Alumni Spotlight

I decided to pursue an MA in sociology at UA to study with Dr. Bustamante, who like myself had lived in the south Texas borderlands. With his guidance, and that of other faculty in the department, I developed my current line of work on Latinx experiences of racial space in the immigrant South. This was informed through an account of my own when finding myself out of place after relocating to northwest Arkansas from Mexican south Texas. I found a welcoming and supportive home in the sociology department at UA—one that fostered and nurtured my potential at pursuing an intellectual profession and at promoting change through teaching, service, and scholarship.

 

Upon graduating with my master’s in sociology from UA, I went directly into the sociology PhD program at the University of Missouri. At MU, I have been able to further develop the line of research I established at UA. This has enabled me to present my work at the ASA, publish book reviews on topics within my expertise, serve as reviewer for a journal, and transform my MA thesis into a peer-reviewed journal article. Because at UA Sociology I acquired the necessary skills and momentum to become a successful scholar, I have remained active as a student, teacher, and researcher as I move toward a sociology faculty position at a university.

 

My greatest professional accomplishment has been getting my master’s thesis accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed journal Sociological Inquiry. This is the culmination of an ongoing four-year effort guided by the support of Dr. Bustamante, who is co-author, and of Dr. Zajicek who has offered extensive feedback on various iterations of this project.

Through my education in the MA sociology program at UA, I attained the methodological and analytical skills that continue to guide my research practice and theoretical development today. Taking various methodological, theoretical, and substantive classes with many of the faculty in the department has awarded me the confidence to propose new directions in the field and to understand how to effectively approach various research settings.

My greatest professional accomplishment is a harder question to answer because I think every year I have an accomplishment that I’m proud of.  The past year, I have been given the opportunity to learn, practice, teach and collaborate around campus with Life Design.  Life Design uses design thinking framework and mindset to help students build out their future.  I was awarded a scholarship to attend Stanford University’s Life Design Studio in summer 2018, which just began the wonderful journey.  It’s been fascinating to see how students respond to this concept and the activities, and also to develop partnerships around campus to incorporate this idea into curriculum and programming.

---

 

Most Fulbright College students recognize the name Erica Estes from the weekly Career Insider emails she sends out. But, there’s more they might not know about her. Estes is an alum of the University of Arkansas and Fulbright College.

She got her B.A. in psychology with a minor in gender studies. Dr. Anna Zajicek, now chair of the sociology department, helped her make the decision to continue her education and to work toward an M.A. in sociology. After working as Dr. Zajicek’s research assistant, she became Estes’ lifelong mentor.

Upon graduation, Estes knew she wanted to work toward equality for women, but didn’t know exactly which role. So, she moved to Baltimore and after a month job search, became a child counselor for a domestic violence agency. She worked there for less than two years, but is still close to her coworkers to this day because of the intensity of the work they did together.

“I learned my passion for advocacy and education,” Estes said.

She then spent five years in staff development for a foster care agency. When she moved back to Arkansas, she got a job with the University of Arkansas thanks to her connections to Fulbright College.

“I combined all the skills I learned from psychology, sociology, counseling and training to be a career counselor,” Estes said. She moved up over the years and is now the Director of Employer Relations for Fulbright College.

She says the relationships with her professors gave her the confidence to keep moving forward.

“The time and energy they invested in me made me feel special and helped me to understand my qualifications and unique traits,” Estes said.

Estes says she thinks it’s really important to stay connected to your department after graduation because it helps the college and faculty to educate current students on the career paths that are possible. “It also reminds you of your core values as an intellectual and a professional,” she said.

In her current job, she uses her degrees to understand how and why people make the decisions they do, and the value of further investigation into the complexity of systems, processes, and groups of people.

“I think my education and previous jobs are what gives me a drive to fight for the underdogs and wanderers,” Estes said.

Estes is a prime example of a Fulbright alum who was unsure about what to do with her degrees and education, but went on to learn more about herself through different careers. She finally ended up back where it all began; she spends every day working in Old Main for Fulbright College.

 

 

 

 

 

[interviewed by Larra Rucker]

With my previous academic background in social psychology I became interested to extend my knowledge and learning in social organization, culture, and social changes. So I choose to purse an MA in Sociology at the University of Arkansas where I found very supporting and dedicated faculty members like Anna Zajicek and others.

 

After graduating MA in Sociology, I pursued MSc in Information Systems and later Ph.D. in Information Systems. In fall 2001, I started my academic career as full-time faculty of Information Technology at a community college in Virginia. Currently I am Associate Professor of Information Assurance & Cyber Defense and Information Technology at Eastern Michigan University. Before I join here I was Associate Professor of Information Technology at University of Cincinnati.

 

I think my greatest professional accomplishment is being good instructor and mentor to my students, especially when I see them being successful in their academic endeavor and career. I always believe that educational institutions are the most civilized and distinguished part of the society and I always wanted to be a professional member of it. 

 

Although my current academic profession is in computer program, but MA in Sociology has significant contribution in my career as a faculty and researcher in computer field. In my research and classroom instruction, whenever possible, I try to correlate computer technology to the society. Keeping in mind that computer is just a technology that has no value if it’s not accepted by the members in society, I always try to apply social theory in my research on computer technology acceptance. With increasing threat to people’s privacy and security, especially because of prevalent use of mobile technology, social medial, etc. focusing on social and psychological factors becoming important to researchers in computer technology field. In fact, I am currently writing for a NSF research grant proposal on technology acceptance based on theoretical models roots in sociology and psychology. My sociology background also helped me to better prepare for couple of introductory graduate courses like Intro to Technology and Society.

Immediately following graduation, I moved out of the country briefly. Upon returning, I travelled around the U.S. before settling down in Fayetteville to pursue a career as a Criminology/Sociology Instructor for the U of A. Shortly after taking on the role as Instructor, I accepted a position as Project Director for a grant housed in the Health, Human Performance, and Recreation department at the U of A. This is my current position.

 

My greatest professional accomplishments are 1) completing and successfully defending my Master's thesis, and 2) accepting the position as Program Director for a research grant aimed at developing and assessing measures for social surveys.

 

Don't listen to people that tell you that getting a degree in the social sciences is pointless, or not useful in the work place. To put it bluntly - they are wrong. My foundation in Sociology has benefited me greatly, both professionally and personally. More importantly, I don't feel like my experience is an isolated one. Follow your passions - it makes life more fun.

I was originally attracted to sociology as an undergraduate at the UofA. My enrollment advisor described the field as a breadth of information from across disciplines, integrated in a way that helps with overall maturation. Therefore, the introduction course seemed as fundamental as math and history. That class motivated me want to take another. I quickly realized that the social sciences could help me make sense of humanity, and thus my purpose within it.

 

Why, you might ask, did I feel unsure of the world and how I fit into it? Well for one, it is a somewhat universal ignorance as youths (defined by time) have limited exposure to the vast array of cultures and the ideologies of societal antiquity. I had also experienced serious disfunction in my prior community, academic, and personal relationships. I was hungry to comprehend and contextualize those (and future) interactions towards personal and professional growth. The more courses I took in the department, the more I understood the importance of studying sociology as it relates to citizenship skills and liberty.

 

I had never felt particularly inspired by or good at anything until I double majored in sociology and criminal justice. I became fascinated with the effects of perceptions, structural inequality, and systemic problems. I started to question everything.

 

A couple of professors regularly stayed after class and scheduled meetings with me to answer or discuss theories, practice, methods, and statistics. The professors’ enthusiasm was contagious, and their expertise admirable. Not only did I gain significant new insights, they taught me to think critically and communicate better. Those same professors encouraged me to pursue an advanced degree and wrote letters of recommendation for my packet. I was not completely sure I belonged in graduate school, but I wanted to learn more and knew it was my path to a meaningful career. In the MA program, I became obsessed by the process and implications of research that carries through to today.

 

I continued to work on research manuscripts and database development with UofA professors while moving to Atlanta, GA. That fall I enrolled at Georgia State University as a member of the inaugural Criminology and Criminal Justice doctoral program cohort. I worked as a research assistant while getting my Ph.D. for the next four years, then took a job with my current employer. I have been at Applied Research Services, Inc. for five years now, and love my ever evolving and interesting projects.

 

My overarching goal has always been to have a career that I am passionate about and with purpose. I accomplished that; my work helps people. Every day I get to use evidence to help improve policy and practice in the criminal justice system, as well as expand the research literature. I could not be prouder of my colleagues and our output.

 

The foundation of my research and all research-related services can be traced back to the UofA Sociology MA program. I was able to build upon that strong foundation in my doctoral program and ultimately it resulted in me being a Subject Matter Expert, research consultant, and data scientist. It was the UofA faculty’s guidance that led me to define an area of interest, nurtured quintessential methods and analyses understandings, and provided the opportunity for my first experiences in conducting studies. I often advise on evidence-based practices by digesting the existing literature, determining its validity, and helping clients know how to apply it. We regularly did this in my MA courses. I design data protocols, monitor implementation, and evaluate effectiveness, by testing hypotheses and making appropriate inferences from findings, as was required by my thesis. Lastly, the mentoring continues to be invaluable, both professionally and personally, as my primary mentors are among my favorite people.

 

Orient to your degree as though it is the start of your career, because it is! If you do that, you will likely invest in your education more deliberately and holistically than others do. This will set you apart, which will lead to additional opportunities and honors. While others are competing with classmates, you will find ways to learn from and leverage their strengths for your own success. You will continue to raise the bar for yourself, dependably feeling challenged to improve your own capabilities. You won’t be looking for excuses to skip class or assignments, rather ways to develop marketable skills and a bankable network. The value of your own time and others will increase, boosting your productivity and preeminence. Overall, your confidence, competence, and resume will expand, thus making you attractive to prospective employers.

I chose to purse an MA in the program largely because I had received my BA in the program and I was committed to furthering my understanding of Sociology in a more in-depth way.  I was already in law enforcement at the time and I knew that while so many law enforcement professionals had educational backgrounds in criminological theory, I believed that it was better for me to understand the social impact of policing and how having a better understanding of the communities you serve can result in trust and collaboration in efforts to solve crime.   

At the time of my graduation, I had been with the University of Arkansas Police Department for 8 years and was a Sergeant over patrol.  At the encouragement of Larry Slammons, who had just recently retired as the Director of UAPD at the time, I decided to leave UAPD to work for the Vanderbilt University Police Department as a Lieutenant knowing that it would allow me to gain experience with an urban institution that also provided police services to a major medical center.  Director Slammons was a true mentor to me and his advice to explore other opportunities turned out to be the best career move I have ever made.

   

I am really proud of the work we have done at the University of Chicago.  When I was first hired in 2010 as a Deputy Chief of Police, the Department of Safety and Security was a new entity and the police department was going through major reform.  I was asked to write new policy, implement new training, recruitment and hiring practices as well as enhance the Department’s accountability measures.  Fast forward 8 years, and we have professionally accredited and well-respected law enforcement agency, a talented and diverse leadership team directing the other public safety functions and, in my opinion, the best campus public safety agency in the country.

 

I think the most important thing I have learned from the program is to always look at things from different perspectives.  Whether that was in making policy decisions, developing new patrol strategies, and/or enhancing our community engagement efforts, my education has helped me to understand and think about the impact our decisions might have, both positively and negatively, when providing public safety services.  Our department provides services not only to a world-renowned university, but also a vibrant and diverse surrounding urban community and with that comes a responsibility to understand the surrounding cultures, communities and the intersectional challenges those communities face.    

 

Law enforcement and/or public safety in general has experienced a significant shift in the last few years.  It is a very rewarding career but one that is constantly changing, growing and often critiqued.  This a good thing and my advice for anyone getting in public safety is to always try and make it better.  We are public servants and too often that is forgotten and so we have a responsibility to ensure we are seen as a part of the community and not outside of it. 

 What did you do upon graduating from the MA in Sociology program?

After graduating with my Master’s Degree, I moved to Bloomington, Indiana to pursue my PhD in Sociology at Indiana University.

 

I recently earned the National Science Foundation’s Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement (DDRI) Award to fund my dissertation: “The Role of Economic Resources and Parental Status in Challenging Gender Norms: The Case of Marital Name Choice.”

 

I advise any student interested in pursuing an MA or PhD in Sociology to talk to graduate students at the universities they are interested in attending. Look at department webpages, identify graduate students who have been in the programs for a few years, send them an email and ask if they are willing to have a phone call. I recommend asking current graduate students if they are happy with their program, what resources are available to them (fellowships, grants, travel stipends), whether they are getting the professional mentoring they need to succeed, what career options are available to them and whether graduates from their program are getting jobs. 

I was an undergraduate sociology/criminal justice major at Arkansas, and I wanted to go on to graduate school in sociology.  However, my early undergraduate GPA was not strong enough to get admitted to top PhD programs with funding, and I felt like I was not necessarily prepared to enter such a program, so I opted to stay at Arkansas for another two years to work on the MA.

 

In my second year of the MA program, I applied to six PhD programs based on geographic considerations and my interests.  I was admitted to three of them and opted to go to Duke University for the PhD.  I spent six years in the PhD program, earning an MS in statistics along the way.  After I graduated (2001), I took an assistant professor position in the sociology department at Princeton University.  I was tenured there and promoted to associate professor in 2007 and full professor in 2010.  I remained there until 2014, when I took a position back at Duke University.  I’m currently a professor of sociology at Duke, have a courtesy appointment in the department of Community and Family Medicine in the medical school, and am the training director for Duke’s Population Research Institute.

 

I’m not sure what my greatest professional accomplishment is.  Perhaps helping play a role in introducing Bayesian statistics to sociology.  My 2007 book on Bayesian statistics and estimation, as well as some of my methodological work in demography and sociology helped me earn the Leo Goodman award for early-career contributions to sociological methodology from the ASA’s methodology section in 2014. 

 

My MA training at Arkansas was crucial in preparing me for a PhD program.  I am not sure what the structure of the MA program is like now, but when I was a student, the program provided a general, but detailed education in contemporary sociological theory and methods.  I was also fortunate enough to get first hand research experience as an RA my first year in the program, TA experience in the first semester of my second year, and teaching experience in the second semester of my second year, teaching introduction to sociology.  The RA position involved the full research process, from designing a survey, to collecting data, to analyzing it.  In fact, I used the data in my masters thesis.  Frankly, I’m not sure I could’ve received any better training both for subsequent graduate work and for what I do now.  My job, as a professor at an R1 institution primarily involves research and teaching.  I do not engage in primary data collection, but after my RA experience, I know how it is done and teach it.  Further, a crucial component of being a professor is learning how to manage your time, including switching between roles as a researcher and a teacher.  The best way to learn how to do that is to do it, and I had that experience at Arkansas.

Upon graduating, I decided to do a year of service as an AmeriCorps VISTA. I serve at the University of Arkansas in the Center for Community Engagement as the Outreach and Engagement Program Advisor. In addition to my VISTA position, I am teaching an online general sociology course at the University of Arkansas. I’m very grateful that I get to share my love of sociology with my students.

 

I’ve had several personally significant accomplishments in my education and my work experience. I think it would be easy to say that my Master’s thesis was a very notable achievement. However, I think that the most significant to my professional development was in my first year of the MA program, during my assistantship at the Community and Family Institute when we did the Point-in-Time (PIT) Homeless Census in Northwest Arkansas. The PIT is a count of sheltered and unsheltered homeless individuals in Washington and Benton counties. It takes a team of volunteers to perform surveys, a lot of collaboration from the community, and it results in a lot of data. I was able to take some responsibility and ownership over this data during the collection, management, and analysis processes. My advisor, Dr. Fitzpatrick, let me take the reins on this project, which lead to a lot of skill development in a relatively short amount of time. In addition to wrangling the data, I was able to create infographics and other visuals interpreting the data. This accomplishment is so notable to me, not because it was the biggest or most difficult project that I worked on, but because I was able to jump in headfirst, overcome obstacles, and feel really proud about the product.

 

My experience in the MA in Sociology program has definitely provided me with skills relevant to my year of service as a VISTA. I am advising a group of student-leaders that are developing multiple volunteer and service programs on campus. My experience in the MA program has taught me to challenge students’ perspectives, help them frame the issues that they are tackling, and help them think about long-term sustainability for their various programs.  I am able to provide my students and office with skills such as research design and implementation, program assessment skills, analytical skills, and communication skills. I value being able to look at a complex issue and break it down into accessible goals or tasks, as well as being able to communicate that clearly to others.

 

Honestly, I was under the impression that I was too “overqualified” to be an AmeriCorps VISTA or do a year of service after receiving my Master’s, but that is far from true. I would recommend a year of service to anyone who is interested in a human service-related career, but isn’t sure or doesn’t feel fully prepared. You get a lot of hands-on experience and get to peer into what the field is really like on a day-to-day basis. The VISTA program, specifically, is focused on capacity building and development, so you have the opportunity to develop a lot of relevant skills that can project you forward within the field. Always keep in mind how sociology pertains to whatever topic or career path you want (because it definitely does!) and be able to articulate that to others.

I was a sociology major as an undergraduate and knew that I was interested in this field. After completing my BA in sociology at UCA, I took a year off to volunteer with Heifer Int./AmeriCorps and do a little research on graduate school programs. The University of Arkansas Sociology Department stood out to me as a program where I would have a lot of opportunities to get engaged with applied sociological research that impacted the surrounding community. That applied element paired with an amazing faculty with a variety of teaching and research interests made the decision to choose the sociology graduate program at U of A an easy one.

 

If I had to point to one single accomplishment that I am most proud of, it would be the students who I have helped inspire to go on to graduate school. I have instructed, mentored, and supported through letters of recommendation several students who have been accepted into prestigious graduate programs, including Washington University in St. Louis. While research is extremely important to me, there have been few experiences as rewarding as watching students develop their sociological imaginations and then seeing their excitement when they've been accepted into a great graduate program.

 

The MA in Sociology provided me a set of theoretical and empirical tools that helped me develop interesting sociological questions and subsequently design research to answer those questions. Furthermore, coursework helped me develop a sense of pedagogical styles that I felt worked well for offering these same tools to future students of my own. All of these are skills that I continue to use today as an assistant profess of sociology.

 

Get involved in research as soon as possible. If you didn't come in with a research question of your own, this will help you develop one. Spend as much time with your professors as you can. They aren't just knowledgeable about their areas of research, they hold important cultural and institutional knowledge that you can't find in a handbook or by Googling. Ask the questions you feel embarrassed to ask. If a professor asks if you'd like to get involved with their research or another project, do it even if you feel like you are not totally sure what you are doing--you'll mess up, but you'll learn. Cherish any time you have to just sit and read. Finally, try to get a clear idea of what you want from the program and do your best to work with mentors/advisors to make the program suit your goals. Those goals aren't the same for everyone, so its crucial for you to communicate your goals to the faculty you will be working with.