#iopsychology iopsych gradschool personalblog newblog

[lifeofaniopsychologist]

About me.

Welcome to my blog! I’ve recently delve into the world of creating content for social media and it’s inspired me to make a new blog. A blog, to be honest, that’s more for me to write my thoughts and share IO psychology with those in the world who have no clue what it is! So if you happen upon my blog, welcome and I hope you enjoy or learn something! 

My name is Allison and I was born and raised in Plano, TX. To understand my perspective on life, it’s important to know where I come from since my experiences are likely highly different from most readers out there. Plano is a middle-upper middle class city, depending on which side of Plano you hail from, personally I come from the more middle class side of Plano, but I’m still aware of the privilege that I came from. The privilege to be born to 2 loving parents, with 2 older siblings looking out for me, in a city that has plenty of residents that look like me and welcomes who I am, with teachers throughout my education supported me and told me I could be anything despite my gender or the color of my skin. These are all privileges that I was born into and from these privileges and this upbringing I have formed my values, my experiences, and my own perspectives on life. 

A quick re-cap of the past 26 years:

Born in Plano, TX

Montessori school, elementary school, middle school, high school all went by pretty normally until my senior high years

Attended TAMS which is Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (nerd alert). It is a high-school college program, where we stay at UNT for 2 years in our own high school dorm, take college courses, and live the dramatic high school years out 24/7 with our other nerdy peers. 

Went off to college at UT Austin, thinking I wanted to be a pediatrician this whole time, until I joined a child psychology research lab and decided medical school wasn’t the place for me. 

Graduated from UT Austin in 3 years, took a gap year to figure out my life, what I wanted to do next and with my career. Ultimately, I decided I wanted to be an I/O psychologist - a thing I didn’t know existed until after graduation. 

Took my GRE, applied to grad school, got into grad school, picked a grad school.

Started grad school, only to endure stressful years with studying, being a TA/TF, doing research, writing and defending my Master’s thesis (woo I’m a Master!), studying for and successfully passing comprehensive exams (otherwise known as qualifying exams - only the hardest exam I’ve ever taken and I took physics y’all...), interning, and now finalizing my dissertation. 

It’s been a crazy couple years, which I’ll slowly hash out as I continue this blog. But I hope you enjoy reading about my past, present, future, and any IO psych ramblings I have (cause you know I’ll have a lot). 

#iopsychology iopsych gradschool personalblog newblog