Half way

As of last night I am half way finished with the first quarter of my first year of graduate school. So far, so good. My first presentation was last night as well. It was a doozy...1 hour long teaching Marcia B. Baxter Magolda's theory of self-authorship. I won't get into the specifics, but we nailed it. After we had finished, our professor let the class know that we had set the bar high for our classmates. I am pleased that we did well, and also that it is over. There will be no lack of assignments in the future.

I am almost finished with my assistantship at the FEC. I begin working in the Study Abroad department next week! It is going to be great! I'm so excited to learn as much as possible about how a study abroad department works from the inside out. I've also been presented with an opportunity this summer. You may have heard of it before, it is called Semester at Sea. This summer program is specifically for Student Affairs Graduate students and focuses on international and comparative aspects of higher education and student affairs. A wide variety of approaches to internationalization and globalization of higher ed will be examined through class discussion and faculty directed practica to international universities. The program begins June 15 and concludes on August 21, 2010. There are a few things that are exciting about this. It's graduate level experience, they offer a limited number of paid internships, and you get to travel to some pretty awesome locations. Check out this itinerary:

• Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• Barcelona, Spain
• Civitavecchia (Rome)/Naples, Italy
• Dubrovnik, Croatia
• Piraeus (Athens), Greece
• Istanbul, Turkey
• Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt
• Casablanca, Morocco
• Norfolk, Virginia, USA

I can't even explain what a valuable experience this could be for me and my future career. I would appreciate your prayers about this opportunity, and if it is truly what I am supposed to pursue, that it will come to fruition.

It's going to get up to 87 degrees today, but we're looking at 70's for the next week...no fires nearby anymore, so it finally makes sense to wash the car! That's all I've got right now...gotta get to writing 4 papers....yup 4 papers (3 are easy...1 not so much).