Lessons from an Adult Student

The highlights of my day are the moments I spend with students. As my readers know, I am shooting to observe 50 classes this year, meet with every Middle School advisory, and speak individually with every 8th grader. Today, I spent 30 minutes in 10-A (a fourth grade girls' homeroom) sharing my "Lessons from an Adult Student." I described the rigors of my doctoral program and stressed, above all, the importance of being a life-long learner. I shared four lessons that I learned during my three years at the University of Pennsylvania: 1) high-quality advising matters; 2) surround yourself with bright, talented people; 3) step up when a classmate needs help; 4) the "fast" tortoise wins the race, i.e. diligently adhering to a master schedule will allow one to complete a big project. The girls asked excellent questions throughout my presentation! The "cutest" one came from a girl who asked if I had to do any dissections while I was learning to be a "doctor"! I replied, "Fortunately, no, but we did dissect many, many books." :)