Ready for Spring 2014 grad school

GRTC Bus Depot before the 2013 RVA Street Art Festival

After a much needed respite the past five weeks, its time to get insanely busy again. The kids are back in school and all of their activities are back in full swing and starting this week, my graduate school studies will begin again at Virginia Commonwealth University.

I’m working on my masters in Urban Planning at VCU. This semester I’ll be tackling my Studio I, which is the precursor to the Professional Plan. I will need to work in a group and we will be tasked with deigning a plan for a predetermined project, which will be the GRTC bus depot, 6.8-acre GRTC site at West Cary and Robinson streets that I’m already very familiar with, having written about it in April 2012 and again during and after the 2013 RVA Street Art Festival and the mural projects.

I’m also enrolled in another course in Public Administration, Fundraising for the Nonprofit Sector. I’m looking forward to this one as I’ve been told that for me to work for nonprofits, I’m going to need to know how to fund raise. I’ve already gotten a taste of grant writing with my friends at Richmond International Raceway with a grant request I wrote for Richmond Community ToolBank, and I’d be happy to gain more insight and experience with this class.

I’ll still maintain my duties on the ToolBank board (though I will have a scheduling conflict with the next four board meetings — I have a class the same time). I will work to make it out to some volunteer opportunities and will be helping with my children’s soccer teams again this spring, but its time to circle the wagons again and make sure I keep my priorities straight.