Academically speaking,

One of the cool things about being in a field that I love and am continuously more interested in is that I get to meet lots of people who are really neat. Most every time a new class begins, we go around and introduce ourselves, our lives, our studies, and I think, "Wow, these people are all really interesting. I'm looking forward to sharing this class with them."

I started my first class toward becoming certified in Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance (DMHA) a couple weeks back, and as we went around the room, my thoughts were more along the lines of, "Holy shit, every single person in this class is waaaay cooler than me!" It's a large class, and as such there hasn't yet been much discussion around the table, but I am really, really, really looking forward to it when it does happen.

We have the lady who worked with Bosnian refugees. We have the guy who directed a disaster refugee program in Indonesia. We have the lady who studies lava flow on the moon. No, really. That's what she does.

This class also promises to be cool (outside of its own right of being really cool because I'm interested in learning more on the subject) in two ways:

1) the professors are pretty awesome, and except for being from an Urban Planning background as opposed to a psychology/social sciences background, my research and life interests are pretty well entangled with the research and careers of these two professors. I can't wait to learn everything from both of them.

2) the Urban Planning department was just named a national center for disaster management training (the official title is very similar to those words, but I don't remember them exactly or else I'd have capitalized). I mean, it was very very recently named a national center for training. So our final project in this class was changed from research paper to... create a training program that will address a need in DMHA. Dr. Kim said, "So, this project is exploitative in nature because we're using you all for ideas for training programs, but on the other side is that if you have a really good idea we might be able to hire you in the spring to further develop and implement it."

Of course, in that moment my goal became to create a project that they'll want to develop and implement. I honestly have no idea how reasonable a goal that is, given that this is my first foray into the field, but no point not shooting for it, right?

I also don't know how exactly all of this fits together for my long-term plans, although it seems as though it could come together quite cohesively.

My Plan As It Stands Now:

1) Get a Masters in December. This entails revising and defending my thesis before October ends, which I believe is doable. I finished my first draft a couple weeks back, did some edits, sent it off to my adviser, and just received it back yesterday. He had some really good suggestions, including two things that I knew I had left out and needed to figure out how to add but hadn't figured out how to add, and some other things that I agree will greatly improve the overall work. And a whole bunch of grammar and APA stuff.

2) Start my DMHA certificate. I figured now was a good time, because I want to be developing my dissertation proposal over the next year, and knowledge from this certificate will really help me in that. My Cultural Community Psychology adviser agreed that was a good idea, and my brand spanking new DMHA Certificate adviser (Dr. Kim) also agreed and seemed to think my interests aligned well into the program.

3) Complete my major comprehensive exams in the spring. I've been scared of these for awhile, but I've had the great fortune of watching Andrew, who is also in Cliff's lab, go through Comps last semester. He gave me great tips for survival, explained to me how it works and what it's like, and generally gave me a realistic point of view. I can do Comps in the spring. I'm pretty confident of this.

4) Complete my minor comprehensive papers in the spring and summer of 2010. They're designed, it turns out, so that you can use them as building blocks for your dissertation research, I guess in many if not all cases. So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to use my minor papers as research opportunities and dissertation-building opportunities.

5) Also use my classes as dissertation-building opportunities. Over the next year, I'm going to try and take classes that I'll be able to use toward that goal.

I feel much more directed now. There's room in that plan for things/times/research/goals to change, but at least I have a good idea what to shoot for. Also, I don't know what all will happen with work. I've pretty well decided that unless I'm able to get in on a grant that is directly related to my dissertation research, I'm going to stick with the job I have. Because I'm invested in it. I'd be really sad to not see it through, although if I have the opportunity to have a job that will pay me to do my dissertation research, well. That would be pretty awesome.

But for now, I'm gonna have breakfast. Because it's closing in on 11am and I haven't done that yet. The rest of my plans can wait.