Category: My Writing Journey

It has been just over a year since I last posted any writing. When things first shut down, I knew it would last more than a few weeks, but I wanted to ignore my gut instinct that I might be working from home for a few months. At that time, I definitely did not consider that it would last more than a year, but here we are.

In those first weeks I thought I would use the extra time I thought I’d have on my hands to write and post more. The writing ebbed and flowed, but the posts clearly never happened.

To state the obvious, much has changed in the last year, at every level – including work. In September of 2020 I began working with international students on Optional Practical Training (OPT, work authorization usually used for post-graduation employment) which can, at times, take up a chunk of my day. I have found with the addition of this work in combination with “Zoom fatigue” that I have limited time and energy to expend on reading as much higher education news as I used to, or even giving it the proper time in my mind to digest. This has a big impact on my writing.

I did turn attention to a new endeavor, something that had been an interest of mine for a while: My colleague and friend Erin Morris and I began Generation Travel Radio, a podcast focusing on the value of travel and intercultural experiences. We are gearing up to launch our second season at the beginning of May, and I have to say that I am very excited for our plans for the podcast moving forward.

I’ve been writing in the morning consistently for about two weeks now. At first it was hard, slow – I had no clue what to write about. It’s coming more easily to me now as I both broaden and narrow in on what I want to discuss:

International Higher Education

I plan to continue digging into and writing about higher education at the global level. Comparative international education, study abroad, and other aspects of international education are my professional passions, a field I want to contribute my thoughts to.

Higher Education Policy – generally speaking

I will continue to write about general higher education policy when a topic sparks my interest. The past year has shaken higher education at its core and there is much to consider and discuss, but it has felt overwhelming to keep up with and my writing on various topics has been a bit long-winded and all over the place. For this reason, only a percentage of this writing will likely make it to the blog.

Career Services & the World of Work

Like higher education, I will likely write about this on occasion, hopefully also through an international comparative lens.

Travel & the World

While travel is still limited, there is a lot to say and think about travel. Many of my thoughts have focused on the vaccine rollout and the implications of the resurgence of travel, how pursuing “meaningful travel” is more important than ever before.

Reviews

Somehow, reviews take the longest for me to write. I go back through books and select quotes, try to reframe the overall thesis or message to a news topic… but I have read many books in the last year that I have consistently referred to in conversation, and many of them are even in conversation with one another. They deserve a spotlight here!

I am not going to promise any consistency on posting my writing at this time, but I do intend to be better about sharing when I do write. I hope that you will engage with me on these topics, and if you or anyone you know is interested in collaborating on research or writing, please reach out!

About a year ago, I was told to read a book about Systems Thinking: Systems Thinking for Social Change: A Practical Guide to Solving Complex Problems, Avoiding Unintended Consequences, and Achieving Lasting Results, by David Peter Stroh. Systems Thinking is all about looking at a problem from the perspective in which the problem exists – sometimes, there are multiple systems forming into one larger system. As you can imagine, the “system” can balloon, and systems mapping is what we do to visualize what that balloon looks like.

“Systems Cartography” is basically a fancy way of saying “Systems Mapping.” It’s figuring out how all the pieces are connected, and visualizing it in a way that helps you understand the greater context and find the connections between various elements of the problem. Systems Thinking is one way of tackling problems in order to find wholistic, sustainable solutions because this kind of thinking targets a framework or cycle in which a problem exists.

Whenever I am driving alone or spend some time organizing my desk and room, I listen to higher education podcasts that are typically geared towards people at the leadership level. Understanding the bigger system of higher education, and the challenges it faces today, is not only enthralling to me, but it helps inform the end goals of the work that I do.

After I read Stroh’s work, I started drawing my own systems maps. Some included imagery, others were more straightforward, like in the Medium article linked above. It is exactly why I have a whiteboard in my office now: to brainstorm and consider the bigger systems in place when I have time to strategize for my work.

I am a Systems Cartographer – still in training, still in development, but that is another goal for this blog: to share my systems cartography and provide a visual means of conveying what I am thinking, to supplement my writing.

On the daily, I work anywhere between 7.5 – 8.5 hours at my job and head home to eat, watch tv, or read. I try to incorporate some time to write, to catch up on all of the international education news (and news in general), and work steadily on other projects and goals. I am no less shocked than anyone else at the amount of time that slips away from us between sleeping, eating, exercising, and the enormous amount of time we spend at “work.”

But friends – it’s time to start digging deeper into a new project.

In about 4 years, I hope to hit the road again. For a while, this time – not just three months, but a year, maybe even two. It’s a big dream, and I know it’s feasible, but I have a couple of goals in mind.

1. I would like to write a book comparing higher education internationally.
2. This book should be well-researched and well-written.
3. The findings from this research will mean something.

It will likely manifest in one of three ways:

1. This book will be part of a PhD, or –
2. This book will be a step before a PhD, or –
3. I will accomplish this project instead of a PhD.

TBD. First thing’s first, I need to figure out what I’m researching, and I need to start digging into the questions and topics, as well as begin meeting with various people to begin figuring out what will actually be possible.