Peer Accessibility Liaisons (Graduate)
Peer Accessibility Liaisons (PALs) support their graduate peers academically and socially in building community on Brandeis campus. Peer Accessibility Liaisons are current Brandeis graduate students who have experience effectively navigating campus resources and advocating for themselves.
The Peer Accessibility Liaisons program aims to support graduate students with disability(ies)/condition(s) in navigating graduate school while building an inclusive environment for all. Your PALs can answer your questions about accessibility support and connect you to Student Accessibility Support (SAS) in order to access academic and non-academic accommodations.
How to connect to your PALs?
Meet your Peer Accessibility Liaisons (PALs)!

Program: PhD in Social Policy, Heller School of Social Policy and Management
If you could go back to yourself in your first year of graduate school and offer a piece of advice, what would it be? I would tell my first-year self to spend more time exploring different areas of study by taking classes that I have never heard of before. I wish I could have let go of the expectations that I set for myself in high school, which were to be a chemistry major and to teach high school chemistry. Needless to say, it did not happen.
Fun fact: I have been doing pottery for over ten years. My dream is to one day have my own pottery studio that includes a wheel, a kiln, and any other equipment that I need.
Email: jchaikof@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Coming soon!

Program: PhD in English Literature, GSAS
If you could go back to yourself in your first year of graduate school and offer a piece of advice, what would it be? Ask for accommodations instead of pushing yourself to exhaustion on things you don’t have the ability to do--don’t let the ‘grind’ mindset get you down. Also–stop pulling all-nighters! Just because you’re an insomniac doesn’t mean you should be on the computer until 6am; laying down and resting is better than nothing!
Fun fact:I used to work at a bookstore in NYC!
Email: asoriano@brandeis.edu
Office Hours: Coming soon!