Just a friendly reminder to register for classes if you have not already done so!!!!! Only one more week in the semester!!

December Graduation is coming soon!!!! You can pick up your cap and gown starting MONDAY in the bookstore (Sykes Student Union) CONGRATS TO ALL THE DECEMBER GRADUATES!!!

Forgot to order your cap and gown?? No worries! Contact Cindy Stell at Cstell@wcupa.edu ASAP!!!!

 

 

Greetings on this rainy Tuesday afternoon! It is such a bed and movie type of day but since we are all movers and shakers I assume you are out just as I am. Its October now so I’m pretty sure you’ve fallen into a routine. You have figured out what works and what isn’t working so well. Personally grad school has snuck up on me. I have a lot of papers and assignments due in the upcoming weeks and I need to go full-throttle school mode. Luckily I have some amazing professors who are easily accessible when I have questions and willing to look over my papers before I hand them in. Well I'm off to class! My first graduate school paper is due today. I hope everyone is having a wonderful semester!!!!

Good morning! I’m sitting at work and thought I should share a little bit about myself and how I got to grad school. I’ll keep it brief but I feel like you should know who is writing; to an extent. I am from Norristown, PA and attended WCU for undergrad. I was very involved on campus and acquired a passion for the university. It was home. Although this is my first semester in grad school, I am not fresh out of college. I took a year off between undergrad and grad school to work at a wonderful program called City Year. City Year is a group of 17-24 year olds who work with young people to help eliminate the ridiculous dropout rate. 1 out of 4 9^th graders will not graduate high school. That statistic made me mad! I wanted to help. I do not believe school is for everyone but I do believe that knowledge is power and high school is a fundamental education resource and also an awesome experience that students should complete. So I gave a year to service, changing the lives of Philadelphia youth. Once my year of service was completed I decided to attend graduate school for my master’s degree in secondary education counseling.

Some of you may wonder “why go back to WCU?” I seriously considered multiple options because I wanted a new environment and new experiences but when sat down and compared WCU to other institutions, the others couldn’t compare. West Chester had numerous Graduate Assistantships (I’ll talk about those later) and I did not see as many opportunities to receive a FREE education at other schools. My program was CACREP accredited which says a lot for the program and if I wanted I could use my WCU degree to take me places and not be stuck in PA (not saying PA isn’t a wonderful place to live but I did not want to limit myself when on the job hunt). Small class sizes, quality education on a ‘college student budget’, close proximity to various towns and cities and so much more. I loved the possibilities WCU granted me and it came to the point that my want for experience at a new institution did not trump the opportunities West Chester presented.

That is my story of how I am here in grad school at WCU. Why are you at West Chester? And if you’re not, you should be! J

2012 PASSHE Graduate Research Symposium

I just want to quickly give a huge round of applause to all the presenters of this year's symposium. Congratulations to all of you!! (and me!)

Oral presentations:

Jason Keyser – A Fabled Attempt to Move Forward in the Discussion of Human Rights

Chris Mich – Loving the Alien, Hating the Hybrid: A Cultural Study of Robotech

Tommy Moore – Roleplaying Relationships in Videogames:  The Virtual Decentering of Heteronormativity through Homosexual Romance Options

Fayth Kelly – Reaching Anne Stevenson’s Intimate Worlds: Feminine Creative Spirit and Nature Imagery

Alhaji Saccoh – Collective Bargain: The Roles of Parents and Administrators in Eliminating Childhood Obesity

Elizabeth Schroeder – iLead Leadership Series: Applying Leadership in your Everyday Life

Jenna Krier – New Kid on the Block: Medico-military History and its Importance in the American Historical Framework

Dominique Williams – Alcohol Outlets and Violence in Philadelphia: The Role of Land Use

Margaret Haag – The Use of Evidence-Based Strategies to Increase Independence in Adults with Asperger’s Syndrome in Competitive Employment Settings

Samantha Keys – Essential Components to Comprehension Achievement

Poster presentations:

Megan Gross – The Impact of Comprehensive Diabetes Management Classes on Patient Outcomes

Christopher Ketcham – The Phantom Limb of Equality

Next Steps 3 - JOBS

So sorry for the lack of updates, it has been QUITE a busy time for me. Here's a quick update: after my last post about conferences and the like, I found out I was ACCEPTED to present at the Graduate Symposium in Harrisburg, PA; presented like the history baller that I am at said conference; I have found two more conferences to apply to; researching for my semester papers on Native American disease epidemics due to European colonization and the relgious versus secular aspects of Islamic medicine; bartending and working in the office; received not one, not two, but THREE AWESOME History of Med/Science journals in the mail (nerd alert!!); and here I am updating you all now. :)

Real quick about the conferece. It was awesome. It was really small (I presented to about 8 students ALL from West Chester), but the experience was still priceless. There was an embarrasing moment for me when I realized the Sahara Desert decided to transport itself magically to my mouth. See, our room moderator did not think there was enough time between the one and two o'clock sessions to take a break. This meant no water finding - which subsequently meant me feeling like I had just eaten a full sleeve of saltine crackers. One of the others in the room, however, thought I looked like I was in pain (which I kind of was) and ran out to the water fountain. She returned with a cup of water for me. For that, I believe I owe Margaret Haag a HUGE shout of of THANKS!!! You saved my presentation!! What's the lesson from this? Well one, make sure you have a bottle of water with you. And two, if the worse thing that happens during your presentation is NOT the content of your presentation or the way you present, but something completely human such as the Sahara Desert in your mouth... YOU DID FINE!!! :)

Ok, so on to the next chapter on what to do when you graduate. It is time for that dreaded word... JOBS. *shiver* Real World. I am clearly trying to put that off as long as possibly by staying in school for as long as possible. Today with social networking sites being such a part of nearly everyone's daily lives, many employers are also using them in their hiring process. For the rest of this blog I am going to link you to an article I received the other day from a reader (I have a READER!) that I found quite helpful. Jasmine Hall sent me this article from her blog all about how to use your Facebook page to your advantage. I think it's quite interesting!!

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2012/05/01/the-new-networking-ultimate-facebook-guide-for-2012-grads/

Check it out! Let me know what you all think!! :)

Thank you!
Jenna

Next Steps - 2

What else can you do to further your career or educational aspirations during your time at West Chester or any other Master’s program? Last time I talked about presenting your research, showcasing the upcoming Graduate Symposium this month. Today I want to talk about other ways to search for conferences and getting published.

Due to my deep entrenchment in the world of history and historical societies, all of my links here will be for history based conferences and publications. That does not mean, however, my means of research are not valid for you as well. Let's start with online networks.

If you were to go to Google and type in history networks, one of the first things that pops up is H-Net. This is a VERY valuable tool for any historian, and I know there are other "nets" out there for other academic fields. What is great about finding one of these online networks is that everything is sent via email - so there is no website you have to check every day. I get at least 20 emails a day (some of which I do delete) that discuss reviews of new books, conferences, and calls for papers. I even had the ability to specialize my threads by selected History of Science and Medicine. Perfect for me!

It also helps to email other professionals in your field. Networking does not have to be as hard as it sounds. I was a bit overwhelmed at the idea of trying to find a PhD program for my seemingly over-specialized, academically bi-polar brain. Since I want to study medico-military history, I contacted the Army Medical Department because they have an excellent program - but it's only for military personnel. The response I got was awesome and he helped push me in the right directions.

Because of the likes of H-Net and the AMD, I have been able to connect with historical societies for history of medicine and military history. I joined both the HSS (History of Science Society) and the AAHM (American Association for the History of Medicine), both of which had student rates that were VERY affordable! All together I think it's 60 bucks for both for the whole year. I get journals in the mail and email updates as well as access to all past journals on JSTOR. We all know JSTOR! It's awesome.

H-Net and the two societies also make Calls for Papers public on a daily basis. While many of the conferences are currently still out of my league, it does not hurt to apply and get your name out there. Don't see yourself short. Make sure you really dive into the nitty gritty of your field and make yourself known. You have gotten this far for a reason; let's push it just a bit more!!

Hope this was informative... Any questions, email me. :)

Next Steps - 1

Ok, I know I have not written in a long time. It's been crazy in the office, at my other job, and this semester is very busy with papers and the like. I am attempting to write two term papers on two totally different topics... It should be interesting. At least they are both on two different aspects of the History of Science and Medicine so I can get some background on that before I go apply for my PhD... Which brings me to the topic of this blog.... Next Steps.

Some of you may stop at your Masters, some of you may want to continue on (which is what I would like to do), but no matter your decision you can always keep learning. So, what are some of the next steps?

1) Present your research. At every Masters level, each student has the experience of writing a very intricate, research intense paper. These are the ones we are all most proud of. The time we put into these papers is far beyond anything we have done before, we may even have the chance of presenting to your class. These are the papers you should try to present at graduate conferences. One such conference is coming up in April.

This Graduate Student Symposium is a great way to get your feet wet in the Conference world. You will get feedback from your peers and wash away those public speaking fears. I applied to present, and you should too.

Since I know we all have so much to do as well as seriously short attention spans, I am going to make this a series of blog entries. The following entry, hopefully tomorrow or Friday, will be about finding that right PhD or other graduate program.