Dr. Alyssa Bedrosian, Department of Spanish and Portuguese PhD graduate, has recently accepted a position in the Graduate School at Ohio State. Working in administration is not new for Alyssa – before arriving at OSU, she had a career at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in a communications and marketing role for 6 years while achieving her master’s degree part-time. Alyssa wanted to leverage herself further by attending OSU for her PhD. This allowed her to gain experience with all career paths offered such as tenure track faculty, lecturing, and staff positions. Ultimately the program was able to help Alyssa narrow down the career that fit best with what she hoped to do, help others.
During her PhD program in Spanish and Portuguese, Alyssa secured a role as a Graduate Advising Assistant (GAA), working alongside a team of grad peers and Rachel Sanabria, Assistant Director of Graduate and Undergraduate Studies. Working with Undergraduates in enrollment and advising allowed her to better understand how the curriculum fits together. In her second year, they secured a grant that allowed them to expand their work to include graduate students in the languages specifically with their professional development, across the University. Alyssa mentioned that “This was an opportunity that is offered in our [Spanish and Portuguese] department that is not offered in a lot of others and is a great opportunity for graduate students to take advantage of.” She also received a Graduate Associateship with The Ohio State Center for Feminist Research, Education and Engagement (FREE Center), where she organized events, ran writing retreats and oversaw a writing group, and worked with grad student programing. “This was an experience I talked a lot about in the interview process for the job that I have now, but also in interviews for both faculty and Administrative positions because no matter the role there was a lot of interest in the work I had done with undergraduate/graduate recruitment, advising, and event planning.”
Alyssa now serves as Program Coordinator for Mentoring and Strategic Initiatives in the Graduate School. She will be working to strengthen mentorship across campus and focus on grad student recruitment and retention. Alyssa believes she “deeply understands higher education and has experience at every level of what graduate students are going through; teaching, research, working.” Her goal is to aid those seeking community and connections across the University. She is excited to continue her journey here at Ohio State helping graduate students in all areas.