Now, Day 11: in which I share news

 I'm so excited to share that a grant that I and two of my colleagues wrote was funded.  We are going to conduct research about outcomes and our college's writing program; I won't bore you with the details.  Now, in addition to writing this new draft of my novel, crafting, biking, and gardening this summer, I have a research project to keep my mind active.  

Before I moved to New Mexico for graduate school, I was a grant writer for a college in New York.  My colleagues and I there wrote and won millions of dollars of grants.  This grant is a small one, but it is the first one I've written for a project of my very own. I'll tell you this: it is a much bigger thrill to be funded for a project I will be conducting myself than for one I developed for someone else!

P.S. this picture was taken at the end of Fall 2009 semester.  I asked students to freewrite for their portfolios about what they learned and would take forward into the rest of their writing careers, then share a key word or phrase on the board.  After they all left the room, I stood for a few minutes and gazed at it in pride.  I was really pleased with my students!