First day of grad school

I don't know if you can say it was my first day of grad school. It was this time last year when I took my first graduate-level class, and boy was I nervous. Don't get me wrong, the days leading up to tonight were nerve-wracked as well, only there are a few key differences.

Last year, both classes I took at the U were with already established cohorts. Fall was spent with the ELP 1st years, and Spring was spent with the 2nd years. This semester I will be in three courses; Exploring Communities will be with my own cohort, while Executive Development and The Nonprofit Organization will be with a mix of my cohort and students from the MBA program.

I'm beyond excited, especially since I know these first two semesters will be the most challenging because I will be a full-time student who is also working full-time. After Spring 2015, I will only need to be in two courses each semester. I'm confident though that if I can make it to October (when Executive Dev ends and The Nonprofit Org begins) the hardest part will be over.

Anyway, as I took my seat in class last night I looked around and noticed that maybe 70% of the students were dudes. Well, it was an MBA class! Moving on, I met some of the MBA guys and a couple of the MACL girls and made a few new friends within the first few minutes. This was a noticeable difference from class last Fall. I'm not saying that last year I didn't make any friends, but it definitely took a few weeks to get there.

Executive Dev (or Leadership Dev, as my prof Dr.W likes to say) was AMAZING! I can already tell it is similar to my leadership class from last spring. At one point during the evening, I actually forgot that it was a 3hr 20min class.

I can't wait for Tuesday when my Exploring Communities course begins (this one is 15 wks, and not 7wks like the other two) mostly because I really want to get my hands on the syllabus and because I want to meet the rest of my cohort.

I gotta say that this class is full of inspiration for my new novel, I had to start a quote list just for them!

Highlights from the evening include:

"I need a whiteboard with spell check."

"Leadership is an art."

"Me and remotes don't get along."


I can;t wait for next week!