Welcome to my blog!

Hello! Thanks for visiting my blog! I am excited to share my new journey at Penn GSE with you! Please feel free to leave a comment. I look forward to connecting with you!

Here's a bit more info. of myself in addition to the profile:

I was born in Xi'an, and grew up in Guangzhou, China. I completed my undergraduate program at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, with a major in Communication and a minor in Spanish.

Prior to coming to Penn, I was working as an International Student Advisor and Marketing Representative at Wisconsin ESL Institute where I found my passion for international education. I am most interested in two specializations of the Higher Ed. field: International Admissions and International Student Services.


Saturday, October 27, 2012

A "Day In The Life" Snapshot - Katie Damon (Guest Blogger)

Thanks to everyone who has been reading my blog and sharing this journey with me! I hope to provide you with a variety of experiences and perspectives, so I am very appreciative of my friend Katie's willingness to write a blog this week. Please enjoy!

Brief bio of Katie Damon:

Katie graduated from Penn State in 2010 with degrees in Management and Psychology. She worked at Bucknell University for two years in Alumni Career Services, and her graduate assistantship is in Career Services on the Wharton Team. Katie is the founder and co-president of the Higher Education Student Association at Penn (HESA Penn). She can be reached at damonk@gse.upenn.edu.

Greetings future (and current) higher education professionals! When I was considering grad schools, I found Penn's GSE admissions blogs to be extremely helpful in understanding what life in grad school and at Penn is really like, so I was really excited when Xixi asked me to guest post. I feel like its hard to know what school here is like until you really live it, but here is a "day in the life" snapshot of my day to give you an idea...

October 25, 2012

8 am - I had to get up a bit early today to help with the International Opportunities Fair that is sponsored by Career Services. My GA position is on the Wharton Team. While my role mostly involves counseling and creating programs for undergraduate business students, everyone in the office tries to help out with career fairs. 

9:30 am - Back at home, its time to research topics for my Faculty and Academic Governance paper. Its a 20 page final paper, and we have an outline due next Thursday. Because of my Managerial Decision Making test on Monday and Halloween festivities coming this weekend and on Wednesday, I decided to get a head start.

12 pm - Frozen pizza. Delicious.

1 pm - Time to head in to work - usually on Thursdays I work 9 am - 4 pm, but this week is a bit flexible. I'm spending all day tomorrow taking Wharton sophomores to NYC for a career exploration trip. Tomorrow we're visiting Nielsen and Macy's (two weeks ago we visited Google and MTV!). Because we have to be on the bus by 7 am and we'll get home around 6 pm, I took some time off today to study.

I had two appointments this afternoon, one student needed help with a resume, and another was preparing for a phone interview with a Norwegian company. During work, I received an email from a former cohort member who works another university in the area - she was following up with my request to chat about classes and job searching this spring. Gotta remember to network!

4 pm - Today I had Faculty and Academic Governance, so I headed over straight from work. Before class I chatted with my HESA co-president Aman and our Communications Committee chair Meng-Chuan about our logo and t-shirt design. Some of us also talked/stressed about our Contemporary Issues video group projects. We also discussed plans for the Halloween weekend (a Harry Potter themed excursion in Chestnut Hill). I find its important to get to class early and spend some time with the cohort - sometimes you only see people once a week, so the 15 minutes before class is a good time to catch up.

In class we got our policy memos back, and talked about academic freedom and faculty unions. After class I talked with Professor Garland about the paper topic I spent the morning working on!

6:30 pm - Right after class, a bunch of us headed over to happy hour. This week the HESA Social Committee planned a joint social with the Intercultural Communications (ICC) cohort at Drinker's West. Met some new people, as well as someone from last year's cohort.

8 pm - Came home and chatted with my roommate - she wanted help brainstorming good restaurants in the city to go to with her family this weekend. I suggested Tap House for nearby, or any Steven Starr restaurant. Philly is a great foodie city!

8:30 pm - Time to study for my management exam on Monday. Typically I have Fridays off, but since my day is filled with NYC adventures with undergrads and the weekend is booked with Halloween activities, I have to start studying now! Its very important to make time for the things you enjoy, as long as the work gets done first :) I'll be off to bed by 10:30 - I have a 5:45 am wake-up before we load up the bus!

I'd love to hear from anyone who has questions about Penn, the process of applying to grad schools, working in career services, or life in general! Feel free to email me (really! please do!) at damonk@gse.upenn.edu.

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