Dr. Berger on SisterMentors:
Although my writing group at Duke focused on helping each of us complete our dissertation through written feedback, SisterMentors was a different kind of group. Its focus on helping women to set realistic yet attainable goals based on a timeline helped me to break my dissertation down into manageable pieces. I attended the monthly SisterMentors meetings and set regular goals toward completing my dissertation, and I began to see results. Because the women in the group come from all disciplines – including social sciences, humanities, psychology – they help you to see your project from many different perspectives. I made more progress in one year in SisterMentors while working a full-time job than I had made in the previous two years as a full-time graduate student. I officially submitted the dissertation in October 2008, and I defended in March 2009. I know that SisterMentors’ goal-setting principles and the group feedback contributed to my successful defense.