I’m done with classes!! 🙂
Wow, it just seems like yesterday that I just started this semester of classes. Now that I am in my second year in the Ph.D. program at Tennessee, we are taking courses in our primary and cognate areas. Each student has a primary area (Advertising, Communication Studies, Information Sciences, Journalism and Electronic Media, or Public Relations) and each student selects a cognate area of study outside the college. I have friends that have various cognate areas- from public heath communication, political science, to sports management. When it came to deciding what subject I wanted to study, I chose Marketing.
This semester was definitely a test to how effective I would be with my time management skills. One thing that I did learn as a track and field athlete was to make sure that I managed my time, and it definitely helped me with the work that I had to do this semester. I am not the kind of student at all that procrastinates on assignments– what I do is do a little bit each day. Some days I work for five hours, while there are other days where I work more. I almost view it like working out for track– if I had a meet to prepare for, I am not going to weightlift for ten hours the day before and expect to do amazing things the next day at the meet! But I also would reward myself for working hard in school by going and taking exercise classes like kickboxing. It has been really a lot of fun! 🙂
To give you an idea of what my semester was like — I was taking a full load of classes (9 units or three courses), working as a research assistant, helping out with two sections of an undergraduate communications course, part of the PR Day committee, writing conference papers, and guest lecturing for a couple of classes. 🙂 Yep– definitely kept me busy busy! 🙂
Even though there were times this semester where it seemed like time was flying by very quickly and I had a lot on my plate, I felt that it was a very rewarding experience for me– I felt like my understanding about the scholarly literature in both PR and Marketing increased tremendously this semester. I had a lot of wonderful opportunities to work on a couple of research papers. 🙂 I also felt that by guest lecturing in a couple of classes, it gave me an idea of what I will be doing when I become a professor. It is all very exciting!! 🙂
So, what is up next? I will be heading back to California this Saturday to spend a couple of weeks at home with Mom, Dad, and Karla. I am really looking forward to it. I’ll be back in Tennessee after New Year’s to start the Spring semester where I will be taking three research method courses and working as a graduate teaching associate. 🙂
Hope you all are having a great day and good luck in finishing your finals!
Best Wishes,
Karen 🙂
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