Author: PushingtheRocksUphill

Nicollette Mitchell is an Oberlin College graduate of the Departments of Africana Studies and Geology, where she studied change over time on human and geological timescales. She received her Master of Science degree from the University of Arizona where she majored in Geosciences. Her research interests include global climate model assessment, the generation of new observational records of climate, and the promotion of diversity and inclusion in STEM environments. She returned to Oberlin in 2017 to fill the role of Inclusive Excellence STEM Fellow and is now the director of the Center for Learning, Education, and Research in the Sciences (CLEAR).

4. What I Want

I've accepted that it might be time to move on from my current position to another position and/or another graduate program. Anything that I do next will need to allow me to step more fully into my goal of diversifying the academy.

3. On Knowing when to take the next step

prelude to a pregnant pandemic job search January-March 2020 Something about the start of a new year makes me extra pensive. The last few months have been so jam-packed with novelty that I have not given myself space and time to reflect on it all. I haven't had the time to process through writing, but … Continue reading 3. On Knowing when to take the next step →

2. The secret…

... by October our focus was on saving all the time and energy (and money) we could in preparing for Baby Mitchell. We decided to keep the news to ourselves until we were out of the first trimester.

1. Aftershocks

I haven't written a blog post in months. The last time I tried was weekly blog posts for blog-tober but they got derailed when I went on vacation and I never jumped back on the bandwagon. I am still here. Still learning and growing. Heres the quickest life update which requires a backtrack to September … Continue reading 1. Aftershocks →

Blogtober 2019: Week 1

Its Blogtober. Though I am late, I still intend to complete my weekly posts. Here is a day by day run down of week one: My colleague and I are directors of departments that have the word research in the title and so we do a lot of overlapping student advising and programming. We got … Continue reading Blogtober 2019: Week 1 →

What (this) Director does

I am academic staff and my programs bridge the curricular and co-curricular. As such, I exist in a game of limbo that allows me to see the gray areas in a workplace that often times want reports and solutions that are written in black and/or white.

On saying yes when its scary

I was asked the Keynote speaker at the Black families appreciation event that happened last week. My gut reaction was to say no, but after much reading about mindfulness and being present I questioned my knee jerk reaction. I gave the speech and I spoke about Shonda Rhimes (one of my favs). Here is (roughly) what I said:

On pushing the rocks uphill

In a predominantly (almost all) white-male dominated academic setting in a red state I most certainly was under pressure to prove myself over and over again and again. If all other things in my life remained consistent, could it have been the pressure that raised my blood pressure? (This is all a speculation, but I can't help but wonder about the physical toll of stress).

I don’t know what to call it

I've been reading a lot of social psychology, management, and leadership books and they all seem to say that the tasks that are most worth while are the ones that make you want to vomit, poop your pants, or pass out. As a full time introvert, the list of things that illicit such a physiological response is long, but I will start.

How to choose potential graduate programs

Applying to graduate school for the first time can be stressful. Here are the things that I wish other people told me. Here are (5) areas of focus/ guiding principles that I used when I was applying to graduate school, and how I applied these strategies during my own process.