End of the Semester

This has been my favorite semester of Paideia so far. No offense to Cait and Brady, I miss you guys, but I think it does have to do with the smaller number in general. I feel like we’ve all gotten more comfortable with each other and that’s had a positive effect on our meetings. I really enjoy spending time with everyone, and I’ve found that Paideia has become a mix between a break and a class for me. We’ve maintained the academic content with the discussions, but most of the time I just feel like I’m hanging out with friends. I think that this time is really important, actually. We always talk about how none of us have any free time and we rarely do anything for ourselves. Dr. G. gives us a hard time and insists that we need to find ways to relax and take some time away from school, and I almost feel like Paideia is part of that time for me. (I hope you’re not insulted Dr. G, I think this is a good thing!) This semester has kind of been a whirlwind one…I really can’t believe how fast it’s gone. It’s getting harder and harder to pretend that the future is distant and to ignore the thoughts that will soon be necessary. I start Capstone next semester, I start applying to Physical Therapy schools in the summer, and evidently time is just going to keep passing more quickly.

I’m borderline clueless about what I’m going to do for Capstone. I would like to do something applicable to Physical Therapy, because I feel like that would be most beneficial for the future (aka getting into grad schools). I’m acutely aware of how beneficial it could be for my experience as a student and my resume if I can do a really good Capstone, so I’m feeling some pressure already. However, I know that I’m extremely lucky to have such good professors in my department and I know I will benefit immensely from them (more so than I already have). I plan on presenting at the Student Works Symposium, but I would also like to present somewhere else as well. I need to talk to professors about this but I think it would be a great experience.

Unfortunately, it looks like I still won’t be able to study abroad. Because the Kinesiology department is so small and relatively specialized, there aren’t many options for a semester abroad. I would love to do a summer trip, but it just doesn’t make sense financially for me. I talked to Dr. McLean about finding an internship abroad, but he wasn’t able to find anything. I actually did go on the Service Learning Trip to Jamaica in Summer 2008. We hadn’t technically started meeting for Paideia yet, but I’m going to see if this will count as a last ditch effort. If not, I may have to drop the program.

I’m hoping it doesn’t come down to this, because I’ve really enjoyed Paideia thus far. I say it every semester, but we HAVE to get together more outside of class!

Reflection on Discussions

Overall, I liked how the presentations worked out. I genuinely enjoyed hearing about everyone’s interests, and I thought that everyone did a good job finding something that represented their major and that kept the class intrigued. I think that it might have gone more smoothly if we had our whole cohort, which I guess is only 2 more people, so maybe that wouldn’t have mattered…the point is that maybe more perspectives/contributions would have taken the discussions more in depth. Plus we all know Brady would have stirred things up.
As usual, I felt like the readings kept me thinking about things outside of my own bubble throughout the semester. Even though this is a liberal arts school, I think that we get so focused on our classes/major (especially as we get into upper-levels) that we really need something to pull us out of our own minds. I really enjoyed Steven’s reading. I’m not going to lie, I cheered the day that I finished with my Biology credits…but the excerpts we read were written in such an interesting style—one that I’ve never associated with science. It was a nice break from my Kinesiology work. I probably wouldn’t take the time to read anything like that if it weren’t for our discussions.
If we continue to do this next semester, though, I think we should all lighten up a bit. I know that I was a bit sense about picking a topic and about presenting…and I think that it would have worked better if I wasn’t so worried about making it into a presentation. I think if we approach as just talking about something we think is cool, everyone will feel less pressure to turn it into a formal discussion. I think our cohort does a good job in discussions, though. We’re all relatively talkative and I feel like we all bring something to the table.