April Espinoza

PhD in Clinical Psychology (2nd year), Los Angeles campus

Q: What inspired you to choose Alliant? 

A: I finished my bachelor’s, and I was trying to build up my resumé to apply to graduate school because I knew I wanted to do a PhD in psychology. And I actually got to help a student (whom I knew from work) with her dissertation and who had graduated from Alliant. She let me join her lab and I was able to help with the qualitative coding for her interviews and I thought, “This is great. I love this.” And she had so many good things to say about Alliant that I decided to apply there, and she really encouraged me to do it. And so, I applied, and I got in and it was just so exciting.

Q: What has your experience at Alliant been like so far? 

A: It was definitely a little scary to start because of imposter syndrome and questioning whether I was ready for it. But I think it's been so great so far. Honestly, I've had really great experiences with the professors and with Dr. Monique Levermore. She's amazing. I love her. And I feel like I've gotten so many good experiences in all of my classes that even when it was really hard, I felt supported, and I was able to keep going. There’s a lot of encouragement to keep trying because it’s a marathon, not a race. It’s definitely been tough, but I feel like I've learned so much already.

Q: What has Alliant done that you think is unique to help support you so far? 

A: Certainly, how small the classes are, especially my cohort. There are only 10 of us, and I feel like some of the feedback we've gotten from all of our professors is, “You guys seem to like each other so much and you all get along. It’s amazing.” And I think that's really helped because we feel that we can lean on each other. We’ve also had the experience of all the professors being very open to us asking questions, emailing them, and having individual meetings with them. I feel like I didn't have that in my larger experiences in undergraduate school and I didn't feel like I got to know the professors. But at Alliant, I really feel like I have that support.

Q: Has anything surprised you about the program so far? 

A: I was surprised at how many labs there were and how the professors are really pushing you to believe that you can do this. You can apply to do this poster or you can apply to do this APA conference. Even when I went to a school based around research, I didn't feel like there was that help and assistance, and here I feel like people are so helpful and willing to show me how to do things and that's been really great.

Q: Can you talk about the dissertation process?

A: I’m not there at the moment. Right now, I'm working on my research practicum, but I feel that has given me a really good look at what I'm going to be doing, especially because we had to do the literature review for it and already start that writing process and I've never done something like that before. It’s preparing me to get ready to collect my own data in the fall and start doing that all on my own.

Q: Do you have any advice or tips for someone coming in who's considering this field? 

A: Definitely explore everything. At first, I came in thinking that I wanted to do a specific thing and now I’m open and everything sounds so cool. I'm so interested in all of it. I'm really taking that opportunity now to just explore it all and see what the experiences are out there for me.

Also, definitely join labs and clubs because it will help you meet so many people and it’s a great way to build relationships with the professors. It’s all things that help you in the end, even though they seem a little daunting at first.

And get to know the people in your cohort. I came in thinking I wasn't going to know anyone or that I wasn’t going to make friends that easily, and now we're all just so close and we hang out all the time. Those friendships have really helped keep me going.