Saying Goodbye to Spring 12 Semester

Last night I took my French final, which officially marked the end of my Spring semester. My classes ended last week (Fashion Publishing and Freelance Features), but now I feel like I'm truly done for the summer. This has been hard for me, because as many of you know, the New School has chopped 3 out of 5 of my classes for next year. After much scrambling, and the faith of a new-to-me Department Head in the Eugene Lang Literature Department, I'll be picking up an Intermediate Non-Fiction class in the fall. I'll also be keeping my Fashion Publishing courses, which lean heavily on writing and research, as well as blogging about events around Parsons. Intermediate Non-Fiction is an exciting add, and promises to be quite different from my other courses. Exciting, because I plan on spending the summer reading and revisiting my favorite non-fiction essays and books (what are yours?). Different, because roughly 60% of my New School students were returning to school after years in and out of various careers, and so came to my classes with a wide array of life experiences to contribute to the classroom. It will be new for me to be charging up a room full of, I'm guessing, exclusively 18-20 year olds. Plus, the class is at 8 a.m.-- should I be packing large vessels of coffee for these young bucks?

It's been an honor to be in the company of so many students from all walks of life for the last decade. Several handfuls of students come to mind regularly. Some of them showed up for all of the different courses I taught; others passed through once, but have stayed in touch. I've learned more from these students than I can possibly put into words (ironic, eh?). My life has certainly changed dramatically in the last 10 years,  and so has what I bring to the workshop table.

So, goodbye for now Writing and Media Studies programs at the "New School for Public Engagement"; hello again to Parsons, and a big hello to Eugene Lang Liberal Arts College.

P.S. Just to add to any confusion, all of these departments I'm rattling off fall under the umbrella of the New School, so technically there's no change in who cuts my paycheck. That said, I may still feel like the new girl at school come August.