PHILADELPHIA — Atiya S. Strothers knows that many people view her as an unlikely doctoral candidate.
Strothers, 30, grew up in a low-income, single-family household in the heart of Philadelphia and is the first in her family to attend and graduate from college.
“I’m not supposed to be here,” said Strothers, who is now in her third year as a doctoral student at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. “I don’t fit the idea of someone getting a Ph.D.”
Strothers has shattered the stereotype and is well on her way to achieving her career goals; she hopes to defend her dissertation next year and land a teaching job at a top-notch university. Then she wants to give back and help other young Black students go on to graduate school.
Strothers gathered this past weekend with nearly 350 other participants at the 2nd Annual Black Doctoral Network Conference in Philadelphia. This year’s theme was “Making the Connection” and conference organizers encouraged participants to network and forge new relationships with other scholars engaged in research across the country.
For Strothers, the opportunity to converse with other doctoral students who are going through the rigorous process of writing their dissertation was particularly gratifying.
“The biggest thing that stood out for me was seeing scholars across various disciplines and seeing people who look like me,” she said. “Sometimes it feels like you are the only one doing the work. The interdisciplinary nature of the conference gave me multiple things to start to think about and helped me to realize that I can learn from what others are doing.”
