GRADUATE STUDENTS' CORNER

Students are very active members of SSHD! To show off what our students are doing, we spotlight one graduate student in each issue of the Networker. This issue features post-doc, Lisa Lewis Arango from Florida International University.

If you are interested in joining the SSHD graduate students' listserv, go to http://lists.radcliffe.harvard.edu, click on SSHD, then on sshdstudents, and follow the directions on that page.

Lisa and her daughter, Ashley

Pamela Anderson: Where is your hometown or where do you consider "home?"

Lisa Lewis Arango: I was born in McAllen, Texas and moved around a lot, but I have always considered South Florida to be my home. I have been living in Miami for the past 11 years.

PM: Where did you earn your bachelor and master's degrees?

LLA: I earned my bachelor's degree in Psychology from Florida State University and my master's degrees in Mental Health Counseling and in Psychology from Florida International University.

PM: Why did you choose Florida International University to pursue your doctoral degree?

LLA: Living in Miami there are several universities to choose from. I chose FIU because I met a faculty member in the psychology department, Marilyn Montgomery, who introduced me to the opportunity of working with adolescents in an applied setting where I could also develop my research interests while pursuing a Ph.D.

I really found what I was looking for and was also given the opportunity for a teaching assistantship. So I guess it was the faculty, the location and the opportunity to pursue what I was passionate about.

PM: Did you work with a faculty member while earning your doctoral degree? If so, who and why?

LLA: Yes, William Kurtines was my Major Professor. I chose to work with him because of my interest in his program of research.

PM: If you were involved with a specific research project during your time at FIU, please tell us about it and discuss how you came to be involved.

LLA: I was, and still am involved with the Miami Youth Development Project's ongoing program of research that includes the Changing Lives Program (CLP). CLP is a school-based counseling intervention program that works with a multi-ethnic population of troubled young people attending any of the six alternative public high schools throughout Miami-Dade County. The aim of the program is to promote positive development by creating contexts in which these young people can change their lives for the better.

I became involved with this great program after being introduced to Dr. Kurtines and talking with him about the intervention program his research team was developing and implementing in the alternative high schools. Because I already had experience in counseling, he offered me a very exciting opportunity to become involved with the research, working as a part of the research intervention team facilitating the CLP counseling groups.

PM: Please tell us about your own research interests.

LLA: My research interests focus on both practical and methodological issues in developmental science. I have an applied interest in promoting positive youth development by helping to develop and implement intervention programs that work with troubled young people. This is coupled with my interest in continuing to help develop a methodology that uses a grounded theory approach to integrate the use of qualitative and quantitative methods to analyze qualitative developmental change.

More specifically I am interested in using the Life Course Interview, a qualitative measure, to look at the narrative life stories of young people participating in intervention programs aimed at promoting positive youth development, in relation to non-intervention participants and how their life stories may qualitatively differ and change over time.

PM: If you could pose any question to SSHD members, what would it be?

LLA: As both a practitioner and a researcher I am interested in your thoughts on how to bridge the gap between developmental research and the more contemporary theoretical perspectives of development, and applied developmental science.

PM: Finally, we understand that you had some special circumstances surrounding doctoral dissertation defense. Would you care to elaborate on this and tell us (if you feel comfortable) about completing a dissertation while pregnant?

LLA: Actually, I proposed my dissertation when I was 9 months pregnant and defended when my daughter Ashley was 4 months old. It was quite an experience to have a newborn while finishing the writing of my dissertation and preparing a defense. Thankfully, she was a good sleeper and my husband a great supporter.

Overall, I would say that childbirth is nothing compared to defending a dissertation, and that the gestation period of 10 months for a baby is much shorter and easier than the years of research, writing and preparing that went into creating my other "baby." Having both at the same time was an interesting challenge but a great way to lose weight after pregnancy.