Holiday happenings in Philadelphia

Good afternoon. I'm in a much better state of mind this week since (most of) my finals are done.  I'm not yet ready to post the "I'm finished with finals!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Facebook status, but I'll get there eventually.  Tonight is the holiday party for the Higher Ed department, so I'm excited for that.  I'm also really happy that the place is 3 blocks from my apartment...when I was walking to work this morning, it seemed that there was some sort of "wintery mix" on the horizon.  

In honor of the winter/holiday season, I decided to post some links to events going on in the Philadelphia area.  

Ice skating at Penn's Landing
Philadelphia's version of ice skating at Rockefeller Center.  They convert a large parking lot at Penn's Landing into an ice skating rink.  Penn's Landing is right on the waterfront with gorgeous views of the city.  It'll be chilly, so bring your gloves, scarves, and earmuffs.

http://www.delawareriverwaterfront.com/places/blue-cross-riverrink

The Christmas Village in Philadelphia
From what I've heard and can tell from their website, this is set up like a traditional German Christmas market.  It takes place at Love Park (where the famous "LOVE" statue is, on 15th and Arch Streets in Center City).  Vendors from all over the world come to sell food, beverages, and crafts, and they also have live music and performances on some nights.

http://www.visitphilly.com/shopping/philadelphia/christmas-village-in-philadelphia/

Holiday lights!
Regardless of which (if any) winter holiday you celebrate, viewing holiday lights is sure to bring cheer to even the Grinchiest of Grinches (I just made that up).  Here is a link to the top places to view holiday lights both in and around Philadelphia.  

http://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/top-holiday-lights-attractions-in-philadelphia/

Fireworks on New Year's Eve
Speaking of viewing brightly colored things, here is a list of the top places to watch fireworks on New Year's Eve!
http://www.visitphilly.com/articles/philadelphia/where-to-watch-new-years-fireworks/

Mummers Parade
The Mummers Parade is an annual tradition that takes place in Philadelphia on New Year's Day.  Since I don't know much about it, I copied and pasted some text from their website.  It sounds like a lot of fun:  An annual tradition, the Mummers Parade features 10,000 men and women dressed in colorfully lavish costumes as they twirl, sashay, pirouette and strut up one of the city’s main streets. An unforgettably wild ritual, the parade and subsequent performances are all family-friendly and fun for everyone.

http://www.visitphilly.com/events/philadelphia/the-mummers-parade/

A note about dining/going out in Philadelphia on New Year's Eve:
If you're planning to spend New Year's Eve in the city and this is your first time doing so (like me), I wanted to share some advice I got from friends who have lived here for a while.  

They recommended figuring out what you and your family/friends want to do ahead of time, and then buy tickets/make reservations ASAP.  Many of the fancier restaurants will have "prix fixe" menus on New Year's Eve, which means that they charge a flat rate of about $50-$75 and you can choose from a selection of entrees.  There are some places that don't do this, but regardless of where you choose to eat, everywhere will be crowded so it's best to book in advance.  In terms of places to go out after dinner, most bars and clubs will charge a cover fee, so my friends have recommended doing research ahead of time and finding a place to commit to.  

Hope this helps!  I'll write more over break :)

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Finals are here!  Needless to say, I'm less than thrilled that I have to write about 40 pages in the next ten days.  However, the fact that winter break is SO CLOSE is what is getting me through all of this.  Oh, and coffee.  Lots of caffeine.  I have to start my paper-writing really early and make a schedule for myself because I can't handle all-nighters or marathon writing sessions.  It's also tough because this is the season for holiday parties and celebrations, so I'm trying to finish my work somewhat early so I can actually participate in some of those things!  Grad school is definitely a lot tougher than undergrad in terms of having free time.  It might also be that the Higher Ed program is only 1 year, so we have 5 classes and then work 20 hours per week.  It saves a lot of money, but it's an intense year!  At this point I'm really ready to start working full-time, but I'm trying not to let my grades slip.  Next semester's course load will be a little bit easier though.  So now to power through the next 10 days!  Here are some cute pictures that I'm using to motivate myself:

Will anyone be in the Chicago area on Tuesday, 12/10 or NYC area Thursday, 12/12?!?

Hello everyone!  Hope you are enjoying the start of the holiday season (if I were on my iPhone right now I would add the snowman and snowflake emojis).  I wanted to share some information about two very exciting events that we have coming up next week for prospective students!

The Dean of GSE, Andy Porter, our Vice Dean, Alexis Wolson, and our new Director of Admissions, Natalie Herring will be traveling next week, so we are planning to have Holiday Reception/Meet the Dean events in both Chicago and NYC.  It will be a great opportunity to meet leaders from GSE, find out more about our degrees and programs, network, and enjoy some delicious food.  As a graduate student, I know that winter break is a popular time to work on applications, so this is the perfect time to celebrate the holidays and fall in love with Penn GSE =)  You can register/RSVP for these events by visiting our events page:  http://www.gse.upenn.edu/admissions_financial/events#off_campus

Here are the details for each event:

Chicago
Tuesday, December 10th, 6-8PM
Gleacher Center at the University of Chicago
450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive
Room 420 (South Lounge)

New York City
Thursday, December 12th, 6-8PM
Grand Hyatt New York
Park Avenue at Grand Central
Uris Room

I've been working on planning these events and I definitely recommend going.  I'm putting together the catering menus right now and getting hungry just thinking about it!

Teacher Education Program Information Session!

Interested in becoming a teacher? Join us for an on-campus information session!

Whether you want to teach pre-kindergarteners or 12th graders, our Teacher Education Program (TEP) can get you on track to certification. 

Through a commitment to social justice and urban education, TEP prepares prospective teachers to transform students and schools. You can read more about the program on their extensive website: http://www2.gse.upenn.edu/tep/.

Read through the website and want to learn more in-person?

Join the Urban Teacher Education program for an on-campus information session on Saturday, December 7 from 10am-noon ET. RSVP here. (Please note only the Teacher Education program will be represented and discussed at this event.)

Hope to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning!  I am very excited for the upcoming Thanksgiving break, as I'm sure many of you are.  A lot of my fellow Higher Ed cohort members are traveling for Thanksgiving, so I'm a bit worried about them considering this inclement weather we seem to be having today/tomorrow.  My parents live in New Jersey only an hour away from Philadelphia, but I'm not going home until Thursday morning because I want to stay here and get some work done.  Finals begin as soon as we get back to school on December 2nd.  Eeeek.

I know this is going to sound cheesy and may even seem like a shameless plug for Penn GSE, but I assure you that it is genuine:  in the spirit of being thankful, I wanted to say that I am so thankful for the opportunity to study at Penn GSE this year.  Last year I was working in Miami, but teaching wasn't for me and I was so far away from my family and friends, so I was very unhappy.  I can't even express how happy I am to be in the northeast this year and able to have this short break from school to catch up with everyone back home =)

Meeting people in a new city

This week I've been doing a lot of thinking about my plans for next year.  Since people from my cohort are from all over the country (and the world, for that matter), our "next steps" vary among those who wish to start working, those who are applying to Ph.D. programs, and those who are unsure of what they want to do.  Location is also a deciding factor, as some of us want to stay in/around Philly, and others want to move back to where they are from originally, or even explore new areas/countries.  

Right now I'm definitely going to work for a few years before thinking about more schooling.  I also want to stay in the area since my whole family and most of my friends are in New Jersey, or at least the northeast area.  However, that all depends on the job search, and I know that I may need to move and/or adjust my preferences depending on what happens after graduation.  

Anyway, I was thinking about the difficulty adjusting to a new city in general, since even if I stay in Philly, most of the people who I've met will no longer be here.  And, even though I've been living here since August, the time commitment of school and work have kept me from making many friends outside of the GSE community.  I've heard of a few different ways to meet new people that could be helpful.  I've never really tried any of them, but I wanted to post their websites and a bit of info about each of the three.

Meetup

Meetup is a collection of networking groups present in most major cities.  "Meetups" are social outings that people sign up for and attend to meet new friends with similar interests.  It is divided into different interest groups--for example, they have ones for fitness, politics, sports, outdoorsy things, etc.  

Grouper  

The way I would describe Grouper is online dating for groups of people.  They match up 3 girls and 3 guys based on questions that you answer.  You meet at a bar or restaurant and Grouper takes care of the reservation and the first round of drinks (each person pays $20 to sign up, so that includes the first drink and a service charge).  I could see how Grouper would be a good way to meet friends, maybe something more.  But it does seem like it could be awkward, depending on the group yours is matched up with.  It's also very easy for plans to fall through, since you're working off of 6 different schedules.  

Philly Sport and Social Club

I included this link because I have friends who have joined kickball leagues and other sports teams in various cities.  I'm not especially good at team sports, but it would be a fun way to get exercise and meet people.  This is something that I would try after reviewing the rules of kickball (bad memories from elementary school).

Study Tips for Grad School

Happy belated Hump Day!  I'm slowly emerging from the dark caverns of paper-writing.  I've had 6 papers due within the last week, one of which was a 20-page research paper worth 35% of our grade.  As of now, I have written and submitted 4 of the 6 (including the research paper) so I'm feeling a little better. After this week's struggles, I decided to make this blog post about grad school study tips.  I don't consider myself an expert in this area by any means, but I have decent study habits and I worked at the tutoring center at my undergrad so this was something that we taught the students.  I will say that grad school study habits are very different from undergrad, the biggest difference being that in grad school, procrastination is a luxury that is to be enjoyed with much caution.

Study Tip #1:  Look at your syllabuses (syllabi?) as soon as you receive them and make a calendar of your assignments.  Sometimes professors change due dates, but at least you can plan ahead.  That way during the weeks where 6 assignments are due, you can start some of them during weeks when your workload is lighter. 

Study Tip #2:  Don't pull all-nighters!  Maybe I'm just a baby, but I cannot function after getting no sleep.  In undergrad it may have been possible to do this before a big exam or paper and then sleep all day, but with my GA and other classes, I can't afford to be groggy any day of the week.  Regardless of your schedule, all-nighters in grad school are not a good idea.  None of us are 18 years old anymore and can get by on 2 hours of sleeping on a library table followed by chugging sugar-free Red Bull (I never could do this, but props to those who can).  

Study Tip #3:  Plan out your writing and set page goals for each day.  Again, this might be a personal thing, but I cannot sit down and write 20 pages in one day.  I'd drive myself insane and the pages would all contain terrible writing, with a mini-panic attack occurring between pages 10 and 12.  Especially for long papers, it's much less stressful to start earlier and write a few pages each day.  Ideally, I like to reserve the night before for proofreading and no additional writing, but that's not always possible.

That's all I've got!  I know that all of us have different schedules, lifestyles, and preferences, but these tips really help me.  Now I'll get back to work...I have a short paper due tomorrow and then a midterm for my law class due at the end of the weekend.

Reminder for Ph.D. applicants!

REMINDER!

The deadline to apply for all Ph.D. programs for Fall 2014 enrollment is SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2013!

This means ALL materials must be received by the admissions office by that date.

All applications received by that date are guaranteed a faculty review of all materials.

If you have not yet taken the GRE, you must do so no later than NOVEMBER 22, 2013 or your test scores will not make it to us in time.

We always recommend that you submit your application and materials earlier rather than waiting until the absolute last day!

Any questions? Please email admissions@gse.upenn.eduor give us a call at (215)898-6415.

Haunted Houses, Cohort Bonding, and Paper-Writing

Happy Monday, everyone.  While celebrating it being the middle of the semester, I realized that I have six papers due within the next 9-10 days.  Yay!  Needless to say, I won't be doing anything too exciting over the next week and a half, so I decided to post some pictures from this past weekend.

Friday night I went to a haunted house in Plymouth Meeting, which is a small town about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia.  I was pretty nervous since I get scared easily, and the haunted house was in the middle of nowhere and ended up being very well-done in terms of scariness.  The scariest part was that all of the actors were at least 70 years old.  One had emphysema and talked through a stoma in his neck, so that was even creepier.  Here is the link to their website!  I recommend going next Halloween:  LuLu's House of Horrors

On Saturday night one of my friends from the Higher Ed cohort had a "Daylight Savings Party" at her apartment.  It was a lot of fun to catch up with people from my cohort, especially those who I don't see too often.  We took a cute "family photo" that I posted below:

After the party, I went back to my apartment to spend some quality time with my books, catching up on readings for class!  Below is a picture of my sweet iPad pillow case.  It's from the As Seen on TV store, and it's awesome.  Makes studying a little bit more exciting.

Finally, I did work all day on Sunday (and Saturday afternoon too...and Friday night when I got home from the haunted house).  But I also made dinner!  Weird but delicious combination:  roasted butternut squash and buffalo chicken pizza.

That's it for now!  Have a great week =)

Happy Halloween!

Hi everyone!  Just wanted to wish you all a Happy Halloween, and a Happy Thursday to anyone who does not celebrate Halloween.  Below is a link to one of the cutest Buzzfeed posts I've ever seen.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/costumes-that-prove-pugs-always-win-at-halloween

This post alone helped me get through the 3 papers that I had to write this week.  Enjoy!

Hurricane Sandy

As many of you know, today marks the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy.  I was born and raised in New Jersey and I also attended college there, so I heard a lot about Hurricane Sandy relief efforts and the devastation that it brought to NJ, NY, and many other areas.  The ironic part is, Sandy hit during the one year that I moved out of NJ and relocated to Florida, the hurricane capital of the country.  Luckily my family did not encounter many issues with the storm since they live about an hour from the beach, but I have friends who lost their homes and most of their belongings.  This past weekend I went to Seaside with my family to participate in a Jersey Shore clean-up service project.  The task we got assigned to was trail clean-up, which basically involved clearing branches and debris off of the nature trails at Island Beach State Park.  It was sad to see so many uprooted trees and bushes from the storm, but it was nice to be able to contribute to restoring these outdoor spaces.  Despite the devastation, it's really beautiful there.  Below is a picture of the bay that we could see from walking along the trails that we helped to clear:

Here is a photo of my family before we began our project.  It was chilly that day, especially with the breeze from the ocean!

I'll write again before the end of the week, but I wanted to add this post in honor of the anniversary of Sandy.

Recruitment trip to Washington, D.C.

I'm on my way back from an Admissions trip that I went on for my GA.  I attended an Off-Campus Info Session at the Hotel Palomar in DC with Lois, who is the Assistant Dean of Academic and Student Affairs at GSE.  It was a lot of fun!  As opposed to the On-Campus Info Session that I wrote about a few posts ago, these sessions are held at hotels in different cities...in the Fall, we had sessions in NYC, Chicago, Boston, and DC.  Part of my GA duties was to coordinate the catering and registration for these events, so it was great to actually go to one and see what it's like. The food was amazing; this cheese display was my favorite:

Oh, and the actual Info Session went really well!  Contrary to what my photo may suggest, I spoke with prospective students and didn't just stand in the corner and eat the whole time =]  It was interesting to see the variety of academic and professional backgrounds that prospective students come from.  Lois led a Q&A session and we each got to chat with small groups of students.  

I'm on the train back to Philly now.  We get back at 1, and then I have a meeting with a professor, a meeting with a group for a project, class from 4:30-8:30, and then I need to write a paper and prep for a group presentation, both of which are due tomorrow morning.  It's hard for me to save work until the last minute because it stresses me out even more, but I've found that in grad school, schedules can get so busy that the last minute is sometimes the only minute available!  I hope this train ride takes a while... 

On-Campus Info Session and Apple-Picking

Hello!  Happy Tuesday, everyone.  I am much less stressed than I was when I wrote my last blog post.  The On-Campus Info Session that we had on Saturday went really well.  We had a great turn-out and the weather ended up being nice (I was the MC for the event so I got to make awkward comments about the weather in between presenters like most MCs do).  Our faculty and student speakers were awesome, as was the Admissions presentation by my wonderful supervisor, LaToya =)  And I'm really thankful for all of the help from our Admissions GA team as well as our Admissions Ambassadors.  Finally, a special shout-out to my co-GAs, Amanda and Wesley.  We all work in the Admissions office together and they have been extremely helpful in planning this event.  Here is a picture of us from Saturday!  From left to right:  Amanda, me, & Wesley (Wesley was the student speaker at our event).

After the Info Session I was exhausted and took a 3-hour nap.  Then my parents and younger brother came to visit and we had dinner at New Deck Tavern, which is an Irish pub down the street from Penn's campus.  As I've mentioned in previous blog entries, Philly has amazing food, but my family is extremely picky about what they will eat!  I had to email them 4 menus ahead of time and they picked New Deck.  The food was really good though.  Here's a picture of my brother and me outside of my apartment:

On Sunday I was still exhausted (along with planning the Info Session I also had a midterm and a paper due the week before), but I went apple-picking in New Hope with two of my friends from the Higher Ed program.  It was really nice to get away from the craziness of Philly for the afternoon.  There was a quick hayride that took us over to the apple orchards, and the guide gave us very descriptive explanations of the four different types of apples that were available to pick.  I am a total sucker for food descriptions--it can be a McDonald's cheeseburger, but if someone describes it in detail to me ("hand-diced onions, Dijon mustard, locally-sourced vegetables") I would probably think it's amazing.  Even if that description is a bit of a stretch.  Anyway, here is a photo from apple-picking!  I am on the left, and then there are my friends Jenna and Kaitlyn.

Time to go do some reading for class now, but I'll post again soon!

On-Campus Info Session this Saturday!

HELLO!  This is going to be a very brief post.  I have a midterm in a few hours and I'm in the middle of planning our largest on-campus admissions event of the fall semester (which you should all come to!).  The event is our On-Campus Information Session, and it will be taking place this Saturday, October 12th, from 10AM-1PM.  As the title suggests, the event takes place on campus and will include information about admissions, financial aid, student life at GSE, and the different programs we offer.  It will be a lot of fun, very informative, and there will be plenty of food!  Needless to say, this week has been very stressful for me, since I am balancing my coursework (midterm time!) as well as this big event for admissions.  I have been drinking a ton of coffee this week so please excuse any typos in this post.

Even though it's been stressful, I'm so excited for the event this Saturday.  I really want to continue working in Admissions after graduating, so this is really great career experience.  I've done some event-planning in college, but never anything this large-scale.  I've been making a ton of lists and delegating tasks where I can (currently my co-GA's, Amanda and Wesley, are being awesome and updating the Admissions PowerPoint presentation to reflect this year's information!)  It seems like everything is in place, but things are bound to happen at the last minute.  Just trying to anticipate issues wherever I can.  Anyway, I gotta go study for my midterm...updates will come on Monday as to how to session went, and I'll include pictures this time!

Papers on papers on papers

I feel my fingers getting ahead of my mind as I type this blog entry.  I had so many papers due this week that it seems like I've done nothing but type for the past three days!  Things are also really picking up at my GA since I've been working on planning our Admissions events (the first of which is an On-Campus Info Session at Penn GSE for prospective students, 10AM-1PM on Saturday, October 12th!--see our Events page for more info and to RSVP).  

This program has taught me a lot already, but time-management is the #1 professional skill that I am developing.  I always thought I had good time-management from being busy in college and then teaching high school, but I am slowly getting used to the idea that I have to plan out every minute of my day if I want to get things done efficiently.  I also hate when people complain about being busy (major pet peeve), so I want to emphasize that I am NOT complaining (well, maybe a little bit...) but I'm trying to view everything as a learning experience and not a burden :-) 

My two best friends from college are coming to visit this weekend.  One of them is in med school in New Jersey, and the other works at a law firm in DC.  We don't get to see each other too often, so I'm so excited for them to visit!  We're going to explore the city a little bit, so I'll take pictures to post.

My friends and I took this photo at Penn's Landing using an automatic timer on one of our cameras!  This was our first try--we attempted to take another, but they were all epic fails.

This is me (on the right) with Vicki (center) and Grace (left).  They're my best friends who I met my freshman year of college...we don't get to see each other too often, but when we do it's always an adventure =)

Mid-week weekend post

I decided to make this post about this past weekend, which might be a sign of how ready I am for this upcoming weekend.  I don't have any particularly exciting plans, but I usually do the majority of my schoolwork during the week, so I'm excited to have a bit of downtime.  This past weekend was pretty busy.  Friday night I went to a gala held by the Graduate Student Association at Penn.  The dress code was all-white, which made for some interesting outfits.  My favorite was a classmate of mine who wore a white jumpsuit with a hood.  They had good music, dancing, drinks, and snacks.

Graduate Student Gala at WorldCafe Live!

Saturday I did some homework and planned to go to a Graduate Student carnival later in the day (never too old for a carnival, or a petting zoo), but it was canceled because of the rain.  I had a friend visiting though so we walked around University City.

  
Picture of the Philly skyline that I took from Penn Park, which is where the athletic fields are.

Later on Saturday night, I had some of the best Mexican food of my life at a place called El Limon in Conshohocken, which is right outside of Philly. 

Chicken mole enchiladas from El Limon.  Delicious!

On Sunday my family came to visit from New Jersey, and we went to the Cheesecake Factory.  Philly has some amazing food (see above), but my family is very traditional when it comes to restaurant choices!  Eventually I'll get them to try some new things :)

I'll wrap this up for now, but I'll be posting again soon.

Zzzzzz...

Last night I got 10 hours of sleep, and then woke up to the sound of a jackhammer outside my window (they are doing construction across the street from my apartment).  Sleeping and working out are becoming my favorite activities.  Thursdays are a long day (GA from 11-3, class from 4:30-8:30), but I do get to sleep in a little bit since I don't start until 11.  Before I went to sleep last night, I had visions of waking up early, taking time to actually do my hair and makeup, and maybe even picking up coffee on my way to work.  Needless to say, I rolled out of bed at 10:15, scrambled to pack my lunch, decided that eyeliner was enough makeup for the day, and ended up making Keurig coffee when I got to work (Side note:  a Keurig is going to be one of my first purchases once I get a full-time job.  Other side note:  my mother will likely read this post and will scold me for sleeping so late.  Hi Mom!)

This week I had a total of 10 pages of writing due; 7 pages for one class, 3 for another.  I get terrible anxiety if I save papers until the night before, so I really tried to get all of them done ahead of time.  I know that won't always be possible due to the volume of work involved in a 1-year Master's program, but it's comforting to know that today after 4 hours of work and 4 hours of class, I can go home and relax instead of writing!  I have It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia DVR'ed and waiting for me when I get home.  I'm going to two events for Penn's GradFest this weekend--a carnival and a gala.  Pictures and updates to come!

Switching into High Gear

I just started my third week of classes and my graduate assistantship (from now on I'll refer to it as my GA).  Things are definitely picking up around the office and in my classes.  The Higher Education program is unique in that it can be completed in one year, but it is five graduate courses per semester along with 20 hours per week at a GA.  It definitely makes for a busy schedule, but I tend to be more productive when I have things to do (my incredibly unproductive summer anything serves as a testament to that).  So for now, I have been making a lot of lists and going through stacks of Post-It notes, as well as bringing back some of my speed-reading skills from college.  I really enjoy my courses and my GA so that helps.  It's amazing how quickly the day goes by when you actually like what you're doing!

I also started working out at the Pottruck Fitness Center at Penn.  It's right across from the GSE building.  I bring a change of clothes with me when I go to work/class so I have no excuse not to go on my way home!  I used to do CrossFit last year when I was living in Miami, and I miss it a lot.  Right now I don't have the time or funds to continue with CrossFit, but the fitness center is beautiful, affordable, and they also offer various types of group exercise classes.  If I'm feeling lazy, I'll go to one of the classes.  Sometimes peer pressure is a good thing :)

This past Friday I went on a walking tour of Old City that was organized by the Graduate Student Center at Penn.  It was really interesting to see some of the historical sites and to learn more about Philly.  I grew up in New Jersey, but before coming to Penn, I'd only been to Philly a few times.  After the tour, I explored Old City with a few friends from the Higher Education program and we got dinner at a restaurant called Revolution House.  On Saturday I went to Ocean City with another friend from my program, which was also a lot of fun.  I grew up about 40 minutes from the Jersey shore, so it's comforting that Philly isn't too far from a beach!

Okay, back to work!  I'm in the process of planning several admissions events for the Fall.  More updates soon :)

Week 1=Complete!

This feels very momentous considering it is not only my first post on here, but my first blog post ever.  Hopefully I don't get too carried away and start focusing more on blogging than school work! ;)

I just finished my first week of classes and my graduate assistantship (GA), followed by a tiring but exciting Labor Day weekend.  I really like my classes and professors, and it's refreshing to do readings on topics that I'm really interested in.  I majored in History for undergrad, so I'm used to tons of reading, but this feels a lot more practical.  Additionally, the professors all have such diverse and interesting backgrounds/research interests/work experiences.  I feel that I will learn a lot from each of them!  The Higher Education program requires 5 classes per semester, which is one more than average for most Master's programs.  This allows us to finish our degrees in one year, but I'm bracing myself for a very busy year!

The graduate assistantship (GA) is an integral part of the Higher Ed Master's program here at Penn GSE.  It's a way for us to gain work experience in higher education by working in various offices around Penn and other colleges in Philly.  Most of us work between 15-20 hours per week.  My GA is in GSE Admissions, which I'm really happy about since I would like to work in admissions after graduating.  The title of my position is Enrollment Management Events, so I help plan different types of interest sessions and events geared towards prospective students.

Week 1 of grad school was also my 3rd week living in Philly.  I grew up and went to college in New Jersey, so I'm familiar with the area, but I've never actually lived in the city.  I love it so far!  Philly is easy to navigate and there are a ton of fun things to do on the weekends, both at Penn and around the city.  This past Saturday I went to the Made in America music festival by the Philadelphia Art Museum.  It was really crowded and involved standing for nine hours, but my friends and I managed to get really close to the stage for Beyonce's performance.  She was amazing!  On Sunday I went kayaking in the Schuylkill river with two friends from the Higher Ed program.  It was quite a workout and we got a little lost (couldn't bring cell phones on the kayak, so we had to use a paper version of Google maps!) but it was so much fun. 

Well, I'll wrap this up for now.  I'll continue to update on classes/work/Philly life.  Thanks for reading!  Feel free to post comments and questions.