And lo, a blog is born!: So in all fairness, I must tell you this is not my first blog. I had a Xanga in high school (back when MySpace was THE thing to do), when I was a student at the Mississippi School for Mathematics & Science (MSMS) from 2002-04. And I also kept a … Continue Reading →
First Impressions of Switzerland
Arrival The six of us who traveled together made it into town on Saturday morning, at about 10:15 AM local time. We are 6 hours ahead of our normal timezone (Eastern) so the fact that we flew overnight helped a little bit because we at least had the opportunity to … Continue Reading →
Pre-Trip Jitters
Tomorrow at 5:30 AM my journey begins. I’m all packed. My family is all packed. The car is mostly packed. The baby is asleep in her crib and my husband is asleep on the couch. In a little while I will wake him and send him to bed, where I … Continue Reading →
Women & Minority, Artists & Scholar Lecture: Saving Muslim Women
When I parked my CR-V on the side of Wall St. this afternoon at 4:55, I had no idea that by 6:55, I’d be sitting in Torgerson 3100 awaiting a lecture from Dr. Juliane Hammer, a specialist in Islamic studies and religion in the Americas from UNC Chapel Hill. At … Continue Reading →
Proud for Progress; Pressing on for Inclusion & Change
It’s HokiePRIDE week here at Virginia Tech and I am looking forward to participating when I can during this jam-packed week of activities and engagement at the university. This week, and in recent weeks, I’ve been thinking very hard about inclusion and acceptance. (Radical acceptance, really.) I am writing this … Continue Reading →
“The Blog” as a living, breathing, evolving body of work
The featured image is of saucer magnolias blossoming in front of Burruss Hall. Like these blossoms that are finally coming into their season, we graduate students are future faculty and we are beginning to come into our own as well. I’ve been thinking a lot about what the role of … Continue Reading →
Planning for a Culture Shock
Early Observations While our actual departure to Switzerland seems like a long ways off (at 93 days away), I know that if I blink, it will be here in an instant. And so I have begun to plan my trip now in earnest. Part of the planning involves keeping a … Continue Reading →
Citizen Scholar: Hike it Baby!
In my first semester at Virginia Tech, I was enrolled in GRAD 5204 Citizen Scholar Seminar with Dr. Rosemary Blieszner. Each of the students in the course were required to develop a community engagement service project to be deployed either concurrently with the course or soon after course completion. The … Continue Reading →
Reconciling Privilege in the Academy
I was thinking about my post after I published it yesterday and I wanted to add just one thing to put it all in context. My approach to blogging (since VT) has been to do the readings FIRST and then look at the Prompt so that I am able to … Continue Reading →
The Countdown Begins: 115 Days to Switzerland.
Back in November, I received an email calling for applications to Dean Depauw’s Global Perspectives Program (GPP) through the Graduate School. This program integrates face to face study here at Virginia Tech with a study abroad experience based out of VT’s educational facility in Riva San Vitale, Switzerland. “The Global Perspectives … Continue Reading →
Seeking Knowledge on Diversity & Inclusion
I’m taking a course this semester called Diversity for Global Society. It is part of the Virginia Tech Graduate School’s Transformative Graduate Education Initiative and this course is designed to introduce students to concepts in diversity, inclusion, and equity and how they relate to higher education–both here at Virginia Tech and from … Continue Reading →