Tomorrow I have another orientation session, in my mind I”m going over a way to share more details about the Honors program. I want students to know the benefits of becoming academic involved. I also want these potential students to think long term! I want these students to realize that to really get somewhere you have to be prepared, organized, and more than anything else…FOCUSED.

I asked a question today on my FB page (www.facebook.com/STLRALF), it was what would you want people to know about your invisible disease. I got some AMAZING responses to the question. One of the ones that stood out to me was “that people understand I”M NOT CRAZY!” WOW! You know I felt that  a lot, especially when I was first diagnosed. I remember when I went and got my red handicap sticker. I could see people looking at me like ‘WHAT You have fine…your not disabled.” People (most people) struggle to understand a disease that doesn’t have crutches or that doesn’t outwardly show.  If you are in a wheelchair…people realize oh wait that person has _________ and they are a bit more understanding.  But because our pain is inside and our fatigue is invisible to those on the outside, people sometimes probably go “she is crazy”, or “it is all in her head…she just wants attention.”

Well I can say…if I wanted attention I wouldn’t want it because I am in such pain or for a cold that puts me in the hospital for 2 weeks!! Paying off medical bills and paying outrageous private medical insurance costs…..yah definitely don’t want that as an outcome of my attention seeking.  So NOT we are not seeking attention…we just want people to know that we are suffering. To understand that we have limitations, pain, fatigue, and foggy brains sometimes.

I’m hopeful that as we advocate more, as we talk more about Rheumatoid Arthritis….that more people will get what it means. The same for Fibromyalgia. These are both major health concerns..both debilitating…both extremely painful. Yet you can look so perfect on the outside…

So I will say it is my hope for those of us who blog and advocate for people to understand about Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, and Fibromyalgia, that we raise awareness. That more and more people get a clearer (or better) understanding of our lives…and what we live through on a daily basis.  I used to be scare to share what I struggled with because I did not want to seem less than “normal or perfect.” But you know I realized…advocating/sharing what life is like with these diseases…might be the key to bringing awareness to the world around me.

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a joint degenerative auto-immune disease that is debilitating. It is a systematic diseases meaning it attacks joints and organs, leaving the person struggling with pain, inflammation, and fatigue. Treatment (as the disease advances) includes auto-immune suppressant medication known as DMARDS. Many of the drugs in the DMARD family are chemo like medicine, I have been on three of these such medicines since my diagnosis in 2010. For others, their treatment is the biologic medicine either by injection or infusion. No you cannot always see someone’s pain…no you cannot always see their inflammation. BUT you know what….RA is NOT Oestoarthritis…it can be a disease a 2 year old child can have..or a disease a 21 year old can develop. It is not an old person’s disease..it can happen any time. I encourage you to advocate for yourself and for others.

Talking about our pain can be hard…I have experienced that myself. BUT it is through word of mouth, it is through communication that you can use a “get up and get on” day to change the way people think of our daily journey. At least that is a goal for myself!

Get up and Get on Have a great night!

In 2011 I moved to Scotland, and as readers of this blog will know I was appointed chair of a review of Scottish higher education governance. My panel issued its report in early 2012. One of our recommendations was that chairs of governing bodies should be elected by staff, students and other stakeholders. This recommendation, which we suspected would be controversial, has been vehemently resisted by governing body chairs and others within the universities, with one of the objections being that if implemented it would compromise university autonomy.

So is there in all this a properly developed view of autonomy? What does it mean? Does it mean, for example, that the state may take no interest of any kind in university governance? Does it mean, on the other hand, that the state can impose a strategic direction, merely allowing universities to choose methods of implementation? Presumably the truth lies somewhere in between these two rather different propositions. Autonomy cannot mean that society has no stake in universities and that its representatives should mind their own business; that would suggest a level of independence from anyone’s oversight that no other body in society, public or private, enjoys. On the other hand autonomy, if it is to mean anything, must include the right of a university to determine its own strategy, taking into account the public interest (which will usually be expressed in conditions of state funding).

Various definitions of university autonomy have been suggested. The European Universities Association, for example, has argued that it involves organisational, financial, staffing and academic autonomy – a definition that for me is too structural, and not strategic enough. Others have questioned whether university autonomy has come to be seen too much as managerial autonomy from staff influence.

Universities must, like all other bodies, show their responsiveness to the needs of the wider society, but must be left to make most of the judgements about how to reflect this themselves. In the meantime the state, as the guardian of the public interest, must be able to regulate some of the structures of governance, provided this does not include control over decision-making within the institutions. This was the position we were seeking to address in the governance review. I still think we found the right balance.

http://www.arl.org/news/arl-news/2773-shared-access-research-ecosystem-proposed-by-aau-aplu-arl

http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/universities-and-libraries-envision-a-federated-system-for-public-access-to-research/44147

Does anyone know more about the background of the proposal and what it means for us?

Recently a colleague in student affairs was a little exasperated at the notion that student affairs is still talking about collaborating with academic affairs. The exasperation was based on this person’s sense of urgency that we need to focus on the issues of today such as ways to assess the impact of services, engagement of all students, completion with quality, and the changing demographics of college students.

Ironically, in looking at the list of issues we should be concerned about today, it becomes obvious that we must continue to work on collaboration between academic and student affairs.

A couple of weeks ago, I spoke at a Northeast regional conference on service learning and civic engagement. In preparation for creating my remarks, I spoke with several registrants for the conference. As each one spoke about the context for their work, a running theme was their bafflement about and desire to create meaningful and effective partnerships between the service learning and civic engagement offices that report to academic affairs and their colleagues in student affairs offices. I was not surprised by the comments.

There are some root causes for the difficulty in collaborating on certain programs and activities.  These root causes include a history and tradition that service and volunteer work called community service has been the responsibility of student affairs since the 1949 Truman Commission Report that addressed the role of higher education in sustaining the nation’s democracy and in “using creative imagination to solve the problems of society.”

Some decades later, the expectation and responsibility held by student affairs was replaced by service learning and more often than not located organizationally in academic affairs. While structures are still in place in student services for students to volunteer, the work has not had the explicit endorsement or imprimatur of the leadership of the institution as has service learning has enjoyed as part of the Campus Compact coalition. Despite the history of having a core responsibility redefined and moved organizationally, student affairs has the passion and skills to play significant roles as partners in the service learning experience today.

One example of the desire and capability of student affairs in the area of service is the response the NASPA initiative, Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement, received when it made a call to its membership for 25 lead institutions to volunteer to share their efforts with colleagues about civic engagement of which service learning is so often an integral part. More than 100 colleges and universities volunteered and 50 were selected for the first-year of the initiative.

In talking about what could be the root cause of the distance between offices of service learning and student affairs, I suggest that we follow the principle of the root canal that we select with a problem tooth. Generally, before a root canal, there has been pain or some kind of disturbance in the health of the tooth. In rooting out the nerve from which the pain emanates, we save the tooth. In our situation about the root cause of the distance between offices of service learning and student affairs, the tooth symbolizes the concept of providing opportunities for college students to practice civic engagement to preserve our democracy and to learn to be socially responsible. We will do what we must do to save the concept and practice.

Ordinarily, I encourage student affairs to reach out, to take the initiative in collaborating with their colleagues across the campus. Today, I’m encouraging those in service learning and other offices of civic engagement to reach out to colleagues in student affairs. In hearing about the work of the NASPA lead institutions in the Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement initiative, it is clear that student affairs is reaching out in all kinds of creative ways to partner. It’s time to meet student affairs part of the way in creating effective and meaningful partnerships to preserve the concept of service among college and university students.

The 2013 Combined State College Selection Process (SBMPTN) examinations at Medan State University (Unimed) will be held at 19 locations on 18-19 June.

The locations include Unimed, the North Sumatra State Islamic University, Medan Area University, Amir Hamzah University, State Madrasah Aliyah No. 2.

Meanwhile, invigilators are drawn from among the ranks of lecturers at Unimed, IAIN Sumut, UMA, UMSU, and Amir Hamzah, as well as the teachers in schools which are being used as exam centers.

SBMPTN to be held at 19 locations at Unimed

Ujian tulis Seleksi Bersama Masuk Perguruan Tinggi Negeri (SBMPTN) 2013 di Universitas Negeri Medan (Unimed) pada 18-19 Juni 2013 dilaksanakan di 19 lokasi.

Lokasi ujian tersebut antara lain di Unimed, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Sumatra Utara, Universitas Medan Area, Universitas Amir Hamzah, Madrasah Aliyah Negeri 2, dan beberapa lokasi lainnya.

Selain itu, pengawas ujian berasal dari dosen Unimed, IAIN Sumut, UMA, UMSU, Amir Hamzah, dan guru sekolah yang gedungnya dipakai sebagai tempat ujian.

The Lampung University (Unila) local committee will mobilize 1,198 invigilators to supervise the written examinations as part of the Combined State College Selection process (SBMPTN).

The SBMPTN will be held simultaneously over two days – Tuesday and Wednesday. A total of 22 exam centers will be established, with 11 of these being external to Unila.

Unila mobilizes 1,198 SBMPTN invigilators

Panitia lokal Universitas Lampung (Unila) menerjunkan 1.198 pengawas ujian tertulis seleksi bersama masuk perguruan tinggi negeri (SBMPTN).

Ujian SBMPTN akan digelar serentak pada dua hari, Selasa dan Rabu. Lokasi yang akan digunakan sebanyak 22 titik lokal, dan sebanyak 11 lokasi berada di luar lingkungan Unila.

No Bidik Misi scholarships have been paid out to high-achieving, disadvantaged students at state Islamic universities for the last six months.

A number of students have complained that they have yet to receive the Rp 600,000 owed to them, despite that fact that the money is very important to them in paying living and accommodation expenses.

Septi, a student at the Sunan Klijaga State Islamic University, said that she received no explanations from the Ministry of Religious Affairs about the non-payment of her scholarship from January through June.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Secretary General for Bidik Misi Scholarships at Malang State Islamic University, also said he was disappointed with the lack of clarity afforded to scholarship recipients.

Separately, Nur Syam, the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Director General of Islamic Education, said that the delays were due to problems with the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ budget  involving third parties. However, he said that the problems had been resolved and preparations were being made for the disbursement of the scholarships.

Bidik Misi scholarships not paid for six months

Penyaluran beasiswa pendidikan Bidikmisi bagi mahasiswa berprestasi dari keluarga tidak mampu terhenti enam bulan terakhir. Penyaluran yang terhenti hanya pada program Bidikmisi di perguruan tinggi agama Islam negeri.

Beberapa mahasiswa mengaku belum mendapat beasiswa sebesar Rp 600.000. padahal uang itu sangat berarti bagi mereka penerima Bidikmisi, khususnya untuk biaya hidup dan kos.

Seperti, mahasiswa Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Sunan Kalijaga mengaku selama Januari-Juni belum ada kejelasan Kementerian Agama soal penyaluran beasiswa Bidikmisi.

Sementara itu, Wakil Sekretaris Jenderal Lingkar Bidkmisi UIN Malang, juga mencemaskan nasib penerima Bidikmisi yang nasibnya belum jelas karena beasiswa Bidikmisi masih belum jelas.

Direktur Jenderal Pendidikan Islam Kemenag Nur Syam mengatakan, keterlambatan penyaluran Bidikmisi terjadi karena masalah anggaran Kemenag yang melibatkan instansi lain. Namun menurutnya, kini masalah tersebut sudah selesai dan sedang disiapkan penyalurannya.

As mentioned in a previous post, one of the people present at a signing for Crossing the Bridge: Succeeding in a Community College and Beyond asked when I was going to write a book about teaching. I shied away from a direct response and managed to mumble something about not being an authority. I know what works for me and what seems to work for most of my students, BUT there is no one and only right way to teach every person and every subject.

There are many variables involved in effective teaching. How big is the class? What type of background do the students have? Teaching second year nursing students requires a different approach from one employed with students taking remedial math. Or does it? Gender matters too. So does class composition. A class comprised of people ranging from 16 to 70 (one of my classes this summer) demands still another approach, especially when one looks at life experience.

And then there’s the little matter of personality. It’s true that each class has its own dynamic that largely develops from the mixture of personalities. Is there “one bad apple that spoils the bunch?” Is there a know-it-all? And what about a class clown, a charmer, or a wallflower? Sometimes there’s a student who delights in putting a teacher on the spot by asking some real zingers, questions that often have little to do with course content. In just about every class, there’s a student who tries to monopolize discussions, oblivious to the eye rolling and sighing going on whenever he or she begins. And lest I forget, there are always the whiners.

If you’ve never taught before, you might be a bit idealistic and find the above descriptions off-putting. If, on the other hand, you  have taught for even one year, you might be wondering why I left out the excuse makers, latecomers, and ill-prepared. You might think I’m being too kind while those in the former camp might think I’m being disrespectful. Thus, a dilemma. How can a person write a book about teaching that will be useful to everyone?

Here’s something I’ve recently learned because of a church-related teaching assignment. I’m teaching a teacher development class at church, and one of the top guidelines is to love your students AND to let them know it. Hmmm. My sweet sis, also a teacher, and I have been talking about this concept, and we both agree that it’s something we were NEVER taught in an education course. I realize that spiritual teaching is quite different from academic instruction, and yet the principle remains.

What do you think? Is feeling and demonstrating love an ingredient for successful teaching and learning? If so, then maybe we should operationally define love as caring for the well-being and development of a student. With that simple definition in mind, do you think “love” for students is a desirable component of effective teaching? Is it necessary? Think back over your own lives and experiences in the classroom as learners. Can you recall a time when someone who cared for your well-being and development made influenced your learning?

I realize there are a lot of questions to ponder. Just tell me how you feel. Is love necessary or not? If so, tell me (us) of a situation when it worked for you.

Whilst many of my university colleagues were at first sceptical about its uses, the emergence of social media certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed by lecturers and researchers who are now keen to harness its potential. Some of my colleagues have dived straight in but the majority are more reserved and have yet to take the plunge.

So where do you start…. (if you haven’t already)

Set yourself a goal

Many academics are yet to get started because they simply don’t know where to begin. Should they create a blog, Facebook page, Twitter account or LinkedIn Group? Unfortunately there is no simply answer to this, other than to reflect on what you are trying to achieve and by setting yourself a goal.

My view is that the best starting point for many academics is to create a blog.

Create a blog

For many academics a common goal will be to build a reputation for excellence in their scholarly activity. I think one for the best ways to do this is to share your thoughts, ideas and research online by creating a blog. A blog provides a vehicle and a point of reference for an academic to become a recognised leader, thought provoker or analyst and ultimately gain influence.

Understand your content and audience

But just because you have started a blog, doesn’t mean people are going to read it (not every is as fortunate as Kevin Coster). This is why it’s important to not only seek out opportunities for creating content that will engage an audience but understanding where your audience reside. This is where the likes of Twitter and LinkedIn are good platforms for disseminating and sharing content and building an audience.

Stay motivated

Once you’ve started a blog and begun to build an audience, the next challenge is to continue blogging at a frequency that maintains a good level of readership. This can be challenging because many academics will find blogging a time consuming process but it doesn’t have to be. Restricting your dedicated blogging time, putting a word limit on posts and collecting ideas for blog entries are a few simply ideas to keep up the good fight!

Don’t spread yourself too thin

Hopefully you’ll get to a stage where you’ve been blogging regularly, people are reading your content and sharing amongst a community. But be careful not to spread yourself too thin, as I mentioned earlier you may wish to create accounts on other social networks to disseminate content but please, don’t create an account on everything just because you can…

So to summarise, if you’re an academic looking to build a presence online for your scholarly activity, consider the following:

• Set yourself a goal
• Create a blog
• Understand your content and audience
• Stay motivated
• Don’t spread yourself too thin

Be open about your goals

Particularly when coming into a new job, establishing your goals with your supervisor and actively working towards those goals are commendable actions. Trying to hide those goals from your coworkers is not; it may be to your advantage to keep quiet (see below) but it is never in good taste to make up stories or publicly denounce your actions as anything other than what they are. Remember, your colleagues are your peers, they are smart, and they are human beings. If you lie about promotions, or seeking another job, they will find out and there will be unnecessary drama to deal with.

Stay silent rather than tell a lie

Keeping to yourself can keep a secret safe, and can also keep your reputation in tact. Lets assume you want that big promotion, so you are gunning for it and you don’t care who you have to step over to get there. Remaining silent can keep your colleagues from feeling threatened, and protect you from falling into the trap of a lie; face the facts – everyone knows you want the promotion and no one will hold it against you, unless you lie about it.

Interoffice trust is important, and once you break that trust it will be nearly impossible to earn it back, no matter how many brownies and coffee K-cups your bring in.

Never deny something that is true

So you did something not so great…broke the copier, forgot to send that report or started dating the boss’s daughter. If you get caught, do yourself a favor and just own it – there is not sense in denying or lying your way out because the truth will always come out and in the end you will be worse off than you were in the first place. Having the stones to own your mistake will earn you some credit back, and show that you are humble enough to admit a fault; after all, everyone makes mistakes – it’s the ones we don’t learn from, and the lies we tell that cause more damage.

Avoid cover-up stories

Stories have a time and place: the water cooler, lunch or downtime discussions about weekend plans. There is no reason to make up a story to cover your ass in the workplace; it may save you from immediate reprimanding or deflect the consequence toward another person, but in the end the truth will come out and the repercussions will be far worse than if you just told the truth in the first place. It is a lesson learned when we were children with spilt milk and broken windows: owning up is the honest and noble thing to do, and is always the premier option.

Proactively repair relationships or fix mistakes

When (notice not if) you do make a mistake, be a team player and take steps to rectify the situation. Apologizing is a start, but actively seeking out ways to help correct the error you made will aid in earning you points with the people you’ve done wrong.

Stay confident

When all is said and done, a mistake is a mistake, and if you followed these guidelines, there’s a good chance you will be forgiven and able to start proving yourself again as a valuable asset to the team. Stay confident, and don’ let a mistake ruin your feelings on the

Here is the link:

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/the-great-grad-school-debate/

What made my mother a woman ahead of her time back then, however, was her insistence that I be fitted with an ASTM/SEI approved riding helmet at the age of four (which was about the time that I started riding my pony on my own).  It was non-negotiable – and at that age, I didn’t argue – so it became an automatic part of my riding preparation.

Today, a parent making that decision is commonplace.  In fact, the decision to put kids in helmets for nearly every sport is the norm – from kids learning how to ride bikes in their own driveways to the ski helmet that has become standard attire on the slopes.  And since Courtney King-Dye had her 2010 riding accident, the discussion about wearing helmets when mounted (no matter what your riding discipline) has led to substantial rule changes – most notably from the USDF and USEF concerning the mandatory wearing of helmets during dressage competitions.

Britain’s Charlotte Dujardin made Olympic history when she became the first dressage rider to win gold while wearing a riding helmet instead of the traditional top hat. You can bet she was thinking about safety first!

But this blog posting isn’t about helmets as much as it’s about the broader idea of safety – in particular in regards to the conversation that most college-seeking students dread having:  the one about making a list of safety schools to apply to in the fall.

You see, my mother’s motivation in making me wear a helmet as a child (a practice I continue to this day) was quite simply to make sure that when (not if) I made mistakes on horseback, I would be protected.  While having a safety school (or three!) on your college application list isn’t necessarily to protect you from mistakes per se, the idea of defining those schools is in itself a form of protection – it essentially guarantees that you will begin your college life somewhere (even if that school isn’t the one you had in mind originally).

Safety schools come in all shapes and sizes and a safety school for one student isn’t necessarily the appropriate safety school for another student.  Some of it pertains to grades and test scores and some of it comes down to finances and personal preferences – much like saying that you’ll purchase a Troxel or IRH helmet instead of a GPA or Charles Owen.  They’re all approved to protect you in a fall but they look different, fit different, and come with different options.

The most important thing to remember is that choosing safety schools for your college list is not setting you up for failure in the college application process – much the same way that wearing a riding helmet doesn’t guarantee that you’ll fall off!  Instead, it’s a way to give yourself lots of options for your college journey after high school graduation.

A safety school, then, is one that meets the following criteria for you:

• Based on their admission trends for the past few years, your grades and test scores indicate that you stand a better than 90 percent chance of gaining admission.
• The school offers the major (or majors) that you have the most interested in.
• The school will be affordable for you and your family and will require minimal student loans.
• It is a place where you will feel comfortable living and learning.

You’ll notice in the list above that the idea of affordability is in bold text; this is by design because often for high-achieving students with very strong transcripts, the “safety” component of a safety school has little to do with their academic abilities and far more to do with what they and their parents are able to afford for their education.  In other words:

Safety encompasses more than just one factor when considering what schools will be “safe” for you.

It’s also crucial for me to point out that a true safety school is one that you actually like.  You must visit the campus, sit in on classes, and research the different opportunities available at a safety school just as thoroughly as you investigate those at your dream and “reach” schools – perhaps even more so!  (After all, you wouldn’t purchase a new riding helmet without trying it on first, would you?)  That way, if your dream school falls through for one reason or another, you’ll know that the school you will enroll in is one that still offers the options you need for your college goals – maybe they’re just not as bright and shiny as the ones at the dream school.

For me, my dream college for undergraduate was the one I ended up attending – but the dream school I wanted to attend for my Master’s degree wound up being a poor fit financially and in terms of how I wanted to conduct my graduate experience, so I can speak from both sides of the safety school perspective and attest that both routes can still take you exactly where you want to go.

(But if you’re going on horseback, do me a favor and wear your helmet.  And if you need help adding safety schools to your list, contact me.)

The modern usage of the word comes from the Latin, liber, which means free. A liberal is someone who believes in personal and societal freedom, just the opposite of what radio personalities mean when they hiss and scowl at liberals. The older meaning of the word is one I think makes more sense to me: liberal means generous. A liberal using this understanding is a generous person. A liberal society is a generous one, seeking to share struggles and resources, hoping that everyone rises to the top. It’s a philosophy that seeks to practice the golden rule and not just talk about it–not to divide people into camps or parties or classes or ethnic groups.

But the sense in which I find it important to use the word liberal is in educational circles when we talk about a liberal education. A liberal education educates the whole person, not just for a job, but for a life. The models for a liberal education are rooted in the Western tradition, from the schools of Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece. There, a liberal arts education includes body, mind, and spirit. Students were expected to study the sciences and humanities, and to learn a trade. They were expected to have a broad and deep liberal arts learning both to equip students to enter the work force but just as important to be productive citizens in the polis or city. Remember the seeds of democracy were planted in early Greece where citizens were expected to be informed.

These days we seem to be downplaying the critical role of the liberal arts in education and it will cost us dearly in having less informed citizens who might also be parents. I would argue that the problem with some growing trends in higher education is that they are neither liberal nor educated. It is not enough to teach a trade for which one has a sure job unless one also provides the learner with skills for living. The old schools of liberal arts taught about the history of the city state, what it met to be a citizen, and how best to live.

The lack of a genuine liberal arts education for every citizen will end up hurting the republic in which they live and the families and neighborhoods they exist within. If you doubt this, just listen to talk radio shows or read most newspapers or watch television. The lack of civil discourse, of learning to listen to views different from your own with genuine respect, is deafening. And without real discourse, there will be continuing political skirmishes and national shouting matches, and gridlock and little positive change.

Degree Programs – Students can personalize their degree program in U.S. universities. They can choose not only a major but also a minor or opt for a double major or a major and a double minor, thereby enriching their education and following their interests. Thanks to the personalization of the degree program the student can be better prepared for the job market requirements, more flexible and able to work and think across fields. Therefore, it is not at all unusual to find students graduating in Business and Art History, in English and Political Science, etc. Students have also the possibility to do independent study courses, which are studying and research courses specifically designed by their tutor to meet the student’s educational and/or professional needs in a particular field. Students tend to specialize in such fields as Law, Medicine, or Architecture in graduate programs.

On the other hand, Italian universities have stricter curriculum requirements and tend to an earlier specialization. Students have fewer courses to choose from, as the majority of them are already established by the university.  Apart from few cases of intradepartmental degrees (corsi interfacoltà) it is rare to combine courses from different disciplinary fields together. Students are not allowed to pursue a double degree program.

Teaching and Exams – American universities are centered on students’ learning experience. Therefore, lectures are often followed by smaller discussion groups. Studying is based on project works and research from the very first semester. Students have far more personal engagement with their peers, professors, and ultimately, with their chosen subject field. Exams are usually written, while the student’s final grades represent all of his or her work throughout the whole semester.

On the other hand, student-professor interaction is very limited in Italian universities. Lectures are the most common teaching style in Italian universities, while seminars are usually reserved for juniors and seniors. Exams are more often oral ones and based on a comprehensive final evaluation of the student’s learning.

Admissions Criteria – Admission in U.S. universities is based on multiple criteria: standardized test scores, high school GPA, extracurricular activities, motivation letter and reference letters. Admission is usually open in Italy, although in some universities the student’s final mark on his or her diploma and an entry test may be taken into consideration.

Career Services – The office of Career services is crucial and extremely active in American universities, and students are able to do as many internships as they want. Therefore, upon graduation they are usually better equipped to enter the job market compared to their Italian peers.

Career services offices are becoming an integral part of the services offered by Italian universities and, although they offer large online internship platforms, they appear detached from the students’ university experience.

Campus life – American students usually live on campus and actively engage in both residential and university life. They join clubs and associations to enrich their educational experience. Community service projects are sometimes a curriculum requirement by certain universities.

Italian students usually commute every day to take classes and, therefore, do not have enough time to engage in university life actively. University dorms do not have structured residential life programs. The majority of students do not engage in student clubs.

Ci sono parecchie differenze fondamentali tra il sistema universitario italiano e quello  americano che hanno un impatto notevole sulla esperienza formativa dello studente. Il principale è forse il fatto che ci sono molte università private negli Stati Uniti, mentre in Italia le università sono perlopiù pubbliche.

Corsi di laurea – Gli studenti possono personalizzare il loro corso di studio nelle università americane. Oltre al corso di laurea principale (major) possono scegliere anche una specializzazione complementare (minor) o optare per un doppio indirizzo o per un corso di laurea principale e due specializzazioni complementari.  In questo modo, hanno la possibilità di arricchire la propria formazione e seguire gli interessi personali senza rinunce. Grazie alla personalizzazione del corso di laurea, lo studente può prepararsi meglio per le esigenze del mercato del lavoro, diventare più flessibile e in grado di lavorare e di pensare in maniera interdisciplinare. E allora, non è affatto raro trovare studenti che si stanno laureando in Economia e Storia dell’Arte, in Inglese e in Scienze Politiche ecc … Gli studenti hanno anche la possibilità di fare corsi di studio “indipendenti.” Si tratta di definire con il proprio tutor un percorso di studio e di ricerca personale per venire incontro alle esigenze formative e / o professionali degli studenti in un determinato settore. Gli studenti tendono a specializzarsi in materie come legge, Medicina, Architettura in corsi di specializzazione post-laurea.

Invece, le università italiane hanno un piano di studi meno flessibile e tendono ad una specializzazione più precoce rispetto a quelle americane. Gli studenti hanno solo pochi corsi tra cui scegliere, mentre la maggior parte sono già stabiliti dall’università. A parte pochi casi di Corsi Interfacoltà è raro combinare esami di più corsi di laurea in un unico percorso. Gli studenti non sono autorizzati a iscriversi ad un doppio programma di laurea.

Didattica ed esami – Le università americane sono incentrate sulle esperienze di apprendimento degli studenti. Pertanto, le lezioni magistrali sono di solito seguite da piccoli gruppi di discussione. Lo studio si basa su progetti, studio di casi e si fa ricerca fin dal primo semestre. Gli studenti hanno quindi un rapporto costante e diretto con i loro colleghi, professori. Gli esami sono scritti, mentre il voto finale dello studente rappresenta una somma del suo lavoro durante l’intero semestre.

Nelle università italiane, invece, l’interazione studente-professore è piuttosto limitata. Le lezioni cattedratiche sono lo stile di insegnamento più comune nelle università italiane, mentre i seminari sono per lo più per corsi monografici e moduli di approfondimento. Gli esami sono per lo più orali e prevedono una valutazione finale della preparazione complessiva dello studente.

Ammissione –  L’ammissione nelle università americane prende in considerazione vari aspetti: il risultato di test standardizzato (come l’SAT), la media dei voti, le attività extra-curriculari svolte, la lettera motivazionale e le lettere di presentazione. In Italia, l’ammissione all’università è libera (basta avere un diploma di scuola superiore) e dove c’è il numero chiuso gli studenti ammessi sono selezionati sulla base di un test di ingresso sul cui punteggio può influire il voto di diploma.

Job placement – L’ufficio del job placamento o career services è fondamentale ed estremamente attivo nelle università americane. Gli studenti hanno la possibilità di fare numerosi stage. Pertanto, dopo la laurea di solito sono più attrezzati per entrare nel mercato del lavoro rispetto ai loro coetanei italiani.

Gli uffici di job placement stanno diventando gradualmente parte integrante dei servizi offerti dalle università italiane e, anche se hanno grandi piattaforme online di offerte di stage, sembrano separati dall’esperienza universitaria degli studenti.

Vita studentesca – Gli studenti americani di solito vivono nel campus e si impegnano attivamente nella vita sia della residenza che dell’intera università. Entrano a far parte di club e associazioni per arricchire la loro esperienza formativa. Alcune università richiedono che gli studenti facciano attività di volontariato. Al contrario, gli studenti italiani tendono a fare i pendolari ogni giorno e, quindi, non hanno abbastanza tempo per impegnarsi nella vita universitaria. Gli alloggi universitari, nella maggior parte dei casi, non hanno delle attività di animazione della vita di residenza; inoltre, la maggior parte degli studenti non fa parte di associazioni studentesche.

Maria D’Alessandro is one of our Italian Admissions Counselors. With a B.A. from John Cabot University and a Laurea Magistrale from Universita’ degli Studi di Roma Tre, Maria understands the many facets of both higher educational systems.To learn more about earning your degree at John Cabot University, contact Maria at admissions@johncabot.edu.

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NBC News Anchor Tom Brokaw. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am on my way to the 2013 SHRM national conference.  Last summer Tom Brokaw presented at the closing session of the SHRM conference. He stunned the audience with his controversial statement about it being the Century of Women. He wrote for a blog called, Lean In based on a book written by Facebook CEO, Sheryl Sandberg http://leanin.org/. She encourages women not to leave before you leave. Don’t lean back, rather lean in. She writes a truly equal world would be where women ran half of our country and men ran half of our homes. Currently there are only 21 women CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies.

DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 28JAN11 – Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer, Facebook, USA; Young Global Leader are captured during the session ‘Handling Hyper-connectivity’ at the Annual Meeting 2011 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 28, 2011. Copyright by World Economic Forum swiss-image.ch/Photo by Jolanda Flubacher (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Brokaw writes, “as the challenges of the 21^st century demand more from each of us shouldn’t we be thinking as much about how to free up more women for the common good as we do about immigration, entitlement reform, and debt reduction?” He appeared on the NBC today show as a father of three daughters, adding his voice to the debate about women in the workplace and the home, saying women have never made “as many gains in the history of mankind” as they are making now, but “we have a long way to go around the world.”

When I moved to Nevada ten years ago, I had a female boss warn me that Nevada is still a “good ol’ boy State”. While I think there might be some truth to this statement, I believe Nevada has made great strides just like the rest of the world. It is fair to say Nevada has exceeded my expectation in almost every way.

However I would say I agree with Tom, we have a long way to go, and Nevadans should listen closely and be thinking about how to free up women for the common good to help move Nevada forward.

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

Society for Human Resource Management (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I came back for second year I had spent most of my savings, didn’t have much to show for it and was lucky that I could afford things via my loans I got (and no, I wasn’t entitled to any grants) I then came to the end of my second year, realised that I didn’t know how I would be able to afford my rent for my final year. I hadn’t budgeted, and I am not about to lecture you and tell you what to do with your money – University presents us all with freedom with money. So we can all go a bit wild with it.

Anyway, this situation meant I had to get a job at least over the summer following my second year. I hadn’t bothered having a job in my first year citing reasons like “I should concentrate on my studies!” “I don’t want to be distracted” …they were just excuses. I should have continued working a part time job while at University. It meant I had to work my whole summer after 2nd year in a supermarket in my University city. This meant no seeing friends from home, none of my house mates were around and I had to work full time.

I don’t think students should get a job as a last minute “oh my God” moment, like I did. And I think any kind of work experience is useful. Be that working in a supermarket like I did or landing an internship with a company linked with your aspirations. Universities band around this word “employability” a lot. I use it most days at work as I run the employability pages on facebook and twitter for management school students. But what does it mean? It even comes up as a spelling error on here and on Word.

For me, improving employability is most simply, building on your skills to make you more employable. Be that by going to mock interviews/assessment centres, attending a CV clinic, taking on a part time job. Anything like this – make it work for you! For example, if you’re a Management student who wants to work in a bank or large business after graduating and are working in retail at the moment, use any and all opportunities to use those skills to make you seem more attractive to employers. I’ve written about retail on here before so click on the link if you want more info on why retail jobs are worth your time; http://easea.wordpress.com/2013/04/12/why-i-think-everyone-should-work-in-retail-at-least-once-in-their-lives/ so taking the e.g. of retail and wanting to work in a bank. You are organised, dedicated, customer focused and used to handling money! Some steps in the right direction….

As I have said before, many students think degree = job when it doesn’t. Some are even SURPRISED when they don’t a job when some students don’t have the first clue about selling themselves to employers. You have to seize every opportunity to add value to your degree. So be a course rep, join in with your student’s union, get involved with student enterprise. Sometimes it might not feel like it’s worth your time. Or perhaps getting to lectures and seminars and turning in assignments on time feels like as much as you can take (goodness knows I felt that way).

I don’t like the cliched “GO TO UNI AND DO EVERYTHING” view. But do it – and do it properly and it will pay dividends in the end. Constantly check for local jobs and even consider your University for work as well – everything from working in SU bars to the Student’s shop to internships can be found!!

If you want a really long winded explanation of employability take a look here: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/employability/pedagogy_for_employability_update_2012.pdf

It’s a big bad world of work out there! Hit the ground running after Uni Good luck to all the Management School students who are graduating in July