[nabs-l] summer 09! what's everyone doing?

[Patricia]

Hi everyone: 

As many of you were asking, I'm working for the Canadian Government so unfortunately can't help any of you out (I'll get back to you with more info though, Sarah). I'm an administrative assistant with perks, for a pilot project ambiguously called "Personalized Service Delivery for Persons with Disabilities Demonstration Project." The perks are that I get to participate in all the conferences and meetings that the rest of my team attends, but cary out all of the admin stuff, we're all a pretty virtual team working in a number of different locations, me being the farthest away so when they meet up for biweekly meetings i attend via phone. And yes, I'd say I'm pretty busy, the busiest I've been since working there. And i apologize, I'm getting ahead of myself, this summer will actually be my third. But I guess I'm saying three years because I've already started working. My jobs had a lot of down time in previous summers but not this year. I get to do other opportunities in my local office as well, like this week I'm assisting in the interview process and selection of a newly hired student. It's an interesting experience being on the other side of the table. 

As for my thesis, I'm not in grad school yet, but at my university in my major one of the options I have as a prep for grad school is to do a directed studies project. You get a supervisor just as you would for grad school, and get to cary out a study of your choice. You have weekly or biweekly meethings throughout, and then at the end you have to present your final paper and results to a committee, just as you would for a Masters or Ph.D. As I'm not in grad school yet I don't know how that process works, but with this project I get to decide the other two faculty in addition to my supervisor who siton the comittee (one is another instructor I've worked with in the past, the other is not but was the head of the counselling department of the university where I'd like to get my counselling degree from for grad school). This project isn't necessary for me to get my BA in Psych come June, but I think it will be a great stepping stone. the project I've decided to do is looking at the social integration 
of elementary school children with physical and sensory disabilities, 
looking at how it has changed over the years, and what impeeds/makes for 
successful integration. My intro will probably focus more generally on the beginnings of inclusion of students with disabilities, and then narrow down to my actual topic as I write. I am currently researching for the lit review which I hope to complete early October, then I will run the proposal by my committe, and work on the ethics to start getting itno schools come January. I hope to use a comibination of naturalistic observation and interview techniques. I hope to interview kids with disabilities, their school teachers/teaching assistants if they have any, and maybe good friends and other classmates (haven't fully decided that yet).

Patricia