Mallory

Thesis... eeeeeek!

It would be an understatement to say that I am nervous about writing my thesis next semester.

Background info:  When Professor John P. Kenney was Dean of the College some number of years ago he instituted a program that required every major to have some sort of senior capstone project.  For most this means a thesis, but others like Science or Math have different requirements.

Now Professor Kenney is back to being a Religious Studies professor (my major) and is currently running our "pre-thesis" class called "Religion, Theory, and Method."  It's been a great class.  Monday nights from 6-9pm is when we meet and he's really great about even giving us breaks and stuff so we aren't sitting there doing hard work for 3 hours.  Its definitely intense though.  We basically read a book a week and then write a 2 page response to something that we read.

Next semester I will be writing my thesis with Professor Kenney, because he is our resident scholar on Saint Augustine.  We have outlined that I am going to look at Augustine's life and see how his mother Monica played an influence to him both before and after his conversion.  I am scared ****less! 

First of all, the thesis will have to be about 30 pages long.  I am an honors student so it will either be a bit longer than that or it will be graded tougher.  For this semester's class I have to write a 15 page paper but I can use it to propel me towards my thesis (which is great!)  but I am still scared.   I realize that at Oxford I wrote 4 times that much writing but for some reason the word THESIS is scary!

Can't they just call it a ... long term paper?

"NYC, just got here this morning..."

(quote from Annie)

Last weekend I went to NYC with my mom and my sister.  We bought tickets for Mary Poppins (on broadway) in July so I have been looking forward to this for quite awhile! 

We went to Clifton Park, NY and stayed the night because we took a AAA bus to NYC from their Saturday morning.  It was SO CUTE.  The AAA bus was mainly for an "American Girl" trip so it was all these mothers and their little 8 year old daughters.  ADORABLE!  But obviously we weren't there for the dollies so people looked at us a bit funny... as my other sister that went is 15.  One woman even asked if we were going to American Girl... "nope, seeing a show!"

We get to NYC around 11am and get dropped off at Bryant Park.  As we start walking around Broadway we notice all these picketers outside EVERY single theatre.  Wondering what was going on we went up to one of the guys and got his flier.  This is what we saw:

We are sorry to inform you, but all Broadway shows have been cancelled this weekend.

WHAT????!!!!!???!!!

So if you watch the news you might have known that was coming.  Apparently all the stagehands this past weekend decided that they were going to strike because of wages.  I'm not fully educated on their pay and there is a lot of controversy over whether they should have done a strike or not... so that is not going to be something I comment on here.

Well I walk right up to another picketer and say "are ALL the shows REALLY cancelled?"  He replies, "All but a few.  Mary Poppins and Young Frankenstein are still showing because their stagehands are under a different union.

HALLELUIA!!!!

So long story short... we got to see the show!  It was AMAAAAAAAZING.  Remember feeling (as a kid) that Mary Poppins was so magical? Well they were able to really capture that on stage.  Just simply amazing.  If you are into theatre, I definately recommend it.  I see many TONY's coming in this show's near future.  I won't give away the surprises of the show, but take my word for it you will be BLOWN away!!!

Workstudy

SO I am at workstudy right now, not really doing much.  Thus, I have decided to dedicate this post to workstudy.

I come in to the Student Resource Center on Tuesdays from about 11:30 to 6pm.  That probably  sounds too long for a lot of people, but that is kind of how I like to do it.  Get it all done, one day in and out.  A lot of workstudy students will do a couple hours here and there... but like I said that isn't really my style.

I am one of three seniors this year at the SRC.  I've noticed I don't get asked to do a lot of the "meaningless" tasks anymore (like making 200 photocopies or something) which shows that they trust me with the bigger tasks.  I was able to organize and create our Graduate School area, which is new this year, with the materials that we got from a fair SMC held about a month ago.  I also really enjoy sitting at the desk and doing my reading.  That way when the phone rings I can answer it, but it also allows me to get a lot of reading done.  (Of course I usually just end up chatting with Jody, our office assistant about randomness or Banana Republic or something... but my intentions are there.) 

If you get offered workstudy you should take it.  I thought about deferring for a semester to "ease" in, but to be honest workstudy allowed me to "ease in" a bit "easier!"  Almost every office on our campus offers positions, and initially you just get assigned to one.  I got lucky being assigned to the SRC.  We have an excellent group of people in this office, the career and personal counselors are so nice, and we get  to do a party each semester.  It's also a good way to earn a little bit of extra cash to get you through the semester!

Yay for workstudy!

New President

No don’t get excited, Bush is still around.

However, here at SMC we have a new President of the college.  Jack Neuhauser.  I know I have mentioned him before but I think that he warrants his own article considering his position. 

Last year there were 3 candidates for the position brought to our college and given the ability to speak in an Open Forum setting in front of students, faculty, and staff.  The problem with this was that there were barely any students present.  If something of this nature were to happen again I would almost recommend to whoever is the current Dean of Students that he has teachers make this a requirement for their classes. But anywhoo… I recall Jack’s Open Forum very well.  He looked friendly enough and as the first candidate to have an OF I am sure there was some nerves to him.  However his answers seemed lacking and I left with the feeling that this current Trustee might not know too much about SMC after all.

First impressions can be misleading, haven’t I learned that yet?

Long story short – Jack got the position and Alex and I met with him at the end of the year.  I was pleasantly surprised how supportive he immediately was of student endeavors and how he planned to focus on making SMC a nationally known liberal arts college.  Academics seemed to be his number one priority and not only improving them here but getting the word out that SMC is just as good as anything else out there.

I’ve had plenty of contact with Jack since those initial times.  He’s met with our E-Board, Alumni Board, Student Government, etc.  Each time he is willing to tell of his plans but what I find far more important is that he is willing to listen to our suggestions, complaints, everything.  While Jack is not one for long speeches, he gets to the point.  In five minutes he could say more than what many people I know say all day.  And his focus on Academics hasn’t changed one bit.

Do I think he was the right choice?  Absolutely!  I think that conviction will only grow throughout the rest of this year.  Do I feel lucky that I will have this experience helping to acquaint him to the college from a student’s perspective?  Absolutely times 10.

Good choice Trustees…