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.
368 episodes listed below
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The Signal Award-winning Grad School Femtoring Podcast provides first-generation BIPOC students and professionals with conversations about graduate school and growth to help you sustainably achieve your goals. I’m your host, Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu, a first-gen Chicana, mama, neurodivergent, and chronically ill grad school and productivity coach, consultant, author and speaker. For over fourteen years I’ve been empowering first-gen students of color along their personal and professional journeys, and I’m really excited to support you too. Listen every Friday to solo and guest episodes where you’ll be listening in on inclusive grad school stories. You'll also learn more about...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Graduate education becomes more manageable when its career choices, cultural pressures, health constraints, and daily work are considered together.
Grad School Femtoring treats graduate education as a lived systems problem: deadlines and career planning share space with burnout, family responsibility, chronic illness, and self-worth. Dr.
The doctorate has a deadline; your body has a veto, and Dr. Yvette Martinez-Vu takes both seriously.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A practical guide to piecing together graduate funding before accepting a master's offer.
It frames graduate funding as the line between taking an offer and walking away. A partial scholarship is treated as too thin to cover tuition, living costs, or moving expenses, and the contrast with full funding makes the choice point easy to see.
The year works better as a monthly practice than a January sprint.
This episode treats annual goals as something better served by monthly reflection: a steadier way to track progress, notice growth, and stay tied to values and well-being. Dr.
A calm reset for low-energy days when work still has to move.
The episode treats low energy as a practical constraint rather than a personal failing, opening with the body-level signs that can make work hard to start: heavy eyelids, a foggy mind, distraction, and irritability.
A clear guide to the awkward work of asking for, and writing, a stronger recommendation letter.
Dr. Yvette Martinez-Boo treats recommendation letters as something messier than routine paperwork. The conversation stays close to the awkward reality of it: an applicant asks, one recommender hesitates, and a third agrees only if the applicant drafts the letter.
Mentorship is framed as a question of capacity, not personal failure.
Mentorship is the real subject here: how to ask for it, how to wait for it, and how not to treat silence as a verdict on your worth. Dr. Yvette keeps the focus on capacity, not character, and that is where the piece feels strongest.
A sustainable reset for anyone measuring worth by speed.
This episode follows Dr. Paloma Alonso, a Latina physician, epidemiologist, and postdoctoral scholar at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, as it shifts success away from constant speed and toward sustainability and values.
A practical argument for analog tools as a way to support learning in an AI-heavy classroom.
The episode makes a steady case for bringing analog tools back into education. It tracks a visible shift among educators toward handwritten exams, in-class writing, device-free sessions, oral presentations, paper journals, printed worksheets, and whiteboards, all framed as…
Doctoral completion here depends on support, not self-erasure.
This episode treats finishing a doctorate as a test of capacity, not just ambition, for someone balancing full-time work, parenting, partnership, and the role of being the emotional center for others.
Campus radio from the wrong side of reality.
Campus decisions, Northeast news, and Northeast priorities.
How research culture changes in practice.
Conversations from inside the IT channel.
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Self-care starts with an awkward question.
Erika Hernandez joins a conversation about the fear and confusion that can hit first-gen families as soon as college tuition comes into view.
The advice you got about choosing a grad school advisor was dangerously incomplete.
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The show opens its client spotlight series with a close look at pressure, purpose, and the cost of always feeling behind.
The host begins with a body check.
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Yvette starts with the acceptance letter from NYU and the choice that came next when the funding package did not come close to covering the real cost of graduate school.
The host starts with a conversation from the Grad Empowerment Coaching Circle about staying motivated on projects that drag on.
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Stephanie Sanchez describes applying to master’s programs abroad after leaving nonprofit work and choosing the London School of Economics for a one-year postgraduate degree in international migration and public policy.
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This episode helps grad students identify their needs and avoid settling for less when choosing or switching advisors.
This episode discusses the international student experience in graduate school, offering advice and insights for first-gen BIPOC students.
The host shares a personal story about goal setting from her high school theater experience to illustrate the pitfalls of perfectionism.
The host shares her approach to setting achievable goals for the semester and invites listeners to a live workshop.
A registered dietitian discusses budget-friendly and culturally inclusive meal planning and intuitive eating for grad students.
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This episode opens with a personal story about the host's mother's cancer diagnosis, then transitions into the podcast's mission to support first-gen BIPOC students through grad school and beyond.
This episode introduces top-down vs.
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