Learning in Arizona

I am back amongst the learning community of Fielding that inspires me each time I join it. The gathering I am attending is all alums of Fielding Graduate University, and what’s unusual is that we are from all three of the major “schools” at Fielding: Clinical Psychology (the oldest of the schools), Human & Organizational Development (the second school and the one from which I got my degree) and Educational Learning and Change (the most recent school to arrive). Since each school plans its national sessions separately, there are rarely opportunities for students or alums from the three schools to meet with each other. Though the areas of our degrees are different, what we all have in common is that we came to our graduate work in mid-life, as mature adults, most of us with rich work and life experience driving our desire to do more formal learning. We all sought out an institution that would give us some latitude in how we structured and shaped that learning, so it would be meaningful for us, not simply driven by the traditions of the institution or research of the faculty we happened to work with.

That somewhat unique learning experience creates a sense of community and energy that is palpable each time a group of Fielding graduates gets together. What we’re working on is ideas about how we might want to continue to engage with each other and with Fielding as alums, on new learning experiences, projects or research, creating an opportunity for Fielding to truly offer lifelong learning opportunities for its graduates. I am renewing friendships, deepening other relationships and meeting new people—Fielding people are always very interesting people!

So my intellectual and psychological self is being nicely refreshed, while I carefully try to support my physical self through this experience. I am feeling my way through the Tucson heat (above 100 so far each day so far, yesterday mitigated by afternoon showers) and trying to sustain my various medical routines to keep myself in balance. A bit of a challenge in a hotel environment, but so far I’ve managed to keep myself from slipping over any health cliffs. I have a very caring group of people looking after me, checking in on how I’m feeling and offering to do anything they can to assist me if I need it. So I am truly in good hands.

I am mostly pleased that I managed to get myself here—since this is something I’ve been looking forward to for about a year. And I’m beginning to see some glimmerings of ideas I can bringing home with me to sustain my thinking and learning over the next year or so, as I leave the professional work that has been an important avenue for my learning and growth.