My time at Dominican University

This post was written a while ago, but for some reason didn’t show up on the website so I’m taking the time to retool it a little bit now that I’ve taken a few more classes.

This is my third term at Dominican and I have to say overall I’m very happy with my experience. I’ve finished 3/4s of my classes in less than a year. To say it has been challenging is an understatement, but I think well worth it. Taking 3 or 4 classes in one term isn’t for everyone. I feel now that I would have possibly gotten more out of some of my classes if I wasn’t overwhelmed by taking so many, but that is just my personal take away looking back now. The only draw back that I would say is the commute. Having most of the classes offered at 6 in the evening the commute to campus can be rough. However, when you arrive and the classes are something that you are looking forward to because the teachers make the material interesting and worth learning it evens out the negative. This semester I would have to say that I had 2 of my favorite classes because they were challenging in different ways. One was a class on the history of children’s literature. This class opened my eyes to the evolution of literature for children and what we see today is nothing like how the literature began several centuries before. Being able to talk about what we read, hear other people’s perspectives, and to take that knowledge and turn it into tangible presentations, websites or papers made it very rewarding.

My second class was on Internet fundamentals and design. This class I took initially with some hesitation because my knowledge of the materials from the description was very limited and seemed like it could be very dry. I’m glad to say that I was wrong in worrying. Grant it there was a lot to learn and for me it was a little tough at times, but it was definitely worth every minute. The professor was great in bringing the material to the students in a way that it was fun and educational. I don’t think there was a class that I attended that I could say I was bored in the least. The comradery of the class coupled with the professor’s obvious joy in teaching made it one of my favorite classes to day.

All in all, I would say that Dominican is the place to go for a MLIS degree. I know there are lots of other schools that are traditional or online available, but the experiences that I’ve had this term with my instructors and with a couple from my first term make it all worthwhile. It is the interactions with most students and faculty members that will make my time here very memorable and worth sharing with others.