Orientation week #2 has been quite a different experience from last week. The 400+ other SIPA students have made the International Affairs Building a much busier place, and orientation sessions have been much more geared toward learning the ins and outs of academic life on campus.

[polldaddy poll=6500288 align=right]When not drinking calculus through a water hose at the daily “math camp,” I spent my time fretting about the elective classes I want to take my first semester. Luckily, I was (mistakenly?) given a registration date that was earlier than many of the other first-year SIPA students. Not-so-luckily, my registration dates (Tuesday and Wednesday) were before the advising session that was supposed to equip me with an understanding of how to register. With the help of Corey (a student advisor for my program) and after staying up until 1am on Monday night to parse out my preferred electives, I managed to register without much trouble.

I’m only planning to take only one elective course this semester (and the “Earth Institute Practicum” – pass/fail), but I’ve registered for three: New Media for Development Communication, Non-Profit Financial Management (may require accounting as a pre-req), and Microfinance and the Developing World. I’m already leaning heavily in favor of one of these courses, but please help me select the elective I should take by voting in this poll.

Also, check out my draft schedule below. I will have Mondays off!

[scribd id=104440719 key=key-5dtxdy79557lmwb9b9b mode=slideshow]

I am truly honored to be among the 50 amazing people – each more impressive than the next – that I had the pleasure of meeting this past week during the MPA-DP orientation.

The MPA-DP Class of 2014 is composed of talented, diverse and compassionate future development practitioners. I am looking forward to getting to know and work with them all over the next two years.

We all had to submit bios and photos so I expect they will be posted to our program’s website in the near future. Until then, suffice it to say that they are all extremely impressive.

Next week (orientation week #2), I will get to meet the rest of the SIPA Class of 2014. There will be about 450 students total in my class, including MPA and MIA students.

On another note, here is a conversation I had on Twitter with some amazing people at the cutting-edge of fighting water poverty. We discussed how to use mobile technology to improve reporting on water projects in developing countries, which could be a game-changer for the sector’s monitoring and evaluation capability.

Two observations: (1) this was the first time I have ever had a legitimate conversation on Twitter, (2) it’s cool to be treated like an equal by real development practitioners. I’m looking forward to many more conversations like this one when classes start. I hope that my program will equip me with the skills I will need to turn Twitter discussions into reality.

P.S. I’ve been bad about taking photos. I will post some good ones next week.