Research, research, research...it's all good.

I think one of the most dreaded courses for social work graduate students who are not remotely interested in pursuing a Ph. D degree at USC is research/program evaluation, aka 603, aka the class from h-e-double hockey sticks. The class is tedious. It requires long hours of reading and thumbing through articles pertaining to your topic of interest. It involves interviews with the adminstrative staff you work with. It involves Advil to allieviate those pounding headaches induced from stressful nights of typing one's life away via laptop or pc. And probably most of all, it involves patience and an understanding that this will somehow benefit you later in your professional lives.

Despite the critics and my own preconceived criticisms of 603, thus far the class as been plesantly educational. Sure, I have had the long nights of reading 8-point font PDF articles with bloodshot eyes and the throbbing headaches caused by plotting out my proposed program budget. I have even had my weekend battles with procrastination and annoyance. However, I am gradually beginning to realize that all of this God forsaken work has some sort of relevance. That all of my frustration and early adulthood carpal tunnel syndrome is not in vain. I am learning how to write clear and concise goals and outcome objectives and discuss the methods in which I used to accomplish such goals. I am learning how to use a Johnny Cochran type defense for my agency in the program design portion of my proposal, and prove to the money holders that their dollars will best be used in my school setting. I am even learning how write an organized budget outline of my personnel, operation costs, and in-kind donations (this is a big deal for me seeing how I have demonized mathematics since the 10th grade).

The key word here is that I am learning. I'm learning. I'm learning. I'm learning. And being that we as USC social work students are paying an astonishing $18/ per minute for class time(yes, it's true -- I had a friend do the math), learning, even if it is in 603 and taught by some of the toughest instructors known to man, is fine by me.

Research. Don't hate it, LEARN to embrace it.