One week down!

Hey all,

Thoughts about grad school, having completed one week so far: fosters independence, forces one to manage time well, forces one to be organized, not nearly as scary as I was expecting, manageable, and believe it or not...fun. 

I'll elaborate on my aforementioned thoughts.  Grad school definitely fosters independence.  A new grad student has to seek out professors who have research interests similar to those of the student.  I was able to do this several months ago, through visiting campus and a series of emails to a few different professors.  Grad school also fosters independence because one's thesis project must be the student's own idea.  As of right now, I have no clue what my thesis will be.  Fortunately, I don't have to decide this until later next semester. 

Managing time and being organized are skills that I tried to practice well in college.  Being a graduate assistant requires that I teach two different labs sections, one on Wednesday and one on Friday.  Organization is a must when teaching two lab sections of twenty-five students each.  Managing time is also a must since I am balancing teaching plus taking my own course load. 

Grad school is not nearly as intimidating or scary as I had built it up to be.  I actually think it will be pretty manageable.  None of my courses appears too challenging.  I looked through the syllabus of my recombinant DNA class, and it will definitely be a lot of busy work, but it doesn't look like it will be difficult.  My human genetics class will also be a good amount of busy work, but not that challenging.  It looks like Taylor prepared me pretty well.  Grad school will be manageable for sure, and definitely not too overwhelming.

It might be hard to defend that school is fun, but I'm having fun in my classes and in the office with other grad assistants.  I've always enjoyed any type of academic setting.  As a side note, my office mate is also a Master's student in Bio.  We were talking the other day, and I discovered that he lives in Upland because his wife is a Master's student at Taylor!  That was definitely a God thing.  Of all the grad assistants I could have  been paired with, I am placed with the one who now lives where I just spent the last four years of my life.  Definitely a blessing!

Here's Sarah to tell you about what's going on in the workforce.  

Hello all, Sarah here. Well. Let me begin by saying that I have quite an interesting position, definitely one you would have within a smaller community. My job is located in Marion, so I commute about 35-40 minutes daily. I am only part time right now, until my third title comes into the picture. By title I mean that I will work for three...not one, not two...but three different non-profit organizations, all part of my one position.

My "home" work base is with the Grant County Economic Growth Council, and Tim Eckerle (the director), Angie Lindahl (my former classmate and now co-worker), and I help manage the organization, which help job retention and creation within Grant County. I do a lot of secretarial and administrative items as Director of Operations. Tim is a great boss and likes for the public to always be questioning who is actually in charge among the three of us. :) But he is the brains behind it all, while Angie and I are the organization and designing behind it...for the most part. We put on events throughout the year, help disperse loans to different business so they can provide more jobs, etc. In the process we meet with many different businesses and local elected officials, like the mayors and representatives.

My other title is Director of Cardinal Greenway of Grant County. There is a network of trails that are built from old CSX lines. Each county has their own steering committee to help maintain that county's portion of the trail, which stretches across a good portion of Indiana. Again, I do a lot of the administrative work, but what's different here is I get to do a little more of everything. I am the only paid person of the steering committee, and also, I basically have a lot of freedom to choose what I want to do for the Cardinal Greenway of Grant County. I've used a lot of my previous producer skills to bring this section of the trail into the community more, and I'm attempting to get them more volunteers, as that is an dwindling area. I could go on but I'll stop here.

The third organization is the Convention & Visitors Bureau within Marion. Once I enter work there, I'll be full time. I'm meeting with a head person there with Angie this Wednesday. 

Both of these organizations are very much small own but I've been learning a lot and I think it will be good for me to work here for a couple years until I feel the calling to move on to bigger things, possibly with my desire to work within film, like Heartland Truly Moving Pictures in Indianapolis, and organization that presents seminars and a festival throughout each year.

This is what my work experience has been in a nut shell. It's been really nice to have a break from school work and classes! But every so often, I do get a little bored. I miss the media department from Taylor University but it's a nice thing to still be half an hour away from them so that Ben and I can visit fellow colleagues and former professors. That's about it! Love you all!