but can we go deeper into what are protective strategies? Why are they important? Dianna Alvarado: Yeah. So the way I describe it… So protective strategies are tools or practices that help us combat stress and help us maintain our well-being, even when things get tough. So in the field of positive psychology, protective factors or strategies are described as conditions or attributes that reduce risk and build resilience in individuals facing challenges. Dianna Alvarado: So the way I like to categorize it is with internal and external protective strategies. So you have your internal ones are self-compassion or confidence in your abilities. There’s also external, having mentorship and supportive peers or community spaces like organizations that focus on students’ academic success and professional development. And they’re important because imposter feelings can take a real toll on mental health and academic persistence. Dianna Alvarado: So while protective strategies don’t make the challenges disappear, per se, they can give us a foundation to handle them more effectively. So protective strategies can definitely help us build that resilience towards adversities or challenges. Dianna Alvarado: And what I really like about it, it’s that they are not just limited to school settings. Students who develop these healthy coping strategies or protective ways of dealing with obstacles can use them in their future careers or even in personal relationships. It’s definitely a great skill to develop overall. Sam Hobson: I never thought of protective strategies as also being external to us, and I never thought of, perhaps, my relationships that I have fed into as a protective strategy for the hard times. Yeah, that makes them feel so much more yummy. I love that. Dianna Alvarado: Like that friend when you’re having a bad day, that friend that reminds you, “Hey, you belong here,” or, “You’ve done so many great things,” or, “Remember that award you got last year,” or something like that. Having those relationships with people that know you and that can build you up, essentially, can be an external protective strategy. Your people. Sam Hobson: Yeah, your people. Sam Hobson: How do protective strategies, I know you said a little bit, but can we speak more about how they relate to intellectual and professional well-being? Dianna Alvarado: So when students feel more grounded and supported, they’re able to advocate for themselves, for example, or stay engaged in their work. So that’s huge for professional development, because so much of the success in academia depend on things like networking or applying to opportunities or sharing your work publicly. And those are things that imposter feelings often make people shy away from because of the doubt that they may hold. And so protective strategies like self-compassion or academic self-efficacy can interrupt that cycle. Dianna Alvarado: So self-compassion can help students recover from setbacks without internalizing them as proof that they don’t belong. And self-efficacy can help students trust their skills enough to pursue challenging opportunities. So together really with these supports, even very capable students can burn out and withdraw from opportunities and avoid spaces where they might grow, simply because they have the self-doubts. So protective strategies can give them these tools to stay engaged and to thrive, even in environments that sometimes can feel competitive or isolating. Sam Hobson: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I really like the framing of them as protective strategies rather than coping mechanisms. I know coping feels as if we’re, again, surviving, and protective feels really empowering, as if, like you said, we are cultivating an environment in which we’re able to thrive. Sam Hobson: Dianna, in your research, you found that self-compassion and academic self-efficacy are protective strategies that helped your participants mitigate experiences of imposterism. I know you just established it, but I really want us to fog our brains, to listen in, what is self-compassion, what is academic self-efficacy, and how do we cultivate these things for ourselves? Dianna Alvarado: So the definition of self-compassion that I use is more psychology-oriented and derives from psychologist, Dr. Kristin Neff. So it describes a practice of treating yourself with kindness, and especially when you make mistakes or feel like you’re falling short. Instead of using harsh criticism, you acknowledge your humanity. You’re learning just like everyone else. Dianna Alvarado: And another component that I really like about it is considering both the good experience and the hard or bad experiences as part of the overall human experience. So bad things will happen in life, good things will happen in life, you take them both. So you take into account that even through hard times, you can show yourself kindness and show yourself compassion. Dianna Alvarado: And this can look different depending on what you prefer. For some people, it’s practicing meditation or mindfulness practices. Others turn to journaling. And other people may notice when they’re talking harshly about themselves or critically. So really, it can be tailored to your specific preference about how you prefer to show yourself some compassion. Dianna Alvarado: And academic self-efficacy derives from Bandura’s self-efficacy model, which is the belief that you can succeed in a given test despite challenges. But academic self-efficacy in particular, refers to those academic tasks, like an exam, a paper, a final. So those academic tests in particular that when you’re facing through challenging times, you can still persevere and you can still do well on that certain task. Dianna Alvarado: So cultivating these involve things like setting realistic goals and reminding yourself of the big and small wins. And building academic self-efficacy also falls a bit on the environment, so having those supportive mentors and peers and receiving constructive feedback and being reminded of your strengths that we mentioned earlier, from your peers, or it could be your mentors or just your social network or your social support. So it’s definitely important for departments and instructors to understand the influence they have on building students’ academic self-efficacy because a lot of it can come through there as well, when other people are able to validate the hard work you put into things and the accomplishments that you’ve been successful in. Sam Hobson: Do you find that self-compassion and academic self-efficacy as protective strategies, are those things that either you got it or you don’t? Dianna Alvarado: Oh, no, definitely not. It’s very much growth mindset type of thing. You can definitely build on it. You can definitely grow more in your self-compassion. Maybe some people innately just practice it because maybe in their family it was something that was practiced. A lot of people may practice it and they don’t even know that they’re practicing self-compassion. Dianna Alvarado: I would tell my friends at the beginning of grad school, “One of the things I want to do is to give myself grace, is to show myself some grace when I make mistakes because I’m human.” And I was a first year, and I was… Mistakes might happen because, again, I’m a human being. And I didn’t know it at the time, but that was self-compassion, that was self-compassion. So I think that there isn’t one right way to do it and there isn’t a way where if you were born with it, then you’re going to always have it at that level. No, you can definitely grow your self-efficacy, your self-compassion. These are things that over time you can make it more of a daily practice, and then by then, it just becomes like a habit. Sam Hobson: So if a grad student here were interested in cultivating a greater sense of self-compassion or academic self-efficacy, where could they go, what should they do? Dianna Alvarado: So definitely recommend starting with resources like the university’s CAPS center or the Counseling and Psychological Service center, which they often run workshops on mindfulness and self-compassion. There’s also student groups, like peer mentorship programs, that can help build confidence through community. And honestly, talking to professors and peers that you trust to help normalize these experiences so you don’t have to navigate this alone. I think also Rackham, the Rackham Graduate School, offers imposter phenomenon workshops, which can be a great starting point for students that really don’t know where to start and just want to get some advice and some help. Dianna Alvarado: And of course, I wouldn’t be a true psychologist if I didn’t mention therapy. So I’m not clinically trained, so please take this advice as my general opinion. But therapy might be a great option to reflect on your experiences and engage in a more guided conversation about what you’re experiencing and how it’s affecting your daily life, or if someone just wants to get more into mindfulness and more into meditation practices. So I definitely recommend giving therapy a try. Sam Hobson: So self-compassion is meditation, mindfulness, being kinder to ourselves, academic self-efficacy is being able to address challenges that we… maybe break down the challenges that we experience into more manageable and easier tasks academically. How does that help with imposter phenomenon? Dianna Alvarado: So when experiencing imposter feelings, you can feel really… there’s an association of experiencing imposter feelings with depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms. So it gives you stress, basically. So experiencing imposter feelings can give you that stress. And so when you’re feeling like you are a fraud and that you don’t belong in those spaces, self-compassion can be a great reminder of telling you, “Well, maybe you’re being very critical of yourself and you’re not evaluating all the growth and all the achievements you’ve had so far.” Dianna Alvarado: Even if you feel like a fraud or you feel like a fake and you feel like someone’s going to find out, self-compassion can be a great reminder for students to not focus on just the negative, but also the positive and see it from another perspective of maybe some things I’m not really good at, but I’m learning. That’s why I’m a graduate student, not a graduate master. I might not be an expert yet. And you know what, even experts in the field might feel a little bit like that too, a little bit of imposter feelings. But I think self-compassion is a great way to use that as a practice to be like, I’m a student, I’m learning. If I make mistakes, that’s okay because I’m human. Dianna Alvarado: And academic self-efficacy, on the other side a little bit, but academic self-efficacy is more like that belief, “Okay, I have an exam coming up, I have my candidacy exam coming up,” or, “I have that final paper due. If I start on it a month early and just work at it bit by bit, I can get this done, I can do this.” Or., “I start studying a few months before my exams, I can do this, I can finish it, and do it well.” And so academic self-efficacy serves as that cheerleader within you that can be like, “You know what, you can do this hard thing.” And those imposter feelings, that point at the doubt and be like, “You can’t do this because you weren’t supposed to be in this space to begin with. You’re not good at this. People are going to find out you’re bad.” Academic self-efficacy can come in and be like, “Wait, wait, wait, you’re actually really good at this. You can do this, this, you have done it before, and you can do it again.” Dianna Alvarado: So that’s what I really like. It’s like self-compassion is like that nurturing friend, and academic self-efficacy is like that other friend who reminds you, “You know what, you are all of that and a bag of chips. You really are that girl. You really are that star.” So that’s the way I see it, two, I wouldn’t say opposite sides of the spectrum, but they very much complement each other in that way. Sam Hobson: I love that. I do, I do. What I’m hearing is that there are these positive voices in your head that are combating this very critical not-based-in-reality voice that we tend to allow to whisper in the background constantly, if you’re me at least. Dianna Alvarado: Yes, yes. No, yeah, focus on those positive voices because I feel like as graduate students, we focus a lot on that critical voice and being like, “See, that B, I told you, you should have studied more.” And being like, no, no, no. Self-compassion can be like, “You know what, we had a rough week that week, and we did the best we could with the resources we had. So if it’s a B, it’s a B, and we will try again or keep going.” Sam Hobson: That reminds me, when you were talking about academic self-efficacy and pacing out things in advance, there’s this concept called imposter cycles. Can you tell us what that is, how we get caught up in them? Dianna Alvarado: So for me, imposterism has shown up in subtle ways, so hesitating to apply for awards or grants because I assume that I’m not good enough to receive it. And so over time, I’ve realized that those thoughts don’t mean that I am incapable. They’re really just a reflection of the competitive and sometimes isolated environments we’re in. Dianna Alvarado: And on the flip side, even when I do apply for something and get it, my mind will still try to downplay the success. And I’ll think maybe they sent that notification by mistake. And it’s that constant tendency to question or minimize achievements, even when the evidence shows that I’ve earned them. Dianna Alvarado: And these feelings often follow what researchers call the imposter cycle. So it starts when you face a new challenge. Let’s say you have to do a presentation or you have to write a big paper, so that can trigger anxiety and self-doubt. And some people cope by over-preparing, working excessively for hours on end to prove themselves that they can do this and do it well, while others procrastinate out of fear. And I am definitely on the procrastination side. Either way, when the test does get done, you might feel temporary relief, but instead of seeing your success as evidence of your ability, you attribute it to luck or overwork or it’s like, “Oh, it’s because I spent so many hours on it, that’s why it was good.” Or, “It’s because it was just luck this time that it worked out.” Dianna Alvarado: And that sets up the next cycle, because the next time something happens like that, the same thing, you’ll either over-prepare or you procrastinate out of fear. And so that’s when the doubt just starts all over again. Dianna Alvarado: And it’s taken some time of understanding that pattern that has helped me notice when I’m in it, and instead of overworking or spiraling, I can pause and take a mindful moment and remind myself that the work I do is important and I’m capable of doing a good job. And that’s where the academic self-efficacy joins the gang. And it’s like, you can do this. You just pace yourself, work at it bit by bit. I feel like as graduate students, our research can take a while, and we might feel like a lot of progress isn’t being made. And so having those small wins too has helped me a lot, thinking about those big and small wins. Sam Hobson: Dianna, I really appreciate you sharing your vulnerability with us of how imposterism has shown up in your life. May I ask you to be a little bit more vulnerable with us and share how you practice cultivating your own protective strategies against imposterism? Dianna Alvarado: So I’d say that for self-compassion, I like to practice reminding myself that this whole grad school experience will have some good times and will have some tough times, but through it all, I’m going to be kind to myself. Dianna Alvarado: And something that keeps me grounded is knowing, well, sometimes the world can already be a pretty harsh and competitive place, so at least for me, I’m going to show myself some love. And I know it sounds very like, oh, my gosh, very hippie and very like, okay, you’re going to show yourself some love, I guess. But this is legit rooted in research. Even if it feels like very this is all rainbows and butterflies, very bubbly, it really does help to just show yourself some grace, show yourself some love. Dianna Alvarado: And for academic self-advocacy, I celebrate progress, whether it’s big or small. If I cleaned my inbox, that I had a bunch of emails, I cleaned my inbox, I sent a bunch of emails, yay. If I submitted a grant application, yay. If I passed my candidacy exam, big yay. Dianna Alvarado: And I’m not big on journaling through words, I’m not, I really can’t sit and journal. It’s not for me. And that’s okay. But I do take pictures, and I’ll take screenshots of wins, so by the end of the year, I have a little, I guess, photo journal. I’m sure there’s probably a better word for that, but it will be my own little journal of all the good things that happened throughout the year to remind myself of those wins, big or small. Sam Hobson: I love that. Oh, my gosh, I want a photo journal. Dianna Alvarado: Yeah. Sam Hobson: I do something similar, but as I am a big journaler, so I do do the words with the writing, and at the end of every month, I will write down all of my accomplishments, big and small. Dianna Alvarado: Oh, that’s amazing. Sam Hobson: Even the smallest thing of like, “Yo, I meal prepped seven times this month,” you know what I mean? Dianna Alvarado: And it doesn’t even have to be academic things. Yeah, yeah, that’s amazing. Yeah, it can be personal things, things that you felt like you’ve been not prioritizing for a long time. Dianna Alvarado: For me, it was health at one point, my physical health. And so I was like, “I went to a Pilates class last week. That is amazing. I’m going to take a picture.” And so months from now when I see it again, I’m like, “Wow, I’m really proud of her. She did that.” So it’s those small wins that really do build up. Sam Hobson: Yes. I’ve really found that expanding my, I guess, academic self-efficacy beyond academics has really helped me in an academic space of recognizing, I guess, myself as a whole person. And so how I show up for myself in all of the ways also supports how I show up for myself in my program. And so like you said, I went to Pilates class, that’s definitely getting written down. And then at the end, every month you’re like, “Wow.” Sam Hobson: Because I feel like I used to wait until the end of the year, “What did I accomplish?” And it’s like, “Okay, maybe three things.” But if I capture these small things at the end of every month, it’s like 25 different random things, and it feels so… The list looks long, it feels so good. And then at the end of the year, I have a bajillion random things that I did that I felt really good about. And celebrating those helps me sit in that energy of celebration rather than lack, which is really easy to keep up. Dianna Alvarado: No, and that’s so important for graduate students because I feel like a lot of the time, we wait for those giant milestones, like candidacy exam or dissertation, and those take years, those take years. So while we’re working on that, we can be celebrating the small wins, and they can be, as I mentioned, very small wins: Pilates class, I cleared my inbox. Or they can be bigger wins, like I got published. So it can be whatever you want it to be, as long as you see how many great things you have accomplished over the months or weeks or years. Sam Hobson: Yes. And I really want to bring in… That reminds me. When I spoke with Danielle the last episode, we were talking about how can we celebrate and communicate our failures more and see them more as aspects of progress on our journey? “Maybe my manuscript wasn’t accepted,” or, “Maybe I didn’t get that grant, but the work that I had to put in is order to even submit should be celebrated. That was hard. There’s no way that I didn’t put my foot in it.” You know what I mean? And so I feel like oftentimes we get caught up in that end result, but this journey is about the journey, and so how can we even add to these celebratory lists of perhaps the end result wasn’t what I wanted, but we can still celebrate the effort it took to get there. Dianna Alvarado: Yes. I think perspective, like changing your perspective on it helps so much because even like, okay, let’s say, you did work on a grant and you worked on it for months, and you submitted it, you heard back, you didn’t get it, that is not wasted time because now you have such a nice, polished draft that you can get feedback on and use for something else. It was definitely not time wasted. And that’s something that I also learned during my graduate program as I got rejected a bunch of times. But I was like, you know what, it only makes that grant stronger because now I have feedback from the program I got rejected from or whatever it may be. But it’s definitely not wasted time, it’s not wasted effort because it just makes me a stronger writer, perhaps, whatever it may be. Dianna Alvarado: But I think, definitely, normalizing the failures, it can also be a win in a way, basically, because you get to see the progress you’ve made and the work you’ve done. So definitely. Dianna Alvarado: I’ve had a few faculty actually show me… There’s a faculty member that showed me a whole packet of all the rejection letters he got, and it was thick. And he kept that as motivation because he was like, “I’ve accomplished so much, and look at all the times that got rejected, and I’m still here, and I’m faculty, and I get to do the research that I love to do.” And it was very validating, it was very validating. I’ve never seen that vulnerability from faculty, to be honest, and also just someone… Those rejection letters were from back in the ’90s. It was like a nice, thick chunk of letters, and they were all printed out. Dianna Alvarado: And I was like, “Wow, that’s actually cool that you can just see it and you don’t take it on a personal level too,” because I feel like with a lot of our research, it’s very personal to us, it’s very something we care deeply about. So when something doesn’t really go right, or maybe an experiment failed, or grant application didn’t work out, we can feel like, wow, maybe I suck as a scholar. But that isn’t true, that isn’t true. We honestly wouldn’t be in these spaces if we sucked as scholars. So yeah. Sam Hobson: Yeah, yeah, I think there’s just a lack of perspective that failure is a part of the process and of scholarship, right? Dianna Alvarado: Yes. Sam Hobson: You’re not doing right if you’re not failing. I feel like things aren’t going well. Dianna Alvarado: If you and your whole time as a graduate student never made a mistake, I would actually be concerned because what do you mean? Maybe you’re not human. That would be interesting. Yeah. Sam Hobson: Yeah. And so perhaps maybe we can, like you said, a change of perspective, maybe we can change a perspective from failures to maybe redirections, right? Dianna Alvarado: Yes. Sam Hobson: This is where we thought we were supposed to go. We’ve actually been redirected to a different route or a different trajectory. But that doesn’t mean that whatever that experience was was a failure, but just a shift. Yeah. Dianna Alvarado: Yeah. Sam Hobson: Yeah. Okay, Dianna, before we go, is there anything else you’d like to add? Dianna Alvarado: Yeah. So while it’s unfortunate that imposter feelings are incredibly common, I guess taking a perspective shift to it and on a positive note, you’re not alone if you experienced them. So it’s not just like there’s a problem with you, it’s more of the environment that may be fueling those imposter feelings because they could be incredibly competitive. You might be the only person from your background that looks like you that’s in that space. Dianna Alvarado: And while it’s important to develop those strategies to navigate those imposter feelings, it’s equally important to remember that your presence in academia is not a mistake, and your perspective is valuable, and the research we do here is important, and there are communities and resources that are here to help you thrive. It’s just a matter of finding your people and finding those, as I mentioned earlier, those cheerleaders that can be there to remind you of the good times and can be there to support you during the hard times as well. So just matter of finding your people and knowing that you’re not alone if you do feel like an imposter from time to time, and sometimes a little vulnerability can go a long way. Sam Hobson: Okay, here are three takeaways from this episode for your well-being journey. Sam Hobson: One, name it. Imposter feelings thrive in silence. I know the thought of talking about feeling like a fraud can be scary, but I guarantee you that your experience is not unique to you. The more we start talking about this cultural phenomenon as just that, the less power it has over us. Sam Hobson: Two, self-compassion and self-efficacy are the positive voices in our head, helping us remember that we are not frauds, cheering us on, reminding us of our successes, and granting us the much needed grace that we all deserve. These protective strategies are simply habits, and habits can be built. Sam Hobson: And three, protective strategies help give us the foundation to handle all the challenges of graduate school more effectively. They help us manage risk and build resilience in not just academic spaces, but in all parts of our lives. You’re definitely already engaging in protective strategies. The more you honor them, the more they can grow. Sam Hobson: Check out our website for all of the resources Dianna mentioned and more at rackham.umich.edu\gradwell. You can reach out to Dianna with any questions that you have at [email protected]. You can contact us about the podcast at [email protected]. And make sure to join us next time when I speak with Sunghyun Hong, PhD candidate in social work and developmental psychology, about what it looks like to frame our resilience through a strength-based framework. I’ll see you then. Sam Hobson: Hey, hardworking grad student, thank you for tuning into GradWell. I hope you can take something away from this episode with you. If you like what you heard, be sure to write a review, like, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. For more information, check us out on social @umichgradschool.
