Chandler: So, when’s the big game gonna start?

Phoebe: You don’t have to do that, Ross and Joey aren’t here, you can watch the parade.

As we begin to celebrate “Friendsgiving,” like we did at the HEA general meeting this week (thus the above quote), and Thanksgiving, the sentiments are all the same — we contemplate the reasons we are thankful. To channel this sense of thanks, I asked a few of my colleagues in the higher ed program why they are thankful. Some of the reasons are more obvious:

• “I appreciate the opportunity to study what I love and develop myself professionally.”

• “I’m thankful for my assistantship. It helps pay the bills, after all… And I get to apply what I learn in class, too.”

• “I’m thankful for the lack of rigid scheduling, wherein I can take my program requirements in whatever semester I want (with very few exceptions).”

While I agree with these sentiments, I don’t think they are varied from other higher ed programs. I think what makes our program unique are feelings like the following:

• I am thankful for faculty who take a genuine interest in their students and the work that their students are doing. I have great relationships with the faculty here and regularly turn to them as mentors.

• I am thankful for encouragement from faculty to ask questions and look for interesting problems to explore.

• I’m thankful for being part of a program where the faculty are so tremendously supportive of the students, and where my fellow students are so tremendously supportive of each other.

• I’m thankful for the new friends and colleagues I’ve met since starting the program.

• I’m thankful for faculty members who care about their students and are willing to invest in them.

• I’m thankful for the opportunity to build relationships with people who challenge and inspire me.

I wholeheartedly agree with all of the above and the following thankfulness directed at specific faculty:

• I am thankful to have an amazing mentor and advisor in Paul Umbach. He has pushed me and believed in me to do more than I ever thought possible.

• I’m thankful for Audrey Jaeger. I appreciate her positivity and creativity.  She epitomizes mentorship and she is nice 😉

• I am thankful for my awesome co-teaching experience with Joy Gayles – I have learned so much and love working with her!

• I am thankful for Alyssa Rockenbach’s tireless efforts to support the Higher Education program, students, and faculty by serving as program coordinator for the past year.

• I am thankful for Steve Porter’s knowledge of advanced quantitative methods, his desire for future research to be more rigorous, and his awesome quasi-experimental course.

• I’m thankful that Tiffany Davis joined our faculty — she’s a wealth of knowledge and she’s so fun!

Thank you to everyone that shared their thankfulness with me! And everyone else, please feel free to shoutout additional thanks in the comments below!