The Rise of the New Groupthink – NYTimes.com.

Interesting information… very interesting.

I am pretty excited – Nancy Evans was able to get my chapter 4 back to me – and with some better transitioning, and additional information – I will get this chapter wrapped up.  Then, onto Chapter 5.  Thanks everyone for your help, support and encouragement.

I had the honor of serving as a featured speaker at the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) Mid-America Conference on November 11, 2011 in Covington, KY with over 700 student and student affairs professionals in attendance. The people who participated in the discussion, and questions helped to inspire me to finish up my dissertation. I am grateful for every moment I shared with the 60-75 people who attended my 90 minute presentation. Audio, presentation notes, and Prezi presentation are available online >> Read more here

I am really excited for my presentation at NACA Mid-America Conference

NACA Presentation: Exploring the effect of addressing social injustices as a student affairs professional [PDF]

I avoided every minute of news today… every word every story – until I came upon: http://storycorps.org/

The stories were -= personal and about love… and loss:
When Richie Pecorella met Karen Juday, she captured his heart and changed his life. They were engaged and living together in Brooklyn when Karen was killed in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, where she worked as an administrative assistant. Here, Richie remembers Karen, his love and inspiration.

John Vigiano Sr. is a retired New York City firefighter whose two sons followed him into service—John Jr. was a firefighter, too, and Joe was a police detective. On September 11, 2001, both Vigiano brothers responded to the call from the World Trade Center, and both were killed while saving others. Here, John Sr. remembers his sons and reflects on coping with his tremendous loss.

Chapter 4 is one of the hardest things to capture in writing.  I have recorded my own story – along with stories from a few of my old higher education friends.  I say it is difficult because – reading and re-reading my own words – is difficult.  I have a tendency to relive each moment.  I know after this is done – I will have found some healing.

I had a wonderful meeting with my POS committee this past Monday. The faculty were very helpful in giving me suggestions on how to make my research even better than my proposal.  I am working on the following:

• Epistemology: Subjectivism – using this instead of constructivism – I seem to have partnered with constructivism – and considering I am doing autoethnography – subjectivism makes logical sense to use for my epistemology.
• External data: Why am I doing a survey – when I could have conversations with significant people about certain experiences?
• Advice: Do not be afraid of writing, getting rid of it and rewriting again

I have begun re-writing the first three chapters – as well as developing a guide for when I start to write my autoethnography.  I will have a transcript of the entire meeting available for the committee.

I am excited to share that my dissertation proposal is finally available for my POS committee.  It is available here:

http://www.laurabestler.org/dissertation-proposal/