Road Trip

I went to Boston this weekend with my friend Julia from my cohort. It was my first time to Boston in addition to stepping foot in the state of Connecticut. It's strange to be so close to so many places. Some highlights...
- We drove through five states in five hours, bizarre. If I left my home in Iowa and drove five hours west, I'd still be in Iowa.
- We stopped in New Haven for lunch (and visited Yale, the real reason for the stop). That's what higher ed nerds do, they visit college campuses. Someday, that could be you...
- I loved Boston, maybe it was the newness of being in a different environment...but it just felt really comfortable, and fun. Julia used to live there, so her and her friends gave me a great tour of the area. Naturally, Boston is a mecca for higher education...maybe I'll find a job there, who knows?
- We accidentially went through the EZPass lane on the Jersey Turnpike - we didn't have EZPass.
- I went to a Forum in Boston that was hosted by Carney, Sandoe, and Associates. They are a placement agency for independent schools across the country. I'm working with them to explore employment opportunities in College Advising next year. It was fun connecting with some of the schools, I love job hunting.

I have a busy week ahead...
I'm taking an Education course that is cross registred with Urban Studies called Cross Cultural Awareness or PACE (Programs for Awareness and Cultural Education). In the end the course will allow us to design and lead cross cultural discussions. The goals of PACE include addressing issues of cultural awareness, race, gender, sexual orientation, and age through dialogue, research, writing, and introspection to help create a climate that fosters understanding. The course is made up of 5 graduate students and 13 undergraduate students. It's been fun to connect with Penn undergrads; they consistently impress me by their ideas and thinking. They have lofty goals and will no doubt make meaningful contributions to society. It's humbling when so many people want to help create a campus willing to talk about big issues. Tomorrow, my classmate Alexander and I are facilitating the class discussion on heterosexism and homophobia. We've spent a lot of time putting the lesson plan together. It's going to be good.

In other exciting news, there might be substantial snowfall in Philadelphia over the next two days...this news is worthy of a fist pump here at work.
If anyone has questions of me, feel free to email. mettille@gse.upenn.edu