Team Read

Cheers over dinner

There are several tips that previous PhD students in the HALE program give to incoming students. Some of these tips include: spend your last summer before beginning the program having fun; don't buy a house (oops); see parts of Michigan if you can before school starts because it's beautiful; and join a reading group. I did join a reading group a few weeks after my program started back in August 2014. I think ours may have been the only reading group in my cohort. (I refer to my reading group as Team Read). I believe there are two types of reading groups that form in the HALE program. The first is where readings for the week get divided up and each person reads their 50-70 pages and takes notes for that. Thus, each person doesn't have to do all the readings for the week and relies on others to do the readings and take notes. The second type of reading group is one where the readings get divided up and each person takes copious notes for their 50-70 pages, and also reads the rest of the assigned reading while using their group members' notes as an outline. So, each person does all the reading, but the note taking is shared. This second type is how my reading group did it. And this is why it worked. Because we all read everything, and helped out with the notes. I should add here, that it is extremely important to READ EVERYTHING. Or at least skim to get the gist of it. There are rumors that the cohort that started the year after me have divided up the readings for the entire semester and are only reading about 50 pages total. TOTAL. Over 15 weeks. I suggested to one of these cohort members that was a bad idea and that she should READ EVERYTHING. Yes, it gets tiring, and it can be redundant. But it's amazing what sticks inside the old brain when it's time to spit it back out for a paper. And it is obvious when one hasn't done the reading.

My reading group in HALE, over the last year and a half, have become more than just a reading group. They have supported me, and laughed with me, and joked about how absurd this whole thing is. Together we have admitted our fears, our joys, our hopes, and our stresses. Last night the four of us got together to have dinner and celebrate the end of our core courses, and celebrate one another and all that we have accomplished. I am so thankful for my reading group. The four of us may have connected through our academics, and now we are true friends. Thanks Team Read.