Things on my mind as I go through school.

Let me first apologize for writing about my doctoral program experience. I know not everyone can get into this but there are a lot of lessons that apply to areas outside of school.

First, my adviser, Dr. Ewart Skinner, said to me, "Think of the end....now." In other words, what I do now has a direct bearing on what happens when I graduate and look for jobs if I want to move around or even stay at Toledo. In terms of what I am doing now, more specifically, he meant the theory I specialize in as well as the research method is something I will carry with me throughout my doctoral student career and then when I apply for jobs or stay at Toledo, I can talk about my areas of specialty.

Second, think about your audience. My research interest is studying how pregnant teens and teen moms identify with pregnancy themes in the media like tv shows and movies. We have seen people blame the media for glamorizing pregnancy and making it more appealing to teens. To me, this has practical applications. I want to talk to teens about the media's impact. Once my research is completed, I want people, especially teens, to read it. In my opinion, there is a lot of academic research that seems to float in this cloud above people that only academic types read. I don't see the point in doing research if it does not benefit people in some way. So, to shorten up my point, basically, who is the audience? Who will read or hear your research? How will it impact them?

Lastly, you are constantly making an impression on somebody. What I mean by that is no matter what happens, what assignment you have, you are always "interviewing." Someone has their eye on you. The faculty in the Media and Communication Department at BGSU is strong and have published a ton of research articles and have connections. While many are set in where they are, they might get a call from a professor they know at another university asking if they know of someone who they think would make a good hire. I try to keep that in mind. I don't want to be the student who gets spoken of as, "yeah, he tries hard but doesn't seem to give it his all" or "he goes through the motions a lot." Not cool.