As a PhD student, my experience with academic conferences has been largely focused on completing presentations that can be added to my CV. The financial limitation of being a student, spending time in cities far away from home and knowing few other people all circumscribed the amount of time that I felt comfortable leisurely enjoying most academic conferences. Other students I have spoken with indicate that this experience is not uncommon. Academic conferences often feel large and sometimes impersonal. Students have few financial resources for travel and accommodations, and unlike licensed psychologists, we do not have the added incentive of obtaining continuing education credits. These factors often conspire to make conferences feel like awkward and cumbersome necessities for doctoral students — especially those of us who are not gifted with the social ease of extroverts.
While this held true for me through much of my early experiences with academic conferences, things shifted when I became involved in Div. 43. The last several conferences I have attended have been linked with couple and family psychology. Attending has felt like an opportunity to connect with like-minded professionals, establish connections beyond my own doctoral program and learn about interesting work being done in the field. I recognize that these are the very benefits commonly attributed to attending conferences, yet they are less commonly encountered by students. Div. 43, accessible in both size and personality, is well situated to address that gap. One of my primary interests in serving as the student representative to the division board has been to ensure that more students are able to experience the division as a place of meaningful connection.
With that interest in mind, we turn our attention again to the August APA convention in San Francisco. In the midst of such a large and intimidating conference, I hope that students will embrace Div. 43 as a professional base. That role can be facilitated in part through formal programming put on by the division. As in years past, the hospitality suite will host presentations and gatherings for folks interested in couple and family psychology. On Thursday evening of the convention, we will host social hours specifically for students and early career professionals. The main division social hour will also provide valuable opportunities for students to connect with established members of the field. Division-sponsored symposia throughout the convention will offer meaningful didactic and discursive content.
Even more so than these formal programs, I believe that the APA convention is an invaluable opportunity for students to utilize the informal network of the division. So many of the professionals in this division are open to forming relational connections that even small efforts to step out of the awkward discomfort of being a student at a conference are likely to be rewarded. My own hope is to come away from the conference having connected with another handful or more of students who are interested in couple and family psychology and who I can continue to visit and reconnect with at many a conference to come.