Thieving for Good?

So, it's taken waaaayyy too long for me to acquire a table for Die for someone who blogs on a site called Tapping the Die Table.

But it finally happened yesterday, as me, my roommate, and our friend walked out of the student union with one in hand, put it in the back of our friend's car, and drove off with our booty.

Naturally, I had to teach them how to play Die*. And, of course, the roommate that is leaving in a month got her name on the table ("Sugar Tits").

I'm officially ready for all of you to come visit (or visit again, in some cases).

Love,
Baby Schwartz

*So it's second nature for me to talk to all of you about Die and refer to it exclusively as Die and have you all understand what it means. But I became very self-conscious saying "Die" or uploading that picture and labeling it as "Die." I'm not sure how the general population (e.g. not Colby or not friends of Colby) would react to a drinking game called "Die" without, ya know, the proper context...

YOU GUYS

Dear Jessica,

Congratulations – we are pleased to inform you that you have been admitted to the University of Michigan School of Public Health beginning in Fall 2013 to the Environmental Health Sci MPH Occup & Environ Epidemiology graduate program. 

Joining the School of Public Health’s academic community will connect you with students and faculty who will challenge you to grow personally and intellectually.  You will share in the school’s reputation as an international leader in public health.  Distinguished faculty nationally recognized and highly ranked departments and extensive social and cultural activities combine to provide a stimulating environment in which to pursue your program of study. You can also augment your educational experience through our special certificate programs in Global Health, Genetics, Health Care Infection Prevention & Control, and Health Informatics.

Again, congratulations on your accomplishments.  We look forward to welcoming you to the University of Michigan community. To guarantee a place in our entering class, you must submit your offer acceptance and a non-refundable $200 enrollment deposit to the University of Michigan via Wolverine Access  by April 15, 2013 (instructions are at the bottom of this message). 

Visit our Admitted Student webpage for helpful advice and links on joining our School of Public Health Community.

Sincerely,

Adam Ancira

Director of Admissions

University of Michigan- School of Public Health

The Future of Education (?)

Ok.  Fellow liberal artsians.  Between a book I finished last night and some online articles I read today, my whole perception of education is beign thrown for a gradeous loop.  I'm bewildered and I am more than a little eager to get your thoughts and feedback on this!!

First, the book:
I just finished reading Liberal Arts at the Brink, by Victor Ferrall, President Emertius of Beloit College in Iowa.  It's essentially about everything that is wrong and outdated about liberal arts colleges...and why we should save them anyway.  This book really squashed my desire to be a professor.  It was wilting anyway, but this was like a big oblivious foot landing right on the top of the plant.  The system is so silly.

Secondly, the articles:
It has been a (super) slow day at work, and I have entertained myself by browsing through the material in a class being taught by one of the professors here at Edgewood: Teaching Courses Online.  I, as you might know/imagine, have very mixed feelings about the effectiveness of online education, and am more than a little suspicious of the huge online classes and consortiums popping up all over the web (Udacity, KahnAcademy, TED-Ed, etc.)

Paging through these resources today has been nothing short of fascinating.  Seriously these courses look amazing.  Just look at these:

Coursera
Udacity
KahnAcademy
TED-Ed

I'm flat-out tempted to take some classes from these guys... to start earning "badges" from Udacity and to keep building my professional skill set.  I could take courses at Harvard! UPenn! Stanford! Princeton!  Even if I don't receive credit for any of them, to be exposed to the workings of those top minds makes me salivate.

But the fact is that they don't count for anything, and I'm not sure that they should.  In fact, for the sake of all of us with liberal arts degrees, I have a vested interest in making sure that they do NOT count as credits toward a degree like mine.  That said...I chose Dickinson for it's emphasis on "practical, applicable" liberal arts, and I now work for a program trying to make education easily accessible for nontraditional students.  I think the idea that valuable learning and skill-building experiences only happen in classrooms is dumb.

What do you all make of this?  Is this the awesome, revolutionary new trend of the future, finally bringing high-level education to the masses?  Or is this the death of liberal arts as we know and love it?

Just to make it more exciting:

"Link to video on the changes in 2012 that the video makers claim will destroy higher education as we know it. Designed to be alarming, this video makes some strong claims about where education is heading in terms of equitable access."

Nicknames by Which I Have Been Known

Michael-man

Origin: circa 1991 ~ 1995

Creator: Dad

Used by: Dad, Mom, and other family members

Reason: Dad thought it sounded catchy

Reason Ended: My brother started calling me by this name. Apparently, I found it annoying. I asked both of my parents to stop calling me that. 

Mickey, Mickey P, Mickey Park

Origin: circa fall of 1999 (7th grade)

Creator: Ivy P.

Used by: Ivy P.

Reason: Some relation to some angsty movie or an angsty band, can’t remember which, that Ivy had seen.

Reason ended: No goodness-of-fit, didn’t catch on. 

Mikey

Origin: circa fall of 2002 or 2003 (9th or 10th grade)

Creators: Evelyn, Vinay, Alex

Used by: The creators and a few other high school friends

Reason: Evelyn started using it because of the "Mikey, he likes it!" commercial reference. Vinay and Alex played sports, and that's what you do in sports. Take someone's name and add -y to it.
Reason ended: High school graduation. The users were pretty consistent with it through high school. 

Bentley

Origin: 2nd week of Leader-in-Training Training at YMCA Camp Gaines, summer 2003 - Present

Creator: "Yogi" aka Sean Used by: Camp staff at Sequoia Lake, or about 50 Facebook friends

Reason: I went to Bentley Middle School. I wore my shirt to staff training. My counselor thought it was cool that I had a shirt with "Bentley" on it. I was horrified that I got a camp name (which were typically woodsy or related to camp/animals/food/candy/Disney characters) after my middle school.

Reason ended: N/A 

Sunshine

Origin: This one is unique in that I’ve been nicknamed this three times by three separate people. 2005, 2009(?), 2012 – present. 

Creators: Chelsea, Jess, and Tom

Used by: Chelsea, Jess, and Tom

Reason:  The first (2005) was by Chelsea D. I sat next to Chelsea one morning in English class and she said, “Good morning! You smell like… SUNSHINE!” The second was by our very own Jessasaur, although I don’t remember the exact time and location. It makes my heart go pitter pat whenever she calls me Sunshine though. Finally, my roommate, Tom, says “Oh heyyyyy, Sunshine” whenever we see each other after we wake up.

Mike

Origin: circa fall of 2006 - Present

Creators: Inevitably, New Englanders

Used by: Various Colby College residents

Reason: I say "Inevitably, New Englanders" because New Englanders shorten people's names. It's a central tenet of what they do after my years of anthropological study. (I AM GENERALIZING AND JUST KIDDING PROMISE)

Reason ended: N/A It still slips into some of my conversations with New Englanders. Love it. 

Baby Schwartz

Origin: The die table in the AMS quad of Lewis, Henry, Ross, Justin (?), and secretly senior Chad’s circa September/October 2007.

Creators: Ross, Liz, and Lewis, but mostly Ross

Used by: All the die players in the world that I have ever played with.

Reason:  Because Ross was drunk and thought it would be hilarious to give me a name based on my Schwartz. I was thisclose to “Chem-Free HR” and frankly dodged a bullet.

Sparklemotion, Sparkles

Origin: Final hat league tourney of the Portland Summer Ultimate league. July 2008 – May 2012

Creators: Henry, John H., and Liz. Also, Five Ultimate.

Used by: Cobly College Ultimate

Reason: So I wanted really cool ultimate frisbee shorts, and Lauren Pongan knew a significant other of a Five Ultimate founder. He was passing away free stuff, and I got a white pair of shorts with silver sparkles on them. The only requirement was that I “make it dirty.” I played a lot of D that day, and Henry commented on my shorts “sparkled” and kept telling me to run and move. Sparklemotion was born.

Master Schwartz

Origin: September 2008, Mary Low - present

Creators: The one and only Steve Tatko

Used by: Steve Tatko, and sometimes Allie

Reason: Steve said I ran the dorm, which I think overstates it a lot. We also know he loves being formal when the opportunity may call for it.  

Schwartz

Origin: First Oregon nickname, September 2010 - present

Creators: Members of my cohort (Jake and Noah stand out in my mind)

Used by: UO SPSY

Reason: Somehow we all got nicknames for each other, but Jake was a main reason the name still sticks with members of my program currently. I was essentially introduced to all the current second years as Schwartz since I lived with Jake last year. They, in turn, have passed it on to the current first years.

Schwartzy

Origin: If “Schwartz” was September 2010, then “Schwartzy” was also September 2010 - present

Creators: Kenya

Used by: Kenya, her roommate Mallory

Reason: This one was a natural evolvement after “Schwartz” and is predominately used by Kenya and Mallory. If Kenya calls me this, she’s typically in a good mood.

’88, Ochos, Dos-Ochos, Ocho-ocho

Origin: August 11, 2011 - present

Creators: Jason and Patrick

Used by: Jason and Patrick

Reason:  So this date will always stick out on my mind because I was at a conference for my research assistantship that we were hosting. I admitted to J & P that my birthday was the next day and immediately they asked when I was born. I happened to be at dinner with them (who are in their mid-30s) and other members of the project (much older) and they were immediately commenting on how young I was. The other variations on eighty-eight are mainly Chad Ochocinco/Johnson related.

Schwadas

Origin: May 2012 - present

Creators: Jessie and Katie Wadas

Used by: The cousins
Reason: I was feeling left out as all of my closest cousins were changing their names to “Wadas” instead of “Waters” on FB. Jessie suggested this change, and I changed it in support of the youngest cousin, Katie, graduating from high school.  

"Here's My Effing Resume"

If you guys haven't seen this yet, it's pretty fantastic :)

http://thoughtcatalog.com/2013/heres-my-effing-resume/#bSpg5pgT3Fl892Bx.01

Surfacing!

Truth be told, I forgot what a pain I can be to live with.  I’m a pretty decent housemate – that’s not what I mean.  I mean that I recently remembered why I chose to move across the country for a job with such crazy hours: I wanted to be too busy to worry about my future all the time.

I think the immediacy of working with kids (and not computers) all day really was good for me.  I said on many occasions that if that job only had more reasonable hours… or even semi-reasonable pay… or was closer to anyone who I loved, I could’ve stayed there a long time.

HELLO, friends!  It’s been way, way, way too long since I’ve visited our blog, though I have been reading it quietly from the sidelines in California and Wisconsin.  You are all such incredible people.  I love reading what you write.

For weeks now, I’ve sat down to write about a dozen times, and thus far I really haven’t managed to come up with anything worth posting, so for now, because mostly I just want to say hi, I’m just saying hi!  A lot has changed in my life over the past year (like – a ton.  Just over a year ago I was still in Vermont and had no idea what I was in for).  I thought maybe I’d just let you all know the latest update.

In August, I moved to Madison, WI, a town I had never laid eyes on until driving up to the state capital for my first day of work.  As it turns out, one of my dad’s dearest friends, who I had never met, happens to own one of the swankiest night clubs in town, as well as a pretty damn sweet apartment on the 11^th floor of the building directly across the street from the capital building.  For the first two months, while he was home in Pennsylvania with his wife and family, I stayed in his spare bedroom and tried not to touch anything for fear of it breaking.  Madison was a welcome relief after living in tiny little Idyllwild for so long.  It had grocery stores and cafes and bookstores and a target, but most importantly, it had a fantastic medical care system, and a doctor who knew what to do with me when I walked through the door and laid out six months of mystery symptoms that had rendered me all but incapable of driving.  An anxiety disorder snuck up on me while I was distracted with camp, and I have never in my life been more grateful or more frighteningly reliant on drugs.  But that’s another post.

I love my job.  It’s not as challenging as I would hope, but I love going to work everyday.  Working with my coworkers is like working with you folks, plus 6-14 years of age; we send each other goofy pictures of dogs and deep posts about education philosophy, and wander into each other’s offices every so often to appreciate the awesome Monsters University website (if you haven’t seen it, check it out!!).  I spend my days placating anxious students about how they are going to finish their bachelor’s degree through our accelerated degree program.  It’s far from rocket science, but it’s rewarding, cheerful, people-focused and often fun.  My boss thinks I’m something special (who doesn’t like that?), and tells me that in 10 years, he’s planning on being ‘the guy who got me started.’  I sincerely hope to do him proud in that regard, because I can’t remember the last time I had a mentor like him, who I so admire and enjoy.  I am torn, though, because I miss earth science like an itch you can’t scratch or a muscle you can’t get at to stretch.  I have to figure out a way to infuse it back into my world.  Sometimes Eric has me come guest-lecture for his Physics or Astronomy class at Wayland (like the Exeter or Andover of the Midwest), which is a great boost.  I’ll find a volunteer thing to do, eventually.

Actually, I have to wait for a science volunteer thing until June, BECAAAAUUUUSE (drumroll please) the USA Ultimate College Championships are being held in Madison in May!!  Guess who’s in charge of organizing the youth clinics? ;)  

(hmm… I wonder where would be a good place for an early summer reunion this time around… )

Oh – and one other project I’ve got going on: a Master’s degree.  Not in geology, I’m very sad to say… that would make this whole situation just a little too perfect.  Turns out that Edgewood staff can take classes, or get a degree, for free, and with Business, Organizational Behavior, and Education to choose from, I picked Education.  If I can be honest, I’m still extremely torn about this.  I was excited about Madison partially because I had finally decided I was going to go for a Geology masters, and they had an awesome program at the University.  Yet… who says no to a free degree?  You’d have to be nuts.  So, spoiled and whiny as it sounds, I’m still on the fence about this Edgewood degree, and just what career path it’s going to land me on (hence the train of thought where this post began).  I still need to figure out a way to make it feel like mine, but I also, as my sister puts it, need to “simmer myself down.”

Oh!  My big sister also got married in August, then bought a house, and was now just named Middle School Principal of Friends Central School in Philadelphia, PA.  She’s 32.  Nbd.  I’m a little bit proud.  :)

Also, my mom got laid off from her job of 9 years, and my parents sold my childhood home in Virginia and finally, after all these years, moved everything on up to the house in Vermont.  I’m really glad they’re getting to spend some time there.  I have no idea how long it will be sustainable, or if they’ll have any better luck in the job world than I did up there, but good gods do I hope so.

The little sister is great!  She got a dog.  I am jealous and want to get one this summer.  My family already gave me a collar with the promise of helping to fill it when I’m ready.  

I have a great life, and yet I miss mountains, and I feel restless, and I wonder about my future, constantly.  I’m getting pretty impatient with this part of me.  I’m done moving around for a while; this is a great place to be and I have a great gig going, and I intend to stay here for a while and see what I can make of it.  The challenge, I’m rediscovering, is to settle that restless feeling while staying in one place.  I thought the Master’s degree would do it pretty handily, but after a geology degree from Dickinson, reflecting on my thoughts about Education doesn’t feel like a challenging degree to be proud to earn – it just feels like a good conversation with friends.  Not a bad thing at all, but… not the consuming challenge I was hoping for.  So, I still need something – I’m just not sure yet what that is.

Anyways – that’s where I am!  Sorry to be so absent for so long!  I hope you’re all well and staying warm (it’s -25 with windchill, here today).