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Twenty-ninth Job of Bob - College Student Part XI - A run at grad school; same old dead theorists as undergrad
This entry was posted on 6/23/2011 1:30 AM and is filed under Jobs of Bob.
I had learned some tricks while negotiating the landmines of academia. Also, I slid into a couple campus jobs (jobs set aside for students only), one of which was working in a center that helped older students. While still in my last year of undergraduate study, I entered graduate school simultaneously. I had actually read the university hand book which somewhere around page 40 explained the process of starting grad school early. The main criteria was that I had to get at least the grade of "B" in the two grad classes I took as an undergrad. I made the grades no problem. It gave me a leg up once I graduated from undergrad. I hit the ground running already in grad school skipping some of the red tap.
Graduate school was interesting in that professors actually changed their demeanor toward you. They may actually walk down a hallway with you and have a real chat. Some graduate classes had you mixed in undergrads. The later advanced grad classes were exclusive to graduates, usually having only five to 10 students in them.
Whitewater did not use what UW-Madison referred to as Graduate Teaching Assistants that teach entire semesters. Real professors actually teach the classes at UW-Whitewater. That by the way is a constant complaint of students at UW-Madison. My ambulance partner who was a pre-medical student at Madison at the time, often complained that she never saw a real professor until she was a Junior. None-the-less, some Whitewater professors required you as a graduate student to present a day or so of subject material to the undergrads in the class as part of your grade.
Gone were the days of five-page essay papers with a couple of references noted on the back page. In Graduate school, I was suddenly in a world of being required to write 40-page research papers with five pages of works cited at the end. I learned a great deal about writing officiously albeit it was fatiguing. One thing that became confusing was that there is several methods of academic writing. There is the Modern Language Association (MLA) system of writing; there is the American Psychological Association (APA) system of writing; the Sociological folks have a system as well which I ran into in the pre-law world; and, there are some other systems out there as well. It all can be quit tiring. But you won't get much sympathy from professors. They eat 100-page scientific papers for lunch. A couple professors of mine had actually written more than one college text book.
My graduate program was Communication. My area of study looked at mass media and how it works. I often smile when I surf past Comedy Central's The Daily Show with John Stewart. He rips "The Lame Stream Media" ad nauseam. Poetic that that Comedy Central is owned my the ubiquitous Disney empire, a company and their methods we often took a close look at.
I was surprised so many of my pre-law / sociology classes and their material, were relevant to my graduate Communication classes. The two fields use many of the same dead theorists: George Herbert Mead; Marshall McLuhan; Thomas M. Cooley; and, any of a hundred others....all now dead.
I am glad I went to graduate school; and while there, eventually earned 45 graduate credits at UW-Whitewater. Even though I now write rather colloquially (like street conversation), I still often refer to things I learned while writing those arduous 40-page papers I languished at for two years.
Note: This blog "Jobs of Bob" Category does not list the jobs chronologically - I write about the experiences as they pop up in my memory and I often revisit an older job. Go to the Cooldadiomedia Web site and the Jobs of Bob Page for an ordered chronology.
Wisconsin Military Service Person Special Mention of the Week
(each week Cooldadiomedia mentions a Wisconsin service person killed in Iraq or Afghanistan)
Army Private Enlisted Grade 2, Adam Jacob Novak, 20, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin, died Friday, August 27, 2010 in the Zardan district of Paktiya, Afghanistan. Insurgents with a command-wired roadside bomb (improvised explosive device) attacked his vehicle during convoy operations. He was assigned to Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Private Novak was one of two soldiers killed in the incident. Also killed in the blast was Private First Class Chad D. Coleman, 20, of Moreland, Georgia, who was also originally from Wisconsin.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted Novak was a 2008 graduate of Sauk Prairie High School. He joined the military a year after graduation. Adam had recently been married. He was expecting to be back home in November of 2010. Novak's older brother Logan also served in Afghanistan. The Journal Sentinel went on to mention Adam had also lived in Fergus Falls, Minnesota for 11 years where as a boy he participated in Boy Scouts, Sunday School, and soccer. Adam's father died when Adam was around 12 years old.
A Wisconsin State Journal article found on lexisnexis.com notes that Adam Novak was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. He spent the aforementioned years in Minnesota, and returned to Wisconsin during the last couple years of his high school time. Novak was recently married in March of 2010. Private Novak's unit was part of the deployment of President Barack Obama's 30,000 soldier surge into Afghanistan.
The Websites wiscnews.com and channel3000.com for WISC-TV mentioned Adam had only been married for two weeks before heading to Afghanistan. Adam is remembered as having a magnetic personality and his love for life. They emphasized Novak's unit worked in reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition. The WDAY-TV-6 and WDAY-AM-970 Website wday.com noted that during his time in the military Novak worked on military trucks.
At the time of his death Adam Novak was survived by his wife Celeste Stuessy Novak; mother Sue Block; stepfather Rick Block; sisters Brooke (Doug) Warren and Jessica Novak; brothers Nick Novak and Logan Novak; and, grandparents Bonnie Christ, Milton and Doris Novak, and Elanie Wons. Adam was preceded in death by his father Greg Novak. Private Adam Novak was the 20th Wisconsin military service person killed in Afghanistan since October of 2001.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
101,366 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10,028 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,466 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
1623 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
318 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
911 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
1 American/Coalition casualty in Libyan "Operation Odyssey Dawn" since March, 2011
32,120 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
12,002 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
107 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
33 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
3 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in the U.S. related to "The War on Terror" since October, 2001.
148 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
21 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
5 journalists (regional and independents) have been killed in Libya since March, 2011.
Wisconsin military service person special mention of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; www.defense.gov/news/casualty.pdf; and, icasualties.org.
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