
Harnit Mahal (she/her) is a first-year graduate student pursuing a M.S. degree in Communication at Oregon State.
Harnit found Oregon State by way of the Upward Bound program. Now known as TRiO, these programs are designed to assist prospective students with career choices and college preparation. Being a first generation college student, Upward Bound was instrumental for Harnit in helping to determine her academic path. Harnit picked Communication for her master’s “because it lets me study psychology, but in less of a clinical way and more so in a holistic and applied manner. I still love psychology, but I wanted to understand people more than in an isolated, clinical way.”
Harnit is still in the early stages of her master’s thesis work. She has her literature review started and hopes to have her research narrowed soon. “I’m hoping to examine health under a communication lens and how it impacts non-White families.” Additionally, she has been finding more research areas that interest her. “While writing that [the literature review], I realized I’m curious and passionate about the way that South Asians, in particular, navigate healthcare. The healthcare model that we use most commonly in the West is different than most models in the East, so there are definitely disconnects when people immigrate over to the States and access care here.” She currently has two major advisors; Dr. Hesse from the School of Communication, who focuses on the links between interpersonal communication and both psychological and physiological health, and Dr. Gurung from the School of Psychological Science, who focuses on social, health and pedagogical psychology. Harnit hopes to find a third advisor in the coming months.
During her research, Harnit is discovering challenges and gaps in the literature surrounding her topic. “One of the challenges I’m already running into is the lack of literature when it comes to examining non-White families in most areas, like Health Communication. In this way, I’m hoping that my research is unique because, hopefully, it will be a good first step into bridging the gap in the literature that currently exists.”
Beyond her thesis, one of the biggest challenges for her thus far has been imposter syndrome, common among grad students. Despite these challenges, Harnit is dedicated to her studies and appreciates having her cohort there for support. “I had no idea what I was doing in undergrad, and now that I’m in grad school, I still have no idea what I’m doing. Apparently, most people never know what they’re doing… My fellow cohort members and I are transparent and honest with each other about our experiences, for the most part, and I think that makes us each other’s emotional support people. Find your tribe within your programs, and you’ll feel better when you feel the need to rant about the immense workload you technically signed up for.”