Check in this September...

Hi Everyone! Just one last final note to say goodbye and let everyone know that a whole new group of bloggers will be coming at you this September. Please feel free to continue to leave questions and comments here!!

Good luck to all of you!

A final farewell

Well, believe it or not this is my last post as a PennGSE masters student! I honestly can't believe how fast this year went and just how much I have learned and how much I have grown. I don't think I will truly realize the impact of this experience until I move on and begin working. I've met some of the most amazing and inspirational people through this experience and somewhere along the way I realized that I could be one too! I think the thing that I love so much about GSE is the consistent emphasis on social justice and equity. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to attend such an amazing grad school, but I'm even more excited to get out there and make an impact on the lives of others. And I feel completely prepared to do just that.

This is really a bittersweet time right now. I'm so excited to begin a new career in the field of education (if you remember correctly, as recently as September I was working as an industrial engineer!) but I'm sad that this chapter is coming to an end. This week will be busy, just like the rest of the semester has been. I have three more papers due...two are about 90% complete and the third has only just begun! But I'll also be busy celebrating. GSE is throwing an end-of-the-year BBQ for students this Wednesday, the admissions office is having an ice party on Thursday to thank all of the current students who helped out all year long, and then on Thursday night GSE is having a happy hour at a local bar (Cavanaugh's) for all students. GAPSA is also joining in the celebrating and there are events planned on campus all day on Saturday--including a boat cruise later that night. As busy as I am with paper-writing, I will be sure to attend most of these events. It will be the perfect way to cap off an amazing experience that I will not soon forget.

I will be in the Philadelphia area (and working for the admissions office until the end of May) so PLEASE feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions. Also, if anyone is going to be in the area I will be available to give tours through the admissions office through the month of May. And you can always email me at lmccabe@dolphin.upenn.edu.

Best of luck to all of my readers! I hope you choose Penn and have as memorable an experience as I have!

The end is near...

Hi Everyone!

Wow, I'm still a little bit shocked at just how soon I'll have finished my masters program. This year has really flown by. This week will be super-duper busy with papers and projects due as well as two presentations.

So, some big news...I handed in my thesis on Thursday!!! I am so happy and I have to say, proud of myself. I know it probably sounds kinda cheesy, but it felt like a big accomplishment completing my thesis. Everyone in our program met the deadline and handed in their papers to our readers. We should know in a week or so if we passed! Because of all of the preparation and support that I received from the professor I'm not nervous about passing...all that much! I still am anxious to hear the results.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I went to the Global Development Initiative Forum on Thursday and Friday. It was a fabulous event and truly inspirational. There is so much that I could write about what I learned but that would take up way more than one post! Penn's President Amy Gutman annouced a partnership between Penn and the Save the Children Fund which will fully support graduate and undergraduate interns from all of Penn's schools to work and conduct research in developing countries. And the goal is to continue to grow the partnership. If anyone would like any additional information please get in touch with me.

I hope everyone has a great week. I have to get back to work!

~Lezlie

In the home stretch...

Hi Everyone!

Well the semester is really starting to come to an end. The reason I can tell is that I have SO much writing to do! I have quite a few papers due this week as well as a presentation. Luckily, it was rainy all day today so I wasn't tempted by nice weather and I was able to do a lot of reading and writing throughout the course of the day.

This week will also be another busy one. Tomorrow is the big event that I blogged about last week...the accepted masters student preview day. I'm looking forward to meeting all of you that can make it and for those of you that cannot, please send me some questions!

I will also be busy with the Penn Global Development Initiative Forum this Thursday and Friday. For more information about the forum click HERE. One of my professors, Dr. Daniel Wagner has worked to organize the forum which seeks to enhance the University as a global player in international research, policy and development as well as to illuminate the potential of research universities (such as Penn) to contribute to the Millenium Development Goals (set forth by the United Nations) - and to enable new synergies across the Penn international community of students, faculty and staff. I am really looking forward to attending a few of the panels and I will be volunteering on Friday. This is going to be a great event and I'm glad that Penn and GSE are so interested in development efforts for the international community, as those issues are of great importance to me. There will be speakers from the World Bank, UNESCO, the United Nations, as well as faculty and students from all 12 of the graduate and professional schools at Penn.

I will be sure to let everyone know how the GDI Forum goes. I hope you all have a great week!

~Lezlie

Important Information!

I wanted to let all of my readers know that Monday, April 16 is the Preview Day for Accepted Masters students. I know that I have spoken to many of the accepted FPE students and I sincerely hope that all of you can make it--as well as the rest of the accepted students. It is a great way to see how the students, faculty, and staff at GSE all interact with one another. It will also be a great chance to meet other masters students. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the event last year and I really regret it. I heard it was a great day and I can assure you that we (the admissions staff) have put a lot of time and energy into making it a memorable and helpful day. Choosing a grad school is a big deal!!! By attending the preview day we will be able to show you that Penn is a great place in which to study, live, and explore!

If you plan on attending, please RSVP by clicking HERE!

Besides planning for the Masters Preview Day I have been busy doing some research for my Cultural Perspectives on Human Development course. I have decided to write my final research paper on language revival--specifically the revival of the Irish language in recent years and how it impacted schools and culture in Ireland. I studied abroad for a year in Ireland and I never met a single person who's first language was Irish, yet every person my age that was Irish all knew how to speak the language. I always found it so interesting that a language that is used by such a small group of people (comparatively) and in such a small place is still alive and well. All of the streets signs are in English and Irish, which surprisingly only happened in recent years. I'm looking forward to learning more about the impact that the language revival had on schools in Ireland, in particular the difficulties that occurred because of the division between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Besides doing some research I enjoyed some relaxing time with family for the Easter holiday. This is the first weekend in over a month that I wasn't either away for the weekend or out all day with plans. This will probably be the last weekend that I'm not going crazy trying to write a ton of papers or out trying to enjoy the last few weeks of grad school. It is definitely bitter sweet. Let me know if anyone has any specific questions for my next post and I'll try to accommodate your request!

Happy Easter!

~Lezlie

Hello readers!

This past week was another busy one...mostly revolving around the Accepted Doctoral Student Reception that the Admissions Office (my employer) held this Thursday. There was a lot of preparation early in the week and then the big event was an all day affair on Thursday. It was really nice to meet some of the prospective students and talk to them about their experiences, as well as what I have experienced here at Penn. It was also great meeting some of my readers, please leave comments or send me emails if you have any questions that I haven't covered!

This past weekend I went to DC to visit some friends from college. It was the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival and the weather was fantastic for the fun event. For those of you not very familiar with the event, check out the link. This year was the 95th annual celebration commemorating the cherry blossom trees given to the U.S. by the city of Tokyo. It's nice that Philly is so close to DC so even though I'm busy with school I managed to take a road-trip for the weekend.

Now it is back to reality. I have yet another busy week, including getting back into the ESL classroom at the Community College of Philadelphia because the faculty were on strike for the past three weeks. On that note, I have to get ready for tomorrow. Please keep the questions and comments coming!

~Lezlie

Another week come and gone...

Hello everyone! I hope you all had the opportunity to enjoy the fantastic weather (at least in the Philadelphia area) today. I love Spring and I am so happy that the weather is finally beginning to cooperate!

School has been quite busy, as usual, but on Friday I had the opportunity to participate in some of the events for the GSE Diversity Weekend. The event was the idea of Dr. Marybeth Gasman, one of the faculty members at GSE, and with the help of the Admissions office her ideas became reality. The entire event was planned by Jamie, another Graduate Assistant with the Admissions office. She arranged for 15 education undergraduate students from Historically Black Colleges and Univerisities and Hispanic Serving Institutions to come to Philadelphia for a weekend to learn more about graduate school and GSE, and specifically what we are doing to address issues surrounding diversity. I'm sure she will be blogging about the experience, but I think she (with the help of her "right-hand man" Sadiyah) did an amazing job. I only wish I could have spent more time with the students. I think the event was really an important step in developing relationships with this group of talented students as well as the institutions from which they come from.

Today I have been preparing for an interview that I am conducting tomorrow. I am interiewing Dr. David Larsen, the Director for the Center for Education Abroad at Arcadia University. I am interviewing him for one of my courses, EDUC 569 - The Organization and Administration of Student Life. The goal of the interview is to better understand the position he holds as well as what I can do to position myself to one day have a similar job. I have also interviewed the Associate Director at Penn Abroad, which I believe will give me a nice balance when looking at similar positions but at two very different institutions. On the advice of my advisor, I contacted Dr. Larsen during the Fall semester for some guidance regarding my thesis so it will be nice to have the opportunity to meet him in person and let him know that I am nearly done my thesis!

I hope all of my readers have a great week, please feel free to contact me!