During this past academic year, fellow faculty members met in small inquiry groups to study our work in the advisement of graduate students in supervised fieldwork. The process was reflective, exciting, daunting and helpful. How do we assist graduate students in developing their personal and professional selves as they prepare to work in public and private schools, museums and hospitals? The lyrics to this song came to me as I tried to wrap my brain around the work that we do – and how to represent it to others who have never experienced the challenges and joys of advisement, as either a graduate student or a faculty member. Here is what came to me in the middle of a sleepless night.
Parallel Process
While our students figure out
Who they are in this world
We relate to their struggles
As our own lives unfurl.
It’s a parallel process
A p-p-p- parallel process.
In hospitals we see kids
screamin and cryin’
In pain – sometimes dyin’
Child life students must
Self regulate
Show compassion while they separate
Their emotional reactions
from the situation at hand
And of us, their advisors
The same thing life demands.
It’s a parallel process
A p-p-p- parallel process.
Some kids visit our museums
Backpacks brimming toxic stress
When they get to their schools
They must be taught to the test.
There’s no play in kindergarten
No longer room for recess
Teachers fight an uphill battle
And that sure ain’t no joke
It’s hard to be emotionally responsive
In a system that’s broke.
Grad students have their triggers
And no different are we.
So We all come here together
To build RESILIENCY!
It’s a parallel process
A p-p-p- parallel process.
In conference group we meet
face to face and online
Same things simmer and bubble
And emerge over time.
Balancing our own agenda
With a more organic flow
Asking open ended questions
As we all reach for mo’.
It’s a parallel process
A p-p-p parallel process.
We are narrative historians
keeping track of their themes
We model sitting with
The silence….
………………………………………
Because we know where it leads.
We Work on professional boundaries
While we explore our humanity
We fight for Social justice
Equal accessibility.
And with growing awareness
We examine the threat
Of Stereotype – As we help them to reflect
We all stumble in the darkness
Trying to shed our own light
It’s a parallel process
As they learn to take flight.
It’s a parallel process
A p-p-p- parallel process.
By Deborah B. Vilas
April 27, 2016
I love it!!
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Thanks Elizabeth!
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Once again, you have hit it out of the park. Loved my conference group so much.
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Yes, me too when I was a student there. Always nice to hear from you Kim.
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