CYOT双语专访 | Breaking Barriers: 访PhdSuccess创始人Ewa Pluciennicka - CYOT

“In a world where talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not, CYOT is fighting to rebalance the odds and give every young person a fair chance to realize their dreams.”

2020年，欧洲首个博士生咨询平台PhD Success ( phdsuccess.eu) 诞生，创始人是法国斯特拉斯堡大学(University of Strasbourg)的前讲师和研究员，心理学博士Ewa Pluciennicka。

“Ewa的人生究竟经历了怎样的磨砺和思考？是什么吸引她一次又一次的与稳定的生活割席绝交，走入一个又一个未知的世界？心理学家是怎么摆脱低落和抗压，和常人有不同吗？人生，究竟怎样勇敢，怎样选择？”

近日，CYOT采访了Ewa Pluciennicka博士，为大家揭开这位不断求变的创业新星的心路历程，一起走进她百转千回的求索之路。

（本文为中英双语，全英文采访请见本文后附。绝对精彩，不容错过。）

采访：Rick / 杨琼

英文撰稿：杨琼 / Rick

中文撰稿：Rick

编辑：Faith

排版：小鱼

直到18岁去法国前，Ewa Pluciennicka一直住在波兰的一座小城，是一个无忧无虑的“小镇姑娘”。18岁那年，只学了一年法语的她，来到斯特拉斯堡求学，边工边读，完成了本科和硕士的学习，毕业后成为了康复中心的一名神经科学家。专业对口，生活稳定。未几，Ewa发现这一工作无法满足她强烈的求知欲，果断辞职，成为里尔大学SCALab实验室一名认知心理学博士。

读博和想象中的一样辛苦——高压、自我怀疑、低自尊、不安全感，像水蛇一样的缠绕Ewa。业经数年，好不容易载誉毕业，成为斯特拉斯堡大学的讲师，Ewa却又最终选择走出象牙塔，开始创业，为更多迷茫的博士生们指点迷津。

象牙塔内的异乡人

“之所以选择心理学，最大的原因就是我从小就爱帮助别人。”Ewa说起自己选择专业的原因。

成长在单亲家庭，Ewa幸运地拥有一位乐观开明的母亲，鼓励她用爱去对待身边的每一个人。而她善于倾听的性格，更是让身边的朋友、同学在遇到烦心事时乐于向她倾诉。因此，当决定赴法留学后，Ewa决定要学习心理学专业，了解最前沿的心理学知识，以后凭借专业知识更好地帮助有需要的人们。

充满热情的申请信为Ewa赢得了斯特拉斯堡大学的青睐，她告别家人，只身来到法国求学。

“把挑战看作倒逼自己前进的机遇，这样才能不断进步。”

初到异乡，语言的障碍、文化的差异都让她倍感孤寂。比如因为法语不够流利，在小组活动时就难寻队友。“因为法语说得不太好，大家一度都不太愿意和我一组。”又因不了解法国风俗而无法扩大社交圈。“怎么做，都觉得自己像个alien，异乡人。”

然而，这些困难在乐观的Ewa看来，却更像是促使自己走出舒适区、自我证明的大好机会。语言不流利就在兼职工作的间隙多听多练，不了解法国习俗就通过阅读加深认识，朋友圈不大就大胆出击，主动与同学聊天示好。最终的结果，自然是补足自身短板的同时，也赢得了身边法国同学的尊敬和喜爱。

“选择脑神经心理学是水到渠成。”本科期间对心理学有了更多了解后，Ewa很快被其中的脑神经科学这一分支迷上了。

“脑神经心理学是将心理学与数据、实证研究相连接的学科。选择了它，我就能用实验和数据更清晰直观地为咨询者做出分析，这正是我最初选择心理学专业时所期待的。”谈到自己就读的专业，Ewa的话语间溢出了掩饰不住的自豪。就这样，研究生阶段的她在脑神经心理学上语愈钻愈入，并在英国交换期间参与了多篇论文的写作，积攒了宝贵的科研经验。

Ewa在工作中

不忘初心——辞职读博

顺利完成硕士学业后，渴望实践的Ewa找到了一份康复中心做脑神经心理学分析的工作。康复中心环境很好，最初的工作也颇有成就感，且有稳定的薪水，没有后顾之忧，Ewa很快就投入到工作中去。

“但几个月后，工作就变得以重复实验为主，做久了常常觉得无聊，没有挑战性。”Ewa开始怀念起读书时与同学、老师深入探讨，每天都有新挑战的求学岁月。下班后，她也会时常想起申请心理学时的初心：掌握尽可能多的心理知识，帮助前来咨询的人们更好地了解自己。现在的这份工作，无疑不能帮助自己达成这样的愿望。

“是时候作出改变了，我要读博。”近一个月的纠结后，Ewa终于决定辞去工作，去追寻最初的梦想。申请的过程并不轻松，好在硕士时的科研成果加上工作中的实务经验使得Ewa脱颖而出，获得了法国知名的里尔大学SCALab的录取。

重新回到象牙塔，Ewa踌躇满志地想在脑神经心理学领域做出一番成就。但很快她就发现，读博远比想象的困难得多。

首先是巨大的学术压力。实验的设计、实行、数据统计、结果分析，一环套一环，一步错，步步慢。此外，学院主管的催促，身边同学的顺利，更让Ewa在实验室外还有承受额外的压力。一边沮丧于实验失败，另一边又只得在主管的催促下迅速进行新的实验，提出新的方案。焦虑迷茫又焦头烂额成了常态，找到知心人倾诉几句却成了奢侈。

这样的状态持续了好几个月才有所好转，而转机来自她偶然加入的线上互助群。

在互助群中，成员大多是各个学科的博士生，他们每周互相分享自己研究的进程，互相聊天，同时也会互相激励。在这里，Ewa不仅结交了挚友、舒缓了心情，更得到了启发：原来这么多的博士生都面临着类似的压力与困扰，若是创建一个线上咨询的平台，或将大有可为。

压力得到缓解的Ewa在实验上也开始屡屡成功，研究进度一日千里。到论文答辩时，Ewa的论文凭着详实的数据和深入的分析获得了学校授予博士论文的最高奖。

从学界杰青到创业新星

博士毕业后，Ewa获得了斯特拉斯堡大学的邀请，回母校进行博士后研究并兼任讲师。不到30岁就博士毕业担任教职，Ewa的学术前景一片光明。而她凭借扎实的科研功底，不仅在国际性的刊物上发表了多篇论文，还多次代表法国参加国际性会议，载誉而归。随着荣誉而来的，是越来越多的合作邀请及行政任务。博士后的最后三年，Ewa一直处于超高强度的工作状态，甚至比读博时更加忙碌。

Ewa深感并非自己想要的生活，再次寻求转变。这一次，她选择请假两个月，远走异国放松身心。

休假期间，她与读博时结识的群友们恢复了联络。Ewa也回忆起了自己当时的灵光一闪：何不开设一个线上咨询平台，专门为苦恼困惑着的博士生提供帮助呢？经过调研，她发现，几乎每三个博士生中就有一人面临着精神健康问题。这无疑是一片蓝海，而且还可以让自己作为心理学博士的专业知识有用武之地。于是休假结束后，Ewa就辞去了教职，开始专注投入在这一机构，即PhD Success的创设上。她决定，要将自己的平台做成欧洲第一家博士线上咨询机构，帮助更多的博士生们走出困境，完成学业。

回忆起创业之初的情形，Ewa印象最深的就是孤独：身边的朋友都不理解，为什么放弃前途光明的学术之路，转而进入竞争激烈的商场独自创业。好在她的心性早已被磨练得坚毅不拔：只要是自己热爱且认定的事情，那就不必太在意别人的看法！

Ewa在全情投入到查询资料、建立网站、宣传推广等工作中去的同时，也完成了从科学家到创业者的心态转变：以前是导师和主管给自己布置任务及ddl，现在是自己指挥别人，发号施令。

经过周密筹备，PhD Success在2019年正式上线了。而Ewa的创业故事也正在被越来越多的法国乃至欧洲高校的博士生所了解。她的创业之路，正在越走越宽。

后记——靡不有初，鲜克有终

采访结束前，我们问及Ewa对PhD Success日后的发展规划。她用温柔而坚定的声音说：

“或许有一天这个机构会变得很大，业务量会很多。但这并不意味着成功。只有当这个机构能真正地帮助到那些因压力而焦虑失眠的博士生们时，这个机构才是有意义的，我的创业也才算是成功的。”

那一刻，我们真正感受到了电话对面的她的热情和信念。从波兰小城，到法国名校，再到如今的自主创业，支撑她完成每一步的，不是流于肤浅的对金钱名利的渴望，也不是单纯为己的自我实现，而是一种由衷的对助人的热情。于她而言，变的是职业，是工作，不变的，永远是那颗炙热跳动的、善良的爱人之心。

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Roughly 1 out of 3 PhD Candidates suffer from mental health problems, according to a research on 3,600 PhD students in various majors published in Science. Luckily, a start-up platform PhD Success has been launched to help young scientific talents to succeed.

CYOT interviewed the founder of PhD Success Ewa Pluciennicka recently.

Born and raised in Poland, Ewa moved to France on her own at the age of 18 and worked part time to make her ends meet. In France, Ewa completed her PhD degree in psychology. In her thirties, making the U-turn from a well-achieved neuropsychologist into a green hand entrepreneur, Ewa started PhD Success from scratch.

Why did she quit the stable job as a university lecturer?
How did she come with the idea of running her own business?
What is the motivation for her daring endeavors?
How to cope with challenges, self-doubts and uncertainties?

All answers can be found in this interview.

1. Could you please tell us a bit more about yourself?

Power of A Single Mom. I was born and raised in Poland, a rather poor EU country to some extent. I am the only child and was raised in mono-parental family. My mother was always very caring and worked a lot to give me the best education and opportunities for the future. One of those opportunities was to study abroad for a good profession and better future. So I moved to France for my studies, and worked all the time in parallel to my studies.

Overall I had a very happy and joyful childhood growing up in Poland.

2. Were there any challenges when you studied in France?

Integration Challenge. It was extremely hard for me to integrate in France at the beginning. Such feeling of being an outsider was especially obvious during my first two years of college studies. For example, other students were not willing to work with me in groups, as I didn’t speak proper French. Sometimes it felt like you were always the “foreigner” stealing French jobs.

3. How did you overcome those challenges?

Strength Generator. I always aimed for having better achievements than others because otherwise I would feel being judged.

Even when language was no longer a barrier, I still felt the need to prove that I was at least as good as a French person, both during my studies and at work.

However, in academia, foreigners are always welcomed and there are no country boundaries in research. It was only when I finished my PhD (the highest possible diploma in FR) and represented France in international conferences that I got more confidence, and decided that I wouldn’t need to prove anything anymore, but it was not so easy sometimes.

Fortunately, I tend to think about challenges in a positive way. For me, it is like something that requires our extra efforts but eventually makes us stronger.

4. Why did you choose psychology as your profession?

Career Passion. I think I just like helping people. It was my interest and the other reason was that it kind of came natural to me. Many friends would just tell me their problems and ask for advice. Gradually I had the goal of becoming a therapist so as to help children and their families. Therefore, I chose to major in psychology. I later found neuropsychology was my favorite among various subdivisions of psychology. Neuropsychology is the science that connects intellectual capacities such as memory and speaking capacities, so we know which part of the brain is responsible for what function. In order to evaluate that, we have tests and different assessments. And that actually gives us an objective evaluation, basically a number that we interpret. This is exactly what I am interested in because I can see better help people with such evaluation results.

5. Working as a psychologist, any particular experience you’d like to share with us that motivates you to keep pursuing the path?

Be Confident. My profession helped me understand what others might not see, such as the signs of anxiety and other psychological traits.

When I was working as a young psychologist, I worked with patients with traumatic brain injuries. The cases were very severe.

Accidentally an elderly lady in rather good health condition came by medical test mistake. First, she was diagnosed as a patient having mental problems and met many specialists, doctors, occupational therapist, kinesioterapistes, and language skill experts. The experts started the investigation but couldn’t find what her problem was. As the investigation went further, she got very anxious and started performing worse and worse. As a psychologist, even before the assessment, I realized how anxious she was.

Later at the staff meeting, I argued that this lady had nothing wrong at the mental level. Her worsened test result was caused by anxiety mainly other than any mental illness. Finally other staff admitted that her problems were really minor in their field as well. The lady was then released from our service.

Upon the conclusion, this patient came back to normal life quickly and was very grateful to me for my support. She kept sending me the postcards (hospital address) for years afterwards.

As a young psychologist, it was an important lesson for me as I learnt to be more confident about speaking out your opinion regardless of the seniority. I also learnt that it’s important to first check if the patient is ready for an assessment, thinking as a psychologist before as brain specialist (neuropsychologist).

6. After working for a few years, why did you decide to study for a PhD?

Shortly after my Master studies, I started to work as a neuropsychologist in a rehabilitation center in Alsace (France). With a stable income and great working environment, the job was quite satisfactory.

But at some point, I started missing intellectual challenges and wanted to pursue my studies. That was when I decided to apply for the PhD. I started to apply for different positions and was finally accepted as PhD student at the University of Lille (Laboratory SCALab, a lab with nationwide recognition).

7. What are some advantages and limits of pursuing a PhD in your perspective?

Challenging but Rewarding. The advantages would be that it is a period in which we are learning so much!

We gain experience and horn our skills in various domains, such as research skills, project management skills, technical skills, soft-interpersonal skills, problem solving, and time management. We are forced to push ourselves hard enough to grow into independent thinkers and unlock more possibilities.

PhD experience depends very much on the PhD supervisor, the laboratory and the team in which we work with. The limit could be never-ending work and experiments, high pressure and intense competition, in addition to very little time for personal life and relaxation.

My mentor during PhD sometimes imposed too demanding a task on me, leading to my self-doubt and low self-esteem.

Finally, in academia, your job offer may require you to move to another city or country and be very open and flexible.

8. Any advice for students who are potentially interested in PhD studies?

Passion Matters. You need to know that during PhD you work a lot (it becomes a life style). You don’t have the professional stability that others in different professions might have, and it takes time and a lot of efforts to get a permanent position.

You might also work in fields and topics not many people can understand. You need to be mentally strong and prepared for a lot of constant stress, feeling challenged, overcoming difficulties, keeping the motivation up.

But those points mentioned above are not necessary negative. If you were passionate, you wouldn’t even feel that you are working so much.

9. After getting your PhD degree, how did you come up with the idea of creating PhD Success Platform and what does it do exactly?

PhD Success. After obtaining my PhD in cognitive psychology in 2015, I pursued my studies as a junior researcher and lecturer at the University of Strasbourg.

But during the last three years in Strasbourg, I was not really satisfied with my position. Work-life balance was the main issue. It is normal to work a lot, especially if your work is your passion, but your work should not become your entire life. My work at the university felt as if it was all my life. Working at the university does not only mean doing research, but also about teaching (a lot of teachings) and administrative tasks.

Finally, I decided to take the destiny in my OWN hands, took a break, went traveling for two months and came back with a head full of ideas. Studying for a PhD was really the highlight of my life. Energy-consuming and upsetting as it was sometimes, it was very worthwhile. So I know how much help a PhD candidate may need and I am ABLE to offer.

Since 2019 I have been working on PhD Success,an online platform dedicated to PhD students who are struggling in their PhD study. PhD Success is for all PhD students from different domains and majors.

10. What’s the goal of PhD Success?

The aim is to support PhD students mentally and help them overcome the difficulties so they can enjoy and fully benefit from their research and successfully graduate. We specialize in offering advice on issues such as the lack of motivation and energy, low self-esteem, loneliness, etc. We also provide support for students suffering from anxiety or depression via online consultations.

11. What does PhD success mean to you?

PhD success is a project of my passion, a project that combines my desire to help people and my interest in research and academics.

12. What did your family and friends say when you decided to quit the stable jobs you were doing?

Dare to Dream. I first quitted a very safe and stable job as psychologist and started PhD studies, which was only a three-year contract and the future afterward was UNCERTAIN.

Then at the end of 2018, I decided that I would do something on my own and that I didn’t want to live the way I used to live.

Many people could NOT understand and told me I was making a Mistake.

To be honest, I was not sure of my choice either, but I just felt it was time for a change. This challenge was very disturbing and came with a lot of stress, self-doubt, sometimes tears and a lot of questioning. But it comes to the fact that you need to DARE to dream and dare to desire and create the opportunities and the life you want.

I think it’s important to decide what is best for you, despite what others think.

13. What are the challenges to be an entrepreneur and how is it different from your previous experience as a scholar?

A Real World. The first challenge was to figure out what I wanted to do exactly and how to do it. I didn’t have any experience in running business.

I am a psychologist. In academia, we have communities to support and help each other to be productive, and we have a lot of deadlines. But as an entrepreneur, there are no apparent deadlines.

Another challenge was just to be out into the REAL business world. At the beginning, all these things were hard for me, a previous scientist. I got much better now and know how to keep my own deadlines and be productive.

14. Any other advice you’d like to share with us?

Coping with Uncertainties.

We face many uncertainties in life. I’d like to share what helps me when facing uncertainties.

Someone very dear to me once told me that the choices should be SIMPLE, and basically it should be a YES or NO answer.

Do you like the place you live in? Do you like your work? Are you happy in life? Naturally the answer is “YES, but…. or a bit…or I’m not sure…”, but I was told to IGNORE all the “BUT”.

If it is “YES”, great. If it is “NO”, change it. When I don’t know what to do or when I feel unhappy, I try to simplify the answers to the questions I’m asking myself, and bring them to YES or NO answers.

Search for answers, for resources and for information to make the most “enlightened” decision. I believe there are NO bad decisions. We just don’t see the positive outcome of our decisions immediately.

（图片均由嘉宾Dr. Ewa Pluciennicka提供）