Grad School Femtoring: Inclusive Grad School Stories, Personal Development, and Productivity Tips for First-Gen BIPOCs · A podcast on thriving in graduate school for first-generation BIPOC students, offering insights on academic success, career development, mental health, and navigating diversity and inclusion in higher education.

349: How to Stay Motivated in Higher Education Without Burning Out with Dr. Janice Castro

·42 min·2 clips

Dr. Janice Castro says self-worth gets tangled with career metrics, turning grad school into a sprint.

1. Grad School Femtoring episode 349 centers on Dr. Janice Castro and the topic of motivation without burnout in higher education. 2. Dr. Yvette Martinez-Vu hosts the conversation, and Dr. Janice Castro joins as a bilingual licensed psychologist, speaker, and host of the Latine ADHD podcast. 3. The episode asks how first-gen BIPOC students can keep going without turning grad school into a cycle of exhaustion. 4. Castro traces her path to psychology through her upbringing as the daughter of Peruvian immigrants, her father’s deportation, domestic violence, and limited family income. 5. She says her college classes discussed mental health but did not center the Latina community, which pushed her toward graduate school and Latina mental health research. 6. She explains that postdoctoral training at an adult ADHD site led her to specialize further in adult ADHD, even though she does not identify as neurodivergent herself. 7. Castro describes connecting with ADHD clients through shared experiences of being othered, working twice as hard, and getting burned out in systems not built for her. 8. She says her podcast brings on BIPOC guests with ADHD, expert guests on neurodiversity, and solo episodes with psychoeducation. 9. Yvette and Castro define motivation as both intrinsic and extrinsic, with intrinsic tied to purpose and extrinsic tied to money, degrees, and certificates. 10. Castro says burnout feels like cynicism, depletion, exhaustion, compassion fatigue, and feeling tired of being tired. 11. She links scarcity mindset to growing up with undocumented parents, low-income instability, and survival mode. 12. She says first-gen students often tie self-worth to careers, grades, recommendation letters, and leadership roles. 13. Castro describes that pressure as a sprint mentality that ignores rest and turns grad school into a marathon with no pacing. 14. She says her own path to becoming a licensed psychologist took 15 years, including retaking exams and redoing internship steps. 15. She names small, strategic rest practices such as 10-minute walks, lunch without a laptop or phone, logging off, and allowing boredom. 16. Castro says rest is energy management, not laziness, and connects chronic urgency to cortisol, executive functioning, anxiety, depression, and burnout. 17. The interview style is reflective and conversational, with Yvette repeating and reframing Castro’s points to make them clearer for listeners. 18. The tone stays supportive and coaching-oriented, with the guest speaking from both lived experience and professional practice. 19. Listeners balancing grad school, work, and first-gen pressure. 20. Listeners wanting a pure inspiration story without practical advice.

As heard by us

A reflective conversation about motivation without burnout that pairs practical language with culturally rooted insight.

Dr. Yvette Martinez-Vu and Dr. Janice Castro frame motivation without burnout around first-gen experience, career pressure, scarcity mindset, and the habit of tying self-worth to work.

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Why you'd press play

When ambition starts sounding like pressure, this one slows the room down.

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