the encouragement lounge: The first annual spring "you and your professor week"

Monday, June 1, 2009

The first annual spring "you and your professor week"

Part I -- How will you keep in touch?

This week we will consider you and your professor and ways in which you may be able to help each other. Today's post is for those of you who have just graduated or will be graduating soon.

I encourage you to identify one or few professors with whom you have developed a close relationship? Have you thought about how you will keep in touch after you graduate? Why keep in touch, you ask? Well, the practical answer is that you might want a letter of recommendation some day or want to network with your professor. If you have kept her or him posted on your whereabouts and what you are doing, that will all be easier and more effective. Keeping in touch with former professors is also a source of good energy for you both!

So, plan your contact. Will you add your prof to your holiday card list (and if so, include an update letter)? Or perhaps you will add reminders to your schedule to send your professor update emails twice a year? Whatever your strategy, keep in touch!

cheers

Harriet

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Working adult students, on my mind...

I hope this blog will be helpful to friends and others involved in a variety of endeavors. However, I created the blog with students in mind and continue to develop it with that specific group as my focus.

I believe that with the increase in evening, weekend, and low-residency programs, students are working more and more in isolation. If we were all full-time students on campus, we would have the informal support that comes with being able to go down the hall and talk with a colleague, etc. But instead, we are working late nights and weekends at home in front of the laptop.

With that in mind, I hope the encouragement lounge provides brief moments of respite and energizing connection. This does not at all replace valuable face-to-face contact. Many aspects of the academic journey can only be addressed via in-depth conversations with colleagues and teachers. And I would always rather sit down and talk with someone than to communicate online. Nonetheless, my aim is to give you one more channel for quick hits of support.