First Impressions at Grad School

*Before I say anything else...isn't it beautiful in Logan?!


I've officially been in Logan for 24 hours and each new hour imbues me with greater excitement and confidence that the next 18 months are going to be some of the greatest and most challenging of my life.

Today was the first of a two days orientation for my grad program, Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences. We were first introduced to the entire IT&LS faculty and fellow cohorts. As we each took turns presenting ourselves, I was struck by the overwhelming feeling of confirmation that I was in the right place. I had chosen the right school and I had chosen the right program for me. Although I toted less applicable skills to the program than my peers coming from a background in Latin American Studies, I still felt that we were all similar in our ultimate goals and ambitions.

I came to the realization that graduate studies are not like undergraduate studies. Allow me to delineate some of the differences I have observed so far:

1. The purpose of the ITLS department is not to walk its students through a checklist of rigid requirements before graduation, but to emphasize the importance of developing a new skill set and to have command an array of technological tools, including web programming languages and multimedia arts like Adobe Flash®.

2. As an undergraduate, many students will seek out and register for classes that are sure to be "easy A's." Students working on their Baccalaureate are not typically concerned with "getting the most out of their education," but simply graduating with the highest GPA possible. In graduate studies, however, we are encouraged to stretch ourselves by registering for classes we know nothing about and forgo the electives that would seem easy for us.

3. As a graduate student I will be given the chance focus on the courses that interest me. Superfluous inter-disciplinary courses are a thing of the past.

4. All of the professors that I have met have gone out of their way to support me and help me feel welcome. Instead of simply teaching a set ciriculumn, faculty members are more like mentors and offer guidance and are willing to collaborate with us as we creatively define our own paths.

Equally emphasized at orientation, was the need to immediately reaching out into the professional community and networking with potential employers and colleagues. I still have a lot to do in that area, but I do know Dad' cousin in the Church office building, Mark Weiss in the CES program and Nate Neiderhausern at Microsoft; not a bad start.

Next week, course work begins. It's hard for me to believe that 3 classes is really considered a full load. But I will trust in the experience of those who have gone before and not sign up for additional electives.

Tomorrow we will continue to develop our relationships on the local ropes course--I'm pretty excited. (Maybe I should look into securing health insurance before then.)

p.s. It's nice to be surrounded by smart, ambitious grad students. After not having attended school for so long I'd forgotten what it had felt like to participate synergisticly in an academic discussion.