Almost Self-Sabatoged

This post is full of news. One, I graduated with my BA. I've been working so hard for this moment since 2009 that now that it's over I'm nothing if not a little nonplussed at how anticlimactic the end has been. Anyone who has consistently read this blog knows my graduation is a long time coming. Don't believe me? Go to the side bar, click Things I've Written About and choose education. And those aren't the only education-related posts, thanks to my abysmal labelling consistency!

Two, you probably surmised from this post that we decided to move to Manhattan.  But you probably didn't know, thanks to this now-outdated post, that I would be doing a Master's program alongside Derrick. So, yes, I'm starting grad school this fall (I guess this means I'm a would-be grad student no longer and now need to update my About Me section).  The story is strange and fortuitous. Let me summarize:

I got a letter from Columbia University in February saying I had been accepted into their Negotiation and Conflict Resolution program. I yelled, jumped, and made a scene, so flattered I was to have been accepted anywhere, let alone Columbia. I got a few more acceptance letters while we waited for word from Derrick's programs. Long story short, I gave up hope that Derrick had been accepted to Columbia, and sent an informal email to one of my contacts there saying, essentially, "thanks, but no thanks."  I never heard back, but didn't think much of it. The day after I sent that email, we heard that Derrick actually had been accepted into Columbia's Clinical Psychology program. By that time I had decided to turn down my first choice of Conflict Resolution programs in D.C. for BYU's Sociology program. 

When Derrick made it clear that he really wanted to do Columbia's program, well, I was pissed and not a very nice person to be around for a while.  I mean, what the hell? The audacity of the man! But then I remembered how much Derrick had sacrificed to help me get my BA and that it was kinda sorta his turn to work on his career.  Gotta be fair, right? So I accepted my fate of postponing grad school for a few more years, left for Jordan, and didn't really let myself re-evaluate my acceptance into, and subsequent rejection, of the program at Columbia. 

Then a few weeks ago I received an unexpected email from their admissions office that basically said, "Hey, we never heard from you. Still wanna do the program?" and I was like, "wow, really?" Derrick and I talked about it and I thought, "what better time to go into student debt?" and so now I'm officially enrolled as of today. What are the odds that this story could actually happen? To me? Next to none. But it's true. Feel free to wish me and Derrick both luck as we embark on our respective programs, juggling a 3 year old, trying to dodge debt capitalization, and dealing with Big Apple culture shock.

Love to all.

the vote has been cast

This fall, our official decision is New York City. 

Come visit when you get a chance!

forging new ground

Have you ever done anything...unexpected? Have you ever been the first to do something in your family? Nuclear, immediate, extended or human?

This has been on my mind for a few reasons. First, the internship I start next week is overseeing a college preparation program for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. This can mean they qualify for free or reduced lunch, but it can also mean they are the first in their family to ever go to college. Some of these students may be the first in their family to finish high school. Think about that. Doing the different or unexpected can be hard, especially if you're just a kid.

Second, I am doing something a little different. Something I've certainly never done before.
And even though people in my family have gone to college and even gone on to get Master's or PhD's, no one has ever applied to the schools and programs I'm applying to. For some reason, this makes it harder. Just imagine what it must be like for the teenagers I'm helping this Fall!

So it really helps when there are people I can ask for help and advice. To Lindsay and Derrick, thank you for your support!

Have you ever done something unexpected? It could be anything-I'm not just talking school here. What gave you the resolve to follow through?

A New Semester Begins

The first day of classes are always exciting to me. And it looks like I'll be able to take two classes I'm very excited about: International Political Economy of Women (which I'm in the process of trying to add. Hopefully everything works out*) and Western American Literature.

I also have an incredible internship opportunity lined up with a local non profit that prepares underprivileged teens for college. The directors of the nonprofit also want me to direct a qualitative evaluation of student experiences with the program and this will permit me to plant "Research Assistant", as well as intern, on my CV, since I'll be doing it with a professor in the Sociology Department.

My problem? I have a narrow window of opportunity in the middle of the day to do homework and finish the report for the research I did this summer, and my toddler, inexplicably, no longer likes to nap during this time. I had carefully arranged my schedule to fit around this traditional naptime and it seems it's blowing up in my face. sigh.

I've tried lots of things. In fact, as I calmly write this post I am listening to the cries and screams of my daughter, since I took away her "sleeping sippy" and left her alone in the crib. I am doing this in the hopes that when I return it to her in about 20 minutes she will have worn herself out with crying**. Cruel, right? So be it.

This isn't a post to solicit advice about nap-time woes. I know we'll weather this and be just fine, with time. I guess my point is simply that just when we think we've reached a balance and can juggle all those balls just fine, we're thrown a curve ball. The great thing about being a woman is that I can learn how to catch that new ball and not drop everything else. It is good to be a woman.

*I got in!
**It worked!

Plan B

Everyone needs a plan B, right? Whenever I've thought about not getting into Master's programs my mind draws a blank and I feel like I have no other option than to feel utterly at a loss for happiness. I hope this is hyperbole should this actually take place.

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Should this happen, and there is no other explanation than an appallingly low math score on the GRE, I came up with a plan for next year.

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It's called, wait for it... The Year of Living Mathematically. Ta da!

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Simply, this means I would eat, drink and sleep math (figuratively, of course) during my spare time for an entire year. I think it would take a year, at minimum, to overcome my phobia.

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This plan would entail reading math novels (yes, there actually are such things), biographies about mathemeticians with a special emphasis on female math geniuses, watching t.v. shows and movies about math, auditing math classes, talking to tutors and professors, memorizing times tables, ditching the calcluator, going on khan academy daily, and basically looking for every and any opportunity to insert math into my day somehow. Oh, and I'd blog about it. How original, huh?

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If math is what keeps me from going to grad school, then I'd best come up with a plan of attack, right?

Internship, Week One

First week down. Just however-many-more-we-have-to-go. I'm not really keeping track, and honestly, if the following weeks are anything like this last week time. will. fly. So busy, but a lot of learning, a lot of listening, a lot of writing, a lot of printing, a lot of typing, a lot of running around. You get the idea.

The longer I'm here, the more I'm convinced the education system is a mini Washington D.C. Everything is so political. Funding here today, gone tomorrow, based on policy, public sentiment, educational trends or politically-correct thinking that happens to be sweeping through the consciousness of the majority. Even the most important and student-conscious programs have to bare their teeth and roll up their sleeves to make sure that squeaky wheel is heard. Every program director is a lobbyist. Thank goodness they exist.

Consent forms for our focus groups are trickling in. So far student excitement about being pulled out of class for an hour and a half has not outweighed their reticence of putting the extra energy into having a parent sign a consent form and bringing it back to the school. Despite that it does appear we will have some students to work with next week. What a relief!

A Trip to Campus

The ever-intellectual Squirty decided to accompany me on a trip to campus today. I rarely venture to campus unless I have to, but I had a few errands to run and a special visit to make.

Squirty spent most of her time monkeying around, distracting studious college-goers.


We made a special visit to Gloria, my favorite professor and mentor. Sadly, I'm not taking any classes from her this semester. I just couldn't reconcile it with my strong desire to scale-back and simplify my schedule this time around, but that doesn't mean we can't go and see her when we get the chance! My excuse this time was returning a book she had lent me, The Talmud and the Internet.

I love so many things about Gloria, but her affection for Squirty is especially endearing to me.

Squirty is moving more deeply into toddlerhood. Though she can sometimes be reluctant to talk, her vocabulary now includes "moon", "cheese", "Jesus", "shoes", "apple", "banana", and her favorite word is "hi". Squirty is also starting to increase the volume and frequency of her temper-tantrums, which often happen when she has to say goodbye to someone. Embarassingly, it happened today when we had to say goodbye to Gloria and make our way home.

Motivation

This semester was an experiment in madness. Yes, I have a 19 month old. Yes, I took a full-time courseload. All considered it went pretty well, but I'm very relieved it's about to come to an end.

Next week is finals week. I have three test-finals, one 5-7 page project proposal, and one 8-10 page paper due as well as an unexpectedly formal internship interview. I've been fighting off a cold, taking care of my daughter who is also getting sick and I'm cooking dinner for tonight. I haven't gone to the gym once this week. My apartment is a disaster. Really. Dishes are stacked in the sink and the towels definitely need to be washed and the sheets changed.

What in the world is keeping me going right now?

A glorious book list I just can't wait to get to.
What keeps you going?

Local Study Hits Home

Photo from theacademicmom.com

A recent study highlighted in the Deseret News last week made me feel both pleased and discouraged. The article pointed out that Utah women lag behind in higher education, much more so than women in other states. The study indicated that Mormon women in particular have a difficult time reconciling higher education with family. The article left me feeling pleased because women in this area, most of whom are of my faith, place high priority on family and child-rearing. It upset me for a few reasons. Before I go further, however, let me make it very clear that the purpose of this blog post is not to admonish all women, and especially Mormon women to pursue educational and career goals, whatever the cost. There are so many considerations to be made depending on the woman, her interests and her family, that I have absolutely no interest in making broad statements about women and what they should or should not do.

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That being said, the article did discourage me because so many women feel, rightly or wrongly, that pursuing an education and raising a family are mutually exclusive pursuits. That may be true of some women and their families, but certainly not all. One quote in particular resonated with me. Susan Madsen, business management professor leading the Utah Women and Education Project, stated: "LDS young women get that it's important to go to college. That's not the problem. . . They don't see options. They do not see that one evening a week they could go to class and their husband could watch the kids. It's all or nothing." As the article outlines, many Mormon women do begin college, and it's highly encouraged; but finishing is given less emphasis and consequently, many of those women don't graduate. Anecdotally, I know several women who've waited until their children leave home to finish their degrees. A woman in my Navajo class is 69 and finishing her degree in Political Science. Props to her! But it doesn't have to be that way.

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Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, Mormon woman and professor in Harvard's History Department had finished her bachelor's degree in English shortly after getting married and before having children. After moving to Boston for her husband's education and having several children she says:

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"By that time I realized that there was life after marriage. . . We were just getting started out. I had these little kids and not much money. It occurred to me that I could do a lot with small amounts of time if I was organized. It was very hard at first, but I became disciplined. The whole experience convinced me that I could handle taking a class or two, and eventually I started thinking about the long term. So Gael and I came up with the money for me to take one course. We thought that if I got a masters in English, at some point I could teach part-time. That seemed like it would be a nice outlet while my kids were growing up. It was a one-year masters program that took five years for me to do" (Kimball 94).

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Ulrich certainly is a success story for women who decide to abandon the "all or nothing" fallacy. She continued her education, won a Pulitzer, and landed the teaching position she now occupies while raising four children she describes as "terrific people. They can do anything" (98). And guess what? Her marriage even survived the transition she discusses above. In fact, her marriage became stronger and more interdependent. I'm confident that many women in Utah Valley who harbor regrets over not finishing their degrees could have equally happy stories to tell in a few years' time.

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Works Cited:

Kimball, James. Mormon Women: Portraits and Conversations. Handcart Books, 2009.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

photo courtesy of windowswallpaper.net

I decided to crunch credits again this morning, and it appears I'll be able to graduate sooner than I have been telling people and myself for the past 6 months. If all goes according to plan (when does life ever really go according to plan?) I'll be eligible for graduation by December 2011. Just one more year: Yipee!

The Best Part of my Semester

My Shelfari has been a bit heavy on Toni Morrison this semester. This can be attributed mostly to my Senior Course with my all-time-favorite professor, Dr. C. I just love this woman. I took her Women's Studies in Lit. class last Winter and have been a devotee of hers ever since. After taking African-American Lit. with her this last summer I was a bit heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to do her Toni Morrison Senior Course in the Spring (since I'll be in Arizona doing a field study/internship). After telling her of my distress, she suggested I do the coursework with her one-on-one this Fall and then we could sneak it pass the administration come April. I couldn't have been happier!

Our group now consists of two other students in addition to myself, but the atmosphere continues to be intimate and fun. Dr. C is the consummate hostess and we often meet at her house for breakfast whilst we discuss the books and articles we've been reading. This morning, she treated me and my groupmates to breakfast at Mimi's Cafe to celebrate their recent test-taking ventures (N took the LSAT and is preparing for the GRE; C has taken both the English specific and general GRE; looks like I'm a GRE-less loner, until next year anyway).

Dr. C is extraordinarily intelligent, as well as funny, compassionate and wise. Needless to say, Friday mornings have been and will continue to be the best part of my courseload this semester.

Some Thoughts on Reading

Last year in my Women's Studies in Literature class, I encountered this delightful little book, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Now one of my favorite books, this novella chronicles a satirical and fictional account of Elizabeth II and her newfound obsession: reading.

In his novella, Bennett explores a most important question: what does it mean to be a great reader of fiction? There are, after all, different types of readers: indifferent, pleasure-seeking, casual, or, as the Queen becomes, great.

So what marks up these differences? The book provides an example I've noted abundantly in my own experience. Norman, the Queen's amanuensis, is a great companion for her, at least initially. When she begins her journey into the literary world, Norman provides encouragement and friendship. And yet when Norman is dismissed and enters school, the Queen must admit that she feels she "was outgrowing him...or rather, out-reading him." Much of this is due to the fact that Norman reads "purely for pleasure, not enlightenment, though part of the pleasure was enlightenment, he could see that." So what does this mean, this pleasure-seeking? The Queen acknowledges that "Norman's preferences could sometimes be suspect. Other things being equal he still tended to prefer gay authors, hence her aquaintance with Genet." Thus Norman, who is coincidentally gay, seeks above all to reinforce his own particular paradigm. No one can deny that having one's own paradigm bolstered is, after all, rather pleasurable. But still, literature deserves to be taken more seriously than this.

The Queen, however, tends to reject such biases in her reading. The one exception to this rule is her abstinence from fantasy and her decision to save Harry Potter "for a rainy day." Funnily, I have acquaintances of my own that read Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia and Tolkein, but little else. This reveals a pronounced bias on their part. After all, these books conveniently lend themselves to a binary good-versus-evil, everything-turns-out-alright-in-the-end view of the world. The subject matter they explore is limited, and honestly, not that applicable to most people in most situations, white Mormon middle-class notwithstanding.

The professor who introduced The Uncommon Reader to me also related a funny story about two elderly women she knew who would read Gone with the Wind over and over again. Once they finished, they started it afresh. It drove my professor, and pretty much everyone else who knew them, crazy. But who could blame them? They were devoted heart and soul to a book that not only painted a nostalgic view of the world as it once had been, but it also contained racial codes that they could actually understand and relate to.

Thus, to be a great or uncommon reader as Alan Bennett would put it, we are beholden to sometimes put ourselves in contact with books that soften our paradigms rather than bolster them. I feel this is true regardless of the paradigm, though I too have to measure my reading material guardedly. On my book shelves you're just as likely to see Conservative mainstays (Edmund Burke, Adam Smith and James Madison) as Liberal bestsellers (Dreams from My Father, The Audacity of Hope, The End of Poverty), and yet what books I actually read reveals what paradigm I'm trying to support. So, I try to vary things a bit. Even on my much-neglected poli-blog, my articles take equal turns going after liberals and conservatives. Having forayed for some time in books with a leftist bias, I plan to venture into some Ayn Rand in the near future.

Biases are difficult to avoid, but the main message here is that if we want to be great readers we need to be conscientious of them and try our best to avoid them by challenging ourselves with reading materials that fail to enforce our adopted paradigms. Otherwise we succeed only in entertaining ourselves towards a complacent intellectual and moral stupor.

In which Jen Complains, Carries On

Today has not been a good day. It started out alright. Squirty didn't wake up inexplicably in the middle of the night, needing two hours of reassurance before going back to sleep (something she's done at least twice in the past two weeks or so), I got my behind out of the house by nine for a half-mile swim; overall, a pretty good start. But lately, even with exercise, I'm having a hard time managing my stress.

I'm taking a full-time college load again for the first time since I was single. Two of my classes are religion classes, which you'd think would lighten the load. At least, that's what I've been telling myself, but I haven't really been feeling that way. My babysitter is great; very dependable, but she has other obligations today and next Tuesday, so I'm taking the baby to a friend's house before my class starts. So I'm freaking out because Squirty won't take a nap before we leave the house. It's so enraging and enfuriating and something I wouldn't ordinarily be upset about except for the fact that I don't want her to be a whiny beast for the next four hours at my friend's.

So can I just say how hard going to school and being a mom can be at times? On top of grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, cooking and the general care of a toddler (to be fair, Derrick helps out as much as he can) I have reading, projects, deadlines and papers to deal with. It all seems overwhelming right now, which I suppose is why the fact that Squirty won't take a dumb nap is reducing me to tears. So stop going full-time? Ha. See, that doesn't really work either, because the fact is, I'll never have more time or energy than I have now, and getting this degree has taken way too long as it is. So I'm trying to manage the stress; one way is by venting on this blog, and for some reason it's helping quite a bit, but I'm still at a loss. Maybe I'm just adjusting. Maybe the schedule will get easier as I go along. Maybe I'm just hormonal today. Maybe I'll have some kind of miraculous breakthrough where I don't need sleep anymore. Wouldn't that be nice? In the meantime, I'm going to grit my teeth and bear it today, because, just maybe, tomorrow will be easier.

Mormon Women and Career Preparedness

Because I'm a dedicated member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and a self proclaimed "Mormon", my blog may highlight aspects of my life or attitudes that can be attributed to Mormonism. One of these, and one I think is very admirable, is the idea of Provident Living. The sum total of this idea can be found in self-reliance and emergency preparedness. For those of you who are mormons or who know mormons well, you may already know that this includes food storage: a surplus of food consistently kept in the home in case of catastrophe, economic or otherwise. This also includes a 72-hour kit in case of environmental disaster. But Provident Living also details the necessity of wisely taking care of our personal health, spirituality and finances while also taking advantage of employment and educational opportunities, thus lessening our chances of being reliant on others. What a great idea, right? But because so many women who share my faith are dedicated homemakers, the idea of further education and employment can seem out of reach, exhausting, or even oppositional to their familial goals.

I recently heard this startling statistic from one of my BYU professors: about 80% of mormon women are single, either because they haven't had the opportunity or inclination to marry, are widowed or divorced. I was shocked (though this statistic hasn't been verified by the reliable source itself, so until I see it with my own eyes let's just say I was shocked but dubious as well). So it seems women in my church, either out of choice or necessity have had to do some serious re-thinking in terms of career-preparedness.

Though I haven't received a lot of verbal flack for my tenacious pursuit of my undergraduate degree and ambitious preparation for graduate school while also caring for a small child, I've wondered at times how many unspoken thoughts have trailed through others' minds about whether or not I have my "priorities straight". Perhaps I shouldn't even waste the energy it takes to think about this, but it nevertheless happens from time to time. All I can say to those who may think this is: what a crock!

To me, a woman pursuing her education and heightening her earning power is just another extension of provident living. Why wait for undesirable, tragic events to impell us to become breadwinners? And since the unthinkable likelihood of my husband dying in a traffic accident is on par or much greater than some cataclysmic natural disaster causing me to pull out my food storage or 72 hour kit, I think I'm doing my part to become a "provident liver". Of course, just like other emergency preparations, a desire to increase one's earning power can be taken to extremes ("work double shifts? why, yes!"), and, of course, getting multiple college degrees isn't the only or most important way to become a provident liver, I think it is important, appropriate and completely justified for women to pursue their educational and career goals in order to benefit themselves and their families.

A little feminist rant from yours truly

I've been feeling bugged today. The reason for my annoyance can be traced back to a discussion in one of my literature classes in which we discussed the importance - or unimportance - of preserving "the canon", that tried and true collection of salient literature that has carried us to where we are today. I respect the canon. I agree that it has left a literary legacy that numerous authors have been able to build on. Additionally, its effect upon masses of people cannot be easily dismissed. The trouble with the canon, however, is that though it is important, protecting the canon at all costs includes using a standard of judgement that can be exclusive.

For some, this is a good thing. In the words of one of my classmates, it means that "the cream will always rise to the top." But what if the canon fails to reflect the truth of a particular time period? Or of life for enormous groups of people? For example, I took a late Renaissance literature class and would have had absolutely no clue that women were even putting pen to paper in the late 1600s had I not done some studying on my own, my professor being a "canon protector". Sure we studied Jonson, Donne, Herbert, Vaughan and Bacon. It was great. But what did women have to say about life and their situation during the late Renaissance? What about Margery Kempe or Mary Herbert? What about Mary Wroth and the ever present "anonymous" writer? What about freaking Queen Elizabeth? And hmm...what about people of color?

This is where the class discussion took a more disturbing turn. The classmate previously mentioned essentially insinuated that women just hadn't been capable of producing "cream". He couldn't help notice, as both an english and philosophy major, that women just hadn't contributed to these fields as men had. He continued that perhaps women just weren't rational enough, at which point I became extremely pissed off.

Huh. Women not rational enough for philosophy? So that explains it. I'm glad we have that so tidily cleaned up. Now whenever I note that men are at the forefront of certain professions I can say to myself, "women just aren't rational enough" and feel better.

My question is, how is it somehow excusable in the minds of certain persons to make ridiculous generalizations about women, even when we've learned that making those same generalizations about other entire groups of people is morally and intellectually reprehensible?

Let's take one very important profession. Neurosurgery. Wow. Not a lot of female neurosurgeons. In fact, I could pretty much guarantee you that female neurosurgeons are outnumbered significantly by male ones. This must mean women aren't rational enough for neurosurgery. Or smart enough. Or whatever easy mental solution you have for this issue. Easy, right? But wait, how many of those neurosurgeons are people of color? If they, too, are vastly outnumbered by white male neurosurgeons this also must mean that they are somehow deficient just as women are, right? Wrong.

Dr. Ben Carson is widely considered the best pediatric neurosurgeon in the world. He has directed the pediatric nuerosurgery unit at Johns Hopkins for years. And he is an African-American. Hmm...so it seems my classmate's simple formula has suddenly become a bit more complicated. Unless you believe the case of Ben Carson is a fluke, which is stupid.

Perhaps there are more Ben Carsons out there who, given the opportunity, will change the face of neurosurgery as we know it. Perhaps there are women who will do the same. I don't doubt it for a second. I just wish the idiot (confused individual) in my class didn't either.

A Motherhood Manifesto

Monday was a good day to be a mom. Nothing special, nothing amazing and it happened to be a chilly, rainy day. The goodness of the day consisted of no homework, no deadlines, no plays or books to read and nowhere to be on campus. It was refreshing. The day was full of all those little schedules and to-dos that every mommy knows about: play time, meal time, nap time, cuddle time.

For the first time in what felt like a long time I was able to relax and just enjoy my baby, finally at peace enough to reach in and touch the warmest, softest place in my heart where my daughter resides. It was a lovely feeling.

This isn't an announcement that I'm quitting school - I wonder if moments like this can be elusive for every mommy, even when they're home full-time. I realized, though, that putting my baby first while I'm also working towards my long-term goals doesn't only mean limiting how many hours I'm gone a day, juggling schedules, and trying to take care of her emotional and physical needs. It also means I need to be still every once in a while and just enjoy her like she deserves.

Jumping My First Hurdle

Finals week...

it makes your blood run cold,

makes you short of breath,

and yet nothing makes you happier...

when it's over, that is.

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That's right, I jumped my first finals hurdle last week

and you know what?

It really wasn't that bad!

However, a lot of this is due to the fact

that I took a pretty light coarseload:

8 credits total.

Additionally, I have a lot of help:

a sweet, even-tempered 8 month old,

a wonderful babysitter, a sister-in-law

who loves me and who lives a few blocks away

and an amazing husband.

I'm a lucky woman indeed!

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Now I'm preparing for a new semester of challenges

and actually, I'm really looking forward to it!
Since I was also completing a challenging

correspondence class last semester

I'm celebrating by taking all of my credits on

campus, which seems like it would be harder, but trust me, it won't be!

So I'll be taking a little more, 9 credits.

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Two literature classes? But won't that mean a lot of

dum-da-dahm...

reading?

I'm looking forward to it!

I'll be taking Women's Studies in Literature

and

British Lit. 1900-1950.

The other 3 credits will be taken up by my

International Development class

which is concentrating on

writing curricula for

Community-based education.

I'm so excited!
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I'll also be busy with a club on campus

called Students for Inernational Development.

I applied and was selected to be a chair for the annual

Hunger Banquet this year

which will be put on in March.

I'll post more details on this later.

Thanks for reading;

I realize that a lot of you

already know this stuff!

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Wish me luck!

A Cause I Believe In

If you've been within 30 yards of my house in the past few days chances are you have an idea of

why I'm more than just a little unhappy at the moment.

BYU has decided to "streamline" the Women's Research Institute (WRI)

and reorganize it's Women's Studies minor.

Though the university has justified the decision by claiming

that it will save funds and "expand resources" for

research pertaining to women in the future

many students, including myself, are upset by the decision.

The WRI is a symbol and an intellectual circle.

By separating the researchers into their respective fields,

BYU has lessened the power and legitimacy of

the research being done by this group of

thoughtful, intelligent women.

Through this move, BYU seems to have taken a stand

that says women's issues aren't one of their highest priorities.

Rather than think this is due to sexism, I prefer

to assume that such a decision was made out of ignorance

and thoughtlessness.

That' s why I stand with a group of students petitioning this decision.

I understand that though this is, undoubtedly, a time of financial

strain for the University's administrators, I also feel that

a Women's Council should take the place of the old WRI

in order to ensure that women's issues retain a meaningful

position on campus.

Those of you who oppose this decision are welcome to join the Facebook group

Save BYU Women's Research Institute!

To know more you are also welcome to follow the link below:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705342250/BYU-cuts-Womens-Research-Institute.html?pg=1

Decisions, decisions...

I haven't written anything for a while and it takes so long to get photo updates due to our prehistoric camera setup that I thought I'd just do a journal entry of sorts on this blog update. We've settled into Provo, Derrick is now working, and Felicity and I are getting used to seeing a lot less of him, which has been sad but what can you do? He's really loving the work he's doing right now and I've realized how wonderful it is to be back West and closer to family and friends.

I'm especially excited to start school this fall, but it's a little overwhelming and scary for me. I hear very different accounts from BYU students about the university's figurative ratings on the family/mom-friendly scale and Felicity's so young I'm not entirely enthused about finding child-care for her.

For those of you who have long since given up on following my schooling interests this should be an update for some of you. I've decided to stick with English as my major with an emphasis in Children's and Adolescent Literature and have chosen to minor in International Development. I've been interested in Humanitarianism and International Development for as long as I can remember but since my mission I've become increasingly impressed and interested in sustainable economic development. To explain the difference between economic development and humanitarianism: it can be as extreme as the old addage "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish you feed him for a lifetime." Sustainable development means instead of just giving food or aid, you build an infrastructure with the people to begin feeding and helping themselves. Although I do feel that philanthropy has it's place, this way of helping others can be much more helpful in the long term. This being said however, I read the Economics classes in the course listings and almost cringe. Yes, University Economics courses scare me, but at the same time I genuinely feel much more interested in classes such as "The Political Economy of Women", "Anthropology of Development" and "Education, Poverty, and Community Development".

Perhaps the answer is clearer to some of you than it is to me, but should I do what is actually interesting to me in the short-term or should I bite the bullet and take classes that will benefit me with my long-term goals? I guess that's why the title of this post is "decisions". I'm going to have to do some soul-searching and find out what's right for me and my family.

Our Summer

Time is ticking by, and Boston is coming ever nearer. We still don't have a place to live (ack!), I don't have a job lined up for when we go (eek!), but gas prices are going down just in time for the long drive ahead of us. So, you may ask, what have we been doing with out time this summer?
Derrick has been busy, as usual with his part-time research job at the Air Force and his other part-time research job at St. Joseph's Hospital. Last week, Derrick was in Washington D.C. for 4 days and attended an educational research seminar at the Pentagon. He and Dr. Andrews presented the research they've been working on. He had a great time, saw lots of Memorials and was surprised by how enormous the Pentagon really is.
I, however, have been taking a Spanish Class at Mesa Community College, which helps the time pass nicely. The class finishes August 7th and then I'll be able to transfer the language credits to BYU. Other than that, I've had my nose in plenty of books. In fact, that's pretty much the only thing I have to show for my time this summer besides my spanish class.


My list of recent reads:

• Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley*
• A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle
• Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl*
• Twilight by Stephanie Myers
• Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
• Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine*
• Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine
• Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway
• The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho*
• The Giver by Lois Lowry*
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry*
• Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
• Mathilda by Roald Dahl
• The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman*
• An Acceptable Time by Madeleine L'Engle
• Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
• Isaac Newton by Walter Isaacson
• Belle Prater's Boy by Ruth White

Now reading: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro*

Upcoming Books: Watership Down by Richard Adams, Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson and An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott, Villette by Charlotte Bronte.





*Indicates highly recommended.