Let yourself be silently drawn by what it is
you really love. It will not lead you astray.
-Rumi
Welcome all readers---current, past, and prospective students, as well as (hopefully not for my sake) Penn GSE faculty!
I'm beginning this blog for my Graduate Assistantship (GA) through the International Educational Development Program (IEDP) at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education (GSE). Hopefully I can show what the program is like from a student's perspective, and also what grad school is like in general.
I will just say that I'm not a blogger-person, but as grad school is for stepping out of your comfort zone, I'm trying it out. Plus I'm getting paid for it ;) I did start this blog for the people who worked at my undergraduate college library (Smith College) and there were some (rather hilarious, in my opinion) poems involved, so maybe it's better that I DON'T blog.
The first week of orientation (two days) and classes has come to an end. It's been a blur of excitement, nervousness, free food and alcohol, introductions (I have mine down now!), syllabi and a chance to ease in. Next week probably won't be as such.
During the introductions, first at the IEDP orientation and then again on a more intellectual/academic level during the proseminar/fieldwork course, we had to briefly say your background, why you chose the program, as well as your regional/topical/skill set area that you're most interested in. I shall reiterate mine:
Name: Rachel
Hometown: Vermont
Background: Smith College 2009 (Anthropology and Government), 2.5 years teaching ESL in South Korea, 1 year in Guatemala City coordinating/teaching an after-school program (K-6) at a woman's cooperative (UPAVIM), 6 months in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras teaching first grade at a bilingual school.
Why grad school: To be perfectly honest, I had been saying "I'm going to apply to grad school" since I finished undergrad. Then LIFE happened! I jumped off a bridge in Ecuador, worked at a meditation center library and was almost attacked by monkeys in Dharmshala, India, chased after sharks and sea turtles in Malaysia, watched traditional dance in Bali, biked around Angkor Wat for three days...so returning to school proved to be a rather less direct route than I initially planned. Then Guatemala City happened and I was challenged and frustrated with things that I felt unprepared to handle as an educator. I wanted to do so much more than I was doing, and yet didn't feel I had the skills or the authority to do it. I'm trying to view this year as a bridge that will connect me to a different kind of career than the one that I'm already on.
Why IEDP: The program is very flexible. I could bring in my anthro and gov background, along with my teaching skills, experience abroad and mold them into the kind of skills that would help me achieve my goals. Plus there's this awesome Prezi thing that I totally fell in love with. There are only 27 others in my cohort, half of whom are from abroad--who wouldn't want to be intellectually stimulated and hang out with people from Peru, Venezuela, South Korea, China, Nigeria...I won't list them all. Penn GSE doesn't have an application fee, and almost everyone I've spoken with has received some scholarship, which is very rare for a Master's program.
Regional/Topical/Skill Set Focuses: Latin America (but I'm open...maybe also India, SE Asia also). Early Childhood Education, Literacy, Girls' Education. Teacher Training, Curriculum/Program Design and Development, Education as Community Development.
Whew! This is a lot for my first post! I'll leave you with a photo of our IEDP photo we took on Tuesday. I ended up kinda hidden...but I'll be sure to get more!
