Weekend Class

The format is brilliant; I just have to say that for starters. You see in my particular program at Vanderbilt, they offer weekend classes that meet on a Friday and Saturday for a total of three weekends the whole semester. The concept behind it is to make classes available for Master's and Doctoral students to travel in for the weekend out of necessity - simply because it is such a good and accessible program. That being said, weekend classes are a favorite among many of the second-years because it means far fewer class meetings and a lot less consistent work.

It just worked out for me this semester to only have one, which I figured would be a pretty good test-run for the format to see which I enjoyed more. I can see now, how a weekend class would be particularly dreadful with a less than agreeable professor, but I really got the jackpot on the weekend class I am currently taking. We had our first meeting tonight and my professor is wonderful; petite and energetic, passionate about teaching and education, and yet really grounded in her business and leadership experiencec. I guess that's all fitting considering the class is LPO 3450.01 - Leadership Theory and Behavior. But really, it's genius.

The class, in which there are eight of us who range the spectrum of experience, background, and current goals, is designed to meet on Friday from 4:10-8pm and Saturday from 8:10-5pm. There are built in restroom breaks and food breaks (on Saturday) so time really gets broken up quite well, and you'd be surprised how quickly time does go by (of course it certainly helped when I snuck downstairs to the vending machines during our restroom break to grab a Diet Dr. Pepper and a bag of Sun Chips - Garden Salsa.. .mm!) I think the thing I enjoyed most about it, though, was not the schedule format but how a class design like that really fosters and uncanny sense of comraderie. I know I'm a weirdo nerd now how relishes learning environments and has spastic-excited fits about writing an institutional profile on military academies for her Nature & Function of Higher Education class, but I mean it - it was just so cool to talk for nearly three hours (we got out early since we took less time for breaks) about leadership with eight people (okay, five - I knew three already from my other classes) that I had just met, not to mention our energetic ticking time-bomb (and I mean that in a good way) of a professor who really kept the class going.

Suffice to say, I'm a big fan of being a graduate student these days - and not just because of the weekend classes. It's just so comforting to be learning about things that interest me, no matter how I end up using this degree. And it's also nice to be in rooms with people who truly care about being there, or atleast do a pretty good job of carrying on intellectual conversations about the subject material. It's almost like grad school is real school and undergrad is this sort of labratory where they make you think you're getting somewhere academically but really what's (hopefully) taking place is growth all around - mental, social, and physical that prepares you for the real school... which I cannot say is just graduate school because I think real life, as in jobs and responsibilities, are education enough for some people.

I'll admit, sometimes I feel confined by the fact that I signed up for two more years of school just after I graduated from Belmont. I wonder at times whether I should have just taken a job somewhere, maybe at a university, and worked my way to a knowledge base suitable for a solid career one day. And yet, when I put that feeling of confinement in the context of a weekend class, I realize it's just not as bad or as long as it may seem. Because if I let myself see time like I do in LPO 3450.01, it seems all too rewarding for me to pass up. And as long as I build in the necessary "breaks" and keep the bigger picture in mind, especially learning from my (highly intelligent and qualified) peers, it'll be over before I know it and then I can start a whole new phase of my education... this time outside the classroom.