Whoa — there's a semester going on out there!

In the fall, visitors flow into the Admissions Office daily, keeping us fully connected to the School’s schedule and many activities.  (“It’s Monday — here’s our class schedule.  Want to attend a lecture?  Let me check the calendar and see what’s on.”)  During the first half of the spring semester (the wintry half), we have far fewer visitors, and we’re so wrapped up in applications, applications, applications, that it’s easy to lose track of all that’s going on elsewhere in the building.  Which is really too bad, because the spring semester is even livelier than the fall.

From September to December, there are plenty of lectures, seminars, weekly social hours, and student group activities, but from January to May, all the activities that require months of planning are added to the mix.  There are the trips to DC and New York organized by the Office of Career Services, chock-a-block with information sessions, receptions, panel discussions, and lunches.  There was the ski trip earlier this month, and Asia Night (one of the four student-organized “culture nights”) just last weekend.  There are guest lectures every week and, in some weeks, nearly every day.  Two of our recent lectures featured Fletcher grads, coincidentally both from the class of 1995:  Farah Pandith, State Department Special Representative to Muslim Communities, and Erin Conaton, staff director for the House of Representatives’ Committee on Armed Services.  (You can read Farah’s comments on her Fletcher education in this sponsored Q&A page.)  Club meetings, thesis workshops, pizza lunches, etc., etc., round out each week.  Check out the calendar, which lists many of the events.

Each time an email notice floats into my inbox, I feel just a little twinge of jealousy that those activities aren’t for me.  Instead, my Admissions pals and I are providing the audience and planners for next year’s events, and that’s satisfying, too.