Graduation

The time has finally come, I am officially a Master of Public Affairs. After two years and countless hours of studying and writing, I concluded my program at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (geez, that's a mouthful).

The graduation ceremony was last Saturday and it was really nice. Instead of sitting through the mass graduation at the Kohl Center, the students of the La Follette School organize our own ceremony at the Wisconsin Capitol Building in Downtown Madison. We reserve an assembly chamber and coordinate speakers, guests, and all accompanying activities. The student, faculty, and keynote speakers were excellent. Jeff Greenfield, former speech writer for Robert Kennedy and currently a CBS senior political correspondent, was the keynote speaker and his message stressed the of public service and reasoned policy, but mixed in humorous realism. My favorite line was, "You will not reach all your dreams in life... In fact, some of your dreams may be illegal."

My parents as well as Natalie and her parents were up for the weekend too. It was awesome to have them share the experience with me and we had a lot of fun. Highlights included going to the Farmers Market on the Capitol Square, walking through Olbrich Gardens, and eating a bunch of delicious food. I even managed to drag them to my men's league soccer game on Sunday morning.

It was certainly a great weekend, but I am now left with the anxiety of semi-unemployment. I have a 20-hour/week research job on campus through the end of August, but I definitely need more permanent employment. I enjoy my work but it is not sustainable and I am looking to finally start a professional career that matches my education and skill set. It is a daunting prospect to be sure, but I am up for the challenge.

Spring Time

It is currently 60 degrees and sunny outside which is unseasonably warm and positively marvelous. The weather has been excellent for the past two or so weeks and the remnants of winter are fading away. Some snow piles linger, but their size is diminishing rapidly. It definitely feels like spring has sprung.

Sadly, I will not be able to enjoy the afternoon to the fullest because the first draft of our capstone project is rapidly coming due. Overall, we are in good shape with our research, but I still have to write my section. I am not overly worried because this is only the initial draft, but it is still important to create a nearly complete report. So, instead of basking in the balmy conditions, I will be stuck inside at the computer.

I will, however, be taking a break later this afternoon to kick a ball around with some friends. I haven't touched a soccer ball (especially outdoors) in months and I am looking forward to running and playing in the fresh air. No doubt I will be rather rusty, but it should still be fun all the same.

Still There?

Why am I writing a blog post? I honestly have no idea. Many moons have passed since my last effort, and certainly many things to potentially write about. But yet, I haven't. Certainly apathy factors strongly into why I haven't posted anything in 8 months, but business does play a small part as well.

School is nearly over and I can safely say that I am looking forward to being out of the world of academia once again. Last semester consumed me body, mind, and soul and I fear this semester will do the same. Thus far, however, my final semester has been perfectly manageable. I attribute this mostly because I haven't been employed (something I hope will end soon) and because I am taking one fewer courses than in previous terms.

The big task is our Capstone project. To graduate from La Follette we are required to fulfill a Professional Workshop course and it is designed to be the culmination of our time at the school. We have professional clients and are responsible for completing a research project on the topic of their choosing. The intent is for us to draw upon our previous three semester's worth of knowledge and produce a meaningful report. I am with a team working for the City of Milwaukee's Budget Office and so far it is going well. My team is working well and we're making good progress. It will be a long semester but I am cautiously optimistic that all will go according to plan.

New Computer, Same Great Blog

My trusty computer finally failed me about a week and a half ago. It had been acting up bit - spontaneously ending programs and not wanting to shut down - but I didn't think too much of it. The PC and I have developed an intimate relationship over the past seven years, and the churlish desktop has been prone to intermittent fits and stutters. Yet, through the years of research, paper writing, procrastination, and emailing, the old guy hasn't let me down. I made it through Mac and now the first year of grad school without any major incident.

True, I did lose some files but at least it didn't kick the bucket during finals time. I was somewhat purturbed when it decided not boot up any more, but in the end I was forced to accept that I had pulled my last late night, scrambling to finish a paper with this computer. I mourned, but like the passing of an old pet my mourning was assuaged by the arrival of a new, energetic replacement. I purchased a new desktop and things are looking up once again.

In other news, I started an internship last week. I am now volunteering a small amount of my time at UMOS, a non-profit organization that provides services to immigrant populations. Their primary constituency is hispanic migrant farm workers, but their programs extend to the much broader immigrant community as well. They seek to provide labor force enhancement (job training, work fairs), education services (Head Start, ESL), housing (temporary and permanent), health care services, and legal services to all who seek help from them. UMOS has built a strong reputation in the area and I am excited to be a part of their work.

I was connected to UMOS through a friend of mine in the program. The organization is based in Milwaukee, but they have offices throughout Wisconsin and the Midwest as well. A new office opened in Madison earlier this Spring and I was able to contact the woman who is operating here. She's a lawyer and I met with her to interview for an internship position. It turned out to be less of an interview and more of an information session as it seemed to be assumed that I would work for them and they had things for me to do. (I suppose all non-profits would be interested by the prospect of free labor.) The woman was very nice and excited for me to get involved. It will work well for me too because the work is very flexible. I can do all my work from home and communicate with her via email and phone. This is great because it allows me to maintain my time committments at Willy Bikes without much conflict.

Unfortunately for me however, the beginning of this internship coincided with the end of the computer. A mild source of consternation, but nothing disastrous for sure. I just turned in my first memo about a grant proposal to her I am awaiting a response. I don't know how this will all progress but I am looking forward to this opportunity.

Back to Madison

After Leah's graduation from Macalester, it was back to Iowa for a little bit. Asa and I left St. Paul on the Sunday afternoon with a minivan full of Leah's possessions headed for Ames. (Mom and Dad stayed on until Monday to spend more time with Leah and dropped Aaron off at the airport. They had our other car and loaded that with some more of Leah's stuff.)

I was only back in Ames for one night as I helped Natalie move into her new apartment in Cedar Falls. She will be starting school at the University of Northern Iowa in the Fall but wanted to move up there and get settled before the semester starts. She actually has a job playing piano at a Von Maur department store. Natalie, with the help of her parents, had moved a bunch of stuff up a few days before I arrived back home. So, all that was left to us was to gather the few remaining things - the cat included - and head on up.

I was greeted by a mountain of boxes when I entered Natalie's apartment for the first time, but it was a nice little place for sure. She has a one bedroom with a balcony and even enough space to fit a piano in there. Certainly plenty of space for the little devil Dexter to roam and knock over plants. After living with her parents for over a year, Natalie is duly excited to have a place of her own. I can emphathize with this sentiment and I think she will be quite happy in her apartment and at school once everything gets settled.

Moreover, Cedar Falls isn't far from Ames, only about an 1.5 hours driving, but it's in the right direction. The town is located in the northeastern portion of the state, and conveniently for me, is directly in route to Madison. It cuts the distance considerably and will hopefully make travelling back and forth a bit easier.

Leah's Graduation

Almost immediately after turning in my last final I was whisked away to the Twin Cities for my sister Leah's graduation from Macalester. My other sister, Claire, swung through Madison on her way from Chicago and we drove up to St. Paul. Though somewhat comatose/delirious from lack of sleep and hyper brain activity, I managed to stay awake and talk with Claire for most of the trip. I am sometimes derelict in communicating with my siblings throughout the year and so it was great to catch up with her.

It was odd to watch Leah walk across the stage and accept her diploma. It was definitely satisfying because she worked very hard and certainly earned the degree. But at the same time, I clearly remember her being a little freshman at Mac when I shook the President's hand and took my diploma. I don't recall exactly when, but at one point Leah told me her motivation in school was to do better than me. I like to think simply gaining academic knowledge should be motivation enough, but beating an older sibling should not be disregarded. In a family such as ours, there is always a degree of sibling rivalry and there is a certain amount of dangling achievements in front of the others. This one-up-manship is never too intense - and certainly not malicious- but it is especially fun to do to Leah because it makes her so flustered. I think Leah has perhaps the highest combination of academic aptitude and drive to perform. To her credit, she graduated with a double major and maintained a higher GPA than me and earned some sort of prize for a paper she wrote. (Still, I had a minor degree and an honors project as well ;)

On the whole, it was an excellent weekend. Definitely the way to toast finishing up my first year of grad school. All my siblings had come back from their respective domiciles (Philadelphia, Chicago, Iowa City) and my parents were up from Ames, obviously. My mom was especially pleased to have us all together. I was definitely on guard against random attacks from Mom-hugs for several hours arriving (not that I am complaining).

Whenever we all get together its a raucous time: this was no exception. There was lots of food, lots of drink, and lots of revelry. The first night we made pizza at Leah's house and drank some of my dad's home brew. The next night was grilled steak and more libations, topped off by homemade soft-serve ice cream. Dad even brought up the carbonator so we made a variety of bubbly beverages. I think Leah's roommates were somewhat overwhelmed by our family, but such is the Ritz experience.

In addition to family, I was able to hang out with a several friends who are still in the area. I hung out with my former roommate Roscoe, my friend Katie, and even unexpectedly bumped into a former teammate, Robbie, at the commencement ceremony. I was also able to see my Sociology adviser and met up with my coach, Ian Barker. I saw about everyone that I could over the weekend... fantastic.

Finals Recap

Gratefully, the end of the semester has come and gone. I must admit, this semester's finals were the most challenging I've faced during my various years at school. They proved to be exceedingly trying for a variety of reasons; some internal to the course, some external to school.

Starting with internal factors, the courses were quite demanding in and of themselves and I had four (as compared to three last semester). In the last three weeks of the semester I two group projects, two presentations, two individual semester projects, and two take home finals due. All told, I submitted (or at least contributed to) about 110 pages of writing. A couple of the assignments were projects that I had been working on throughout the semester, but I had to finish them and turn them in. There were a couple of late nights and early mornings but my good friend caffeine helped me survive. The most impressive feat was Thursday night and Friday morning in which I cranked out the take home final and finished up a project for my last class. Both were due by noon on Friday and I submitted my final at 9:30 and the project at 1:30. I had emailed the professor letting him know that it would be a little late and fortunately he did not penalize me.

People say graduate school is difficult with good reason. My impression is that professors are disinclined to fail students, but they are also disinclined to give high marks. The workload is heavy and professors expect students to put forward good effort. That is, you really have to earn grades. I am not complaining, however. Everyone is confronted with the same situation and that's just the way it is.

With respect to external factors, working at the bike shop added more stress to the situation. I maintained my normal work schedule (about 20 hours a week) during finals time, which ate up a lot of potential study time. In addition, there were several student functions going on that I felt compelled to attend. I am a member of the La Follette School Student Association and we had fundraising and social events during finals week. I definitely could have skipped, but I wanted to support the group.

In the end, I am quite pleased with my performance in each of the courses - certainly better than last semester. I received the highest grade level in two classes, and next to the highest in two others. Not only did my grades turn out well, but I feel that I learned a great deal during the semester. My classes were diverse and I feel comfortable with the material in each respective topic.