The first two weeks of
fall semester are now behind me and it has definitely been an eventful couple
of weeks (and it has nothing to do with school).
I am finishing up my final
two classes for my degree this semester – Writing for Strategic Communication
and Communication for Social Change. Both classes start at 8:20am, so getting up early has been a little difficult, but being finished by 11am is very nice!
My first class on Monday is
Writing for Strategic Communication. It
is the final of the four core classes required for my degree. I was originally supposed to take this class
last fall, but dropped it in order to have a more manageable course load last
year. Throughout the semester, we will
be writing different communication pieces and then will put together a final
project based on an organization of our choice.
On Tuesdays, I have my Communication
for Social Change class, which is my final elective required for my
degree. Unfortunately, I did not make it
to class the first week because my car got rear-ended on the way to
campus. So instead of being in class, I
spent the day talking to my car insurance, getting my car towed, getting a rental
car, etc. Luckily, I have a classmate
from last year who is in my class and I was able to find out what I missed in
class. Being the first class, I didn’t
miss much except introductions, going over the syllabus and talking about our
semester-long project that we will be working on during the class. I am looking forward to this class because
throughout the semester we will be working on a communication campaign for a
social change issue of our choice. Mine will probably be connected to a youth literacy
issue.
This semester will be
different from my experience in grad school last year.
Other than the few classmates in my Tuesday class that I know from last
year, it is a whole new group of students in my Monday class. It was weird going to that class and not
knowing any of the other students because they are all in the new cohort for
the Strategic Communication program. Like
in my cohort, there is a mix of students -
some coming straight out of undergrad, some that have worked for several
years before going back to school and also some who are currently working and
going to school part-time.
I will also be spending
less time on campus this semester since I only have one class each on Monday
and Tuesday mornings. That will
obviously allow me to have more time for my other commitments that I have this
semester. Although, I do hope to get to
campus for a few events and speakers throughout the semester if the timing works
with my schedule.
While I only have two
classes this semester, the remainder of my time will be spent working a few
days per week at Barnes & Noble and also completing an internship at
Everybody Wins! DC. They are a DC area
children’s literacy non-profit organization (more about that in an upcoming
post).
Like last year, one of my
biggest challenges will be managing my time between classes, work and the
internship and also taking time for myself and focusing on things outside of
school and work. I will spend a decent
amount of time on Metro, so I hope to get a good amount of reading for pleasure
done. Because I am attending a
university in DC, I am able to swim at any of the DC parks and recreation
aquatic centers for free using my student ID, so of course I will continue to
take advantage of that! There is a nice
indoor pool across the street from the Metro station near campus (and they even
have the pool set up for long course a few days per week)!
