First Come, First Serve… Not Always
The excitement of starting a new course and tackling the first activity caused, strangely, an absence of ideas on what to choose to work on. The first idea that came to mind was to build something to help students decide what to study when preparing their admission process to a university. I wanted to work on the idea at my son’s university (Centre for Digital Media, n. d.) but the initiative ended up not making much sense since the CDM is a highly specialized graduate school that offers a unique program.
The second idea that seemed better than the first had to do with the networking students in a master’s program are expected to build. Having the opportunity to learn in advance, thanks to my son, that networking is not practiced in an organised manner but mostly casually among the CDM’s students, I made an appointment to see the CDM’s director Dr. Richard Smith to explore the possibilities of the idea sharing it with him.
One idea leads to another
Even though Dr. Smith agreed on the fact that the students should be more diligent regarding their gathering of networking information, he stated that did not represent as big an issue for him or the university and suggested we go back to my first idea. He then talked about a different scope for the idea stressing the importance that helping students make sure they made the right choice has not only for them, but also for the universities and parents of the students.
Furthermore, he specified that during the second year of college the larger number of changes occur because many students did not chose their areas properly. The impacts of these changes are diverse. Time is the first one because the students will need more time to complete their program, which also affects the university since graduation is what counts for their stats. There are also costs involved in these changes. In some cases the parents are supporting their studies, and in other the students must extend their loans’ terms. And regarding costs, the university also incurs in having faculty, materials and facilities available for the enrolled students.
Redirecting the research
Dr. Smith suggested me to contact the counselling departments of larger universities, and offered to put me in contact with an acquaintance of his in Simon Fraser University. I have a telephone conference scheduled for this coming Tuesday to discuss the topic with Kim Hockey, who is the director of Student Affairs.
The road to find the information source is taking longer than expected, and I hope it will be worthwhile because the outcome’s value will benefit more than one segment of the people involved.
So far the empathy method I have been using is the interview, and only as exploratory means to find appropriate grounds for the idea to progress. There should be interesting information to add to this post in the coming weeks.
Thank you for reading my post, I will certainly appreciate your feedback.
References
Centre for Digital Media. (n. d.) Retrieved from https://thecdm.ca/
Pictures of UBC and SFU campuses retrieved from the Creative Commons web site.
Hi Alphonso:
Networking or helping students succeed are both worthy causes, Interviews do seem to help compile and organize your thoughts, making the decision on direction scope and size could be a little daunting, all the best and talk to you soon
Hello Klaus,
I appreciate your comments and support. Among the most rewarding things in life is watching students succeed! That should remain as one of our reasons to go out and try new ways to make it better for them… which not necessarily means easier, but their effort will always be worthwhile.
Cheers!
Hey Alfonso!!
I like both ideas. I hate networking, not because I don’t make good friendships like we have here, but it just freaks me out. I always say something incredibly stupid, as well.
I think it is a key thought missing from a lot of programmes; is this major appropriate for students’ lives? I’m not sure why I became a secondary school teacher, seeing as how talking to people is difficult for me. But I can’t remember ever stopping and wondering why I selected those majors. In hindsight, there is another major that would have been much healthier for me, and I’m not sure why I didn’t pursue that. It’s Wednesday, though. Did the interview go well?
Hi Krista!
Thank you for your comments on my blog. Sometimes, more frequent than not, it happens that one reflects on past experiences rather than projecting one’s aspirations and goals. And often the outcomes seem more a consequence than a determined intention being achieved successfully… which unconsciously undermines one’s self-esteem because you might take it simply as fate, without giving yourself any credit for your accomplishments. I have heard many times that human beings are creatures of success because they can achieve what they think, so an important part of what we obtain in life resides in our ideas. That thought contains at least two important points: One-we have to be aware of what we think and wish for cause it might become true; and two-we are equipped to succeed in those ideas we conceive… in other words: If you can think of it, it can be done!
The interview was rescheduled for tomorrow because I was out of town (actually out of Canada), and I did not have international roaming in my cellular (?). And I have another interview scheduled also for next Wednesday, so things are moving along. Hopefully I will have good input from my interviewees.
Cheers!