AERA 2011 Learning Experience

AERA NOLA Apr 7-12. It is taking me a while to resettle into Syracuse. I feel out of touch with my dissertation writing after all my professional duties at AERA. But I wouldn’t have given it up for anything. This is an experience no formal course can ever teach me. I love meeting and working with people from other universities who are now my friends. When I go to AERA, I don’t feel alone or lonely; I belong to a community. Being a GSC rep will definitely count as a positive highlight of my doctoral student life!

For the record, no one pushed me to serve; no one advised me to do it to add an extra pretty line to my CV, :). I just did it because I wanted to have the learning experience. For some time, when the calls to serve came, I ignored them because I didn’t want to get involved in purely “busy” work. Having been in leadership positions before (yes, I’m old!), I didn’t want to do something just for a name, award or title. When I committed myself to serving eventually, I thought about the people who had let me into their lives generously to let me learn from them. With that attitude, I applied to serve and remember asking my senior chair (who interviewed me) how much time it might incur. Even though I’m really busy at the Annual Meeting, I absolutely have no regrets about serving in the AERA GSC.

To get invited to attend the executive business lunch and watch the Div C exec committee operate was an eye-opener. It was an honor. I look forward to the rest of my term as the senior rep and will treasure the time left till Vancouver when I hand over duties to my junior rep. :)

Looking back, I count myself blessed to have such great learning experiences in NOLA and in Milwaukee in recent months!