Breaking the Silence

Due to the competitive and inequitable structure of doctoral programs, there has been a rapid rise of mental and physical issues faced by students. In this article, I use autoethnography as a method to explore my experiences and their implications on my learning and wellbeing as an Afro-Latinx EdD student at a public university. Using "captured moments", a photography analogy for the experiences lived, I explore the depth and light each "captured moment" has created and/or has resulted in the ways in which I looked at the content and people I was exposed to within my program and as well as the ways in which my health was impacted. These experiences were then analyzed through liminality theory and Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema to support the impact of these experiences. The call to action provides direction for how educators and researchers can provide students with more supportive and equitable experiences that would provide for an increase of students seeking to obtain their EdD.