It’s crazy to think that I have been a Master’s degree candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) for almost six weeks now. Thinking back to orientation and my first few days at HGSE (HUG-SY, that is what everyone calls it here, it sounds like a bunch of warm embraces coming your way), there were so many things that surprised me about the community I was being welcomed to, and so much that made me feel much more relieved after being introduced to this incredible place. The summer leading up to coming to HGSE was filled with wonder, excitement, and to be frank, quite a bit of anxiety. I often thought to myself, will I be good enough to withstand this intense, nine-month program? Will I be able to keep up with my incredible classmates and find a group of people that I can call friends? Will I feel intimidated to speak in front of professors who have worked so hard to get where they are, have published prolifically, and are leaders in their fields? I am happy to say that orientation provided comforting answers to all of this and more.
My first day of school swag: a water bottle, a bag, and a name tag.
Within minutes of stepping onto the orientation “red carpet” as they called it, the Office of Student Affairs did their absolute best to make everyone feel welcome. A warm breakfast ushered the morning of introductory remarks, and an “intellectual spa day,” of sorts, as proclaimed by Associate Dean for Learning and Teaching, Matt Miller.
A few of some fellow Technology, Innovation and Education (TIE) Students and I taking a fun photo opportunity on the first day
You see, I had spent all summer agonizing over which classes would best suit my career objectives, color coding a ridiculously long excel sheet that was getting way too out of hand. HGSE did an excellent job of easing us into the experience. Instead of having us select our classes right when we got onto campus, we were given a treat of a 64 minutes of “8X8 talks,” TED style speeches on important ideas in education by HGSE’s very finest, the graduate school faculty. Eight faculty members took the stage for a total of eight brief minutes each and presented their thoughts on a variety of topics, ranging from inclusive education to the intersection of faith and education. This was an opportunity to get our feet wet with what is important to our esteemed professors, and to get a sense for how warm and intellectual the community here on Appian Way can be.
The rest of the day took on a similar format, allowing students to attend whichever lectures given by the faculty they would like, again, to provide some exposure to students and to give them an idea on how invested this community is in the world of education. One lecture I attended that was quite memorable was that of Statistics Professor, Andrew Ho, on the topic of what professionals in education should know about statistics.
Professor Andrew Ho laying it down for potential Stats students
Now, if you know me well, you’ll know that I am not someone who would consider themselves necessarily gifted in mathematics. With Professor Ho’s talk, I was convinced right off that bat, that what matters here at HGSE is that students adopt a growth-mindset approach to learning. Andrew Ho made me feel like if statistics was not my thing before coming to HGSE but if I was planning on making that my thing, this community would be the place to do it.
Professor Ho’s charismatic talk on the importance of a working knowledge of statistics in education related careers sent out an important message about the HGSE experience in general. Ho made it extremely clear that just because you may not necessarily be bringing in a wealth of experience in mathematics to a statistics class, this does not mean you will suffer through an agonizing and lonely semester of failure to master material. Support for you, Ho made it clear, is present and available.
If you want to get good at something, you have all the resources at HGSE to make that happen. From professors who respond to e-mail within minutes, to teaching fellows who will spend two hours outside of their allotted office student time helping you configure how to use new and confusing data software, and fellow classmates who have a wide range of interesting experiences from working at Sesame Street to running their own companies in Pakistan, HGSE truly is the place for you to stretch your abilities.
In the six short weeks that I have been here, I have learned how to use data visualization software, worked on a team to develop preliminary ideas for an application that seeks to improve the classroom experience, taken a deep dive into questioning what it takes to make an online learning experience a successful one, and navigated the world of virtual reality in education. These are all areas in which, a year ago, I might have told you are nowhere near my area of expertise and areas in which I could not likely ever be competitive in immersed in an academic environment. Today, thanks to that statistics talk, I recognize that my HGSE experience can take on whatever shape I allow it to-as long as I do not allow the fear or not knowing or not previously having any experience get in my way of an abundance of resources that can help me achieve my academic and career goals.
All smiles- I still can’t believe I am actually here!
Blog post written by Dalia Abbas. Photos provided by Dalia Abbas
Dalia Abbas is a student at the School of Education with a focus on technology and innovation. Born and raised in California, Dalia moved to Egypt with her family when she was 17 to continue her high school and undergraduate education. At the American University in Cairo, Dalia developed an interest in history, media, and international education. She worked as a teacher in Cairo for two years and then and went on to work in various academic roles in education in Istanbul, Guangzhou, and most recently, as a history teacher at a STEM focused school in Silicon Valley. Dalia hopes to combine her passions for technology and history and her experience as an educator to contribute to optimizing learning experiences for both teachers and students, in the United States, Egypt and beyond. Dalia is an avid runner as well a lifestyle and food blogger.
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