Reflections on Residency Week pdf
Susan W. Meehan, Golden Wolf
Reflections about Goucher College MACS Residency 01/2010
I remember when I first seriously considered starting on my Masters… Several co-workers were starting work on their graduate degrees; it seemed like everyone in my household was going back to school for something. I was downright envious! I loved school and I sure missed the academic environment… I could pursue a Masters in anything, but I really wanted one in “Mohegan,” and no one was offering such a thing! The local colleges had some very dull-sounding programs that seemed to involve a whole lot of reading from a whole lot of books that were written by the dominant culture’s knowledgeable “experts.” Besides, due to a very busy life, I knew I had to find something mostly “online.” I searched gradschool.com, and I found out a whole lot about the country India. So all this left me a very culturally confused mixed race mutt and feeling much like the “part-time Indian” in Sherman Alexie’s book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
I am not even sure how it is that I stumbled upon the MACS program at Goucher. I cannot duplicate the online search that led me there. It just happened somehow. I asked my Medicine Person about this school called “Goucher,” explaining the spelling as “couch with a g and an er”. I value her opinion a lot. She is working on a PhD, is an accomplished author, and she is my Medicine Person as well. She knew Goucher, and she thought a lot of Goucher as a college, and thought that the Historical Preservation program was one of the best. She had not heard of this new MACS program as yet. Once I found the program, I filled in the online form to request information, and some Rory person called my voice mail the next day. Then some Deborah person called another day. We played phone tag a day or two, and these people seemed genuinely interested in ME – not me as a number, but ME as a person. It was the genuine interest in me, and in me as a person that intrigued me, and caused me to follow up and follow through with the application process. It was the “feeling” part and the “thinking” part that Rory mentions in his video lecture that I valued. Rory was excited about talking to me and discovering what a “general specialist” was and who I was as a person.
I still thought that perhaps I was over-reading into Goucher’s interest in me – perhaps they just needed students and money, but my Medicine Person’s very high regard for Goucher helped push me to persevere. Talking to Rory Turner was easy and pleasant… I finished the paperwork process, and this “Residency Week” snuck up on me in time warp speed! I was apprehensive about the whole thing. Like my classmates, I had no idea what I was getting into, but I was there neck deep in the mud – well, maybe snow – driving to Baltimore. In one way, I was looking forward to thirteen hour days – that would leave about ten or eleven hours in which to sleep – with no children, no medical alarms from my special needs daughter… This sounded like vacation! I lead a very busy life as a full time mom, full time employee, full time Mohegan… Anyone who knows anything about a “Tribe,” which is everyone in the MACS program now, – well, let’s just say there are always things happening which need attention! What I did not anticipate from the Residency Program was the incredible connected network of relationships that I would build with this group of people over the course of only a week!
So now, we are all home scattered across the country, and there are these voices invading my head often times during the few hours a night I am supposed to sleep, and these voices all have faces and feelings attached! This human element in this supposed-to-be-mostly-online-program won’t get out of my head, and this has taken me by surprise! This is not “online school” – I know people who are attending online school, and this is clearly not it! I can hear this Dr. Rory guy who I could listen to for a really long time – he knows so much about people and places! There is this Dr. Ross guy who really grew on me, and whose wisdom in this “leadership” area intrigues me to no end! I hear this unbelievably wise elder-like-beyond-her-years-Indian-Susan-lady speaking her words of wisdom. I hear the youthful exuberance of Maja, Kate and Lara and think about their out of country experiences, and this whole culture hiding underground just below the radar. There is a whole world out there to explore! I hear the remarkably intelligent youthful sounding Chelsea who reminds me so much of my weird oldest daughter. (Note: My weird oldest daughter thrives on being considered “weird” so this is not an “insult” by any means!) A couple of “watermen” type guys Mike and Guy who consistently remind me of dear old dad who was a fisherman at heart but not by profession. There is this genuine “urban revitalization” fellow Jeff who cares a lot about rebuilding communities. I can just see this truly outback young lady Sarah splashing through the mud in a 4×4 just like I did in my younger days! The energy of this young lady Stephanie is infective – she cares so much about her home town and home state. Then there is Jane and this image of a little house with a metal roof nestled in a paradise like green setting and a woman who cares deeply about this one little house and the culture, family traditions and language that are so deeply connected to this magical piece of land.
All of my classmates and the professors I had the honor of spending a week working with have touched me in such a profound and unexpected way. This program and these people have more to offer than I ever anticipated. The support throughout the college from tech support, the book store and even the accounting department has been awesome. The element of the person in this program and in the school is clear and resounding. I think I did more self-reflection in this one week than I have in a very long time. I am beginning to see a lot of pieces of me that all need to come together to make things happen, and that is what this embedded picture is all about… The human element of culture is perfectly fit into the puzzle of the MACS major and the pieces were woven together in the introductory residency week… and I know I am in the right place at the right time in this incredible web of people and resources.
