CRES Cohort 6

Katie D.

July 23, 2010 - 10:32 AM

My first day of graduate school is one month from today. One month from this moment I will be sitting in my first class in the Conflict Resolution Masters Program (CRES), beginning two years of study in Dispute Resolution at the University of Oregon.

I can hardly wait.

The anticipation was increased today when I received an update from the CRES program, including additional information about scheduling, book lists, and the long-awaited list of Cohort 6 CRES students.

This is the sixth year of the CRES program at the University of Oregon, and the cohort of twenty-seven Masters students will be my classroom peers and partners in study for the next two years. Significantly, we share a full compliment of courses for the summer term (August 23rd to September 17th) and for Fall term. This group of people will be my primary academic peer group for the next two years.

We all provided the program with short autobiographical pieces and a photo to distribute to our new professors and to one another. This list arrived today. I've been busy since reading through people's stories and looking at the pictures, trying to imagine our future friendships and the ways in which we'll be able to help and inspire one another.

We are an interesting group. About half of us are recent graduates of various undergraduate institutions. Close to half are married, and several have children. Only eight of the twenty-seven are men. Many are Oregon natives or transplants (which is how I now consider myself), but others come from the East Coast, from the Southwest, from Indonesia, Bulgaria, and Germany. Three are getting married this summer. One of my future peers gave birth to her second child on July 7th. One was a fellow member of College Democrats during my first two years at the UO. Another graduated from the Honors College with me.

We were asked to share our interests, and these range from outdoor pursuits (biking, hiking, camping, sleeping in treetops, and one fellow rock climber), to their families, pets, reading, and espresso. I love to imagine these people agonizing over their profiles, like I did, trying to weed through an entire complicated life story to choose a final few facts about what I do and who I am. I love that a member of my cohort chose to record "espresso" as an interest.

But, of course, the most interesting portion had to do with why people are interested in conflict resolution. Again, the answers were across the board. Some of the younger cohort members have a developing interest, based on their experiences in peer mediation, sports or business conflict resolution, or a general interest in social justice and peace. Others are arriving with a good amount of previous experience, either in the justice system, mediation services, or with international experience in dialogue facilitation and mediation in conflict situations.

I'll be blogging about these people extensively over the next two years. I can't wait. On August 20th we have our program Orientation, at which I will meet these people in person. We will meet our professors, learn about program structure and expectations, and have our first cohort meal at a faculty member's home.

I can't wait. These people will, I hope, become my friends. I can't wait to report the stories we'll have together!