Alison Coupland, an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. student in English and Religious Studies, is also the president of the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Student Council, the representational body for IPhD students. She intends to graduate in May 2014 from a program she chose for two reasons.
First, she chose UMKC because of the interdisciplinary nature of the program.
“It allowed me to craft exactly the Plan of Study I needed to do the work I want to do,” she said. “This is the ideal type of program to prepare me for a career looking at the structure and effects of narratives as they work in the world.”
Reason number two was family.
“Studying at UMKC allowed me to be a student, wife, mother, and daughter, all at the same time,” she said.
Alison’s journey through the IPhD program has been “pretty smooth,” allowing her to be both a mother and a student. She said the most important aspect of her time at UMKC, though, was not part of her Plan of Study.
“It is the work I have done with the Interdisciplinary Doctoral Student Council and the School of Graduate Studies,” she said. “Through volunteering my time and energy to campus service, I have formed friendships that I may not have found otherwise. I have also developed a better understanding of how the university system works, which can only help me as I move forward.”
Alison believes her degree, with its multi-disciplinary base, will help her relate to many different modes of inquiry and questions in her future career endeavors.
“My degree in English/Religious Studies will help me look at questions from multiple points of view, which will help me to be a better teacher, thinker, and researcher, as I will be able to relate to the multiple points of view present in any classroom and in the conversations about narratives in a broader-field sense,” she said.
Alison has some advice for students to survive graduate school.
“Be sure to nurture all of your relationships, both at home and at school,” she said. “The people around you are your safety net. Be sure you are connected, because not only will you need support at times, but you can also help others when they need help.”
She also strongly encourages getting involved, either through IDSC or other department or college organizations.
“You will receive far more than you give,” she said.