My name is Alex Nelson, and I'm doing my
masters in Socio-cultural Anthropology. I
came to Western for two reasons,
one, I did my undergrad here, and I
originally wanted to be a business
student, but the anthropology department
lured me in, and then I also felt like
the opportunity for interdisciplinary
collaboration was something really great
about Western that I couldn't
necessarily find at other universities,
so I've had the opportunity to work with
not only anthropology, but also women's
studies, which has been pretty beneficial
to my growth as an academic. I do work
with homeless single mothers in London
and Victoria, it's a comparative study to
see how policy impacts people, and the
way that they cope and survive based on
those policies. The faculty, staff, and
students are all really supportive, and
that's part of the reason that I
couldn't leave from my undergrad to my
masters. Being a Western graduate student
has been pretty fabulous for a couple of
reasons, one, these are the students that
I'm going to be publishing alongside in
the future,
these are the students that I'm going to
be going to conferences alongside in the
future, and it's a great bunch of people,
and I'm really happy to be a part of
this, but more than that Western has a
really great wellness program for
students, and as a grad student
sometimes it's stressful and sometimes
it's tough, but Western supports its
students through that, and I'm really,
really happy that they offer those
services for students. For people
applying to Anthropology, I would say you
have to make sure that people are the
right fit for you, it just so happens
that Western is a great fit for me, but
these are the people who are going to
shape your experiences and your memories,
and more than that
they're going to shape the
anthropologist you become in the future,
and so it's important to find the right
fit.
