Graduate Student Stories Transcripts: Ana Sanchez-Rivera

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Transcript to Ana Sanchez-Rivera's video

I come from Puerto Rico, and I did my master's in Upstate New York, so I needed something a little bit more, uh, in the middle of that, and the weather was important for me.

I love the diversity that the University of Maryland has. Not, necessarily, the- the graduate student body, also, but also, the undergrad. I find that it's so interesting to have conversations with them, when I'm teaching or interacting with them. And, it just make me grow, a lot.

I do as- attend to many of the activities from the Office Of Diversity and Inclusion, and also, some activities from the Latin American Studies Center.

For the Diversity and Inclusion, I just attend to most of them. For Latin American Studies, I get more involved, like, for example, this next semester, I will be mentoring undergrad students.

Our department is great with [remote sensing 00:01:05] and [GIS 00:01:06], and it's highly recognized, I think it's one of the top three programs in the entire United States.

Our departments help us a lot, when we ask for something, and we have a graduate student organization, they pretty much help us with whatever we as for.

I used the shuttle for almost everything, at the beginning, so the transportation was something that definitely... even when I was choosing my apartment, I was looking for the transportation services, and they were very convenient.

And, also, I used a lot, the Writing Center, just because of my English, and I need, you know... Even, I think that even made it [inaudible 00:01:46], because we have the PhD degree is something that you have to constantly be grading- writing, and you need some time to give out any other perspectives, so I use that a lot. And also, the retreats that they do, that they have helping me to write this dissertation. (laughs)

The grad school process can be lonely, but, I just found a network that I feel so comfortable with. For me, I had a good balance between having a normal life and being a graduate student.

Look for a network that will help you to cope with all the issues that you might have.

Talk to your advisor a lot, have a good communication. It's, sometimes, difficult.

I would love to stay in the academia, and I think that many PhD says that at the beginning, but, I love teaching, and doing research.

Just the teaching experience has been great. I just have something for undergrads that I love so much, that yeah. So, being able to teach them to- that at the end of the semester, they know or they thank me, because they learned something when I was helping for them, that's a very fulfilling experience. So, I think that it's just passing on the knowledge.