Students blog about their summers

Freed of the obligation to write term papers and exam essays, do students avoid the pen or keyboard during the summer?  No, they do not.  In fact, they create their own writing assignments.  As the semester came to a close, I asked students to send me links to their blogs.  Later, Ameya (a soon-to-be second-year student) sent around a longer list.  The following, for your reading pleasure, are links to the Fletcher student blogs I’ve now learned about.  If the writers told me the objectives for their writing, I have included their notes.  I’ve read some posts on each of the blogs and overall they include a combination of professional and personal observations.

Some of the students are actually alumni now, while others are in the summer between their first and second years of study.  The list is essentially alphabetical, until you reach the bottom.

Madeeha Ansari, writing about (among other things) writing.

Anisha Baghudana is writing about doing e-commerce stuff in Nairobi.

Erik English notes that his blog from Qorax Energy in Somaliland is “semi-work-related.”

Mark Hoover is in Burkina Faso, and provides helpful maps.  Mark had revived a blog that he started during a previous stint in Andorra.

Anna McCallie is in Amsterdam.  She writes about almost everything besides her work, which is more confidential and less blogable.

Cassandra Pagan has been writing about her delayed departure and subsequent experiences in Afghanistan.

Owen Sanderson is with Ushahidi in Nairobi.

Franziska Schwarzmann blogs about “coping with intercultural experiences and learning.”  She wrote primarily in German during her first year, but is now mixing German and English, for the benefit of her Fletcher classmates, so that they “know where I am and learn about Europe and how it feels to be back in Europe after a year in the USA.”  I especially enjoyed her end-of-year post and the video she put together about her first year at Fletcher.

Braden Weinstock told me that he is writing posts for the blog hosted by the Blakeley Foundation, which has supported his internship with a fellowship.  When I checked the front page of the Blakeley Foundation’s blog site, I realized that all the posts there are written by the Fletcher students supported by the Foundation.  Those who identified themselves are Chuck Dukmo, Manisha Basnet, Anisha, Owen Sanderson, and Heather LeMunyon.

Leon Whyte is spending the summer at the U.S. Army War College.  He said he uses the blog “to collect the writings that I have done in class, and to write about international affairs and about what it is like to be a graduate student at Fletcher.”

Two students are writing as part of their internships with the Advocacy Project in Nepal:  Katerina Canyon  and Katie Baczewski.  Ameya pointed out that Fletcher is the only school with two Advocacy Project Fellows!

One student is writing under a pen name, but was still o.k. with having his blog included in this list.  Just know that there isn’t really a student called Seth the Multicoloured Pancake.

Ameya, in his list, also pointed us back toward several favorite blogs.  Regular Admissions Blog readers have surely checked the blog of our writer Roxanne, but if you haven’t done so in a while, you’ll want to check back in.

And another student blog that was previously featured here is Shruti’s analysis of the recent election in India.

Those are the blogs I can point you toward right now.  If I hear of others, I’ll post the links.  Meanwhile, I hope you’ll enjoy this very varied writing about students’ diverse summer experiences.

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