2 kids from jersey

Who’d ever thought that I’d be in summer school?! Much less by choice. And even more surprising, taking 4 classes! It’s all very exciting.

Tonight is Human Resource Management for Nonprofit Organizations from 5:30-9pm. Fingers crossed it doesn’t suck. Oh… and that we get out early.

Yes, I realize it’s not technically summer but the next three weeks are going to be the closest I’m gonna get.

In the quest to complete this MPA program, I have decided to take 4 summer session classes. At Rutgers, the summer is broken into 2 sessions and I’m taking 2 classes each session.

Summer session I (May 27 – July 3)
Mon & Wed: Theory & Practice of Nonprofit Management
Tues & Thurs: Nonprofit Human Resources

Summer Session II (July 7 – August 13)
Mon & Wed: Resource Development for Nonprofits
Tues & Thurs: Nonprofit Budgeting

Yup. That’s class M-Th from 5:30-9:00pm. I know. It’s going to be a lot and I’ve been called crazy on several occasions. I’m not under any delusions about how not fun it’s going to be but 4 CLASSES! FOUR!! That’ll be 8 down and only 6 left. YAY!

Spring finals are over and summer classes don’t start until the 27th. Maybe I’ll finally print those pictures and work on our honeymoon photo album.

Today is my last final for the spring semester. I took 2 classes this spring, Political Economy & Analytical Methods. The Political Econ paper was turned in last week and tonight in my open book/open note final for Analy. Methods.

I went to the review session for it last night. Not sure it was entirely productive but I think it may have helped a little. I wasn’t at last weeks class because I had to work, so my classmates filled me in on what to expect format-wise. Supposidly there are only 7 questions but each question will probably have multiple parts, so that spreads out the points a little.

The final is crucial to our grade. It’s worth 30 (of 100) points. She’s currently only graded 56 points worth of work, so there’s not really a good way to guage what grade I need on the final to get an A – just a lot of hypotheticals. So…. fingers crossed for that.

Today, I emailed out my final paper for my 3rd grad class. I was running late trying to finish it in time. (You know I always wait until the last minute. If it weren’t for the last minute, nothing would ever get done!) It took me 2 frickin’ hours just to compile my reference list (all 28 sources!). That was way longer than I budgeted by about an hour. I was just hitting save as the clock in the upper right hand corner of my screen clicked 5:00 PM.  It was due at five, so I quickly attached and sent it off.

I’d be a little more confident if I had time to do some (any) proofreading. Which I did not. I read as I went along but I wrote it in sections and fits and spurts. Ok.ok. Mostly just spurts. A singular spurt. But I never actually read the whole thing as one continuous paper. To be honest, I still haven’t. I figure, it’s already turned in; why agonize over it?? If I reread it now, I’m just going to want to make changes and switch around sentences; which I can’t because (as previously stated) it’s already turned in. But at least it’s done! I actually think it is an interesting paper. Of course, I did write it. But it is a legitimately interesting topic, well, as interesting as political economy can be.

Now, just keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t totally suck. Would it be totally unrealistic to expect an A?? (Cause I really want the A) But no matter the grade, the class is officially over. One more checked off the list. WHEEE!!!

Undergrad seems like it was just yesterday but when I stop to think about it, I guess it really wasn’t. We graduated in 2005. Three whole years ago!! WTF?! Not sure where those three years went but they sure flew by.

My senior year of college, my honors advisor kept bugging me and bugging me about grad school. My parents too – “if you don’t do it right away, it only gets harder to go back”. I figured, I’d take a year off, figure out what I wanted to do my masters in and then go back and do it. Well, a year turned into 2, which turned into three. I never did figure out the perfect program but I’ve finally committed to one.

I have been officially accepted into the Masters of Public Administration (MPA) program at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University – Newark for the Fall 2008 semester. Wow that’s a mouthful. Basically, I’m doing my MPA. Oh – and I’m getting a certification in Nonprofit Management. So that’s cool.

I’ve still got to meet with my advisor to lay out the program. I’ve already taken the first 4 classes as a nondegree student (non officially in the program) but they should still count. Well, technically I took 2 courses last summer and am in 2 courses now. But I should pass this semesters classes alright (fingers crossed!). I’d love to be done by the end of next summer (summer ’09) but they may be wishful thinking. If I had started this 2 years ago like I said I was going to I’d be done by now but c’est la vie. Yup. Mom’s are usually right. There. I said it.