Coming Attraction

In September there will be a new cast of characters introducing you to their Penn GSE lives, I hope you will check it out...

Adios faithful readers

***Most of the cohort after our comps exam completion - minus April, Brenda, Marco, Dani, and Ha-Young.

In less than one week I’ll have completed all of my work. I have two outstanding papers that are due next week (that aren’t as far along as they probably should be, but with time they’ll be done). This week felt productive as I finished off two classes and turned in those papers and met up with my friend Leslie from D.C.; we used to work at Beloit together, she's great.

The end of the year is fun – there are B-B-Q’s and lots of food events to celebrate the graduating students. The weather is finally starting to get nice – I can wear shorts and flip flops again. Life is good.

It’s exciting to see where the cohort is going to end up. All along I’ve thought they were such talented people and it’s confirming to see other colleges/universities/companies/non-profits taking interest, too. As I look back on this year, it’s been transformational. My year of graduate school was absolutely the right thing for me to do at the right point in my life. I’ve learned a tremendous amount of ‘stuff’ about higher education and had an amazing amount of fun.

I’ve met the most interesting, caring, smart, passionate, funny, not to mention good-looking group of people through this cohort experience. We connected so quickly, which is likely the nature of the intensive program and it’s comforting to know I’ll see these people professionally and personally in the future. The cohort has provided so many great memories from this past year – I think they are all truly great, I’ll miss them. So, a final shout out to you all: Effie, Rosemary, April, Jess, Juan, Kate, Marco, LaMoy, Julia, Won, Aviva, Michael, Emily, Phi, Dani, Chris, Brenda, Dougie, and Ha-Young.

As I leave my Penn life, I’d like to welcome many of you to your own.
My hope for all of you is that…
- You'll eat delicious WaWa sandwiches
- Your runs along the Schuylkill path are as relaxing as mine have been
- The margaritas at MadMex are as celebratory
- You finally take a history course that you love (it happened to me)
- You find out your passions
- You make great friends
- You eat great food: much more to Philly than cheesesteaks
- You explore Philadelphia
- You end up as happy as I have been

Crunch time

Two weeks from today I'll officially be done, I'll have mastered higher education management and embark on the 'real world' again after my nine month hiatus. I think I'm ready.
In the meantime:
-I'm finishing my final paper for Cross-Cultural Awareness,
-Working with my friend Julia on our Access & Choice final analyzing the Posse Scholars Program and the possible implementation of the program at a school like Penn.
-Finishing my student life final paper on creating diversity through recruitment efforts
-Finishing my case studies in higher ed final policy memo on implementing a college counseling program at the high school level.

It was great to meet so many accepted students on Monday for the Preview Day - despite the awful weather, spirits were still high and I'm hopeful that all the students will decide to matriculate to Penn GSE this fall.

Tomorrow the higher education management program is hosting a conference with the Executive Doctorate Cohort on Penn's campus. The Exec Doc cohort is made up of vice presidents and senior level administrators from colleges and universities all over the country that have come to Penn to earn their Ed.D. in a two year exective style program. Our key note speaker tomorrow is the VP for Student Affairs at Duke University, we are also having a luncheon with the entire Exec Doc cohort - in addition to having two panel discussions: one on anecdotes from life in higher education and one on career paths and options. I'm looking forward to connecting with all of them, it will be a great chance to network and get a glimpse into future positions many of us may hold some day.

I've been really sad about the events that took place at Virginia Tech earlier in the week. I always felt like colleges and universities could be a safe place for students - it's hard to see that threatened, higher education feels vulnerable. It is however inspiring and hopeful watching the Virginia Tech community rally together to support one another and remember their friends/teachers/peers/family. My thoughts are with the Virginia Tech community and all of those in Blacksburg. Penn will be hosting a candlelight vigil on College Green on Thursday night to show our support, I hope a lot of people attend.

Calling admitted students

We have a great event coming up for accepted students trying to decide where to attend graduate school next year. This event will give you a good glimpse into life at Penn GSE and ultimately you'll hope to join the community here.

The details are as follows:
Preview Day for Accepted Master's Students:
Monday, April 16, 2007
RSVP: Click Here!

9:30am: Registration/Continental Breakfast
10am: Welcome
11am: Divisional Meetings
Noon: Lunch and Resource Presentations - (Student Financial Services, Off Campus Living, On Campus Housing, Graduate Student Center)
1:30pm: Alumni Panel
2pm: Student Affairs (Orientation Preview and Extracurricular Activities)
2:30pm: Campus Tours

Location:
Hilton Inn at Penn
3600 Sansom Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
*Additional Entrance between 36th and 37th on Walnut Street

It's going to be great. Congratulations to accepted students, hope to see you there.

Whirlwind

The first photo is from a Wednesday night game of Quizzo at New Deck near campus. I think quizzo is known as trivia everywhere else in the world (still confused). I have bad memories of trivia growing up - my brother used to know all of the answers before I did (I felt dumb). It always took at least two hours to play a full game, I got bored too quickly. So, after my 10+ year hiatus from trivia/quizzo - I've returned. We did well that night, I usually end up being the team cheerleader.

My friend Anna, from high school and college, was in town visiting last weekend. We spent some time in Philly and then went up to NYC - displayed above. The top photo is Anna on top of the Empire State building - before the rain came. The bottom photo is in Times Square before we went and saw Rent - which was amazing. NYC is just full of energy, it's fun being so close.

In other news, I've been interviewing for jobs, I found out I passed my comps exam, and I'm leaving for Florida tomorrow. It's the joint NASPA/ACPA conference in Orlando for Student Affairs. Al Gore is the key note speaker; the line up of presenters is impressive and there are tons of networking opportunities. I'm looking forward to it, and dead set on coming back tan.

Welcome to all doctoral students who are visiting campus today, they have a beautiful day and some were lucky enough to have a really great tour guide (read: self-absorbed). I've met some great people today that I hope will join the GSE community in the fall.

...and, I starting to think a few people actually read this.

email me if you have questions.

A day in the life of me...

Monday, March 19

8:10am - Wake up. Turn on VH1 Jumpstart and listen to mainstream pop music - it wakes me up. Shower, check my email (1st time)...leave Rodin College House - grab coffee and the Daily Pennsylvanian on the way out the door

9:05am - Arrive at work, five minutes late. This morning I've been working on putting together itineraries for upcoming visitors to GSE. Now that decisions are starting to be sent out, many people want to explore Penn further. I've also been working on planning our Doctoral and Masters Preview Days for Accepted Students, both of those will happen in the next month

11:48am - Head over to Commons to pick up lunch.
Lunch today includes a slice of pizza, salad, cantaloupe, and chocolate milk.

12:10pm - Arrive back at work. Blogging, making a handout for preview day, and doing a little research are on the to-do list this afternoon.

3:45pm - Williams Hall, meet with my group to go over any last minute details before our class presentation

4:30pm - Access and Choice in Higher Education. I am doing a group presentation with four peers on Affirmative Action. We have created a fun case studies activity to help facilitate a good discussion (crossing fingers). We had some great readings this week about affirmative action - one from Daniel Golden's The Price of Admission, one on race-nuetral admissions models (a case study from Cal State - Long Beach), another one on racial and ethnic preferences in college admissions, etc. I'm looking forward to class.

6:30pm - Grab a quick dinner in Houston Hall - probably a salad. Charge it to my student account. It's fun, it feels like it is free - then my bill comes later in the month...and it no longer feels free.

7:00pm - Organization and Administration of Student Life...we have a guest speaker coming in for the first half of class. She works in Career Services at Penn, I think she's been there a long time and is kind of an institution in her own right. It's been a fun class to learn more about the different avenues within higher education.

9:15pm - Go to the gym. Force myself to stay at least 45 minutes - I just downloaded some new music to my ipod...I think that will help

10:15pm - Head home to Rodin College. Finish a case brief assignment for my class on Wednesday and reading on linguistic diversity for my cross cultural awareness class tomorrow. I'll likely check my email for the 56th time of the day and then shut my computer down.

Anticipated bedtime: 12:45am

***
Other things to look forward to this week:
*A good friend from Iowa is visiting this week
*Seeing Rent on Broadway on Friday night w/Iowa friend
*Seeing my cousins and aunts/uncle that live in Northern New Jersey
*A group meeting with 'The A-Team' to go over our policy memo project - shout out to Rosemary and Effie, two wonderful team members

Back in action

When I last wrote I was preparing for the Higher Ed. Comps exam. I'm happy to report that it went well. More than anything, it's a big weight off my shoulders. I think most everyone felt pretty confident in their work, time will tell I guess. The faculty are reading them and we'll receive our results in three-five weeks. Now, many final papers and presentations that loom.

I was in Iowa this past week for Spring Break with my friend Kate from Penn. Some highlights...
- We went to the Field of Dream movie site, about twenty minutes from my hometown. There were no fields of corn or sightings of Shoeless Joe. However, we did stop at the empty and snow covered field and took pictures for five minutes....like the one above, where I am pretending to swing a baseball bat (right?!)
- Spending the day in Galena, Illinois
- Wine tasting at Park Farm Winery, they have wineries in Iowa - no joke
- Visiting friends/colleagues at Beloit College (where I spent the last two years working before I came to Penn) and then spending the afternoon in Madison where we ate ice cream on the lake (it was twenty degrees outside)
- Catching up on sleep and the latest movie releases, running, learning new ab workouts, visiting with family and friends
- Attending the wedding of a childhood friend that I have grown up with and to this day remains of my favorite people

Now, back to reality and school work....and ultimately, the home stretch of graduate school.

Is it Friday yet?

We start spring break on Friday. We also take our comprehensive exam - in order to get our degree - on Friday. It's a big day. I can't wait until 12:01 p.m. when the exam is over. It's an essay exam where we will recount and synthesize the information from all of our coursework into great ideas that all fit together nicely - with cited authors to help back up our arguments (easy enough, right?). We formed study groups at the beginning of the semester and met once a week through early February and have been meeting twice a week recently. My study group - April, Juan, Kate, Marco - is wonderful. We are all relaxed, low-key, and encouraging. We haven't stressed each other out and are great at bouncing ideas off one another. And we snack, a lot. This semester I've had celery, trail mix, brownies, cookies, chips, carrots, and cashews during our study sessions.

The nature of the exam is stressful though - people get worked up. In the end, the cohort is filled with knowledge (we hope) and are smart people. The faculty want to see us pass (so they say) We should all be fine. Life will sure be nice though once Friday afternoon rolls around.

And, to make matters more exciting - I'm heading home to Iowa on Sunday for break. My friend Kate is coming along - she's from Maine. Iowa is unchartered waters, so I'm looking forward to showing her around. I'll take some photos - of things other than corn and pigs - to show the world what Iowa is all about (most recently...ice storms).

Bye Bye.

Luxury High-Rise

That's Rodin College House, I live there. I moved into Rodin as a Graduate Assistant (GA) in January. It was a bit of a whirlwind, but I'm really happy to be there. I was looking to connect more with the undergraduate community at Penn and be exposed to another avenue of higher education/student affairs.


I live on the 12th floor and look after 31 or so residents. They have all been remarkably welcoming to me as 'the new guy'. The staff in Rodin College House has made the transition equally smooth and made me quickly feel a part of the team. The floor is mostly juniors and seniors who lead super busy lives - I see many while waiting for the evelator or in passing. Our house events usually revolve around food - pizza, brunch, bagels, barbeque - and conversation in our house lounge. I enjoy hearing about their lives and backgrounds, because they are all so different.


This past weekend, we did a house event to the Penn basketball game. They beat Cornell in what appeared to be an important game in order for Penn to stay on top of the Ivy League standings. It was my first trip to the historic Palestra. It's so old and a great atmosphere for watching basketball. Penn fans are funny - they really get into things. Three members of the team are in my intercollegiate athletics course too, so it was fun to watch them play.


If any of you are interested or have questions about becoming a GA in one of the college houses, please let me know. It has been a great opportunity, with many perks along the way. Visit the College House and Academic Services web site for application information.


In other exciting news - a friend of mine from college, now living in Maine, is visiting this weekend. I haven't seen him since we graduated over two years ago. I'm pumped.

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

Admissions Crew

***That's Ann and Lezlie, two of the Admissions Crew.

All Higher Education Management Masters Student are required to do an assistantship and work 20 hours a week somewhere in the Philadelphia-area, most likely on the Penn campus. There are people that work on New Student Orientation at the Graduate Student Center, Career Services at Wharton, Upward Bound, Research Assistants at the College of General Studies, The Executive Doctorate Program, Community College of Philadelphia, Office of International Programs, Office of Student Life, etc. It is a way for all of us to connect the theory we are learning in class and apply it in a practical setting.

I work in Admissions at the Graduate School of Education. It's been a great experience where I have set up a lot of campus visits for prospective students, assisted with our Open House events, represented PennGSE at a college fair at Rutgers-Camden, started up these student journals, etc. More than anything, I work with a great cast of characters who make coming to work pretty enjoyable...even on cold days like today.

Jung is the Associate Director and she is completing the Higher Ed. program part time. We took history of higher education together and we helped each other make sense of readings on a lot of occassions. She makes sure I take my vitamins.

Alyssa is my direct supervisor and also an associate director, she completed the program I am doing two years ago. She empowers me in a lot of situations to run with ideas, and I appreciate that. She just learned how to cut pineapple, which makes for a fun afternoon snack every now and again. She usually gets the pineapple from Reading Terminal Market.

Ann and Lessie are usually the people that will pick up all of your phone calls and be the first faces you see when you visit PennGSE...you see their faces and my back. I like to think of them as small rays of sunshine. Bless Lessie because she plays John Legend for me nearly every day, while Ann crosses her fingers that Celine Dion is on-deck in the playlist. During busy days or down days, I can always count on Ann and Lessie to keep things upbeat.

Stephane likes to play jokes on me, he's a funny character...sometimes (okay, once) we run into each other at the Pottruck Center. He's the marketing coordinator in Admissions and really talented. Julie seems to have answers to everything, she always knows where to find things...which boggles my mind. I've technically been here a week or two longer than her, but you wouldn't know it. Sometime I help her file...she gets swamped with all the applications at this time of year.

A big shout out to the awesome work study students we have in Admissions - Anna, Annie, Mia, and Anna (now in Italy). They are such hard workers, and so funny....not to mention bright and destined for successful futures.

And lastly, the other GA's whose journals you can read this semester too - Sadiyah, Robin, Jamie, and Lezlie. All wonderful people that are so helpful...and they sometimes even laugh at my joke attempts.

So, that's GSE Admissions.
We are here to help.

Stay warm.

Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise

I'm going to South Africa this summer (so is Lezlie, another PennGSE blogger) to look at higher education in South Africa. One of my professors is leading a group of 37 students in July to visit three universities and explore the history, culture and landscape of a place I am very unfamilar with.

On Friday night our professor and ten or so of my classmates went to see Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise which was playing at the Annenberg Center on Penn's campus. The show was based on life experiences of the five performers, it was the true story of their own childhoods lived within the Apartheid divisions. They created Amajuba to acknowledge the hope that was present in South Africa's people, even during this awful time period. It helped make me more aware of the realities that were taking place in South Africa during Apartheid.

The stories recounted pain, hunger, violence, and death all seen by these performers as they grew up. It was hard to watch at times and left me wanting to know more stories and to understand more fully. Once I am done with grad school and can read for fun again, I want to read more about apartheid and South Africa. All five of the performers were INCREDIBLY talented. Although the show displayed deep sadness, I was most surprised by how much hope each one of them displayed.

We followed up with a discussion and dessert at a nearby restuarant with my professor, Marybeth Gasman and my classmates. It made me excited for this summer.

Back to reading about Access and Choice in Higher Education; I'm looking forward to having you follow my life this spring.