Wednesday, August 17, 2011

August, so far.

I am so very grateful to have been offered a graduate assistant position this year. It is not in my academic department, but rather with the department of housing. I'm qualified because I worked for housing for three years as an undergraduate. (Yes, I was an RA.)
Because this is a position with Housing, an apartment on campus is part of the package. But this means I don't get to have visits from my dog (but my ex is kind enough to let me come visit her when I please).
I am anxious about classes starting. I have 4 grad-level classes, and one infamously demanding undergrad course, and I'll be working 20 hours a week in addition to that. I also need to take a basic-level math class at the local community college. It's going to be a challenging semester. Bring it on!


2 comments:

rose38 said...

Hi, love your blog!

I'm just finishing up my 1st semester as an SLP grad student at Emich and I have a question about the time commitment as a GA and clinic hours. Are you still working as a GA? If so, does it conflict with your clinic hours at all or are you able to work the 20 hours as a GA and get your hours in for clinic? How many hours do you do for clinic a week? The GA position I want to go for will start my 2nd semester of clinic (next Fall). Any insight you could give me would be great! Thanks!

Erika said...

Hey there, Rose. Is your name Rose? Thank you for visiting my blog, and I just added yours to my Google reader.
I am indeed still working as a Grad Assistant, but this year, I went down to part-time--I only work 10 hours a week as opposed to 20. I wanted to try to work 20 hours, but my adviser strongly recommended that I do 10. It is entirely possible to do a part-time GA position to get some credits paid for, especially if you have good time-management skills.
As far as how much time I spend in clinic: I had one client that I see 2 days a week, so I usually spend all of Tuesday/Thursday in the clinic. I highly recommend preparing yourself to be available Monday-Thursday during normal clinic hours because flexibility is important. I live on campus as part of my GA-ship (I work in housing) and I feel it's been a huge advantage to be able to walk over to the clinic when I need.
I hope this helped! Please feel free to contact me if you need anything at all.