Letters and Notes
from Present and Past Students
What I enjoy most about studying English as a grad student, here at UNI, is the close relationship the students share with the faculty. The master's program in our discipline is small enough that we have the opportunity to feel a real connection with our instructors, but the selection of courses remains diverse enough to satisfy a competitive amount of the more specialized and/or general areas of interest one might have towards our field.
In fall 2005, I came to UNI through exchange program offered by my home university, Seoul National University in South Korea. While I as a graduate student was wavering over whether to go on studying or to find any job out of academic field, one semester at UNI seemed to be a good opportunity to decide what I would do. And professors and friends here I met in the first semester have led me to repicture myself as a scholar, who can feel a sense of responsibility to the people of whom I am a part even if I am behind the desk in library. Besides, the size of the department in which we are able to share many things from academic interesets to personal stories made me involved in studying with a homelife atmosphere. At last, I determined to transfer to UNI without going back to the home university. Now I am indeed focused on study and fully enjoy getting along with my people at UNI.
Being a teaching assistant has allowed me to refine my craft and has challenged me succeed on a different level. I have had the freedom to explore different teaching strategies, and, through teaching at the college level, I have gained the confidence to pursue a more-fulfilling career path.
As a teaching assistant, I have been part of a supportive and friendly learning and teaching community. Professors are always willing to share insights and to recommend new strategies of teaching.
A teaching assistantship prepares students to excel in future endeavors.
I had a baby two weeks before the end of Spring semester, and the department and my instructors were willing to work with me to get my term projects done ahead of time, or gave me extensions to finish projects over the summer. By working extra hours before the baby came, I was able to maintain my graduate assistantship as well. What I appreciated the most during this experience was that none of my instructors made things easier for me or treated me any differently because of my pregnancy. I never felt like I was given special treatment or favors; I had to do things a little unconventionally, but I was given the same expectations as everyone else.
One of the department’s biggest assets is Kristi Knebel, the graudate program secretary. I was really nervous about signing up for classes, but when I met with Kristi the first time, she instantly put me at ease, and answered all of my questions (and I had A LOT!). She also made my active four year-old feel welcome, and always had a sucker for her (usually two!). I knew immediately after meeting with her that I would not have to choose between school and my kids.
As a working mom, I have been thrilled with the availability of evening classes. Our family budget went into lockdown mode when I started school, so it was nice to avoid extra daycare costs wherever possible while taking the classes I wanted to take.”
When I applied for a Master’s program at UNI, it was done to some degree out of curiosity. I was eager to find out what is so scary about studying abroad that, in a College where every single person knew about three places reserved at the University of Northern Iowa, competition rate stayed surprisingly low.
Towards graduation most of my co-students grew opposed to the idea of a two-year stay in a foreign country. Some were afraid of loosing a good job, others had obligations of personal nature; quite a few simply did not feel like leaving their family-home where many young Russians stay up to their wedding day. I was not affected by any of these factors, so I applied and even got accepted.
I always was into foreign languages and literature, so it made perfect sense for me to try and get myself to an English-speaking country, where my studies (with minimal effort on my part;-) would land me upon masterpieces of English literature, both classic and contemporary, as well as upon up-to-date methods of approaching them. The words “contemporary” and “up-to-date” are crucial here, since my home country departments of English language still limit their academic attention to traditional canon and British-only vocabulary. It is my guess that Russian system is not unique in this way.
I found that United States academic ethics is broader than ours; it endeavors to accept the “difference,” to value the alternative, whether it be a writing style, moral norms or a life philosophy. The range of opportunities that the English Department at UNI had to offer fully met and even surpassed my expectations. Relaxed atmosphere of the small classes, the diversity of student’s academic and cultural background encouraged the productive dialogue of different point of views. I was surprised to learn how often the universality of what I always considered to be true turned out to be limited or false. And vice versa, international students (and there are quite many in the program!) were able to contribute to class discussions by pointing out the limits of a US-originating critique.
What I also like about the academic program here is that it is so practice oriented. You not only learn what you are to teach as a professor, but, to some degree, what it is like to be a professor: how to find your lifetime job, or, on a lesser scale, how to publish an article properly or get yourself into a conference. Back home, such knowledge is not offered in classroom, it is only shared privately with students who specifically ask for it. Here, we not only learn the inner workings of our future profession, but also have a chance to practice it in a friendly atmosphere.
The other side of this active learning style is, of course the paperwork and the frequency of oral presentations, to which few of the students in my country are accustomed. The everyday load of homework can be especially stressing the first semester, because writing in English still takes considerable time, and you have to learn all the conventions, all the formal aspects of American-style papers and presentations. During Fall 06, the time I had to spend on my assignments did not allow me to take advantage of as many on-campus events and social opportunities as I would wish to.
By now, when my second semester is well underway, I find, most of the difficulties are over. I have discovered there is as much to learn outside classroom as there is inside. At home I never could have met so easily and in brief period of time such a wide range of people: people from countries I never thought of, occupations I never knew of, and lifestyles I never could imagine. The diverse community UNI offers makes everyday life on-campus a valuable experience. I already feel that it is likely to have a lasting positive impact on my entire life.
