Skip to main content

NUF Classes and Mentorship Update

Hey Folks!

For those who are interested in National Urban Fellows, this update is for you :) By now, you have already submitted your NUF application or are in the process of submitting it (congrats, it's a lengthy application process).  Here is a program update thus far.

Fall and Spring Semester Classes
Each cohort has a class schedule that is slightly different from the previous year, so class of 2016 may not have the exact same schedule as my cohort (we still take the same classes, but the time of year you take the class may vary). That being said, all fellows will have a unique class schedule in comparison to all of the other students enrolled in the MPA program.

On paper (when looking at your official schedule on the Baruch website), we follow a traditional semester schedule/timeline. However, our classes have staggered start dates and classes are completed at an accelerated pace. Example: On paper, our fall class schedule  has us registered for two classes, but in reality, we took five. Class length is typically 11 weeks, but some classes are 8 weeks and two classes span 9 months. It's an odd set up, but its build this way to so you are always registered with Baruch as a full-time student, and class lengths are varied to accommodate the accelerated pace of the program as well as to accommodate the unique needs of our program (we are the only students at Baruch whose program requires you to move four times: from your hometown to NYC; NYC to your mentorship site; Your mentorship site back to NYC; and NYC back to your hometown). It's a crazy schedule, but it works.

All classes during our mentorship are conducted via distance education. Depending on your professor, you may have live classes where you are log into your baruch account and video chat with the professor who may choose to conduct live lectures. This is a less common approach since fellows are spread out all over the US. Most professors have pre-recorded lectures and material on their class websites and it's up to you to go through the work on your own. Each class has an interactive component to keep you engaged in the work. The most common assignment is posting to the discussion boards and responding to other people's comments. Some professors also assign group work to keep you engaged.


Mentorship: September-May
One of the requirements of our program is to complete a nine month mentorship. During this time you are enrolled in classes fulltime (via distance education) working full-time at your mentorship site, and developing, researching and writing your capstone research (based on your experience at your mentorship site). It's such a crazy time of year and time flies by so quickly. Presently, I am in my 7th month of mentorship. I'm looking forward to getting back to New York to finish up classes and graduate. (Only 4 months left).














Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Surviving the First Summer of NUF

Hey folks! It has been a while since my last post so I figured I should give an update about my first summer in New York and NUF. Moving Cross-country (again) Moving to NYC was a pain. I was fortunate enough to have a friend from college who was renting a room in Brooklyn and his landlord took me in and let me have his room when he moved out a week later. Though I paid a good price for my room, I had a long walk to my train and then a long train commute to the school. I was able to lose 20 pounds during my time in NYC, but I highly suggest you find a place that is close to school (if you can afford it, find a place in midtown...but be prepared to spend $2,000+ for a small room. Cohort and Classes: I have 24 amazing classmates in my cohort (our ages range from mid-twenties to mid-forties) and we spent our lives at Baruch Newman Vertical Campus. All of our classes took place in the same room and professors rotate out. The schedule is intense! 12 units in less than two months. I...

34 Days Until the Big Move

In just 34 days I will be living in New York City...pretty crazy. I have so much to do before then and so much uncertainly still exists. I have no clue who else was accepted to the program, and I haven't found out how long we will be in class (since our semester does not start with the rest of school). We are supposed to have a conference call to discuss all of these details, but the date and time for this conference call has not been revealed as of yet.  What scares me the most is finding a place to live. I have started looking at potential places to live, but I can't make any decisions until I find out more details (which are forthcoming, but I need to know now so I can have enough time to plan how this move is going to go).  I don't like that I will have to sublet an apartment (or house) and won't be able to see it until the day I move in. Also, I don't know how the random roommate situation will work out either. I'm going to pray about it and try to prep...

The Final Months of National Urban Fellows

My previous post, written in March, left off with me having four months left in the program. Today, September 15, just a month and a half after graduating from the program and five days shy of my 30th birthday,  I am providing an overview of the last four months of the program. Mentorship and Capstone Project The last two months of mentorship was ridiculously hectic for me. I was barely getting 3 hours of sleep a night and was at my site 12-17 hours a day. Classes were continued to kick my butt and I didn't start working on my capstone project (really a graduate thesis) until nine days before it was due (I know, my time management, or lack thereof, was atrocious). However, I was able to get everything done.  Regarding mentorship and capstone, three pieces of advice:  Know when to speak up. My mentorship was understaffed in my department and I was the only full-time non-management staff, so a lot of work got pushed off on me - it wasn't hard work, but it was ...