03 Friday Jun 2011
Posted in Courses, Post-Grad School Life
First week of CLI Persian is complete, and I now know over 130 words in Tajik (or at least my flashcards indicate I SHOULD know them). The Cyrillic alphabet is still throwing me for a loop, though. Looking forward to studying at a more leisurely pace this weekend. Seven more weeks of five day, four-hour-a-day instruction left to go.
29 Friday Apr 2011
Posted in Courses
Can’t believe it, but today was my last class of graduate school. When I finished my first masters degree in 2006, I promised myself that I was done with school. Three years later, I was itching to get back into the classroom because I finally found where I wanted to take my career. So grateful I found the Master of Public Diplomacy program, and for all the brilliant friends I met along the way. Now, just the minor task of finding a job. Broke 80 applications today, and hoping to start hearing back from them soon.
10 Wednesday Feb 2010
Posted in Courses
more about "The CEO as diplomat: An interview wit…", posted with vodpod
15 Tuesday Dec 2009
Posted in Courses, internships
That’s it folks! My first full-time semester of “grad school redux” has come to a close, and now it’s time for some recreational reading: Nick Hornby, Stieg Larsson and William Kamkwamba. As soon as it is graded, I’ll post the final paper I wrote for PD history class. It’s a case study of Saudi Arabia’s post-9/11 PD and PR activities in the U.S. As far as I can tell, it the most comprehensive examination of the topic so far.
I’m also excited to mention that I’ve been offered a summer 2010 internship with the Department of State. I’ll say it’s at an overseas consulate, but I’m going to wait to say more until the details have been ironed out. Next hurdle, security clearance.
As for Spring 2010, I’ve been offered research assistant position working with one of our Public Diplomacy Fellows on the topic of mutuality in American PD. The courses I’ll be taking are: Corporate Diplomacy, PD Evaluation and Communication for International Development.
26 Wednesday Aug 2009
Posted in Courses
…And we’re off! In PD history class we reviewed the first 9 pages of Cull’s “The Cold War and the US Information Agency.” It’s a very succinct history of the major events in PD, and the lecture effectively expanded on the text.
As for global issues class, we learned about things to consider when designing a PD plan. Here are questions to ask:
01 Wednesday Jul 2009
Posted in Courses
Finally able to register for classes today: Hindi I, Historical and Comparative Approaches to Public Diplomacy & Global Issues and Public Diplomacy. I’m scared to be leaving regular paychecks behind, but excited to take a leap in uncharted territory. The key is to avoid the pitfalls I encountered during my first masters degree and even my bachelor’s degree: working too much, not spending enough time reading, not staying on top of current event and not interning. This time around I’ve changed my mindset to look beyond the class work, and I’m lining up fellowship applications for future semesters. There is so much available in this field that it can seem overwhelming; I just hope I can take advantage of as many avenues as possible.
01 Monday Jun 2009
Posted in Courses
First class is done and I earned an A. Should be smooth sailing from here on out, right?
21 Thursday May 2009
Posted in Courses
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Summer classes began last night. I’m registered for a communications management course that has to do with conflict, and I don’t know if my expectations were skewed, but it’s not what I thought it was going to be. The professor introduced the material and said there will be quite a bit of role playing (not my favorite, but I can stick it out for 6 weeks) adn that she has not managed to keep any students from my program after the first class. That scared me – what did those students figure out that I haven’t yet? It became more obvious as the lecture began. This is a course about interpersonal communication and conflict. Very suitable to human resources and business negotiation, but not as applicable when you have an angry mob of local residents who are demanding to know why your country’s army accidentally killed 100 civilians. I guess I was hoping this class would have a PR spin, maybe with more negotiation and persuasion.
All in all, I would like to stay in the class because it is the last one I get to take for free, and it’s only 6 weeks long. The homework assignments, however, have me leaning towards dropping it. For a class with so much “fluff” (role playing, talking about feelings, etc), the homework is suprising hard-core. The professor, essentially, requires 4 research papers of varying lengths. We can write on any aspect of conflict management, but if the lecture portion is not aligned with my research interests, making the writing portion even more difficult and time consuming.
So, is it worth staying in a class that is free, but one in which I will not enjoy or use the material? Or should I pay to take a relevant and enjoyable class later? It would be nice to have my summer completely free… I think I’ve made my decision.
