Education Policy Student Serves as President of Black Graduate Student Association
May, 2012
Alexandra Boyd, a doctoral student in the College of Education and Health Professions, began serving a one-year term this month as president of the Black Graduate Student Association at the University of Arkansas.
Boyd is a Doctoral Academy Fellow studying education policy in the department of education reform. She earned a bachelor's degree in international studies and political science from Rhode College and a master's degree in teaching from Christian Brothers University. Both institutions are in Memphis, where Boyd lived from the time she was in middle school. She taught sixth-graders in south Memphis for four years before starting her doctoral degree.
"I found teaching to be extremely rewarding on a micro level and extremely frustrating on a macro level," she said. "My frustrations in navigating through the bureaucracy of the education system in an effort to get the things that I felt I needed to teach my students effectively led me to seek out education reform."
She would like to work as a consultant evaluating existing education policy and guiding development of future education policy.
As president of the Black Graduate Student Association, Boyd represents the organization to the university, including service on the Graduate Dean's Student Advisory Board. Her duties include presiding over meetings, preparing required reports and maintaining contact with the organization's adviser, alumni and national organization.
Making contact with the organization soon after her arrival on campus helped ease the nervousness she felt in a new and different environment, Boyd said.
"These initial connections really helped me to easily adjust into my new life in northwest Arkansas," Boyd said. "Being a part of the organization has really helped me to quickly make bonds with campus and community members that might have taken me twice as long to do on my own. In short, I just want to ensure that other students are able to receive the assistance and embrace that I did when I joined the University of Arkansas community through an active and responsive BGSA."
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