I’ve heard that PhDs are granted approval to graduate once their committees are satisfied that all love, inspiration, and idealism for their field of study is beaten out of them. Largely, I find this to be true, which is why I’ve found so much enjoyment out of the job holding the largest portion of my part-time work pie.
I am program director for a small nonprofit in New Orleans where I get the pleasure of supervising and mentoring roughly a dozen graduate students who dream up, design, and implement service projects in underserved communities. Simply put, they rock. Yesterday, we had over 20 interviews to narrow down our finalists to the dozen we decided we could take for the next Fellowship cycle. Of the ones I co-conducted, these are some sound-bites that inspired me (or made me laugh).
— “I had never really thought about Tulane for Medical School. Then, as I was reading about different Medical Schools in the AMA guide, Tulane was the ONLY Medical school program that distinctly and specifically says it is focused on training physicians within a community health model, and requires community service from all Medical students. That is when I knew it was the only school I wanted to attend.”
— “I’ve lived my whole life in California and never thought I would leave. Then I visited New Orleans… and I was blown away. I guess the rest of the country has no idea, because I had no idea… I had no idea how great life here was…”
— “I was worried. I mean, it’s the SOUTH. But wow, I mean, it wasn’t so bad after all!”
— “Everyone here is SO HAPPY. I mean, was it like this before Katrina, too, or is it all that medication people talk about?”
Lady M | 21-Mar-10 at 11:32 pm | Permalink
They rock, and you do too. It sounds like a great program.