Meet Sarah Harvey, a University Fellowship recipient. Sarah is a Ph.D. student majoring in Sociology.
Please give a short overview of your research:
I have spent the past four years qualitatively investigating medical students’ perceptions of and experiences with empathy, both personally and professionally. My dissertation seeks to build a comprehensive understanding of medical students’ experiences with empathy and empathy training by observing medical students in both classroom and clinical settings and conducting interviews with those responsible for the development and implementation of empathy-fostering curriculum.
What made you choose to pursue your graduate degree here at Kent State?
In my experience, Kent State has no shortage of outstanding scholar-mentors, and I was lucky enough to find one in my advisor, Dr. Clare Stacey.
What do you enjoy most about attending Kent State for graduate school?
I have enjoyed, immensely, the lasting personal and professional connections I have made in my time as a student here.
What are your future goals?
To become an exemplary teacher-scholar of medical sociology, emotions, and qualitative research methods in an institution of higher education.
What does this award mean to you and how will it aid you?
This award is invaluable not only in terms of the time it will afford me to focus solely on my dissertation, but also in freeing up my time to build healthy writing habits that will enable me to enjoy the process and experience of writing. We are so often focused on our finished products (publications, grant proposals, presentations, etc.), forgetting that we spend most of our time in the process of researching or in the process of writing, so it is truly a gift to be able to find satisfaction and even joy in something as challenging and personal as writing.