Thinking Ahead, Feeling Behind

Last week, I stepped in wet concrete-really wet concrete. I sank in quickly and embraced the feeling of being in quicksand before quickly removing my foot from the freshly poured cement mix. Right away, I was really embarrassed. How had I let that happen? I had been walking down Chestnut street with a friend from the cohort and feeling pretty good about life. I was looking up, smiling, chatting and all of the sudden -boom! I was ankle deep in new sidewalk.

The experience was emblematic of what is going on in my life right now. I could tell you all about the classes  I am interested in taking next semester and how excited I am about specific  assignments, but I am distracted when it comes to my finals that are going on right now. I am interested in Psychology of African Americans, Enrollment Management in Higher Education, Public Policy & Higher Education, Education & Social Entrepreneurship, Professional Development, Non-Profit Leadership ( a weekend class at Penn's Fels School of Government) and the Negotiations course at Wharton (Penn's business school, next door). There are also a bunch of interesting classes at GSE I could take.

I have already talked to Dr. Joni Finney -the professor for Public Policy and Higher Education- about writing a paper with another member of my cohort on regulation possibilities for the for-profit education sector. It is difficult to regulate the for-profit education sector without intruding on not-for-profit education in unwelcome ways. For example, there was a recent controversy over the definition of a credit hour. Over break, I will be reading a lot about this so that I can come prepared next semester to write from an informed perspective on the subject.

I am so ready for next semester that I am leaving myself and my present behind! Thinking about these courses and research areas has me so excited that I am not thinking about finals. I have five papers, a presentation, a video and an exam. I have finished the video, the presentation, three of the papers and the exam. I only have two papers for governance left: our 20-pager and a rewrite of an earlier policy memo! The 20 pager is due tomorrow and I only have 10 - 14 pages so far and I don't know how much of it I will actually use. I am writing on the role of community college presidents in creating new revenue streams for their institutions. How do they go about doing this? What does community college development look like? How do presidents build relationships with donors? How do they expand contract education? And, through all of the revenue stream creation, how do they message to the campus and community? Don't tell Matt Hartley I'm not done yet -okay! My topic is interesting, but it has been very time consuming finding literature on community college fund raising. If you need a research are, that could be it for you.


Moving through finals has felt like such a blur! I am officially done with all of my classes but one and it just feels sort of numb. By Friday, probably around noon, I will have officially completed the first semester of my Higher Education Master's degree! It feels unreal. I am thinking ahead and feeling behind!

Last week, I really did step in wet concrete -but, at least I had on a good pair of boots! The concrete rinsed off with relative ease and I was right back on track. Hopefully, I can shake whatever is keeping me distracted so that I can finish that governance paper tonight after work and class! If I don't blog over break, I will see you next semester! Happy holidays!