It is more of a dream. Maybe one that I will keep for a lifetime. Or maybe a dream I will fullfill in the next decade. Whatever. I will always love this dream, but it is a struggle to make it really work in my life. So for now it is on reserve. 4 years ago

Yesterday was my last day as a school psychology student and I am now officially an alumna of the program. The day was surreal, but perfect, and exactly how one would expect the last day of a four year journey to play out.

I wanted to have all of my paperwork complete before my last class, so I met with my professor first thing in the morning to complete my final evaluation. I actually graded myself a bit too harshly, to the point that my supervisor pulled out the white-out and rescored several areas, to sum things up, she feels that I am extremely competent in the field and prepared for anything that may come my way. We signed off on my final eval, and I headed to campus. My internship class met at 9:30, and we spent the entire morning presenting our portfolios. There were five of us graduating, and we each had about a half an hour to present letters of recommendation, reports, cases that we have worked on, and professional development experiences to our class. Once we had all presented, our professor summed up the experience. We completed a class total of 221 cases, worked for over 7500 hours in schools, and provided approximately $221,000 in services to the state of Maine.

Following class, we all headed over to a local Yacht Club, where my professor greeted us. We relaxed at the lounge with a glass of wine in hand, and then had lunch over looking the ocean. My professor told us to get anything that we wanted, he was picking up the tab. Any chance he got, my professor introduced the five of us and announced that we had just completed our master’s degrees. It was really nice. After lunch, we hugged eachother, wished eachother well, promised to keep in touch, and went our separate ways.

It is surreal to look back over the last four years and to realize the accomplishments that I have acheived. I have had high points and low points, on several occasions I seriously contemplated walking away from the program. Here I am today, a graduate of the school psychology program. 4 years ago

I’m in my last month of internship, I passed the PRAXIS with flying colors, picked up my cap and gown this afternoon, graduation is next Saturday, a school district is seeking me out for an application, and now I’m putting together my final portfolio! :) :) 5 years ago

Dear Husband and I are going to a preview session at Washington University for their University College program, August 9. It is a program for nontypical college students. I’ll be gathering information for a while, since I don’t have the funds for school yet. DH would be reimbursed from work, so I think he should take classes if he likes! 5 years ago

I can’t think of anything, except my family, that excites me more than observing how people learn, motivating learning, and finding ways to overcome obstacles to learning. In one of my earlier careers, I was a parent educator for Parents As Teachers. Assisting families to make the best of their baby’s potential was a wonderful privilege. 5 years ago