Diversity in CT!!!

So today Rita, myself, Kenny, & Ravi had our first course outside of the HESA dpt. When HESA informed us that for our "elective" the dpt. decided to get rid of the Small Colleges many of us including myself had been looking forward too since we first looked into UConn, and was only offering 1 course which would be taught by the former President of UConn and would mostly be around how to be a college President I was pissed and immediately investigated all my other options and boy am I glad I did. The Cross Cultural Counseling course I found through the Ed Psyc department is absolutely phenomenal and though I only had 1 class so far I have great confidence that this will probably be the most memorable and meaningful course I'll take during my master's program and it's not even officially part of it haha. The main goal of the course is to provide us with an experience to begin the process of being a culturally competent counselor. We have many meaningful activities and assignments planned and it's definitely the most diverse class I've ever been a part or seen during my time as a student, especially at UConn. My professor is a wonderful, warm, passionate black man (How sad is it that I have never had a black professor? Not that this is surprising since Oneonta is def not diverse in most departments, but still!!!), and there are at least 7-8 students from underepresented populations in the class of 22. Plus I'm SUPER excited to get to know, and hear experiences and thoughts from a whole group of new people. It was def bizarre to be in a classroom and not see the same exact 15 faces I've been with for the past year, but in a GREAT way. Basically everyone but the 4 of us HESAs in the class are in the HS counseling master's program, but they aren't a small cohort like HESA so they don't all know each other or have all the other traits both positive and NEGATIVE a cohort comes with. I'm so pumped.

My 1st day at practicum was a breeze, but we'll see how long this lasts. I got a taste of the culture of the office and got to meet everyone and created a Facebook page for UConn reslife haha.

Okay off to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to one of my fav island eateries, Tula's Kitchen with Jaci and Ed then going to see Pineapple Express, Saturday is Sassy's bday bonanza, then the rest of the weekend is chock full of HW and family fun.

Enjoy the 3 day weekend everyone!