Fall Semester Recap

The back half of the fall semester definitely got away from me. Between traveling, coursework, and prepping for the spring semester launch of two new courses in my development portfolio at A&A, my time was crunched. Not to mention I had the lovely experience of a suprise proposal + engagement party thrown in prior to the holidays as well, and it made for a blessed, though crazy, 10 weeks!

I wrapped development of the art therapy course with plenty of time to spare, luckily. My supervisor has taken to calling our unit the incubator for lost and peculiar courses, which is a fun way to frame our work. We tend to assist in the development of courses that have potential to be really cool additions to existing departments or the springboard for a new department/program, which is an exciting space to work in.

My colleague and I also presented at the OLC Accelerate Conference in Orlando in November, prior to Thanksgiving. Our session was livestreamed and recorded, and anyone who’s an OLC member can watch it! You can also review our slides if you can’t get to the video.

Finally, I clocked in around 90 pages of writing in the fall semester, all assignments considered. I wrote two draft proposals for what could potentially turn into a dissertation project and passed both of my classes! I was thrilled. It was a tough first semester but I think the two classes I was taking provided value beyond just preparing me for dissertation work. The skills and the strategic thinking about problems that we practiced in class have been immensly helpful in my day-to-day work too. I’ve made it a resolution this year to spend more time thoroughly researching the questions my faculty bring to me, and using empirical research to support decisions.