Oh my!! I am so excited! WVU is offering a grant for Professors who are looking to collaborate with other Universities and companies. A part of being in higher education is bringing in grants (money) to the university that you are employed at. These funds go to research and equipment for teaching and educating the students. Soooo...... WVU has a $15,000 grant available for researchers who are in underrepresented and minority groups- women being one of the underrepresented groups. I emailed a women at Yale who is brilliant and does research on weight based discrimination. I asked her if she wanted to collaborate with me and apply for the grant together...... long shot I Know BUT to my surprise she emailed me back and was very excited about my area of plus size clothing design. Still soaking in but I am going to collaborate with the Yale Rudd Research Center- oh my goodness. $5,000 goes to Yale for guidance and support in developing a research study and $10,000 to me to develop the study and buy supplies.
It feels really good to know that I am valuable for my brain and not my cute hair or pretty lipstick. Yep. Really good.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
I had a Grandpa moment
As I sit in my office today I caught myself doing something that Grandpa used to do for myself and Doug. I just had one of those "ah ha! I get it" moments.
Occasionally, I used to get a small hand written note in the mail with a news paper clipping or a photo copy of some article that Grandpa thought was very important for me (or Doug) to read. It usually related to finances or something important happening in the stock market. I would always read it and think to myself, I am 14.... Why does Grandpa send me this kind of stuff? I always loved it because I knew he was thinking of me and that was more important to me than the article, but now I get it.
He sent those things because they were (and are) important things to know. At the time, I didn't care about finances or stocks but as I grow up I see how important it is to understand the world of accounting and especially savings. I remember small comments Grandpa used to make about saving your money and he would recommend making any big purchase with a lump sum. He would say, don't lease it if you don't have to. It is best to save your money and avoid paying the interest. Side note* there is research showing that people who buy cars in full are happier with their purchase than those who lease*
So, I think Grandpa was a very wise, kind and subtle teacher. He was dropping little crumbs along the trail of life for us to pick up.
Now that I am a teacher, I find myself dropping little crumbs for my student and friends to pick up. I know that they might not understand why I am sharing 'things' with them but my hope is that someday, one of them will go, "ahh ha, I get it". Until then, Thank you Grandpa. I am back to crumb dropping for the day :)
Occasionally, I used to get a small hand written note in the mail with a news paper clipping or a photo copy of some article that Grandpa thought was very important for me (or Doug) to read. It usually related to finances or something important happening in the stock market. I would always read it and think to myself, I am 14.... Why does Grandpa send me this kind of stuff? I always loved it because I knew he was thinking of me and that was more important to me than the article, but now I get it.
He sent those things because they were (and are) important things to know. At the time, I didn't care about finances or stocks but as I grow up I see how important it is to understand the world of accounting and especially savings. I remember small comments Grandpa used to make about saving your money and he would recommend making any big purchase with a lump sum. He would say, don't lease it if you don't have to. It is best to save your money and avoid paying the interest. Side note* there is research showing that people who buy cars in full are happier with their purchase than those who lease*
So, I think Grandpa was a very wise, kind and subtle teacher. He was dropping little crumbs along the trail of life for us to pick up.
Now that I am a teacher, I find myself dropping little crumbs for my student and friends to pick up. I know that they might not understand why I am sharing 'things' with them but my hope is that someday, one of them will go, "ahh ha, I get it". Until then, Thank you Grandpa. I am back to crumb dropping for the day :)
Monday, April 9, 2012
Calculating stress percentages
Sometimes you have to take a step back and try to look at life from a big perspective:
Lets say I live to be 100 (I like a good solid round and even number)
That is 36,500 days
The last 9 days have been probably the most stressful and emotionally exhausting of my life. I am feeling like quitting. However, everyone I talk to say's that is totally normal..... And getting a PhD or any degree is a major life event.
OK, lets do some math here, the average person has between 5-15 MAJOR life events, these include entering college, academic excellence (achieving high grades while in college) moving or relocating, graduating, retirement, having a child, adopting a child, getting married, serious illness and death. How many times have these occurred.....
Entered college 3 times? Eastern, WSU and OSU = 3
Graduated? High school, undergrad, masters and soon Phd = 4
Academic excellence.....? ummm lets say 5 (the past 5 years I have rocked it)= 5
Relocating.....? Once during high school, to college, to another college to another college and not to mention moving every singe year while in college except for the last.... whoa so that would be....13 times (give or take)
Death? The most impact....the loss of 2 friends in high school and my beloved Grandfather Marve.
No adoption (unless we count Mugsy :) or babies or marriage or serious illness.
In total I have had roughly 27 major life events, ironic considering my 27th birthday is coming up. Hmmmm, so in comparison to the average person I am considerably high in major life events. So, statistically it is OK for me to be a little stressed out or contemplating and questioning my life decisions.
Number crunching time: So, lets say each life event contributes to 2 weeks of stress, that is 378 days so far and in the FULL spectrum of things that is 26% of my life so far..... BUT only 1% of my entire life (378/36,500) If I live to be 100 and that doesn't account for other upcoming life events but it is nice to know that in the FULL SPECTRUM of life, this is a small portion of my life.
OK, back to work on grading a few papers, lecture at 12 then more data collection from 4-7.
Lets say I live to be 100 (I like a good solid round and even number)
That is 36,500 days
The last 9 days have been probably the most stressful and emotionally exhausting of my life. I am feeling like quitting. However, everyone I talk to say's that is totally normal..... And getting a PhD or any degree is a major life event.
OK, lets do some math here, the average person has between 5-15 MAJOR life events, these include entering college, academic excellence (achieving high grades while in college) moving or relocating, graduating, retirement, having a child, adopting a child, getting married, serious illness and death. How many times have these occurred.....
Entered college 3 times? Eastern, WSU and OSU = 3
Graduated? High school, undergrad, masters and soon Phd = 4
Academic excellence.....? ummm lets say 5 (the past 5 years I have rocked it)= 5
Relocating.....? Once during high school, to college, to another college to another college and not to mention moving every singe year while in college except for the last.... whoa so that would be....13 times (give or take)
Death? The most impact....the loss of 2 friends in high school and my beloved Grandfather Marve.
No adoption (unless we count Mugsy :) or babies or marriage or serious illness.
In total I have had roughly 27 major life events, ironic considering my 27th birthday is coming up. Hmmmm, so in comparison to the average person I am considerably high in major life events. So, statistically it is OK for me to be a little stressed out or contemplating and questioning my life decisions.
Number crunching time: So, lets say each life event contributes to 2 weeks of stress, that is 378 days so far and in the FULL spectrum of things that is 26% of my life so far..... BUT only 1% of my entire life (378/36,500) If I live to be 100 and that doesn't account for other upcoming life events but it is nice to know that in the FULL SPECTRUM of life, this is a small portion of my life.
OK, back to work on grading a few papers, lecture at 12 then more data collection from 4-7.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
First week struggles
This first week of Spring classes has been good and bad. Good in the sense that I am not taking any classes and I get to focus on my dissertation. Bad that I have a full class to teach with student athletes. I am not sure what it is about these student but they sure like to chat it up, giggle and make comic remarks during lecture. This is quite distracting and while I enjoy a good laugh, it is a huge side track for me and I always for get what I am talking about.
So where was I??? Oh yeah, so much for words here are some pictures to help express my week.....
First of all, during lecture I put up clothing on this big blow up screen called a (doc cam) whatever that is besides the point, the point is that it zooms in really close so we can see the stitches and as I was pointing out a stitch a student athlete goes, "whoa you need a manicure", really dude? I am trying to talk about the difference between a chain stitch and a lock stitch and all you can see is that my pointer finger is chipped? WOW. My nails are not that bad but this is about how close of an image you get when you put your finger on the doc cam.........
I really want one of these................
but first I need to get a real job ....
so I can get a lot of these..............
to then buy both of these............
But for now................
Continuing the countdown..... 91 days until I am officially done with being a grad student.
Monday, April 2, 2012
First day of Spring Quarter
Today was my first day back at school after Spring break. I could use another 4 or 5 days of sleeping in but I have to get back to the grind in order to finish my degree.
I lectured today and I have about 50 students in my class this term, the largest by far. I also have 6 males! And that is the most I have ever had! This will be a fun an interesting term.
Today I am also planning to transcribe interviews:
transcribe |tranˈskrīb|verb [ with obj. ]put (thoughts, speech, or data) into written or printed form: each interview was taped and transcribed.
Basiclly, I have conducted about 7 interviews and I need to listen to the audio recording and then type it out verbatim. Fun and slightly painful after about an hour....... I enjoy listening to the content but after your fingers start to cramp it is hard to focus......
Hmmm. what else and I planning to do today? Possible submit another research project idea to my advisor, I have to keep the ball rolling if I want to meet my research quota.
Tonight: NCAA final, dinner and sleepy time.
Spring break overview:
I lectured today and I have about 50 students in my class this term, the largest by far. I also have 6 males! And that is the most I have ever had! This will be a fun an interesting term.
Today I am also planning to transcribe interviews:
transcribe |tranˈskrīb|verb [ with obj. ]put (thoughts, speech, or data) into written or printed form: each interview was taped and transcribed.
Basiclly, I have conducted about 7 interviews and I need to listen to the audio recording and then type it out verbatim. Fun and slightly painful after about an hour....... I enjoy listening to the content but after your fingers start to cramp it is hard to focus......
Hmmm. what else and I planning to do today? Possible submit another research project idea to my advisor, I have to keep the ball rolling if I want to meet my research quota.
Tonight: NCAA final, dinner and sleepy time.
Spring break overview:
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