Evelyn's Blog

I can’t believe this semester is starting up! Some of my dear friends from the Longhorn Band days came over for dinner tonight. We had a very interesting conversation about graduate school at UT-Austin. Students in the College of Education and the School of Social Work are facing some of the strictest budgets on campus. Fewer course offerings, larger class sizes and reduced assistantships are all realities that graduate students across the nation face. There are many days where I wish I was in engineering or the sciences, where I could actually get PAID to go to grad school! Wishful thinking, but I am very lucky to be in a field that I love.

As an undergraduate, I never noticed the graduate students on campus, nor did I interact with many. Now as a graduate student, I feel a bit lost on campus (strange feeling since this is my 8th year here!). When walking through the West Mall to the COOP today to buy my books, not a single flyer came my way from student organizations. Guess they can tell my age…

Courses for the Semester:

- The College Student (no joke, that’s the title of the course!) — Dr. Cassandre Alvarado

- Higher Education Business Management — Dr. Ed Sharpe (Guru of everything UT System, and former president of the UT branch in my hometown)

- Independent Study! I am creating a New Student Orientation manual for incoming students to our program next fall. I’m looking forward to compiling research, and helping the future Higher Ed students transition to the program

Other things going on:

- WEDDING — oh yes, I’m getting married in May. Woo hoo!

- Leadership Conference — my fantastic professor from last semester, Dr. Howard Prince, invited me to serve as a team lead for the Undergraduate Student Leadership Conference

- Graduate Assistantship — thank goodness for my fantastic coworkers in the Business School who keep me sane A new semester working with the Leadership Program!

It’s going to be a busy semester!

Hook Em!