Capstone

I found out my capstone assignment today! The semester is not even over and I'm already working on material for my next and FINAL semester!

My program does not have a thesis requirement. Instead, everyone is required to take a capstone class in one of their final two semesters. This class is designed to integrate all the material we should have learned in the last two years and use it to solve an actual issue. Government agencies, nonprofits, etc. from around the city are approached by the teacher and asked to submit a project that can be completed, free of charge, by students. The teacher combs through all the proposals, selects those that are most applicable to the program, and submits them to the enrolled students. The students then go through and list their top four preferences. Out of these, the teacher creates small groups and assigns each group a project.

I will be working with two other students, Ben and Adrianna. Our client is Chicago Public Schools, working on program information collection and database creation and administration. The actual task, scope, etc. will be finalized in the next few weeks. For certain, I am going to need to learn Microsoft Access inside and out!

So yeah, exciting news. Other exciting news includes the fact that the semester is almost over and that all I have left is one final. And some phone calls for work that I have been putting off all week. Too bad these are the phone calls that cannot be delegated to a student. I have to make the calls tomorrow, although I would REALLY rather not. Oh well, so it goes. Sometimes one just has to do what one does not want to do.

I am excited classes are almost over. I have my most favorite class tomorrow, and then I am done and just have to finish presentations and tests. For the second time in the course of my program, I am enrolled in a class that is under review. Like my personnel management course last fall, I am in a class this semester that is being taught by a first-time teacher. And when I say first-time, I mean first time, not just someone who is new to this particular course. My teacher in policy just got her PhD this past spring and is getting her feet wet in my class. She is terrible but will not acknowledge it, even though she has been told at least three separate times over the course of the class through evaluations.

Given the amount of complaints the department was hearing, they sent a tenured professor who used to teach this class to sit in on ours, gather information from the students, and provide the current teacher with the equivalent of a performance review. It was after this visit the department put the entire class under review. They are waiting for the final evaluations and grades to make a decision. If the evaluations are poor and the grades uncharacteristically low, the department will re-adjust all grades and most likely release the professor. I am guessing the outcome will follow the worst-case scenario, just as it did last fall. We filled out the evaluations last night, and because of my connections, I know only 2 of 26 had anything somewhat decent to say. And because people are angry and talk, I know 4.0 students are getting the equivalent of Cs and Ds. Heck, I may be one of them! I have not asked to know my grade as I am sure it would only make me upset with no recourse. I particularly feel for all the new students, as I went through this last fall and know exactly how disheartening it is.

It will be interesting to see how it all turns out, especially since this same teacher is slotted to teach this same class in the spring!

Oh, the drama. So much fun!

Other than all of that there is not a whole lot going on. I can't believe it's already been a week since Dad and Jody were in town! Holy bananas!

I have a cat curled up next to me, trying her darned best to get as much orange and white hair as possible on my navy blue sheets and black pants. Gotta love the kitties!

I need to get back to an assignment. Semester is almost over but I'm not quite there yet!

Love!

~g