A few months ago, one of our then soon-to-be new distance ed students contacted me via this blog to ask some questions about the program, which I thought was really kind of awesome actually.
Thursday the 1st cohort of this year’s new students began their 10-day Boot Camp odyssey here on campus. I remembered the email conversation but was completely unable to find the email to help remember just who (out of about 120 new students) it was that contacted me. Bummed I was.
Luckily, Lisa (who is in the 1st cohort) contacted me and offered to buy me a beer sometime in the next week. Turns out tonight was possibly the best time. She posted it at school to invite anyone else in her cohort who needed a bit of downtime and I posted it electronically to the "locals."
We didn’t get a lot of takers because by this point they are pretty much all "deer in the headlights." They are stressed, confused, overwhelmed and just plain fried and freaking. Dave did join us though, as did my fellow on campus student and friend, Kurt.
We stayed nearby and had dinner, a bit of beer, and nice conversation. We got to know each other and talked about various aspects of librarianship, GSLIS, professors, advisors, spouses, kids, undergrad schools, places lived, jobs, etc. It was a very nice time.
Kurt and I are a tad concerned that maybe we went too in depth on some topics, but we doubt we did any lasting harm. 
While neither of us were LEEP students and thus did not have the Boot Camp experience (well, I did, but that was long ago and far away and vastly different), we can relate to the feeling of being completely out of our elements and not knowing what anyone was talking about. OK. Maybe I had that feeling far less than some having been "in the field" for 6 years before coming here. But there were certainly topics and occasions in which I did have those feelings, and I’ve definitely been there in many other circumstances in my life. So I know the feeling well!
Anyway, I think we all had a good time. I certainly hope so. So, while I only got to know 2 of the new LEEPers much better (Lisa and Dave), I’d like to extend another very warm welcome to all of LEEP Cohort 11.1. Maybe I’ll get a chance to know a few others better over the next week.
And this coming Thursday, LEEP Cohort 11.2 arrives and I get a chance at making friends with another 60-some odd new students.
Service with a smile. That’s my mission.
