1st day of Class

Today was the official start of my grad program, with my first full day of class. I was pleasantly surprised how un-academic it was. I'm trying to figure out how they are going to combine the adult learning principles in a group setting with the academics. I felt some conflicting emotions as my professor, and director of the program, mentioned that we should think of them as colleagues, not as a "teacher". But, my colleagues never were responsible for grading me and the final decision on whether or not I pass! Especially when I'm paying so much damn money out of my own pocket!

This morning we presented our first paper on "emerging challenges" in our field. I spoke about two of the many in healthcare, namely time and lack of systems thinking. But it seems that the speedy advancement of technology, generational gaps, and pressure to prove value in our field were prevalent.

We broke for lunch, and some of us decided to try out the Student Union for lunch, in the main cafeteria. What a HOOT! hehe When we walked in, the one cashier thought we were new faculty and tried to direct us upstairs to the lounge! But for $7.33, it was all you could possibly eat, and me, not coming from a large university environment had no idea what variety would be available. I was impressed, and the food wasn't that bad. Mary, Svenja and I were torn, as we didn't know what to get for lunch this morning. We saw the Balducci's on the way to the parking lot, and went in, but couldn't figure out what to get, as everything needed refrigeration. But now that we know there is a fridge and microwave available to us in the building, we'll be shopping there more often.

After lunch we came back to an interesting activity. There was a huge paper timeline on the wall, from pre 1930s, to post 2020. Our job was to put any and every life altering impactful "thing" that happened during that time. This was an interesting activity, as it really showed where the group thinking was/is. Our group is social and cultural based, as we thought those were important facts to add. I may use this activity with groups, because depending on the mix of the room, you'll get a variety of different time lines. It's a way to see what drives people, and what had the most impact on them.

We moved into a small group project, where we each had an era of time, and had to do the history of OD through it. Our group had the 50s and 60s, and that was when a lot of the western European thought and theory of social systems really started to take hold and be practiced. That's when action research was invented, which is based on data collection and presenting feedback to the audience involved for validation. Prior to that, feedback was never really solicited in groups. People weren't asked what they "thought" or how they "felt".

Some of us were in desperate need of a drink afterwards, so we headed over to a little place on New Mexico. I had the yummiest dinner - a watermelon cosmo and a cheese plate with fig and crostini. I was in heaven. I stopped in Balducci's to get a snack for later of hummus and pita.. which I've been enjoying in the privacy of my hotel room.

Tomorrow we spend the entire afternoon in the library researching our first major paper. We'll see how that goes! hehe :) But I'm having fun so far!