Kathleen Mitchell

I took this class on the advice of a college counselor after a brief drop-in appointment. I hadn't decided on a major and this seemed to be the class to take to find out exactly what to do with my life.

DIDN'T HAPPEN!

This is not a class that's going to be full of aptitude tests and career titles. Kathleen chooses to discuss concepts such as "curiosity" and "devil's advocates". My experience with the first few classes was not great, you pretty much get in what you put out. There are alot of group discussions and activities. Once you get the hang of it and schedules settle, you start to realise it's a nice way to spend a Tuesday evening.

The projects were quite long, three or four if I remember correctly. There's an education and work autobiography (can be tedious to write, but certainly interesting to look back on), as well as many curiosity assignments.

I was a little pessimistic when I walked through the door of that classroom. Kathleen's ideas seemed to live in a "perfect world". Then she said something that made me change my mind - "WHAT'S WRONG WITH BEING OPTIMISTIC?!" Such a simple thing to say, but it definitely changed some of my views of the world.

Kathleen is a very caring teacher - always remembering to ask if your cat got over her cold the next week, etc. Very thoughtful, plenty of time to talk to students, intelligent, polite. Encouraging of student's ideas and all the hidden little dreams that have been supressed.

A delightful teacher.

I had heard about Dr. Mitchell's career guidance class from a friend, who said she was wonderful.

for myself, i found that the class helped me think about what to do "when i grew up" in a new and creative way. this was nice.

however, there were many times when kathleen's approach seemed a bit foofy and idealistic. all air and little substance. she also assigns a lot of rather time-consuming projects which seem to have little discernible guidance value.

still, i think that for someone like me who's rather confused as to what to do with my life, it's been a very helpful class.