April 4: Street Fest Loading

Tomorrow is our big event in downtown Athens and we are loading up all the vans with the materials...including a helium tank! Cory had to roll that thing slowly as it was heavy and awkward.

February 24: Final Interview

WooHoo! The final candidate was on campus today for the iSL Director position. Today's candidate wasn't my favorite.  Although I think he had some good ideas for ways to enhance things in iSL, his approach and demeanor rubbed me the wrong way.  Good news, I think all three candidates could do the job.  Here's to hoping my favorite gets it!

February 6: Welcome!

I was trying to go to bed early on Thursday as I was physically and mentally tired.  As I laid in bed my phone began to ping.  Normally I mute my phone but for whatever reason, the ringer was still on.  I switched my phone to vibrate but it kept buzzing every few minutes.  After checking my phone I realized I was getting many welcome to Texas State emails.  Paige (the program coordinator) had also sent an email letting me know she had announced my hire to the Student Affairs in Higher Education (SAHE) students, student affairs, and the Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education and School Psychology (CLAS) department where the SAHE program resides.  It's encouraging to see people as excited as I am about my appointment.  

Random aside, Jennica is one of my former students in North Russell.  Our paths crossed then because she had some roommate issues.  Interestingly, she is a 2nd year at Texas State.  Although I don't get to have her in class, I'm sure our paths will cross again in the future.

January 24: Budgeting

It's hard to not budget on a grad school salary, however, it's also virtually impossible to save under those circumstances as well.  Yesterday I went to a budgeting workshop hosted by the training and development center and today I took a good long look at my budget.  I looked at loans, income, retirement, all in an effort to be prepared for what is to come...hopefully a job.  One can only plan so much when they don't know what their income will be in the future.  But it was good to take stock of the money I have and where that money is going.

January 16: Practice Presentation

In a week and a half I will be interviewing at Texas State University for an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) position.  I'm still swivel between shock, excitement, and nervousness.  As part of the interview, I have to give a research presentation and a teaching demonstration.  Today I practiced my research presentation for two of my faculty.  They both offered good feedback for improvement.  It was even kind of funny to see them offer feedback and disagree with one another.  My dissertation research is such a strange beast, I really have to make it accessible to a general audience.  Next week I'm practicing my teaching demonstration in front of students.  

In other job search stuff, I have a phone interview for a Michigan State faculty position (2-year fixed term).  Frankly, I'm surprised I have an interview (but super excited).  Oh, and it will be the morning I fly out to Texas State.  Yep, fun times.  Aside from those two, I haven't heard a peep from anywhere else I've applied.  

December 15: Another Application

Today I applied for yet another job.  This will be the story of my life for the next few months...oh and writing a dissertation.  This Assistant Professor position is a fixed term 2-year appointment that would focus on teaching.  It would be a wonderful opportunity to build up my publications, gain more teaching experience, and work with some amazing faculty.  I'm guessing that me and hundreds of my closest PhD finishing friends also applied for this job, but you gotta throw your name in the hat, right?!  Oh also, did I mention it was at Michigan State... one syllable, brrrrrrr.

December 2: Recommendation

I've applied for a few jobs already.  Ugh, it could be a full-time job in itself.  Since I'm applying for both faculty and student affairs jobs each cover letter is different and must be tailored to the position and institution.  So between working full-time and trying to dissertate (yep, I made it a verb), I'm looking and applying for jobs.  At this time (December) I'm able to be selective and only apply for jobs I really want.  Come March or April I'll become less selective if I don't have a job.  Anyway, TW, my current supervisor sent in a recommendation for me.  The job search is a humbling process (and irrational and illogical at times) and you get rejected over and over again; yet I was blessed by his gracious email in support of me. 

October 27: CV

I spent much of the day at Starbucks working on turning my resume into a curriculum vita.  It took far longer than I thought, but luckily some good tunes and a (special & free) pumpkin spice latte accompanied the writing.  Here's to finishing my cover letters next.