N.B. grad students open up about realities of pursuing higher education

Catherine D'Aoust never pictured herself in academia. She didn't even see herself getting an undergraduate degree.

Now, she's trying to reshape the traditional idea of what it means to be in academia.

"There's so much research happening that kind of only exists within the academic walls. You might go to a conference and you might talk to, you know, eight or 10 people that understand your work, but other than that, a lot of it kind of exists in this echo chamber that is academia," said the University of New Brunswick master's student.

"So my goal is to take research, produce film that is accessible and kind of easy to understand by everyone, and let that research get back into communities."

It's one of the reasons why they were eager to be chosen by the university to appear in a short film, Grad Students, Talking, and help to bring academia back into the public sphere.

D'Aoust's academic journey began when she graduated from high school in 2015 and took a year-long human services program at the New Brunswick Community College.

From there, sheworked with preschool-aged kids with autism. And while she loved the hands-on nature of the work, she realized that with a community college degree, there wasn't much room for growth in thefield.

Years later, after getting an undergrad degree in linguistics,she found herself in the history department at UNB.

At the time of starting her grad work, D'Aoust was filming on Wood Island, one of the small islands off Grand Manan, looking at the history of theonce-lively island. Thatfilm has turned into her university research project.

When she got involved with Grad Students, Talking, directed by Matt Rogers, D'Aoust said the six people involved had to interview one of their fellow grad students and also be interviewed themselves.

She said although everyone was studying different things, there were similarities.

"Grad school's pretty isolating," said D'Aoust. "I mean, I'm in an office right now with no windows, with my computer in front of me, right, like, that's usually the standard.

"It's not standard to, you know, get in front of a camera and talk about your research with someone who is really, genuinely interested."

Oluwagbeminiyi Bamgboye echoed this feeling of isolation that grad students can sometimes experience.

His research focuses on ecological modelling a completely different field from D'Aoust's but both found it helpful to get together with other students who also have an interest in research.

Sometimes, Bamgboye said solitude is necessary for the deep thinking involved with research, but he said there's a line that needs to be drawn.

For Bamgboye, as an international student from Nigeria who did his undergrad at Lagos State University, he was cut off from a lot of his friends after moving to Saint John.

"It was difficult making new friends here, because I was usually in the lab most times, so that brought me into a point of isolation," he said, adding that sometimes hampered his work progress, as well.

Bamgboye said he hopes that when people watch Grad Students, Talking, they walk away with the notion that grad students are also human.

And as for other grad students, he wants them to know that it is OK to be lost sometimes.

"You could get into the point where you start to feel some imposter syndrome, you could start to feel a lot as though you're not doing much," he said.

"I hope that all grad students coming up can learn that they matter a lot, and that they are well appreciated with what they're doing, because it's quite important for humanity."

Zyrene Estallo, who graduated with a master's in education, did her research interviewing newcomer students about their experiences integrating into the community and the public school system.

But despite enjoying her research, she said things don't always go according to plan.

"I had to make cold calls, and at one point, I even had to knock at someone's door just to get interviews," she said.

She said requesting interviews by letter just isn't enough anymore, "especially for people who are historically marginalized and may not understand what your intentions are whether they're good or they're bad, whether it's harmful or not."

As well, she said the graduate studies process from idea to printed thesis can be long and slow.

"The common thing about grad students is that you just can't wait to finish. You want to get that certificate, be out in the workforce," said Estallo.

"But that's what grad school or research really teaches you. It's not a checklist, it's a place where you explore."