So Long To My Champagne Bubble Bath - Brady

Three years ago I applied for a three-year fellowship for Northwestern students interested in research in education. It was an easy application. As I remember, I wrote a couple of pages about my interests, sent it in, and thought "that's that." Three of the five women in my entering grad school cohort also applied.

We all got the fellowship. It turns out it fits really nicely with our grad program's goals and philosophy, so we were basically shoe-ins. (Ridiculously, I almost turned down the fellowship because it required me to take a couple of extra classes. I remember writing to an older student to ask her advice and she told me flat out I'd be "crazy" not to accept it.)

Anyway, the three of us now refer to this fellowship as our "champagne bubble bath." It's been an absolutely incredible opportunity. It fully funded us for three years, meaning it took care of our grad school tuition, health insurance, and living stipend. This means, quite simply, we didn't have to scramble to find TA jobs or research assistantships every quarter. (In fact, when I did TA, I was paid extra money on top of my living stipend. I actually made more as a grad student than I did as a high school teacher.) On top of that, we received $1400 every year for research expenses (this is how I funded my dissertation study) and $3000 a year for travel to professional conferences. We were also invited to attend tons of private workshops and meetings with "famous" professors and really interesting, exceptional, smart, and creative people.

Very, very sadly, tomorrow I leave for my very last fellowship activity. I'm presenting a paper at the American Psychological Association annual meeting in Honolulu. Two weeks after I return, the fellowship expires. I'm back to regular grad student life. They're pulling the plug on my champagne bubble bath.

Below is one picture from each of the conferences I attended (except there was one Washington D.C. conference where I didn't take pictures for some reason). Looking back, I learned an enormous amount from each experience. I presented papers and posters, attended tons of talks, and met amazing people who will remain important professional contacts throughout my career.

Seattle

New Orleans

Vancouver

Alberta, Canada

San Francisco

The Twin Cities

Luckily, Northwestern is giving me what's called a "dissertation year fellowship" that starts up as soon as my current fellowship ends. So I'll still have tuition, health insurance, and a living stipend taken care of, but my conference travel will slow way down and my research budget will shrink to, oh, about $0.

As I creep day by day, step by step, analysis by analysis, dissertation paragraph by dissertation paragraph toward the end of graduate school, I feel so grateful for all of the opportunities I've been granted. Northwestern accepted me. My advisor has worked hard to keep me on track, and this fellowship has set me on just about the best professional footing I can imagine. All I can do now is try my best to write a really excellent dissertation and find a really amazing job so I can somehow figure out a way pay it all back.