A little less lonely

The summer at Fletcher is VERY QUIET, as you may have read here before.  We can come and go and run into almost no one — with students away, even staff and faculty have less reason to be milling around the Hall of Flags.  But then, along comes some activity!  We’re currently host to 19 students from India’s Jindal School of International Affairs (JSIA) for a customized program.  They’re a mix of undergraduates and graduate students pursuing degrees in either global affairs or diplomacy, law, and business.  They arrived on the 9th and will be around until the 27th, taking courses on Diplomacy: History, Theory, and Practice and U.S. Foreign Policy and Tools of Statecraft.

Here for about the same time period is a larger group of students attending their third residency for the Global Master of Arts Program (GMAP).  The GMAPers will attend classes and complete their Capstone Projects, wrapping up with their graduation ceremony.  By the time the GMAP students reach their third residency, they’re seasoned Fletcher professionals and they simply get on with the business of completing their program.  Their classes are actually meeting in a separate building, but they have lunch here and can be spotted heading toward the elevator.

I’ll be leading an information session this afternoon.  Given how few students are hanging around the building (and also that many classrooms are being renovated), I decided that I really needed to enhance the session.  I sent a note to Pulkit, and he’ll be joining me to chat with the visitors.  They’ll benefit much more by hearing from him than they would if only I were doing the presenting.

So far, I’m still appreciating the summer quiet.  It’s satisfying to end the day having completed all the tasks lined up at the beginning.  By the time August starts, though, I know I’ll be ready for some noise!  Until then, at least the JSIA visitors and the GMAPers are keeping us from feeling too lonely.