Grad Life

As I almost have "Week 2" in the books, I thought I would take some time to share my experiences with being at ISU full-time as a graduate student. I gave myself a little too much caffeine today, so I made lists so my brain would focus better for all you lovely readers.

Life:
Life. Life. Life. It's different being on campus this year, but so far I like it! I have people around to remind me when I forget to do something, and I have the chance to go to research presentations and such. Also, I am only working 20 hours a week  for my assistantship so that's supposed to leave me tons of free time, but I'll let you know where that time has been going once I figure that one out. I miss my AmeriCorps position and the youth, but 

For those who know about the food count I was doing, so far I have had free meals seven times. So graduate school has other benefits as well. ;)

My classes:
Statistics 401: Well, our professor likes to talk about falling cats and lets us out of lab after thirty minutes. So there's that!

HDFS 504: Qualitative Methods. It's seeming really awesome. We get to conduct interviews and spend hours coding them!

HDFS 510: Family Theory. Theory classes, yay! We will be writing a theories essay, and I think my partner and I are focusing on the perceptions of substance use among emerging adults. Stay tuned!  \

YTH 501: Foundations of youth development. A one credit course to knock out of the way. 

My Assistantship(s):
Teaching Assistant: I am spending 10 hours a week with Dr. Baltimore and two other graduate students teaching HDFS 102, Human Development and Life Span... from womb to tomb as we call it. As you can see in the photo, there has been a lot of paper grading so far, but it goes pretty quickly!

Research Assistant: I am also spending 10 hours a week with Dr. Susan Maude working on a program evaluation. It's pretty exciting, and I get to work with some pretty rad undergrads (see what I did there!).

 I hope you all love my amazing desk, and if you are in Ames, stop by MacKay 34 to say hi. I have already gotten rid of two cockroaches, so it should be safe!

Love always,

Ashley