GUC - Ep 4 - FNT

SONIC Northwestern22min

Cecilia Zhou

00:20

Welcome to Growing Up Comm, a production of the ICA Podcast Network. In this series, we talk about topics primarily relevant for students and early career scholars. I’m your host, Cecilia Zhou, and I’m a PhD candidate in the Department of Communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Today, I am speaking with our guest, Dr. Lisa Hurwitz, the Director of Impact Research at Newsela and graduate of Northwestern University’s Media, Technology, and Society PhD program. In today’s episode, we will talk about transitioning from the academy to working in industry.

Lisa Hurwitz

00:55

Hi, Cecilia, and thank you for having me here. My name is Lisa Hurwitz and I received my PhD back in 2017 from Northwestern University's program in Media, Technology, and Society. I had a postdoc, but I've spent most of my post-PhD career in different industry research positions, largely with a focus on what's referred to as efficacy research. And so in my different roles, I have taken a look at whether products are having the outcomes on users that they are intended to be having. Right now, I work for an edtech company called Newsela. They kind of got their start making news for kids and have since expanded, where now they include fiction content and all sorts of content. And I am charged with engaging in research on the product and its impact on students and teachers.

Cecilia Zhou

01:48

Great. So can you walk us through a little bit about your journeys? Why did you choose to work in the industry in the first place? When did you start to have this feeling of how you want to work in the industry instead of working in academia?

Lisa Hurwitz

02:01

I came into graduate school leaning more towards wanting an industry as opposed to an academic career. I had been working in basically the same space I'm in now prior to getting my PhD. And I was at a time in my life where I could move across the country to go to whatever PhD program was the best I could be getting into. I wanted to be gaining higher level skills. I wanted to be leading projects and not assisting them someday. And I thought a PhD would lead me towards that path. I wasn't someone who was unhappy with my industry role at the time, or coming into my PhD program thinking I wanted to be a professor.

Cecilia Zhou

02:44

Right. What were you looking for when you were transitioning from industry into a PhD or graduate program? Are you looking for honing your research skills, and how does PhD itself help you to to achieve that goal?

Lisa Hurwitz

02:58

That's what I was looking for, yes, honing my research skills. I was engaged in research in a topic area I was really interested in, but I didn't have much quantitative training. All of my qualitative training was on the job. And I really wanted sharper methods to be doing justice to the kinds of projects that I was getting in my former role, and/or, again, to be able to lead as opposed to assisting on projects. And so that was what I was trying to get out of my PhD program. And then I think a pleasant surprise that all the theory and deeper thought you learn along the way as well. I wasn't looking for or expecting that, but it certainly enriches my practice today.

Processing audio...