hump day!

Happy hump day! This week has been super hectic and I am so excited for it to be over. Thankfully, the weekend is almost here.

This morning my group for "Reforming Higher Education: What We Can Learn from Other Countries" met to work on our presentation we have tomorrow. Our topic is focusing on how Vietnam can adopt government policies and strategies in place in South Korea to promote increased capacity in higher education institutions. The group I am working with is so fun and we all get along very well. I am excited (and nervous) to present our research findings to our class tomorrow.

My group & I preparing for our class presentation tomorrow.

After the meeting I went to the admissions office to do some GA-ship work. The PhD deadline is December 8th, so our e-mail and phone lines have been absolutely swamped! Chances are if you call GSE Admissions, you will talk to me. But I have really been enjoying interacting with so many great and high-achieving students who are so passionate about education. The fact that I can help them reach their goals of pursuing a degree at Penn is so rewarding.

Locust Walk decorated for the holidays.

I only have one class on Wednesdays, Professional Development. Today we talked a lot about job crafting and how we can best apply meaning to our jobs, even in challenging or uncomfortable situations. I really enjoy the class because there is a lot of self-reflection that personal growth that occurs. Plus, it is the only required class that all* full-time members of the cohort need to take, so it is such a great time to interact with all my friends.

I was STARVING after a long day at work and in classes, so afterwards two friends in my class and I went to Hip City Veg for dinner. It is a restaurant that is completely vegan! One of the friends I went to dinner with has been vegan for 18 years...I figured if he could be vegan for that long, I could be vegan for one meal. It actually wasn't that bad. I had a faux buffalo chicken sandwich that actually kind of tasted like chicken. Of course the conversations we had surrounded adjunct faculty members and the benefits they should have...sometimes, you just can't leave the higher ed conversation even outside the classroom.

My vegan chicken sandwich I had for dinner. Tons of food options in Philadelphia.

It's finally time to get some R&R before my big presentation tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Until next time!

--Austin