Student SPHere 2008-09

It was a fantastic weekend:

- Twins game (awesome seats)
- Dog park (lots of mud, drool, excitement)
- Chatterbox brunch (mmm cinnamon french toast)
- The Visitor (great! A-...maybe an A)
- Achieving "bodybuilder" status on the Wii Fit (well, on one exercise...)

There was only one thing missing: homework.

I don't know about anyone else--and I realize I'm going to get over this reeeeeally soon--but I have a LOT of trouble cracking open the books on the weekends. It's not a general productivity issue; I can blaze through Saturday errands like a champ. And it's not that I don't try. But for some reason it's like my brain just can't understand the Health Belief Model on Saturdays or Sundays. I do the thing where I read half a chapter, then pause and realize I have no idea what I just read (but do, usually, know exactly what the people outside the window were talking about, what I want to do for the rest of the day, what I'm making for dinner). So I quit.

Thankfully I only have class three days a week, and my Mondays and Fridays are free. Even though I spend a lot of those days at home in my PJs, I don't have the same problem. I spent all day yesterday working on a take-home exam for Community Health Theory & Practice, and, with a few lunch/dog-walking/Wii breaks, I was totally fine. On Friday, I'll load up the couch with books and chug away. But Saturday? Painful. Sunday? Excruciating. I need my decompression time.

I realize I won't always be this lucky with my class schedule. And I'm taking a one-credit, all-day Saturday class on the 11th and 18th (Sexuality Education: Criteria, Curricula, and Controversy -- so excited!). So I know I'm going to have to get over it. Like, now.

Goodbye, sleeping in...

Posted at 1:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Remember Gizmo the Gremlin? You know, that cute little furby-like creature from the movies who was so adorable one minute and then would morph into a monster more crazed than a mall parking lot the day after Thanksgiving? Well, apparently Gizmo the gremlin is one of the long-distance learners in my Survival Analysis class. Or maybe the long distance learners are too dense to turn off the microphone that was apparently placed directly next to a stack of papers that the aforementioned long-distance learners would shuffle around during the lecture thereby augmenting the lecture with periodic boughts of Gizmo-esque racket. And let me tell you, nothing makes survival analysis more enthralling than having the lecture punctuated by such odious grating clatter amplified to the volume of a launching space shuttle. After that lecture, I have surmised that the long-distance learners are in need of the services of either an exorcist or a lobotomist, maybe both.
Other than visits from cute furry monsters in Survival Analysis, my classes this week went fairly well. We’re starting to learn about the Moment Generating Function in my stat theory class and we’re also beginning to discuss specific distributions like the geometric and Poisson. I am particularly excited because next week, we will be discussing the Gamma distribution! Yes, I am excited by the Gamma distribution, because it is wonderful. If you don’t agree, think about this: you can make a Chi-squared AND an exponential function out of the Gamma, and the sum of n standard normals is a chi-squared with degrees of freedom equal to n, which like I said before is really a Gamma, so the Gamma is pretty much the coolest thing ever (or was, until they invented Gizmo the gremlin and long-distance learning). Marinate on THAT for a few minutes.

Posted at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I woke up Saturday morning and cringed when I looked out the window. Was it going to rain? Nnnnnoooo...oh wait. Internet says no rain. Instead, I was just privy to the first of a typical Minnesota fall day; cool and cloudy. Autumn is one of my favorite seasons in the Midwest, particularly when the air is crisp and the sky is clear and blue. To be able to sit outside underneath a big tree with some friends is an affordable luxury that's easy to accomplish. All you need is a clean patch of grass, a big tree, and some people whose company is somewhat tolerable. And if you're feeling ambitious, a bottle of wine and some cheese.

Lazed about in the morning but by mid-afternoon, I was cruising out to Aamodt's Apple Farm in Stillwater with some colleagues. I started to visit apple orchards during my senior year in Madison, Wisconsin and immediately regretted not going sooner. What meager years were lived in the darkness before finally walking up and down rows of trees, using the hem of your shirt to wipe down a sweet and crunchy apple plucked off the branch, and eating it right there.

The grapes off the vine were very good though!

Since they've been around for a while, Aamodt's has the whole "family farm experience" down pat: tractor rides, kettle corn, hay maze, and petting zoo. I spent a precious quarter on some animal feed in the form cracked corn, but became disgusted when I realized that what feeding animals is really about; allowing animals to slobber all over your hands. Watching MingTa become the first victim, I tried to give away my cracked corn before being forced to feed the minature ponies. Arg, minature pony slobber.

Sorry, MingTa!

On Sunday the Confounders - an ultimate frisbee team composed of students from the School of Public Health - played their second game against Snowball's Chance. We had played them last spring on the A League, so it was surprising to play against them in the B League. They're excellent players but they're also quite professional and had no women on their team. For them to participate in a casual co-ed league was really pointless on their part and unfair to other people in the league.

The lineup

Because of our improved game, we were also able to photograph some impressive acrobatics!

Great leap, Peter!

Blood sacrifice

This is pretty incredible

Although it may not look it, Sarah was able to fend off these guys, hold her own, and keep the frisbee

Posted at 1:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This week something amazing happened to me. Until this week I never knew I had an advisor. You may laugh about it and you are right to do it, because it was funny for myself also. To complete my application for the MPH in Child and Maternal Health, I need my grades. When I went to the onestop website to get an unofficial list of my grades, I saw the name of my advisor. I was so surprised that I went to see my program coordinator to get more clarification. What I want to say here is how good the staff is at the School of Public Health. For a year I was going to my program coordinator and she never said, “I am not your advisor, go to your advisor.� Can you see how lucky we are at University of Minnesota? I also remember Dr. Wholey, my management teacher last semester, helping me to install a program on my laptop so I could do my homework. He is not a computer technician, but he was willing to take his time to help me to achieve academically. This week I will meet my advisor for the first time and I am a little worried. What she is going to think about this student who didn’t look for her advisor for a year? I didn’t mean to ignore her or her advice; I just didn’t know I had an academic advisor. If anyone needs advice at school, it is I.

I work full-time and this semester I am taking 5 credits. Last semester I took 9 credits and worked full-time. I work as an RN at Fairview Medical Center. So I am always in the shuttle bus between the two campuses. I also like to walk, so I just cross the Washington Bridge once in a while to go to work after class. I try to balance work and school and it is not easy sometimes, believe me.

I love studying and in my family my father used to tell us girls, “Your first husband is your diploma. Your husband can divorce you, but your diploma will never leave you.� He also told us that in life there are three big things: the power, the knowledge and the riches. In French it is “l’avoir, le pouvoir et le savoir�. You can lose power and riches, but you die with the knowledge. I grew up with those ideas and I never tire of getting knowledge.

I am learning so much at the School of Public Health why did I wait so long get here? One of the most significant things I learned this week was from the ½ hour lecture in my Global Reproductive course about stigmatization. I realized how much we could hurt people without knowing it. This will reinforce my empathy toward people who are different from me.

Posted at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I figured it was about time y’all heard from me again…

It was early Sunday evening, and ideally I would be sleeping or watching TV, or better yet out with some friends. But I was scrambling to get my readings done yesterday (i.e. I have a test today and I know nothing enough to pass it). So yea, remember how I told you I sometimes procrastinate? Well this time it is biting my butt because it turns out I read the wrong chapters! So this time I am really under pressure to read the RIGHT chapters!

Either way, I think my blog is a good way to procrastinate yet again. I am excited! I found out on Friday that I got into the PNC. For those that have NO idea what I am talking about… The Phillips Neighborhood Clinic is a student ran free clinic in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the Minneapolis area. It is a volunteer based clinic made up of students from the medical school, school of nursing, social work, public health, physical therapy, and pharmacy. I may be missing one school but you get the general idea. We work together to provide care to an underserved population in the Phillips Neighborhood. I am very excited to work with students from other health related disciplines and also because I get to interact with the primarily Latino population patronizing this clinic. Even more exciting is that my master’s project is based on an aspect of the PNC. I won’t give it away just yet though so stay tuned!

Also, yesterday was my little sister’s birthday, she turned 15. I miss her so much!!!! She lives in Ghana with my mom and dad. I couldn’t resist putting up a picture… or two of her. Isn’t she is adorable!!!????

Posted at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This was a cool week for me, as I got to experience the depth of the SPH. On Wednesday, I joined some of my staff members and went to a ceremony in the hallway of the 2nd floor of Moos. The ceremony was for the induction of four new members into the Academic Health Center’s Academy for Excellence in Health Research. The four new members are listed here. I would encourage you to look at the requirements for being eligible for selection. These men and woman are truly some of the best and the brightest in the world. It was one of the ceremonies that gives you that tingling feeling, that reminder that you’re at a university with some of the brightest minds in the world and they truly care about the students in their care. The SPH should be proud, as it is well represented in the Academy. Next time you’re in Moos, look for the two big displays (one is for amazing teachers and the other for researchers) and take a minute or two to read up on them.

So on Wednesday, I was immersed in the academic excellence of the U and on Friday, I was enjoying the excellence cooking skills of the Environmental Health Science Division. It was a beautiful day at Boom Island Park. There were a bunch of good eats and some nice conversations. I even won, one of the 25 raffle prizes (they are handing out prizes in the photo above). My wife and I left the picnic in time to catch the Twins game. That was not nearly as much fun. All I can say is the White Sox better loose tomorrow and I cant wait to watch baseball outside.

Posted at 9:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The last few days have swung from high to low and back again. And I don't just mean the temperature, though that is also true. Last weekend, I felt completely overwhelmed by school, doubting my ability to "hack it" in my program. A few days later, I was back to my cheerful self, whistling while I work and all that.

The saga began with two flat tires. Thursday night I hit something on my way to study at a friend's, but I didn't realize it until I was going to leave and found my rear tire deflated. Boo! My super awesome partner came with our bike rack on the car to pick me up-- what a guy.

Sunday morning I changed out the tube and headed to the annual physics department picnic on Boom Island. I was about four blocks from the park when I got that sinking feeling-- another flat tire! This time, I was several miles from home and my partner had ridden his bike to the picnic also, so no car. Yet he was my knight in shining armor again, lending me his bike so I could bail on the picnic early to get some studying done. He walked/bussed my bike to the repair shop in Dinkytown and we swapped back once the tire was replaced (again). The silver lining is that now, I am so appreciative of every day that I don't get a flat!

Probability Models was the other reason for my mood swings. The start of the course has been all about measure theory, a presentation of the abstract foundations of probability: spaces and sets and functions and limits and integrals and convergence. This would be a welcome little 3-week refresher for anyone who'd already had measure theory before. But for someone like me, who has taken real analysis but only ever seen probability theory presented in the special case of n-dimensional real space, well, it feels a bit overwhelming.

So the third homework really had me down; I didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. But Saonli was so helpful and kind, pointing me toward tricks for solving the problems and extending the homework deadline. Really, things are looking up. I'm excited that we started the core material of the course this week-- Markov chains and probability models. Now those, I can handle.

This week, I sent the first draft of Chapter 5 solutions to Brad-- woohoo! It was by far the most difficult chapter for me, so I'm excited to be moving on. Revisions to Chapter 4 are next on the docket, but mainly he was happy with what I'd written. It was very gratifying to read, "OK, I finally got through all your Ch 4 solutions today. Whew! What a lot of work you went to -- I was especially impressed that it took 6 pages of hard work to get a single number (30) as the answer to problem 13....I have a few things for you to fix but basically I'm quite happy with Ch 4." Yay!

Last night, I skipped a CD release show by one of my favorite local artists (Jeremy Messersmith) at one of my favorite venues (Varsity Theater) to study instead. I'll make up for it tonight, though. We're planning to meet with friends for a night of presidential debate watching/bar hopping fun. We'll see if McCain chickens out. ;)

Posted at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's a resemblance, no?

(Actually, this photo is particularly dorky since it was taken immediately after I was pushing my mom toward the finish line. We didn't look so bad the whole time.) But yes, my MOM and I ran a 10K this weekend, the first for both of us.

It was a gorgeous day for the Bolder Dash 5K and 10K, a fundraiser for local nonprofit Bolder Options. It's a Big-Brothers-Big-Sisters-esque mentoring program for at-risk youth between 10 and 14, and in addition to hanging out and doing homework with mentors, the mentor-youth pairs also train for running or cycling races throughout the year.

I'm still feeling out how much outside-of-school time I'll have for, like, LIFE, but mentoring is definitely something I'd be interested in doing. But then, of course, I have to stay in 10K or better shape all the time. Hmm...

Posted at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I forgot to do a rundown last week, so here we go:
Last Monday also saw the first practice of the Confounders. We're an intramural Ultimate Frisbee team that began last year, courtesy of Epi students Noel and Casey. Our team comprises of students from many programs in the SPH, so it's a great way to get some exercise and meet new colleagues. We took second place last spring and work well together so we plan on playing as a team for a while. Maybe forever.

This past Sunday we won our game against Oi, Oi, Oi. They were a pleasure to compete with and our 15-1 win will set the tone for the rest of the season.

Friday I attended Dr Tim Meade's presentation on his work with Tiny Tim & Friends. Debby Caselton and Stephanie Hengst, both MCH students, helped organize this great event. Dr Meade spoke about Tiny Tim & Friends' objectives in helping AIDs orphans in Zambia medical care and educational support. To see "before and after" photos of children with HIV is remarkable. It doesn't cost much to feed and medicate them in order to return to a healthier state of being. At the same time, there are only so many people they can help due to labor and financial limitations. They are always looking for volunteers so please consider adding this to your list of possible field experiences.

Currently my classes are shaping up nicely. This semester I am particularly excited for PubH 6802 - Managing Electronic Health Information and PubH 6617 - Practical Methods for Secondary Data Analysis. The first course is mainly about acquiring new information for me; database management is unfamiliar territory so I'll have a good time learning. Because I took Demographics for Public Policy last spring - a highly recommended course for anyone interested in learning to utilize large datasets or into policy research - STATA isn't quite the beast as it once was, so I'll be reinforcing what I've learned and then some. At least I don't have nightmares about it anymore.

This week I look forward to working on my thesis; my topic focuses on patient satisfaction across different variables such as age and type of insurance. What's my specific question? That's a good question. I hope to read more related literature and begin to narrow down a question. Only 24 more school weeks before my deadline.

If you are interested in traveling to South America for your field experience, this Wednesday marks the first SPH Public Health and Cultures Monthly Series for the academic year. The theme is "Celebrating Hispanic Month," with SPH students Mercedes Estrada Recinos and Noel Mueller presenting on their experiences in Guatemala and Colombia, respectively. It runs from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at 3-125 Mayo. See you there.

Posted at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Here i am yet again in a cafe-Starbucks to be exact. Philly is very interesting, a runway for ALL walks of life. Totally loving it! Well, not more than Minnesota of course! I am waiting for the idealist fair to start in a few hours. Trying to do my homework for class tomorrow( did i mention i am a total procrastinator when the mood besets me???). Ok so before i start getting side tracked again let me post what i had written yesterday. Did i mention that MSP charges almost $10 to use the internet? Way to make money! Here goes:

So, I am sitting at a café in the Saint Paul/Minneapolis Lindberg terminal… I just missed my flite and the next one leaves at 1PM. So being that it is 10AM right now, what better time to sit and introduce myself to you. I do realize that I am starting out a little late in the game, but considering that nothing spectacular has happened in my life till this point, its not a big deal right?

For the benefit of those that did not see my summer blog. My name is Dinah Djidjeme Dafeamekpor. I am an international student from Ghana(west Africa). Although my mother is Ukrainian, I was raised in Ghana so I identify more with my father’s Ghanaian roots than with my mother. Side note—I am excited about graduating in May next year because if everything works(fingers crossed) I will be going to Ukraine for the first time to see my grandfather who I have never met. And of course since I will be ALL the way in Europe, did I hear you say “why not go backpacking through Germany, Sweeden, Italy, Switzerland and England?�. Good job! Because that is exactly what my roommates and I plan to do after I done with my bonding experience. Fun!

Did I mention that the airport is actually a pretty cool place to study? I suppose I should come here more often to study! I feel like a French madame, sitting here drinking my chamomile tea waiting for my hot breakfast. I am not sure if French madams use laptops but I still feel like one anyways. So back to introducing myself.

By the time I was 3 ½ years old, my family was living in a non profit orphan establishment, SOS Children’s Village in Tema a suburb of Ghana. As a result, I had an early awareness of the concept of community and public service. Once I was done with high school, I was on a plane to Agnes Scott College in Georgia to study pre med and a self designed Bio/Psychology major. In the last few years, I have made my most meaningful contributions to public health; I volunteered at a homeless shelter for battered women; Hagar’s House. I also earned a certified nursing degree at Medix Allied Health School which allowed me to work in a nursing home, a gynecologist’s office and the trauma unit in Atlanta Medical Center. I also traveled back to the Eastern Region of Ghana where I participated in several community based projects with elementary schools, orphanages and auditory and visually impaired individuals. For my field experience this summer, I worked in Mobile, Alabama doing survey research on adolescent risk behavior in one of the lowest income communities in the United States. I learned a lot about the research process and risk behavior patterns associated with poverty.

Ah! Bonjour Madame! Breakfast is served...

Now that I've drank enough Chamomile tea for a lifetime, I must mention that this is my second and hopefully last year as a maternal and child health student at the U of M, School of Public Health. This year I find myself busier than ever. I work with Dr Riley within the Division of Health Policy and Management working on his AHRQ project, I also work with student services under the director of Recruitment, Melvin Monett. This is actually why I happen to be at the airport on the eve of a school night—the Idealist Fair in Philadelphia. As part of my job with student recruitment services, I am representing the school at a career fair tomorrow. It is “sad� that I will miss one class tomorrow but one has to sacrifice sometimes right? But seriously, I am having to turn in my homework electronically and quite frankly I am lucky that my professor(for principles of public health research), Dr Call allowed me to do this. In a nutshell, I am excited for the school year and fingers crossed I won’t have a hard time finding a job when I graduate. I am looking forward to telling you ALL about my semester good, bad and ugly!

Posted at 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

My name is Bintou Coulibaly. I am originally from Mali in West Africa. My native language is Bambara and I speak fluently French. I graduated from Medical school in 1993 in Mali. I Mali I worked in OB-GYN and I always was interested in child and maternal health.
Mali is one of the poorest countries in the world. Women and girls in Mali don’t have much freedom like in all developing countries. The female genital cutting is still practiced in Mali. The government is trying to stop it, but the cultural believe is so strong in Mali that people are still hiding to do it. Girls are web sometimes at the 13,14,15years. The government limited the age of marriage at 18 for girls, but people don’t respect it. Since women and girls don’t have voice, a14 years girl will find herself marry a 30 or 40 years man. These early marriages have a lot of negative consequences in these girls life. Sometimes the pregnancy end up with it complications, because of immaturity of the body. Socioeconomic and psychological damages accompany this situation.
Maybe some of you have heard about genital fistulas. They can be vagino-rectal or vesico-rectal. In Mali near the school of medicine, it is one small village that was created by women who were troughs out by they families because they have fistula. These fistulas are one of the complications of childbirth. They are marginalized from the rest of the society because they smell bad. I am talking about these entire situation in my country, because that is why I am today in the school of public health. I want to advocate for my sisters in Mali and other places in the world were they have been marginalized. I want to be able to make a change in their daily life of suffering. To do that, I need to learn the tools of public health.
The school of public health at the University of Minnesota offers so much in the field, that sometimes I dream with my eyes open. I can see myself going to all over those developing countries, teaching and helping women in child and maternal health, teaching girls how to protect themselves against, early pregnancy, STD and HIV/AIDS.
I am actually in the program of core concepts program. I am applying for the child and maternal and health program, because the program is very good and I know after doing that I will be able to accomplish my dream. I like the environment of the campus. I learn a lot from the core concepts program. I have a wonderful program coordinator Sarah Harper. She always guides me in this program. At any time I email her, she responded. At any time I called her, she will respond to my call. Her academic advices help me trough this program I am finishing this semester. She makes me feel at home at the school of public health. Sarah has a colleague, Ann Ehrenberg. When Sarah is absent Anne is always disponible to answer my questions. She welcomes you with a beautiful smile that makes your day to go smooth at school. I also like the sphere, where I met many others international students. The student center with all it cultural program is so good for all of us whose from outside the country. I pray every to be accepted in the program of child and maternal health, because I like the program and the safe environment of the University of Minnesota.

Posted at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you are considering attending the University of Minnesota, I have one very valuable piece of advice: BRING A SWEATSHIRT because whatever nutjob sadist is in charge of temperature control in the classrooms clearly does not have a funtioning central nervous system. I'm not sure I understand the "thought process" that must have occurred that led to the decision to make "arctic tundra" the thermostat setting of choice at the U, but I must say that I heartily disapprove.
Now that I have that off my chest, I must also say that I am very disappointed in Benjamin Roethlisberger. I hope he will take six days to think about what he's done, and how he'll never let it happen again. But I forgive him and the entire Steelers franchise and will continue to give them my unconditional support. At least my husband can finally stop kvetching about the Vikings. For at least a week.

Posted at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I think things are starting to return to normal. Then again what is normal in grad school? I guess normal for me, would be having a typical amount of hw, work projects and outside school activities. These past three weeks have been heavy on all three accounts. The hw and work projects was expected. Its always an adjustment when restarting school again and figuring out that balance between work and school. That has stabilized. The outside school activities has been outside the norm, though. That’s because my wife and I bought a house in August.

That has made the outside school activities dramatically increase. For starters, we closed on a Wednesday, I prepped and painted a room on Thursday and we moved on Friday. I then defended my masters plan B on Monday. I would not advise doing so much in a short time frame, if possible. Once you have a place, you have lots of little maintenance and improvement projects that take up a lot of time. Figuring out the balance for what I can do easily with my school/work responsibilities has taken some time. We also had the last of the family visit the new place. During the last four weekend one of our parents were here (one came twice, as they stopped on their way up and back from fishing up north). It’s a ton of fun to entertain family and friends in a house. I remember trying to have friends over in my efficiency next to campus during my first year, now that was a challenge.

So now that things are returning to “normal� I am excited. I am going to have more time to enjoy school activities. One of my highlights every year is the EnHS Division Picnic. Its this coming Friday. What better way to get to know the faculty, staff and students in the division, than by sharing grilled food? I will have pictures next week of the festivities. I am also looking forward to the Twins game on Friday night (my wife’s office is treating). I just hope the Twins finish strong.

I don’t know about you all, but I am getting really excited for the fall (it starts tomorrow). I realize that snow and the cold follow the fall, but its my favorite season. Its not hot and not freezing yet, plus the trees are beautiful.

Posted at 8:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've gotten the what's-so-different-about-grad-school? question from my bachelor's degree friends lately, and it took me about a week of answering, "Oh, not much," before I realized I was wrong. Very wrong. Not necessarily in a good way or a bad way, but it's definitely different from being an undergrad a year and a half ago.

What's so different? Well...

YOU READ. A LOT. It's not that college didn't involve reading, but I'll go out on a limb here and say that it was a) not as important, b) not as interesting/relevant and c) the first thing to go. Maybe it's the beginning-of-school, good-student-kick thing, but so far I've read (just about...) everything on my syllabi--because I have to and I want to! Well, more or less...

THE RATIO DOESN'T LIE. Remember that "policy" that one credit hour is supposed to equal three hours of work a week (i.e., nine hours per week for your average three-credit class)? And remember how it never took that long? Well, it does now. And if one week lacks a little, I can be sure those banked hours will come back to get me later in the semester.

GROUP WORK DOESN'T SUCK. It's not that I'm not a people person; in fact, it's very much the opposite. But no amount of fake smiling could disguise the doom I felt every time I flipped through a syllabus on the first day of a college course to see that that the final project that's 75 percent of my grade would be done in an assigned group. Oh. No. But now that I'm constantly surrounded with awesome people with awesome experiences who really want to be here to learn and share and chat, I can't wait for group work (and I'm hoping my lab group will help me not fail epi).

Other grad-school surprises to date (definitely more to come):

- I have a real live, old-school locker.

- The Washington Bridge's top level is mostly closed because of safety concerns = NO BIKING. (So you will see me, all year, dorkily walking the bike I got for high school graduation across the bridge. Wearing the school-bus yellow helmet that I may or may not have gotten at the same time.)

- I get business cards!

- The health insurance for Academic Health Center students is sweet! (I guess ask me after I have to use it, but it looks good on paper.)

- I am WAY lucky to have a research assistantship. Ever since I got my tiny bill for the fall, I've been reminding myself of that every morning when my alarm goes off extra early so I can scan the major U.S. newspapers for health reporting or--my favorite--watch the network morning shows on fast-forward, looking for pill bottles, syringes or white coats that might signal something good. More on the assistantship later. For right now, I'm just glad I have one.

***NOTE: From the perspective of others in my life, such as The Boyfriend, I'm sure this list looks a lot different. His likely observations? "You whine a lot, do too much homework, get too excited about your homework, are turning into a big nerd (in a good way?) and your spazzy moods jump from high to low to way too high so fast that I have no idea what's going on."

Welcome to grad school. :)

Posted at 10:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sometimes technology can be a major boon to the classroom. For example, I always appreciate the ability to see high-quality plots of data in class. But that's pretty much where my love for projection technology stops. I strongly prefer a traditional lecture, just the professor and a piece of chalk, knowledge streaming directly from her brain to mine.

Clearly, my preferences run contrary to those of most students and the big-wigs in charge of classroom design. In the most modern of classroom redesigns, my favorite kind of learning isn't even possible, with the complete elimination of chalk/white boards! I'll get over my Luddite sadness eventually, but yesterday, my old-fashioned sensibilities were vindicated as a technological farce played out in Survival Analysis.

Survival is one of several courses being telecast to students in Rochester at Mayo. Usually, we have only 1 or 2 students at Mayo participating. It's a new program, so I don't take that as a bad sign. About 15 minutes into class, Dr. Pan's cordless mic ran low on batteries. We could hear him fine, but soon his lecture was interrupted by the folks at Rochester. Their tiny voices emanated from the ether, "Dr. Pan! Dr. Pan, we can't hear you!" reminding me of nothing more than little Whos down in Whoville.

The discussion of coverage probabilities for frequentist confidence intervals came to a screeching halt.

The search for a battery began at the podium and progressed to the house phone on the front wall. Someone at the other end of the line promised to send a tech person to our classroom.

We twiddled our thumbs.

Dr. Pan got impatient and wanted to answer a question from a student, but soon enough, the Whos down in Whoville, seeing him speaking on camera, were agitated. Someone in Rochester suggested that if Dr. Pan could write down his telephone number on the opaque projector (the image of which was still being broadcast), they could call in and be put on speakerphone to get the audio.

Dr. Pan looked around for the number. Of course, the minimalist house phone had no speakerphone, but Dr. Pan didn't quite get the suggestion's implication and dutifully wrote down the number.

We twiddled our thumbs.

Dr. Pan sent a student up to the Biostat office in search of AA batteries.

We twiddled our thumbs.

But, lo! The house phone rang-- it was Rochester! Dr. Pan re-started his lecture, handset cradled against his shoulder, writing on the opaque projector while speaking to the assembled audience and the handset.

We cracked up.

Finally, the student returned with batteries. Using a combination of written notes, gestures at the camera, and speaking into the handset, Dr. Pan told the Whos that they were about to get their audio feed back.

The handset of the phone languished on a chair, off the hook for the moment (ha! did you catch that pun?!), as the wireless mic was back in action and we could go on.

Five minutes later, the tech showed up.

"Thanks, but we're good already."

I'm glad to we're spreading the Biostats joy to Mayo, really I am. But if I add up all the class time lost to this kind of shenanigans over the four telecast classes I've taken...well, let's just say I hope the Whos down in Whoville are really loving their Biostat classes.

Posted at 12:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)