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We’ll get started in a few minutes

Say hello! Feel free to use the Chat feature
    Questions? Use the Q&A function

As a land grant institution, the
        Graduate Division
        acknowledges the
Gabrielino/Tongva peoples as
 the traditional land caretakers
          of Tovaangar
(Los Angeles basin, South Channel Islands).

UCLA Grad School Hacks:
Dealing with Imposter Syndrome
                    Dr. Diana Azurdia
          Director for Recruitment and Inclusion
          UCLA, Graduate Programs in Bioscience
                dazurdia@mednet.ucla.edu

In the chat:
Why are we here talking about this?

The Path to Success
is hard work and sometimes messy

The Stages of Learning
              Enthusiastic    Disillusioned    Cautious       High
              beginner        learner          performer      Achiever

Competence    Low/None        Some             Moderate       High

Confidence    High            Low              Variable       High

    Adapted from Ken Blanchard, Self Leadership and the One Minute Manager

Some Themes
 A supportive learning community and thoughtful mentors
  (science, career, and personal) makes a big difference
 We need to build resilience and find constructive ways
  forward during challenging times
 The more we develop our emotional intelligence, the
  more effective we will be in pursuing our goals

What is Resilience?
•   The ability to:
      adapt and grow through adversity
      navigate difficult challenges with awareness, intention,
       and skill
      find a constructive way forward during challenging time

•   A set of attitudes and behaviors that can be learned and
    developed through education, self-reflection, and practice
          http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx

Negative Self-Talk Can
Really Drag Us Down

The ABCs

  Adversity
                                 Beliefs          Consequences
Activating event

               The stories we tell ourselves

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/abc.htm

Some Generalizations
          About the Stories We Tell
•   They are often:
    – more negative than the situation warrants
    – delivered in jackal language
    – often making them demotivating and self-defeating

•   We know a lot about the types of generalizations often
    used and how they impact us

Cognitive Distortions
      (Automatic Negative Thoughts)
 Characteristic ways that our mind convinces us of
  something that is really not true to reinforce negative
  thinking or emotions.
 Generally serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves
  and can lead us to feel very anxious and pessimistic

         NOTE: Our brain has a ‘negativity bias’

A Quick Quiz
Look at the following statements and answer yes or no:
  Do you ever feel you don’t deserve your achievements?
  Do you ever worry that people will find out you are secretly not
   worthy?
  After a success, have you dismissed it as luck or timing?
  Do you think you have tricked others into thinking you are more
   successful than you actually are?
  Do you think others over-value your success?

If you said yes to more than 2 of these you have likely
experienced a form of Impostor Fears.

Imposter Fears
A collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist
despite evident success. 'Imposters' suffer from
chronic self-doubt and a sense of intellectual
fraudulence that override any feelings of success
or external proof of their competence.

 Harvard Business Review 2008 hbr.org/2008/05/overcoming-imposter-syndrome/

More on Imposter Fears
•   Four Flavors
     – Feeling like a fake
     – Attributing success to luck
     – Discounting your success
     – Assuming you had to work hard and that the equivalent
       accomplishment was easy for everyone else
•   Often a result of:
     – Risk aversion and fear of failure
     – Perfectionist tendencies
     – The tendency to compare ourselves to others

Imposter Cycle

International Journal of Behavioral Science, 2011, Vol. 6, No. 1, 73-92

Causes of Imposter Fears
   Being a student
   Being in an environment that feels foreign to you
   Organizational culture and messaging
   Messages from family and childhood
   Stress of ’representing’ your entire social group (stereotype threat)

Note—YOU ARE NOT ALONE: 70+% of high
achieving students experience imposter fears!

Group Discussion

Remember a time that you felt like an imposter, or
felt inadequate, or was plagued by self-doubt.

What strategies did you use to overcome that
feeling?

In the chat:
So what are some of
the potential impacts
 of Imposter Fears?

Impacts of Imposter Fears

 Decreased confidence
 Increased stress
 Second guessing yourself
 Hesitating to ask for help
 Not volunteering for assignments or applying for competitive
  fellowships or positions
 Maintaining a low profile in groups
 Engaging in self-sabotaging behavior

HATS -- A Helpful Strategy for Dealing With
          Our Negative Self-Talk
• Hear and recognize it for what it is
• Appreciate you have a choice (to listen or not)
• Talk back to the negative voice (giraffe language)
• Seek resources and take action

NOTE: This is your go-to strategy – use your analytic skills to
question your negative voice

The ABCs Are Actually the ABCDE’s

           Adversity                                           Emotional
                                      Beliefs
         Activating event                                    Consequences

                                   Disputation                Energized

Ask yourself:
• What is a more rationale thought to counter-balance this
  distorted view?
• What is the evidence that….?
• Would I say this to a friend?
• Is there data to suggest otherwise?

Famous People Suffer From Imposter Fears

• Albert Einstein:
  – ….the exaggerated esteem in which my lifework is held makes
    me very ill at ease. I feel compelled to think of myself as an
    involuntary swindler.

• Maya Angelou:
  – I have written eleven books, but each time I think, “Uh-oh,
    they’re going to find out now. I’ve run a game on everybody,
    and they’re going to find me out.”

Ways to Minimize Imposter Fears
 Name and question them
 Talk about your feelings with friends, family, teachers, and (especially)
  mentors
 Keep a list of your accomplishments and refer back to it as a reminder
 Build confidence in developing new skills by practicing in low stress
  situations
 Learn to accept praise rather than rebutting it
 Talk about it with a counselor so you can understand the underlying
  cause(s) and work to change your approach

Holistic Self-Care

 Body      Mind

 Heart     Spirit

Graduate Resources and
         Support at UCLA

Nickey Woods, Ed.D. (she/her)        Beverly Yanuaria, M.Ed. (she/her)
          Assistant Dean,                      Interim Manager,
Diversity, Inclusion, & Admissions      Diversity & Inclusion Programs
     UCLA Graduate Division                UCLA Graduate Division

Connect with UCLA at
     SACNAS

Did You Know…
UCLA offers more than 120 graduate programs?

Find Your Graduate Program at UCLA
     Visit us online at http://grad.ucla.edu

Graduate Programs in Biosciences
      Consortium of 10 Home Areas

UCLA in the News

       Andrea Ghez wins
       2020 Nobel Prize in
       Physics
       UCLA professor is honored for
       her pioneering research on the
       Milky Way’s supermassive
       black hole.

       Announced October 6, 2020.

Source: http://www.ucla.edu/about/awards-and-honors/faculty-honors

Check if you qualify for the fee waiver!
Below are some of the programs that qualify for the application fee waiver. Upload
         a letter that confirms your participation to the online application

                          •   CSU Sally Casanova Scholars Program
                          •   FAMU Graduate Feeder Scholars Program
                          •   LSAMP Program
                          •   MARC Program
                          •   McNair Scholars
                          •   MBRS-RISE Program
                          •   NIH-BUILD
                          •   UC-HBCU Initiative

        A full list of eligible programs is online at
                     http://grad.ucla.edu

More Fee Waiver Options
      Ask your financial aid office to provide a
      verification letter that confirms you are:

          Currently enrolled

          Receiving financial aid

          And payment of the application
          fee would be a financial hardship

Simply upload your verification letter to the application.

Graduate Research at UCLA
UCLA provides extensive resources and information to research community

Source: http://www.ucla.edu/research/graduate-research

UC Grad Slam: Research in Action
    Check out UCLA graduate students present their cutting-edge
               research in 3-minute presentations!

UCLA Summer Programs for
              Undergraduate Research (SPUR)

                     Research opportunities available for Summer 2021
                                                        Faculty mentorship
                                                       Research experience
                                                   Graduate application workshops
                                                         GRE prep course
                                                            …and more!

Source: http://www.ucla.edu/research/graduate-research

Competitive Edge
       6-week Summer Bridge Program for Admitted PhDs

•       Early start to research
•       Journal Club
•       Faculty mentorship
•       Research Proposal
•       Community building

    Source: http://www.ucla.edu/research/graduate-research

Grad S.T.R.I.V.E and grad2grad
(Supporting Transition and Recruitment, Inspiring the Value of Education)

                                                         Professional
                                                         Development

                                                         Mentorship

                                                         Community

Source: http://www.ucla.edu/research/graduate-research

UCLA Supports First-Gen Students

Did you know…
More than 150 UCLA professors (and counting)
 are proud former first-gen graduate students?

           Check it out on YouTube

UCLA stands with DACA recipients and all
    immigrant students on campus

   • Undocumented Student Program (USP)
            • UndocuBruins
          • UndocuAlly trainings

UCLA is consistently ranked
                                        as one of the top 10 LGBTQ
                                         inclusive campuses in the
                                                    U.S.

Source: Campus Pride, https://www.campusprideindex.org/campuses/details/89?campus=university-of-california-los-angeles

We Love L.A.

Graduate Student Housing
Chances are you’re looking
for housing that offers
independence, as well as
access to a community of
fellow students.

With UCLA-owned
University Apartments,
you can have the best of
both worlds.

Single Graduate Student Housing
                    Learn more at https://housing.ucla.edu/

Hilgard Apartments and Weyburn Terrace Apartments

University Apartment South
                          Learn more at https://housing.ucla.edu/

For Married Students, Domestic Partners, Families, or Dependents

Graduate Student Resources
• Graduate Division
  – Fellowships & Financial
    Services
  – Diversity Programs
  – Professional
    Development
    Workshops
• Graduate Student
  Resource Center
  (GSRC)
• Graduate Writing Center
• Career Center
  – Dedicated Graduate
    Career Counselors

Graduate Student Resources
                                    • Dashew Center for International
                                      Students and Scholars
                                    • Bruin Resource Center
                                      – AB-540
                                      – Veterans
                                      – Students with Dependents
                                    • LGBTQ Campus Resource
                                      Center

• Graduate Student Assembly
• Graduate student organizations,
  clubs, affinity groups

Learn more about the Healthy Campus
Initiative at https://healthy.ucla.edu/vision-
                  and-mission/

Graduate Health and Wellness

Visit UCLA Booths at the
        Expo Hall

Contact Us!
UCLA Graduate Division

      Diversity, Inclusion, & Admissions
      outreach@grad.ucla.edu

      Fellowships & Financial Services
      uclafellowship@grad.ucla.edu