SER SPC Presidents Message
Students and Postdocs! Welcome to 2024! I hope you had a healthy and restorative winter break and are ready to leap into the new year (I could not help the pun. I hope you will either appreciate it or groan mildly).
I was reading over our past-president (Sharia Ahmed)’s words from last year, and if she’ll allow me, I’d like to borrow quite a few. Sharia very eloquently wrote about self-care and mental health, and I want to echo those sentiments.
Graduate training is hard! For a myriad of reasons, some less tangible than others, which makes them all the more frustrating to navigate. And the challenges of graduate training, establishing your career are happening in conjunction with personal and social stuff. Life doesn’t stop because you’re in graduate school. And at times, being a graduate student contributes to the challenges. We can be honest about the financial difficulties associated with living on a PhD stipend and being unable to contribute to retirement savings while peers in the labor workforce forge ahead. Add to that living in a particular geo-political context (remember trying to navigate graduate school at the beginning of 2020?)! I say all of this to emphasize that…
“EVERYONE can benefit from working with a therapist or counselor to help them survive and thrive in graduate school and beyond. Even things that seem super common or not that big a deal – like procrastinating writing, or dreading talking to your advisor, or changes in eating and sleeping habits – these are things that a mental health professional can help you understand and manage. I urge you all to not wait until things are critical and scary to reach out (though of course you should reach out then too!). Taking care of your mental health is a skill just like any other. It takes training and practice. And just like learning any other skill, it’s best not left until the last minute. Most universities have a mental health center available on campus, often at reduced or no cost. They may or may not be able to see you long-term, but they should be able to get you started and set up with care. Other options for getting started with mental health care are your primary care doctor, your employee assistance program (EAP) through work, your insurance provider, or searching online (e.g., psychologytoday.com, therapyforBlackgirls.com) for an in-person or virtual practice.”
Thank you for those words, Sharia and for providing tangible resources. Now, that we have personal development covered, let’s focus on professional development. I hope you all were able to submit abstracts by the deadline! I can hardly contain my excitement for the Annual Meeting in Austin. In the meantime, the SER Mid-Year Meeting (https://epiresearch.org/mid-year-meeting/) is coming up. The meeting will be held from March 4-8, in Toronto, Ontario. SER members are invited to attend virtually, free of charge. If you are local to Toronto, in-person attendance is available based on space. I highly encourage you to register by the deadline (February 29, 2024). The mid-year meeting programming promises to be particularly enlightening. I am very much looking forward to co-moderating the student/postdoc session on March 6th (12pm MST) and attending the “Addressing Antifatness in Epidemiologic Research” session on March 7th (10:00am MST).
In addition to the Mid-Year meeting, there are some other events to add to your calendar. Spend (a part of ) Valentine’s Day (Feb 14) with Drs. Fox and Lesko, discussing the importance of descriptive epidemiology at SERDigital. Then on April 10th, tune in to SERJournal Club with Dr. Iván Díaz to discuss “Nonparametric Causal Effects Based on Longitudinal Modified Treatment Policies”. To stay up to date on SER events, be sure to periodically check the calendar for (https://epiresearch.org/ser-calendar/) for other events.
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for your SPC leaders (https://epiresearch.org/students-and-postdocs-2/spc-officers/), please reach out to us! We’d love to hear from you. Hopefully Punxsutawney Phil was correct, and we will shortly be enjoying mild spring days.
At your service,
Nedghie Adrien
SPC President