{"id":78202,"date":"2021-03-23T14:10:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T18:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/?p=78202"},"modified":"2021-11-01T09:32:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T13:32:17","slug":"student-spotlight-kiloni-quiles-franco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/2021\/03\/23\/student-spotlight-kiloni-quiles-franco\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight: Kiloni Quiles-Franco"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Kiloni Quiles-Franco is a PhD student studying Molecular and Translational Medicine at GMS. She is currently the co-host of Vitamin PhD<\/a>, a podcast produced at Boston University for anyone who is pursuing a doctorate, has a doctorate, or supporting others on their doctoral journey.<\/span><\/p>\n

The podcast’s fourth season is focusing on conversations with student organizations, faculty members, and staff from across BU schools and colleges about diversity and anti-racism. Co-hosts Kiloni <\/span>and Khadija El-Karfi (Romance Studies) discuss how these individuals and groups engage in social justice work within their departments, labs, programs, and colleges.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We chatted with Kiloni about her vision for the podcast’s fourth season, tips for handling social justice fatigue, her hopes for upcoming diversity initiatives and more:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

How did you first get involved in Vitamin PhD?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was an invited guest on Season 3 for a roundtable discussion. I\u2019ve also been involved in a lot of Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, racial and gender equality initiatives, and I\u2019m an executive board member on a few different organizations. They reached out to me to be a co-host on Season 4 (after George Floyd\u2019s death) because they wanted a host from both campuses. I guess I had my hand in a few pots and they thought I\u2019d be a good fit!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s been one challenge and one highlight of working on this podcast? <\/strong><\/p>\n

One challenge has been trying to give everyone the space to speak their truth. We really wanted it to be constructive. We wanted it to be like investigative journalism without the ‘Gotcha!’ moment.<\/p>\n

One highlight is that everyone is going to get something out of each episode. Each guest offers a different perspective that applies to people across the university. Every episode is about an hour long. You may think, \u201cWhoa, that\u2019s a long conversation! Is it going to be redundant?\u201d But we touch on so many topics that it\u2019s impossible for somebody not to feel moved. People who maybe don\u2019t come from underrepresented backgrounds will still see themselves in at least one of these stories. It\u2019s impossible not to. I think it\u2019s going to resonate with the entire BU community.<\/p>\n

How did you map out the themes you wanted to feature in each episode?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We specifically patterned the first episode to talk about ‘What will make you care?’ We believe that the biggest obstacle in this fight for justice is the fact that there are a lot of people who don\u2019t feel like they have any say in the matter. They feel like it doesn\u2019t apply to them. There are also those who have been trying but are now experiencing something I call \u201csocial justice fatigue.” That\u2019s when you\u2019re talking about these issues constantly and it\u2019s just so emotionally exhausting that you need to take a step back. We tried to address all of those people in the first episode because we want them hooked. We want them engaged in the conversation.<\/p>\n

The second episode was directed at the people who care, but maybe don\u2019t know what to do.<\/p>\n

In the third episode, we focused on barriers for underrepresented\/BIPOC students who are matriculating into higher education. We looked at the tendency these students have of ‘working to live’ instead of ‘living to work.’ They work twice as hard to get half as far. There\u2019s this imposter syndrome where they feel like if they don\u2019t work so hard, they\u2019ll be looked at as lazy. They\u2019re afraid people will think they don\u2019t deserve to be where they are.<\/p>\n

Each episode builds on the last. They\u2019re long episodes. We want our listeners to understand that they don\u2019t have to listen to them all the way through in one sitting. They can take it in bite-sized pieces. We want listeners to reflect, and we want them to recognize their own biases. We all have them. That\u2019s a big takeaway.<\/p>\n

Building off this idea of social justice fatigue: how do you balance the gravity of these really heavy topics while still remaining hopeful for the future?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a topic I\u2019ve been discussing for a long time. Since George Floyd, there seems to be a lot more engagement from administration. They\u2019re the ones reaching out now. They\u2019re saying, ‘Hey, teach us! We want to know more.’ That\u2019s encouraging. As heavy as these conversations are, I think what keeps me motivated is the fact that people are asking students for advice on what they should be doing differently.<\/p>\n

We want listeners to reflect, and we want them to recognize their own biases. We all have them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there an upcoming conversation or an episode this season that you\u2019re especially excited to share with your listeners?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think Episode 3, which aired yesterday [March 18] is the best one so far. The way that the episode was cut together and the way that both of our guests answered our questions\u2026 the topics are just so broad that they fit with every department. This includes medicine, which isn\u2019t easy to do. It\u2019s hard to talk about students AND physicians AND directors (and so on) while making a solid argument for all of the above. I think that Dr. Monica Wang and Luis Ramirez did an excellent job of laying the foundation of how everyone across the board can address these issues.<\/p>\n

If nothing else, everyone should listen to that episode. Let it set the tone for what the intention was for this season.<\/p>\n

Did you have a vision going into this project of the impact that you believe PhD students and other graduate students can have?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I did not have a benchmark of what I expected that impact to be going into this. I\u2019m just a vocal person. My goal is always to speak the truth, no matter what. Going into this, I didn\u2019t know that graduate students on their own could have such a big impact – I didn\u2019t expect so many people to be interested. Even before it aired, people told me they were excited to hear the first episode! I\u2019m glad it\u2019s happening. It\u2019s all stuff everyone needs to hear.<\/p>\n

Maybe people used to be siloed from these topics for one reason or another. Maybe the imposter syndrome has stopped some students, staff, and faculty from discussing them as much. Maybe it\u2019s been a topic that has brought up some discomfort in meetings. It\u2019s more relevant now.<\/p>\n

My goal is always to speak the truth, no matter what.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

One of the quotes from your first episode that really resonated with me is: \u201cActivism and academia are not inherently separate.” Do you have a quote or moment from the podcast that stuck with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a spoiler for Episode 5, the very last episode. Something that really stuck with me is the idea of a hidden curriculum in higher education. These are the things you need to do that aren\u2019t explicit in application requirements for graduate programs. They are just understood to be required. They are inherently biased in favor of people with privilege and resources. People without that aren\u2019t aware of them. This puts them at a disadvantage as they try to get into advanced degree programs.<\/p>\n

I was lucky to get into a program called The Initiative for Maximizing Student Development in my undergraduate degree, which provided me with that hidden curriculum. The goal of the organization was to help improve diversity in biomedical research. To get people like me into the role I am in now. Otherwise, it would\u2019ve been very difficult to have the opportunities that I\u2019ve had. I think it\u2019s important to address that, to name it, and to acknowledge that it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n

Is there anything we haven\u2019t touched on that you\u2019d like to add to the conversation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the things that I hope that our administration takes away from all of this is that there isn\u2019t a quick solution. These issues aren\u2019t going to be fixed in one or two years. The issues of systemic racism go back centuries, so the solution will take\u2014at the very least\u2014decades. Go into this knowing that it\u2019s going to be a daily and repetitive effort. There needs to be intentional initiatives put forward by the entire community as a whole. It needs to be continuous. As long as we go into it knowing that, then we\u2019ll be on the right path. If we go into this wanting to fix things quickly, then we\u2019ll just be slapping a Band-Aid on a pipe leak.<\/p>\n

\n

Want to learn more about Vitamin PhD? Check out their webpage here<\/a>. If you are a PhD student interested in getting involved with the podcast, email <\/span>gradpd@bu.edu<\/a> for more information. You can also follow @BUVitaminPhD<\/a> on Twitter for their latest updates.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kiloni Quiles-Franco is a PhD student studying Molecular and Translational Medicine at GMS. She is currently the co-host of Vitamin PhD, a podcast produced at Boston University for anyone who is pursuing a doctorate, has a doctorate, or supporting others on their doctoral journey. The podcast’s fourth season is focusing on conversations with student organizations, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16373,"featured_media":78206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7167,1534],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78202"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78245,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78202\/revisions\/78245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/gms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}