Dave

Academic advising and pre-registration. Barefoot Truth returns to Burlington.

This past Wednesday began the process of pre-registration for our fall semester.  As academic advisors we are required to meet with our advisees once each semester so that we can discuss their educational plan and we can "click them off" on Knightvision which then will allow them to register for courses once the actual registration begins on the 6th of April.  I always enjoy this time because these meetings provide an opportunity for dialogue about current coursework and future plans.  Students have the responsibility to monitor their own progress towards graduation and towards meeting the Liberal Studies Requirements and provided they have done their homework prior to our meetings, this time can be spent in collaboration.  It is also very satisfying as we have the luxury of seeing the progress our students have made since they arrived on our campus.  I met with Jason two days ago and was struck with how much he has "grown up" since our initial meetings.  He is more open and more introspective and has challenged himself to take courses our of his "comfort zone" and now is much more self-assured than he was as a freshman.  I asked him if I could use his name in my blog update and he laughed and agreed.  He is working in the Krikstone Laboratory for Behavioral Science with Dr. Kirshenbaum and was also with us in Pittsburgh for the Eastern Psychological Association national conference.  Tory took my Abnormal Psychology course as a freshman because she had taken Psychology as an AP course in high school.  She is now selecting courses for her senior year and wants to pursue counseling as a career.  She wants to take my Theories of Counseling course and as we discussed Practicum and I told her that I would be teaching it she was excited but then we decided that it would be good for her to take Dr. Millwood's Practicum - she has had Molly for class before, loves her teaching style and since she will have me for Theories she can get a broader experience by taking Molly's Practicum.  It is this type of collaboration that I thoroughly enjoy as we get to present challenging ideas to our advisees and then process these ideas with them. 

Barefoot Truth is a band that started here at SMC and has been enjoying success on their tour in New England.  They return tonight to Higher Ground in Burlington and I will definitely be there.  I enjoy their music and have all of their CD's and enjoy my status as an "old groupie."   It is nice to see how successful they have become. 

Every spring semester I host dinners at my house for students from my Men & Masculinities course.  This course has a blend of 16 men and 13 women - all second semester seniors who meet once a week for 2 1/2 hours of discussion.  A couple of years ago I started "dinner at Dave's" for this class and we have had two so far this semester.  It is always intriguing to listen to them as they discuss their lives - present/future in small group settings over dinner - I usually have to throw them out around 11:00pm as they not only seem to enjoy each other's company but also an opportunity to get off campus for a few hours.

Back to grading papers as the semester rushes towards its conclusion and yet another class prepares to leave here.  This will be the my 27th class to leave and there are always mixed emotions at Commencement.  It is a time when I truly believe in miracles :) and it is a time when the value of Saint Michael's College hits home - one interesting thing that they don't seem to understand is that while they will miss each other and us when they leave, those of us who have had the joy of watching them "grow up" over their four years here will miss them too..........  A rite of passage....

take care, be well, and please keep our veterans and soldiers in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

here, there and everywhere - Spring Break 2009

Spring break began after classes this past Friday afternoon.  Our students are happy to have this break and so are we :)    Some students are doing service trips with MOVE (Mobilization of Volunteer Efforts) while others are enjoying the sun in Florida (yes, college students STILL travel to Fort Lauderdale for Spring Break), California, Maine, MA, etc. and others are hanging around here doing their student teaching or working in the laboratories here on campus.  It is Sunday morning and Jo Ellis-Monaghan and I seem to be the only professors around.  I am grading papers and Jo is working on projects in her office next door.  Parking lots are empty and I am just hoping that my students will heed my advice about sun-block and that they will all follow my advice to "protect yourself by making wise decisions." The reality was just starting to hit our seniors that their time here is "almost" over with and while there is some panic, there is also some relief, anxiety and excitement.  The last two months (Commencement is May 14, 2009) will be full of papers, projects, presentations and preparation for "life after SMC."  It is an exciting and emotion-filled time for all of us.  Yet another transition in their young lives.

Transition was on the minds of the almost 1,000 participants in the VSAC (Vermont Student Assistance Corporation) College Pathways workshop held on the Saint Michael's campus yesterday. VSAC does a great job of assisting students and their families, not only with financial support for college, but in providing education to all about the complex process of college applications, financial aid AND the transition from high school to college.  The students gathered in Ross for presentations and their parents (almost 500 of them) headed over to Alliot and the dining area (they FILLED the room) to listen to a welcome from President Jack Neuhauser, a welcome and words of encouragement for Higher Education from Vermont Governor Jim Douglas and then 45 minutes listening to me talk about the issues facing parents and students as they transition from high school to college.  Most of these folks are parents of current high school juniors so they have plenty of time to prepare themselves for the transition.  Jerry Flanagan, VP for Enrollment Management introduced me and then he and I responded to questions from the parents after my talk.  The "nuts and bolts" of the application process was to be addressed in small workshops during the morning and afternoon sessions so Jerry and I primarily responded to the emotional issues that parents face as they prepare to "let go" when their "kids" head off to college in a year and a half.  VSAC has offered this program for the past couple of years and it is obviously (from the numbers) very successful.  It was fun to talk with these parents and I had the chance to talk with several of them individually after my talk.  Megan Ohler, Director of First Year Programming for SMC and I are going to Rice Memorial High School this Wednesday to talk with their 90 seniors who are heading off to college in September.  We will be again addressing issues of transition - this time it will be about how to make the transition successful in areas of academics, social life AND campus security issues.  I am looking forward to working with Megan again and to talking with these students at Rice.

Our men's ice hockey team WAS successful last weekend as they once again claimed first place in the NE-10 in what can only be described as a challenging but successful year.  Injuries, eligibility issues and the normal challenges of college sports didn't deter them from their goal of winning the NE-10 so congratulations to all of these young men and their coaches.

As always, please take good care, be well and keep our veterans and servicemen/women in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

Greetings from Pittsburgh

The Eastern Psychological Association national convention was held this year in Pittsburgh.  Prof. Caroline Whitney and I flew down here on Thursday and Prof. Ari Kirshenbaum drove seven of our students here, also on Thursday.  I had initially thought of driving with them and then reality set in and I decided that I really didn't want a 12 hour ride in a College van.  Kudos to Ari for his patience and willingness to drive our students here for this conference.  It has been three days of challenging and exciting information and while I am normally proud of our students, this EPA Conference has reinforced the idea that we ARE doing the right thing in our educational programs and I couldn't be more proud of our students than I am right now.  These students have all done research with someone in our Psychology Department and this conference was the opportunity to showcase that research.  Poster sessions consist of a 3 X 4 foot poster outlining the hypothesis, the procedures and the findings of research.  Prof. Whitney worked with students on 5 such posters.  She and I also presented a poster explaining the work we have been doing on academic achievement and our student-athletes.  Prof. Kirshenbaum presented a paper entitled "Context Dependent Perturbations In DRL-Schedule Performance" - he worked with Seth Brown ('09) and Sarah Schwarz ('08) but we were all there adding our support for his presentation.  The other students with us are Caitlin Adamo, Eric Jackson, Jason Fuchs, Betsie Miltner, Alicia McDonald (she presented the work she has been doing with Prof. Richardson on a NASA grant), Ciaran Gilmore ('08) and Megan Murphy ('07) who is in her second year of graduate school at Ohio University.  Everyone presented at least one poster. It has been been an eye-opener for me as to the amazing value of faculty/student collaboration.  Students stood by their posters and had to explain all facets of their research as they are approached by students/faculty members from all over the country. I watched Caitlin and Jason respond to questions about their research from someone whom they had used as a reference for THEIR paper.  This could have been extremely intimidating (and it may have been) but these two students certainly never let any anxiety show as they responded to his in-depth questions about their research.  Seth and I attended the Psi Chi (national honor society in psychology) breakfast for Advisors and Presidents this morning and heard how the organization hopes to change its title from Psi Chi - National Honor Society to Psi Chi - International Honor Society.  There is a movement to expand the organization to become more inclusive.  I also attended a couple of workshops where psychology curriculum was discussed.  We all attended different workshops during the times when we weren't presenting our own posters and then get to share what we learned from these various workshops.  All in all a very worthwhile time.  Ari and the students DRIVE back tomorrow morning and Caroline and I fly out inthe morning.  We have shared good company, some nice meals together and some very exciting discussions about many, many topics within the field of psychology. 

On another quick note - GO KNIGHTS as our men's hockey team has JUST (four minutes ago) started their final game of the season in the finals of the NE-10 Championship - while I REALLY wish that I were there to cheer our team on, they know that I am cheering them on from Pittsburgh.

take care, be well, and as always, please keep all of the members of our military and all of our veterans in your thoughts and prayers.

Dave