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Learning the Ropes
The Lougheed Center for Applied Learning is home to multiple programs meant to apply your learning elsewhere in your world. In order for me to reach my goal of telling Potsdam students about LoCAL, I had to learn the ins and outs about everything that's offered. I set up interviews with faculty member in the office that I could get a hold of. After all, it's quite hard to talk about something when you don't know anything about it. This gave me the opportunity to not only become familiar with every nook and cranny applied learning entails, but it also gave me the chance to meet the faculty and let them know who I am and what I'm about.
I love talking to people and I learn best when I'm having an open discussion with somebody, so going around my office giving interviews was very ideal. The idea of going out and talking to students already appeals to me but now I get to interact with people who can not only help me be informed for what I have to do, but are just as excited for me to reach my goal as I am. Everyone I've had the pleasure of interviewing has been anxious to see more people make appointments with them them and pursue some sort of applied learning.
My first interview was with a man, named Thomas Baker, who is in charge of Student Research and Creativity. I'd interacted with him before, but it was only a quick introduction during one of my first days in the office. It was the classic "new kid on the block" scenario where I had just showed up and those who had been around for much longer wanted to introduce themselves. He's a very pleasant man to talk to and, if he didn't have so much work to do, I'm sure we could've talked for hours during our interview. Sadly, we had about thirty minutes to discuss everything pertaining to Student Research and Creativity, but that was enough to learn plenty of information about the program.
There's a lot to talk about for it, but to avoid this blog post becoming a boring wall of bullet points, I'll make things brief and more cohesive. Student Research and Creativity is an opportunity to conduct an individual project that's relevant to whatever course of study you're taking. It can be fully, or partially, funded by the school and it requires a written proposal along with faculty consultation. There are two programs you can do this with, Kilmer and Presidential Scholars. Kilmer is a much more common choice because it requires a GPA of at least 2.5, which means that a decent amount of students are eligible. Presidential Scholars, however, is more exclusive because it requires a GPA of at least 3.5, which is a substantially higher standard. Those who are eligible are contacted via email the fall semester of either their junior or sophomore year, so it's not something you actively have to worry about. Research projects are available are available for the summer, one semester, or an entire academic year. They look fantastic on resumes and make students stand out among their peers because they've already connected their academics to the real world.
I'd say my first interview went as well as it could have. I left informed, motivated, and wishing I could've spent more time going even further in depth so I could have the best understanding possible. We did talk about more details than I mentioned, but a lot of them are things that should wait until you've made an appointment with Thomas Baker to figure things out for yourself. At the time, I was excited to interview more faculty members involved with LoCAL and eager to become this educated advocate for students. The best part about writing this blog is that the excitement it still there. This entire adventure has been a lot of fun so far and, even though I'm still learning the ropes, I already felt capable of making a difference.
Here's to hoping, and thanks for reading.