Ep. 132: Dr. McKenzie Stokes on Dealing with Rejection and the Financial Benefits of Going Straight from Undergrad to a PhD

Dr. McKenzie Stokes

Ph.D. in Applied Social and Community Psychology, North Carolina State University

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1594357/9083187-dr-mckenzie-stokes-on-dealing-with-rejection-and-the-financial-benefits-of-going-straight-from-undergrad-to-a-phd.js?container_id=buzzsprout-player-9083187&player=small

On today’s episode, we speak to Dr. McKenzie Stokes, a community psychologist and first-generation college student whose work examines the protective effects of racial socialization on Black youth in mono- and multiracial Black families. You’ll hear about her own experience growing up in a biracial family, which has driven her research into the impact of parental communication within similar homes. Dr. Stokes reveals the statistics around suicidality and depression in biracial teenagers that further fueled her interest in the topic, and shares her academic journey from an uncertain undergraduate student going straight into her doctoral and post-doctoral studies. She unpacks her majors in community psychology, African American studies, and non profit management, and tells us about the scale she created to better measure how biracial individuals learn about race and the ways in which that shapes how they feel about their own identity and other Black people. We also discuss the doctoral application process and Dr. Stokes encourages future applicants to bear in mind that the application is holistic in nature; it doesn’t rest solely on your GRE scores. Dr. Stokes touches on the challenges she faced during her studies, including rejection and the emotional burden of teaching, before sharing some great victories, among which are persevering through rejection, three first-author publications, and receiving dissertation grants for data collection. We hope you join us to hear all this and more today!

Connect with Dr. McKenzie Stokes on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

Key Points From This Episode:

• An introduction to Dr. McKenzie Stokes beyond academia.

• Dr. Stokes’ newly received NSF to continue her dissertation research.

• How she is able to stay in North Carolina with her fiancé before she moves to Virginia.

• How Black parents in multiracial Black families talk to their kids about race and the ways that can impact their mental health and family relationships.

• The lack of literature and an actual measure or quantitative scale to assess multiracial Black family dynamics that lead her to commence her studies in this area.

• The scale she created to better measure how biracial individuals learn about race; how that shapes their identity and perceptions of other Black people.

• Her studies in applied social and community psychology at North Carolina State University.

• How having one Black parent and one white parent is a driver in Dr. Stokes’ research.

• How biracial individuals are more likely to experience suicidality and depression.

• The trend in existing research to group all Black identities together.

• What it was like to be a first gen student with her twin sister at VCU.

• How the Chair of the African-American studies department predicted she would get a PhD.

• How she ended up going straight into her PhD from her undergraduate studies.

• The financial benefits of going straight into a PhD from an undergraduate degree.

• Her majors in community psychology, African American studies, and non profit management. 

• The role of GRE scores in building an application and how it has no bearing on your abilities.

• Why Dr. Stokes encourages students to understand that an application is holistic. 

• The distinction between TA and RA assistantship funding.

• How a Black female mentor and a community of Black women supported her.

• Challenging parts of her studies: rejection, anxiety, and the emotional burden of teaching.

• Victories during her studies: persevering through rejection, three first-author publications, and dissertation grants for data collection.

• The observational research she is doing into parent-child relationships in multiracial families.

• Advice for other Black women pursuing doctoral studies: trust every part of your journey, know you belong, you don’t have to change anything about yourself.

• What’s next for Dr. Stokes: tenure track at an R1 university that respects community-based work.

—

The Cohort Sistas Podcast brings to life the stories, struggles, and successes of Black women with doctoral degrees and their lives beyond the degree. If you are a Black woman interested in joining the Cohort Sistas community, sign up to do so here, and if you are looking for more information on how to support or partner with Cohort Sistas, please visit our partnerships page. Find us on Twitter and Instagram, and don’t forget to follow The Cohort Sistas Podcast, rate the show, and leave us a quick review.