It's been a while since I posted on my blog, but I wanted to reflect on my time over the past year since I defended my PhD. 

A year ago, on Wednesday, July 12th, I became the first Nigerian, 4th Black woman, and 6th Black student to defend a PhD in Computer Science from the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science at Cornell University!

Since then, I’ve started my career at the world’s foremost think tank, attended numerous prominent convenings, had 50+ speaking engagements, reached 200+ citations of my research, and engaged in collaborations that have produced nearly a dozen research papers, policy commentaries, white papers, and technical reports.

Data from the Computing Research Association (CRA) Taulbee Survey, the principal source of information on the enrollment, production, and employment of PhDs in computer science, information science, and computer engineering in North America (United States and Canada), also indicates that I was 1/18 Black students and 1/387 women to graduate with a PhD in Computer Science during the 2022-2023 academic year.

While the numbers for women CS PhD graduates have gradually increased over the past decade, the production of Black CS PhD graduates has remained dismal, never exceeding more than 2% of all awarded computer science doctoral degrees in North America. As the world continues to contemplate the harms caused by technical systems, particularly those enabled by AI, how do we reconcile that communities most likely to experience disparate impacts continue to be underrepresented in researching, developing, and critically evaluating these systems?

This past year has taught me much about myself, both personally and professionally. It has also helped me define the kind of research I want to pursue and the impact I want to make within the fields of AI, global development, and technology governance. Over the next year, I look forward to pursuing new opportunities to scale my impact and create opportunities for marginalized voices to contribute to AI research and shape public policy. 

In the meantime, I hope to revive this blog and provide more resources for those looking to pursue graduate programs and earn graduate degrees, especially in STEM. While I may no longer be a "collegesista," this platform will always be a part of my identity. I appreciate everyone who has read this blog over the years, supported my work, and shared my content. Stay tuned!

Hey everyone! April is almost over and May (one of my favorite months of the year) is creeping up on us. With the school year winding down, course projects winding up, and still trying to be productive in the midst of a pandemic, things are somewhat hectic for me. I’ve been doing my best to manage my academic, personal, and extracurricular commitments in this new environment but a lot of it is just overwhelming. On the average day, I have around three Zoom/Hangout/Meet/Skype calls and sometimes have had up to five! Yesterday, I was on two Zoom meetings at the same time :O

Everyone is “hustling” or “taking advantage” of the time they gained from now staying at home, but this hasn’t been the same for everyone, especially us grad students. There’s so much diversity within the grad student population from age, to marital status, to being parents and it can be hard to imagine how the “average” grad student is coping. I’m fortunate that I can get my work done from anywhere in the world as long as I have a secure Internet connection. I definitely feel for those who have been cut off from their labwork and have now been forced to figure out a way to advance their research from home. One of my good friends is an Animal Science PhD student and her calf trials have been suspended for the time being, which I’m sure is extremely frustrating!

In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.

Sun Tsu

I saw this quote floating around and found it to be extremely insightful. When thinking further about it, I realized that the emphasis was not on the opportunity for you to produce but on the opportunity to focus within and work on yourself.

Overall, I’m proud of Cornell’s response to the sudden shutdown and how they have allocated resources to students all across campus. I acknowledge that not many universities have the resources that Cornell does and I am forever grateful to be supported by an institution like this! Many grad students are worried about the new timeline shift of their academic milestones and I’m definitely in this boat as well. I was planning to do field research in India this summer, but now it’s unknown if I can even go. I’m fortunate to have supportive advisors and a department that is receptive to their student needs, so my worries about this have been somewhat quelled. I would love to know what new activities you’ve partook in since quarantine started and how your institution has supported you during this time. Feel free to comment below and share your experiences!

Many universities have posted resource websites for their graduate students. If you’re looking for more tips to stay motivated during this time, check out Cornell Graduate School’s website! Be sure to take care of yourself and remember that we’ll get through this with time (and with an effective government response)!

I’ve been AWOL for the past few months, so thank you to everyone who has continued to follow and share my content! With the COVID 19 crisis occurring and personal life taking over, I haven’t been as active on my blog as I’ve wanted to be. Being in grad school and navigating its complexities can be a slippery slope, so I’ve been doing my best to stay strong and take care of my emotional and physical health during this time.

I’m sure you all want an update, so here are some things I’ve been up to since the beginning of the year:

• I traveled to Nigeria and Ghana for some personal travel and to give back through service learning trips! I’m planning on writing more about my trip soon.
• Got more in-depth with my research plans and started some new collaborations!
• I joined Cornell Healthcare Review as a writer!
• Spoke at a roundtable session and presented a talk virtually!
• Getting back to reading! I’ve read almost 15 books since the start of this year and haven’t been slowing down. I even finished 3 books in one week!
• Got accepted to the blackcomputeHER Fellows program and received an Honorable Mention from two prestigious fellowships.
• I updated my academic website!

I have a lot of content prepared to post, but want to be sensitive to your needs at this time. What kind of content are you looking to see?

Some things I have in mind are staying consistent through personal and global crises, completing your work virtually, and managing your finances as a grad student. With tax season already here, I was planning on focusing on budgeting, saving, and tax topics but I definitely want to hear your thoughts!

Many schools have posted resource websites for their graduate students. If you’re looking for more tips to stay motivated during this time, check out Cornell Graduate School’s website! Be sure to take care of yourself!

Thanks for reading! You can catch up on my previous posts here. Feel free to share this post and follow me on all social media platforms @CollegeSista! Have questions about applying to grad school, life as a graduate student, or Cornell in particular? You’re welcome to contact me on LinkedIn or through email!

Welcome to my blog! For those that don’t know me, I’m Chinasa Okolo: a PhD student, avid traveler, and music aficionado. I’ve been informally blogging for almost 5 years and decided to revamp my blog to focus on my personal and academic life.

I’m dedicated to helping those of us not represented enough in academia, technology, and entrepreneurship succeed within these respective domains. The goal of my blog is to provide insight throughout my journey as a Black woman at the intersection of these fields and hopefully inspire more of us to pursue careers in them.

You’re deserving of all the things in the world. So go get it.

— Janet Mock

Throughout the life of this blog I plan to post about personal finance, higher education, travel, my personal interests, and more! I’m open to taking questions about my journey and can be contacted through my blogging email. I’ve also posted a FAQ page to answer questions I tend to receive more often.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned!