Your experience in the seminar where there wasn’t much diverse interaction is really unfortunate. You’re right in that to learn more about diversity, we need to get out of our silos and start listening to one another and each other’s experiences. How do we get students to care? We can ask people to attend seminars or participate in workshops. However, if they’re forced, the chances are they won’t have a good attitude and won’t be open to learning.

I also don’t like taking notes on the computer and always handwrote my notes. However, I’ve been struggling lately with having notes written down in so many places. I have so many notebooks and scrap pieces of paper that I can’t keep track of everything. I sometimes think having it all electronic will make things easier. I also struggle with writing down notes and paying attention at the same time and do what Amy does, take notes and understand after the class. I don’t feel like this is very effective but if I just pay attention to the lecture, the chances of me forgetting things are very high. So something has to give.

It’s nice to be reminded that you cannot rush through everything if you want to thoroughly enjoy it. I feel as a graduate student, I just want to finish everything quickly and move onto the next thing. I don’t always take the time to concentrate and focus on my work. I really like your comment on how since we can focus on movies, we should be able to focus on lectures. As future professors, we should strive to make our lectures as interesting and engaging as movies!