As a first-gen student who really had no idea what a day in graduate school would look like prior to this semester, I found myself reading nearly every single IEDP “day in the life” blog article around this time last year. And so to pay it forward, I wanted to share some snapshots from a day in my own life this fall semester. Although it was a very normal day, I found it to be a particularly fulfilling one that reminded me why I am so grateful to be here studying in the IEDP. Please enjoy and thank you so much for joining me!
– Anny, first year IEDP student
8:30am: Kicking off the day with Burmese language class
Twice a week, I start my morning with an online Burmese language class (thanks to a scholarship from the Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies). It’s always so rewarding and helps get my brain moving to kick off the day!
10:30am: Fall walk to campus & catching up with a FreshEd episode
Next, I begin my 20-minute walk to campus. It’s always such a nice walk, especially during these fall mornings when the air is super crisp. On this particular day, I listened to a really interesting FreshEd episode, “Education Beyond the Human” that was assigned for my Education and Inter/National Development course with Dr. Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher.
11am: Getting to work as a Graduate Assistant for the Legal Education Program at Penn Carey Law School
In addition to being an IEDP GA, I am also a GA for the Legal Education Program (LEP) at Penn Carey Law School. In this role, I support LEP initiatives like the Pre-College Academy for high school students interested in law and Continuing Legal Education courses for current lawyers and judges. I’ve really enjoyed the work because it’s helped provide insights on what lifelong education programming can look like.
2pm: Getting right into International Educational Development in Practice: Tools, Techniques and Ethics class
After work, I quickly ran over to my International Educational Development in Practice: Tools, Techniques and Ethics course – one of the core courses that all IEDP students complete. In this class session, Dr. Alec Gershberg facilitated a class discussion on theories of change. Then we met in smaller breakout groups to assess different organizations’ theories of change. I found this class session to be really helpful in answering many questions that I had!
4:30pm: A very productive group work session on our concept note
All IEDP students are required to complete a group concept note and technical proposal. So after class, I met with my team to spend the next three hours working on our concept note, which was due the following week. It was an extremely productive session, where we were able to finalize our proposed project’s goal, objective, and activities. Shoutout to my teammates — Amane, Khoa, Mandy, Molly, and Ruwayda.
7:30pm: Practicing mindfulness on my walk home
By the time I finished up a very productive group work session on our concept note, it was fully dark out. After a long day on campus, I felt quite tired as I started my walk back home. Being an introvert who really needs quiet time alone, these solo walks are really helpful for listening to music and (trying) to clear my mind.
9:00pm: Night Time Readings & Closing Off the Night
After a quick dinner of leftovers, I worked on readings for Dr. Tyler Hook’s Qualitative Methods and the Politics of Knowledge. To ease my anxieties after a busy day, I like to sip on a cup of hot water with honey before heading to bed.
The International Educational Development Program 