Today we’d like to introduce you to Antija Allen.
Hi Antija, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m a native New Yorker and grew up in Harlem (New York City).
I know that growing up in Harlem specifically is one reason why I’m so driven and work so hard. There’s an energy there that’s unmatched. There is no place in the world like New York City, but I really needed a change of scenery when I was graduating from high school, so I went away to college and studied in a small town in Pennsylvania.
While in college, I met some of my closest friends that I still have to this day. In college, I did a study abroad program in London. Most students from my school who studied abroad were international business/international studies majors and only went for a few weeks in the summer.
After several meetings and gathering approvals from several departments I was granted permission to go as a Psychology major, and I stayed for a full fall semester. So, for about 4 months, I lived and learned in South Kensington. It was a culture shock at first, but after about a month, I had my routine and I had adjusted. While I was there, I was able to take a euro tour and visit countries like Germany, France, and Switzerland.
I think of myself as sort of a pioneer because after I did my study abroad, it was opened to other majors so they wouldn’t have to go through all that I did to get the same opportunity. When college was ending, there was always the question of what was next.
At the time, I wanted to be a clinical psychologist and my college advisor recommended Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, CA because he knew I didn’t mind traveling. So, after college, I moved to LA and lived there for 2 years, but near the end of my second year, I was so homesick that I switched from clinical to general psychology because I wasn’t sure anymore if I wanted to be a Marriage & Family therapist and didn’t want to stay there the additional time to find out.
So, I moved back to NYC after graduating with my MA in Psychology and really wanted to prove to people that you could do something with a Psychology degree because what people kept telling me was people who study psychology never end up in their field. I think I went to Monster.com, I don’t even know if that still exists, and applied to every job in New York city that said psychology—not the best way to job search by the way.
And I was called in to interview for a job in the south Bronx. I didn’t know it was a teaching job when I applied and I almost said no because I had a terrible fear of public speaking, but I agreed because my need for money to pay bills was bigger than my fear. I ended up absolutely loving the job, but I only was teaching part-time so for a brief time I did temp work as a receptionist as my full-time job until I finally landed a full-time job in psychology conducting research.
For several years, I taught part-time and always had a full-time job either in research, counseling, or professional development. Fast forward many years, I had gotten married, went back to school for my doctorate, and wrapped up all of my in-person classwork at Columbia University. I had a successful picnic basket delivery business and a job leading professional development for the state of New York, but I felt like I was ready to have my first child.
My job for the state involved a lot of travel and long work hours and I decided that before having a child I wanted to move into teaching full-time because it would give me a better work-life balance. So I applied to teaching jobs all outside the state of New York because once again I was ready for a change of scenery and a change of pace.
I eventually was offered a teaching job in McKenzie, TN and after the move, I gave birth to my daughter and not long after that my son. We loved our small-town living at first but really wanted a little more variety especially with having small children and not many options for things to do.
That’s when I got on my job search again and ended up with a tenure track faculty position in Knoxville. Knoxville was perfect because it wasn’t too small, but it also wasn’t too big. It’s close to the family we have in Georgia and one of our other favorite places, Chattanooga.
We have now been here for 5 years and although I and my husband are both native New Yorkers, we most definitely are raising two Tennesseans.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I grew up in a single-parent home and my mother worked so hard to make sure we had everything we needed. Her drive inspired me and my older brother. And I believe that’s why we’re so successful today, but still are always striving for more. I’m grateful for the struggles because they made me more resilient and keep me “hungry.”
I dream big, but I also am not afraid to take risks to accomplish big things. My motto is don’t make excuses, make it happen! I could run down an extensive list of reasons why I shouldn’t be where I am today, but instead, I have always kept pushing.
As a child one of the struggles, I had was with teachers who didn’t believe in me. They knew I was smart because I excelled in all subjects, but I was a class clown, and my teachers didn’t like that. Other than my first-grade teacher, all through elementary school I never felt supported by teachers. But luckily, I had and have the most supportive family on the planet.
They cheered on every accomplishment I had no matter how big or small. They made me feel like I really could do anything. I remember I had a teacher who refused to give me a scholarship application for a high school because she said I wasn’t going to be able to compete with the people in that school. I not only got into that school, but I also got into the three high schools that I applied to include honors programs. Her “no” only made me push harder to prove her wrong.
My senior year of high school was rough because that’s when we found out my mother had a brain tumor, and I didn’t even know if she would live to see me graduate high school. I had a lot of plans about where I would apply to college, but in the end, I was so stressed and distracted that I went to a college where I was offered a scholarship and actually didn’t apply to any other schools.
Although it wasn’t a well-thought-out decision, it was one of the best decisions I ever made because being at that college afforded me so many opportunities and most of my professors were awesome. And I’m happy to say my mom had her brain tumor removed and has seen me graduate from high school, college, my master’s program, my doctoral program, and now helps my children with their homework.
Struggles I’ve had since then have really been around experiencing a lot of loss of close family members. I really do live my life to the fullest because I have found life can be so short.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I just transitioned from being a Psychology professor at a college here in Knoxville to becoming the Director of the college’s center for teaching & learning.
It allows me to combine my two big loves of teaching and professional development. Right before starting this new role, I earned the excellence in teaching award, it felt like the perfect way to wrap up that part of my professional life. I’m also the owner of Allen Ivy Prep Consulting.
We assist job seekers all over the world, literally. We offer resume development, interview prep, career coaching, professional development workshops for organizations, and so much more. We specialize in higher education employment but have helped individuals from various industries.
Since we work with current and future faculty, it was a small piece of what inspired a book I co-edited with my business partner, Justin Stewart, titled “We’re Not OK: Black Faculty Experiences and Higher Education Strategies.” The book focuses on the experiences of Black faculty and provides strategies for inclusion, retention, and promotion of mental wellness.
The book was published by Cambridge University Press and for it to be my first book I’m so proud of how well it’s doing. It has been on Amazon’s best-selling new and future releases lists since it debuted for pre-order in December 2021. It has been the number one release in Psychology, Educational Psychology, and Medical General Psychology.
It’s available online everywhere all over the world where books are sold, but also on the shelves of bookstores and libraries. I had someone tell me she bought her copy from a bookstore in the Netherlands. Me and my co-editor have appeared on several podcasts that focus on diversity, higher education, or mental health and have had multiple articles highlight the book.
It most recently was in Insight into Diversity as a must-read and voted book of the month by the society for diversity. We have also delivered engaging and informative presentations for numerous organizations and have several more lined up. I am honestly in awe of this book’s reach. I’m grateful for all the support it has received and hopeful that it will lead to real change in higher education and some other industries as well.
I think what sets me apart from others is that I bring professionalism, knowledge, and humor to all that I do. I have an ivy league background, but I am very down-to-earth and meet people where they are. I am going to work hard, but I’m going to have fun doing it. I consider myself a diversity, equity, inclusion, and mental health champion.
One common thread in the work that I’ve done is I’m always focusing on how I can help others from all backgrounds grow and succeed. My professional goal is to create change that will make things better for someone else.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
A lot like I am now. I was always talkative, silly, creative, nerdy, driven, had a variety of interests, and loved to learn new things. When I was in first grade, I would finish my work and then walk around and talk to my classmates. My mother told my teacher to give me extra work to keep me busy and quiet.
As I grew older, I was the student who would ask the teacher to double-check to make sure my assignments were graded correctly because it was always important that I did very well in school. I excelled in school, but my fun personality and constant joking around got me voted class comedian in eighth grade. I loved to laugh and make others laugh. For most of my life, I thought I would end up in a creative field.
As a child, I was in ballet, took piano lessons, and sang in the girls’ choir of Harlem, and choir in school. In high school, I took a drama class and creative writing. Other than music, the interest I’ve had the longest is writing. As I was growing up, I mostly authored short stories, songs, and poems, but at one point I remember making my own magazine.
One of my cherished possessions from my teenage years was a typewriter that I bought at a thrift store in upstate New York when visiting family. I eventually graduated to a word processor before finally getting a laptop.
Although I was a psychology major in college, my love for writing grew when I took communications courses like journalism and authored articles for the school newspaper.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.AllenIvyPrep.org
- Instagram: @antijaallen
- Facebook: @notokbookproject
- Twitter: @prep_ivy
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/RR-D4qSFcDs
Image Credits
Jessie Tipton and Robert Y. Trapp
