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.