Sunday, August 15, 2010

Where do I begin?

I spent time today looking into schools across the nation to try to come up with some idea of where I would like to go after I get my master's degree (I know I am jumping ahead of the gun seeing as I haven't even applied, much less got accepted, to graduate school)... but I digress.

My current thoughts are that I would like to stay away from Texas and Oklahoma so that I may experience something different. I am also avoiding the general tornado alley area considering I think I've been plagued enough with them my past four years, and I'm not too keen on California because of earthquakes. Random, I know, but I don't particularly want to live in natural disaster-prone areas.

Other than that, I am not sure what I want! What should I even be looking for in a school I am considering working at? For anybody who teaches in the university atmosphere, what brought you to the school you are working at? I really love the University of Oklahoma, but I just don't know that is in the cards for me to stay put. If it is though, I'll be much obliged. Back to what I was saying, I am just not sure what to look for - at this point I don't know that I'm entirely sure even what I want to do in the realm of higher education. I really think I would enjoy anything where my job primarily involved dealing with new students because I love their enthusiasm. Even more so I love students who aren't enthusiastic because getting them to that point just feels that much better. I am heavily weighing out my GA options in hopes that they may help me discover what I love the most. I'd love to work with student life, but am also highly interested in the leadership and volunteer graduate assistantship. I also think it would be fun to work with housing again because I don't truthfully know if I can ever give up my attachment to residence life!

As far as universities go, I think I would like to work at another state university since it's what I am most used to, but am also interested in working with the Art Institutes. A lot of research needs to happen in the days to come though. I'm hoping to find universities I might like so that I can pursue an internship with them between my years of graduate school and build a rapport with them.

As for what else is to come in the year.. a JOB! I am searching for a job as we speak and have found two that I need to fill out the applications for this week and hopefully I will get one of them, or at some point soon another job. The two I am looking at are in the education field (one at the local high school and the other at the university in town).

Guess I'll go work on those applications now, but I will blog again soon :) !

Friday, August 13, 2010

Outlook

I can't believe the last time I posted was a month ago! Holy sheesh!

Well, in that month's time I have finished up my summer job at OU. Summer camps was a good run. I am now out of school and taking a year off at home. I plan to look for work in September, hopefully finding work in one of the local school systems (either high school or collegiate) so that I may work an environment that I may work in permanently in the future.

I will apply for graduate school in January, to start my master's degree in Higher Education in the fall of 2011. Before then I hope to accomplish:

- learning more about the education field. I have started to follow great education and leadership twitter accounts and hope to familiarize myself with blogs and forums that discuss education.

- working on my design skills. I no longer have access to a mac, but I hope to learn a lot through online tutorials. I love love love design and I hope to learn as much as I can! I think every great communicator should at least understand the world of design.

- having fun with the extra time I have to enjoy my interests. I have picked photography back up (http://www.flickr.com/photos/scarletoak if you're interested) and am spending a lot of time on www.hitrecord.org - a collaborative art website. I have fallen back in love with creating and am glad I have the time to spend on things that bring me so much happiness.

- hopefully dabble in the PR real world a little. I didn't get my degree for nothing! :)

I am open to advice, insight, or feedback about any of the above.

I also hope to blog more in the future about my endeavors, honorbright.
Life is good.

xoxo e