What they say, what they mean

I used my Spring "break" to catch up on the intellectual world. It's not really a break, but I'll save that rant for another post.

No, today I headed out to a couple journal discussion groups at the land grant university. While the content of those  discussions is also worthy of its own post (false equivalency between invasive and non-native and between historical and non-advanced), I want to instead share a great conversation with a colleague.

I'm a verbal processor so conversation is important to insight. 

I said that R1 didn't feel supportive as a place to learn how to teach and to decide whether those of us that like to teach fit in academia.  But some of my personal feeling of isolation was my own misunderstanding of the advising I was given and the way the advice was given to allow that misunderstanding.

What was said (to me, to grad students, to assistant professors): You really shouldn't spend all that time on service, or on teaching, or on your students, or your family, or ___(fill in the blank)__.

What we hear: You don't value what we value. You don't fit in here. Go elsewhere else where teaching is your job, not research.

What the advisors and mentors meant to say: I know that to be successful to become a professor on this track, you need to build a solid research program. That takes a lot of hard work, but if your goal is to get through the hoops of tenure, consider reprioritizing. We value you and see you have a lot to contribute, so we want you to be successful.  If you want to pursue a teaching track, engage in and enjoy the process of research so that it can enhance your love for the profession and enhance what you teach. If you want to engage in service because your community is something you value or do more teaching, it may take longer for you to finish your PhD or make tenure requirements, and that is okay as long as you meet graduation or tenure deadlines, but we need to talk about that.  These parts of your life can coevolve - they don't have to compete.

If your advisors had said the above, how would your perspective on your​ PhD experience or being tenure track be different?

Former lives and former jobs: 3 things you may not know about me, but tell you a lot about who I am

I don't know why I was thinking about this today. I have met so many new people in my life that only know the person I am today and not much about who I am.  So here is my list - Enjoy!

3 things you may not know about me, but tell you a lot about who I am

1) I once tried to get my hair to go fire engine red by bleaching it, then dyeing it red. It turned out orange. I looked like Ronald McDonald. Not the look I was going for. Then I grew it out, cut it and had flaming tips. Everyone wanted to know how to get that hairstyle. 

2) I worked all sorts of camp counselor jobs. I used to do volunteer overnight shifts at the Boston Children's Museum for things like girl scout nights. I was a volunteer zoo camp assistant counselor for the Roger Williams Park Zoo one summer. I was even a counselor at YMCA camp outside Boston and even informally was promoted to arts and crafts director. At the Children's Museum, I learned Arnold Schwarzenegger was not that tall, I was on TV once for the RWPZ holding a gecko, and at the end of the YMCA stint, a camper accidentally got tempura paint on my eye and the incident left me covered in hives for a week, just before starting college.

3) I often worked multiple jobs at a time. During the YMCA summer, I was also hired to work nights and weekends at Marshall's in the accessories dept, where I could live out my dream to organize all the messy jewelry kiosks all day long. Working the register was also a highlight. But perhaps my favorite summer job was working at MIT. It was back when other people did your photocopying for you, and you could rent out time on an iMac for $10/hr. I think photocopying books of Putnam exams made me want even more to show that I could make it in the math world. But I loved it the most because I felt like it was family. I still think about them all the time.

smile emoticon My happy random thought for the day.

Do you have a short story that tells people about you? Feel free to share it in the comments.

Who am I?

Hello,

This is Pi Girl. I am that girl that is so freaky because she loves math. I am that girl that hangs out in the study lounge and help you out with a math question just for the love of it. I am that the girl that makes corny math jokes, and loves being a nerd in front of her class.

I have a passion for teaching and a passion for interdisciplinary mathematics. What a better way to introduce and engage young minds in the awesomeness and power of math than through the topics of today that interest them - disease, medicine, conservation, biodiversity, evolution, green energy...

But I have another side as well - I am a mom to 2 wonderful children and a wife to an academic as well. How do I do it all? Can I do it all? Follow me and find out as I ramble weekly about being a math professor and a mom.

Cheers,
Pi Girl