Final Goodbyes - To be continued???

I want to take this time to thank everyone who has visited this blog in the past. I hope the readers got a good sense of the inner mind of a graduate student as I went through an entire school year of intensive higher education courses along with twenty hours of graduate assistantship! It has been a wonderful ride and a great pleasure to blog every week (it was almost therapeutic for me at the same time!).

It is amazing to look back each year and see the growth, not just academically but also socially and culturally. As I continue my career in higher education, I hope to look back every year and feel that I had learned something profound and impactful. I want to continue to develop my cultural competency so I am able to connect with everyone in some shape or form. It's a lofty goal, but I want each year to have some sort of growth and development, even when I am a seasoned higher education professional! The desire to learn and grow as a person and as a professional will hopefully push me to strive for new experiences each year. This may be my last admissions blog post, but it is definitely not the end of my journey in higher education!!!


Stay tuned for August/September when the new GAs of admissions and financial aid start the new cycle of blogs! It's been a great privilege and pleasure to blog for you all. Have a fantastic rest of spring and summer!

Sincerely,
Wesley
M.S.Ed. '14

UPenn Could've Would've Should've list

Another list! This is the last one, I promise. I was reflecting on this past year and wanted to write about the could've, should've, would've things to do at Penn GSE. This is just a short list of some of the things that I unfortunately missed out the chance to participate, either a class or activity. Hopefully this can inform the future cohort of Higher Education to think about spending some time to do!

1. Football game
     I think it's a tradition to go to a college football game, no matter how good they are. I unfortunately did not seize the chances to go to a game (I did go to a Penn basketball game). Looking back, that would have been a wonderful time to get to know my friends in the cohort even better. I did not realize that Spring semester would create such a drift among some of the people I hung out with during fall. So I wished that I had more chances to hang out with my cool cohort members in the fall.

2. Certain classes (Finance, Athletics, etc)
    For various reasons, this year's cohort did not get as many classes to choose from compared to this upcoming year. Regardless, there were definitely some classes that through the word of mouth this year was a enlightening experience. I wished I had shopped around the classes some more and taken a few other classes that would've been extremely helpful in my growth as a higher education professional. Needless to say though, all of the classes that I have taken this year have been awesome, but if I had the chance to take even more classes, I would do so in a heartbeat. (audit, anyone?)

3. Monthly Cohort Outings
     I am pretty close with my cohort and I have done several fun things with everyone at some point, but I felt that we missed out on a monthly cohort outing. I think it depends year by year if there is someone to take on the task of becoming the "social chair" so to speak and plan the weekly or monthly events for the cohort. We sporadically planned weekly happy hours but there was never anything consistent. I wished that there were more times to hang out with this awesome cohort!