Friday frenzy

It has been a crazy and hectic Friday – and a heads up, I will be at a conference most of next week so have tried to schedule some blog posts to run in my absence.

Over the past two days, I have had the pleasure of meeting two students who were doing a job shadowing project.  Without disclosing any of their personal information, I wanted to reflect a little about the experience.  I can say without hesitation that they were prepared, engaging, interesting, respectful, and represented the best in Wake Forest students.

In addition to talking about my work, we talked some about their experiences.  We talked about course registration (and how it feels very stressful to first-year students but it gets better as a sophomore). The students sounded like they liked their classes for the most part, but maybe didn’t love all of their divisional requirements.  That’s pretty normal – a liberal arts curriculum forces you to take classes in areas that might be outside your comfort zone.

We talked (in the most generic of terms) about the election, and my sense was that both students were trying to figure out what the election meant – not in terms of candidates, but because this was the first presidential election they were old enough to vote in, and were not sure how this election compared to previous ones. One of the students went to an event (student-led) at noon today. The student described it as a peaceful gathering where people could talk about their feelings post-election and feel heard.  The description this student gave made it sound like there were folks on both sides of the political aisle – some on the grassy part at the rally, some on the Mag Patio observing – but that speakers and observers were pretty respectful.

We talked about the hardness of Wake Forest in terms of the work load. The students definitely feel like the work is hard, and there is a lot of it. My sense of the students was that they wanted very much to do well and were hard workers.  It sounded like there are a number of tests or papers coming up (at least in their courses), so I felt like they were ready for the weekend.  These students also seemed to be taking advantage of lots of on campus opportunities – OPCD, speakers on campus, trying to find mentors and people to help them.

Wonderful and refreshing to talk to these young people. They were terrific. I wish I could meet all of our students, frankly.  We are fortunate to have so many great young men and women here.

And I would be remiss if I did not mention Veterans Day. There are no doubt many Deac families with veterans in them, or who have family members currently serving. Thank you to our veterans for your service and sacrifice. Thanks, too, to your families and loved ones, because they sacrifice too. My thoughts are always with our current ROTC students who will be serving our country after graduation, as well as our ROTC recent graduates on active duty. May they all be safe, and may they all feel our gratitude for their service to our country.

Thank you.