FLEX-ING THEIR MUSCLES


another reason why I love teaching

Four days into FAST Week, with eighteen and a half hours of class down and only four and a half to go, life and work are good. The thirty folks who've come to campus this week from as far away as East Hartford, Connecticut, West Palm Beach, Florida, and Sunnyvale, California to fill my roster and endure my rambling have proven yet again that the Flex-Mode MBA Program is, from top to bottom, left to right, the best and most rewarding group of students I have the pleasure and privilege to teach at Carnegie Mellon. Brilliant and dedicated (project managers, engineers, rocket scientists among them), fun and focused, easily engaged and always engaging, I love them virtually -- via the wonders of Polycom/PictureTel technology -- and all the more so personally, during the one week a year when they get to come to campus and live the real, live, classroom life.

It's a quick blitz and a long haul, at once both a sprint and a marathon, teaching an entire course in one week. But it's even more of a haul for them, taking two classes in one week, trying to enjoy as much of Pittsburgh as they can in the rain (which this week has been non-stop), blowing off a little steam and getting almost no sleep. But they push through and soak it all in and come out the back end of a bruising, bludgeoning week loving (almost) every minute of it, carrying a great load of memories (plus a few CMU sweatshirts) in their luggage and twelve more units on their transcripts.

Despite the fifteen-hour work days and the one week of lost vacation, the brief family and even briefer blogging time, I can't imagine missing this opportunity, this class, or these students. FAST Week is -- day for day, minute for minute -- the most rewarding, exhausting, thrilling, and exhilarating teaching experience on my schedule.

The class ends tomorrow, but the inspiration lasts all year.

Posted: Thu - January 6, 2005 at 11:07 PM          

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