The Lighthearted Wanderer

Part 1:  http://claudelaine26.blogspot.com/2016/04/extended-about-me-part-15.html  Part 2:  http://claudelaine26.blogspot.com/2016/04/extended-about-me-part-2-of-5.html Part 3:  http://claudelaine26.blogspot.com/2016/05/extended-about-me-part-3-of-5.html During the summer after my sophomore year of college, I worked as a Team Leader for Lead America’s Medicine and Healthcare conferences at Georgetown University. Being a Team Leader was one of the first indications that my career interests pointed toward student affairs, though I did not know it at the time. By interacting with many high school students coming from all over the U.S., I made it my priority to try to connect with my students, learning about their backgrounds and experiences with education. Though certain moments stick with me—leading a crowd of 75 teenagers in cheers for a half hour before a lecturer arrived, and helping a particularly quiet student come out of his shell—it was an accumulation o...

Part 1:  http://claudelaine26.blogspot.com/2016/04/extended-about-me-part-15.html  Part 2:  http://claudelaine26.blogspot.com/2016/04/extended-about-me-part-2-of-5.html By the time I reached high school, I felt pretty at ease with myself. I had gotten into a competitive all-girls Catholic high school and knew that I was on my way to achieving all of my goals. Again, I found myself in a small, nurturing environment, and without boys (who were more an enigma than a distraction to me) I could focus on becoming my best self. Enjoying photography and scrapbooking, I joined the yearbook committee, one of only two freshman interested. The other freshman ended up becoming one of my closest friends even though we only had French class together that year. During the first semester of French I, however, our teacher got into the habit of mixing up our chosen French class names—I was “Claudine” and she was “Jeanne-Marie”. Very soon he taught us another French word, jumelle , or “t...

Here's Part 1 if you missed it:  http://claudelaine26.blogspot.com/2016/04/extended-about-me-part-15.html My love for reading stemmed from both my desire to shut out the world around me, as well as learn about characters and places beyond my own experience. I am unsure whether my affinity for reading contributed to doing well in school, or the other way around, but I know that the more I read, the more I learned and the easier school became. Throughout elementary school, I became known as the “smart” girl, an identity that I wholeheartedly embraced because it focused on something positive with which I actually resonated. In addition, I found that one of the few things my parents could agree upon was that I was especially smart, so of course I did everything I could to provide them with examples of how this was true. This worked out well for me, because through my books, I learned about new worlds and experiences I wanted to have once I left California.  In third grade, m...

Hi Blog-world!  I found one of my first grad school papers in my google drive, simply titled "Story" (I'm guessing the prompt was to write a mini-autobiography?), and it provided some great Friday re-motivation, as well as some good material to kickstart the blog. Basically, it's a more in depth look at my story and how I came into student affairs, and for some reason I feel like it's a good time to review and acknowledge my history. Without further ado, here's part 1 of 5:  The beginning is always tough to read...but I'm a big believer in that our past and trials have significant impacts upon each person's development.  Next parts over the next few days :)  Many people are surprised to hear that I am an only child, and yet I feel that my status as an only child made a profound impact upon my life and how I developed into the person I am today. Perhaps due to being born on December 26, I always had to share my birthday with the excitement of the ...

Hello! Today I came across two very interesting and related articles, but with totally different viewpoints. The topic? Social media and its use in modern-day career and personal development. To be honest, I bet articles like these go up every single day, but it was rather noteworthy to me today because of the channels through which I came across these articles: For the pros: http://99u.com/articles/52687/the-most-defensible-thing-you-can-do-for-your-career-build-an-audience http://chronicle.com/article/How-to-Build-a-Twitter/235309 The nuggets: Any meaningful online presence is better than none at all Even if something happens at your current employment, you can bring your followers with you Tell people outside of your workplace about the great things you do at work An online presence allows you to better publicize your own work  And the con side: http://chronicle.com/article/The-End-of-Solitude/3708 The nuggets: The millennial generation is so connected that...

I know it's been many months since I've written, but like many personal bloggers, it's easier for me to update and feel good about writing when I feel good about myself. But even when things weren't going so well, there was plenty to write about...small trips, the ups and downs of job interviews, weddings, friends visiting, etc. I'll do a little bit of flash backs and updating through my next posts. Some things I'm thinking about/working on: Reading Student Affairs journals (i.e. Journal of College Student Development) Working on my photography skillz Gym-going consistently for both cardio and strength training Exploring SoCal; Planning small trips  Just trying to balance work, personal, and family stuff!  Just sending out some positive vibes out into the blog-o-sphere!