I am delighted to welcome new and returning students back to the Carlson School. Students ignite the campus with energy and anticipation; faculty and staff who have spent the summer preparing for the semester are ready to go, and I am reminded why I love the start of the school year. After 20 years at the Carlson School, the headiness of a new academic year is just as invigorating as when I started as a rookie faculty member here.
Minnesota summers are far too short, yet we somehow manage to fill them with so many memories.
What did I do this summer? Apart from learning about the school, finishing up research papers and attending an amazing alumni event where we had 2,000 alumni and friends attending, I took some time off for personal stuff (you may have noticed a gap in my blogging).
We have heard about the "walkabouts" undertaken by indigenous Australians as a rite of passage and a way to learn the paths of their ancestors by following their "songlines." As Wikipedia puts it, "a knowledgeable person is able to navigate across the land by repeating the words of the song, which describe the location of landmarks, waterholes, and other natural phenomena"...
Two months into this job, I have tried my own mini version of a walkabout around the Carlson School, to learn about all the activities that go on here.
