Finals

Katie D.

March 13, 2011 - 10:23 PM

Here we are again: the inevitable end of term. It comes around every ten weeks like clockwork, and yet it somehow always sneaks up on me. Every single time I seem to arrive at the weekend before finals and am surprised by how much work is left to do.

I guess I shouldn't paint such a bleak picture. In the past week I've already written approximately forty-four of the fifty or so pages assigned for the end of term. So I'm almost there: I've almost finished. That's right, though--fifty pages. That's three long final essays, plus two short ones that snuck into the final week of classes. Like an extra prize-bonus to remind us about multi-tasking.

It really has been a marathon of an end of school. In some ways, Graduate School has been very much the same as undergrad. This first year of the CRES program includes very little independent work, and quite an extensive amount of time in the classroom. I've had more reading, and more skills-based classes. But mostly things are the same as undergrad.

Except the length of the finals. Oof.

All complaining aside, all this essay writing has actually been kind of fun. We've had a great deal of freedom to choose our own topics, and so I've picked a line-up that has been interesting and engaging. Since I've bothered to write the pages, I hope you'll be bothered to read the summaries:

Working Abroad. Our assignment for this class was to write about the country we will be working in. We were assigned the task of learning about the history, the political situation, the pragmatics of living there, and to give due consideration to the concerns we might have and the preparations we should make. I read academic works, skimmed through novels, read the local paper, and have begun listening to the local radio daily on the internet. However, for now, I will leave you in suspense as to the location of my internship this summer. The final details are not in place, and I would hate to give you false information. But I will be working and conducting research abroad for two months of this summer, and the preparation is already going well! I can hardly wait.

Cross-Cultural Communications. For this final, we could choose to either write about a culture in depth, and discuss how the individuals from that culture might react to conflict; or we could choose a conflict and write about how culture played into the situation, and its resolution. I chose to write about the culture of American prisons. I actually had a wonderful time researching some of the theories of adaptation to prison life, and some of the resulting psychological factors and conflict situations. I also enjoyed bringing in some of our class content about human needs, identity theory, and power relations in relation with this topic. We were invited to include personal experiences when relevant, so I discussed some of the things I have witnessed in working in Oregon and Pennsylvania prisons.

Mediation Skills. This essay was assigned as an in-depth study of how mediation and related skills could be applied in conflict resolution. The topics could be as broad as discussing an aspect of "normal" relationships (such as the role of lawyers in mediation, or comparing different mediation styles), or it could be as broad as international mediation. I chose to write about ADR and mediation in prisons. I found some very interesting case-studies of conflict resolution programs in prisons, from nonviolent communication and anger management to conflict resolution training for prison staff. Although I discussed prison culture briefly as background and context, there was little overlap between this final and my Cross-Cultural Communications essay. My favorite part of this research was finding a variety of studies about post secondary education in prisons, and the impact this has on inmate conduct and prison culture. I was very glad to have the freedom to discuss the aspects of mediation in a broad way, and to find the ideas most exciting and relevant to my life and studies.

As happens each term, I have barely a moment to think about things ending. I will be glad to see this term end in many ways, and will miss it in some others. Next term will hold a fabulous new assortment of class, work, and research. I'll be looking for a new house next year, and preparing for the summer. I'll hopefully start rock climbing again, and will perhaps go to the coast (it's been months!) As happens in academic life, a term ends and everything changes. So here's to the last essay pages of winter term, 2011! On to spring!