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Itinerary
Aknowledgements
Afterwords
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Joe's
trip Afterwords:
As I write these words, it is mid-June, and my students
have gone on to other things. Sara Alloy and Alyson Scott
share a house in Ann Arbor, and have summer jobs. Tyler
Boersen interns for Ted Kennedy in DC, while Fatima, now
graduated, prepares to enter Teach for America this fall.
Rachel Fisher orients soon-to-be freshmen, Stephanie
Fitzwater works on Mackinac Island, and Rob Goodspeed,
our web site genius, works in Ann Arbor and Detroit
following a visit to the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in
South Dakota on a community service trip. Jenny Nathan
moved home to Oakland County, working for a local
attorney, and Rosa Osorio organizes farm workers for a
non-profit organization. Libby Pozolo also returned home,
working a summer job, as has Sarah Stewart. Amine Tourki,
rumor has it, resides in New York and may be working for
Columbia University.
My wife Teresa and I have resumed our normal routines.
Teresa rises every morning for her ten minute walk to
Beckett and Raeder, where she works as a planner and
landscape architect, and I revise my dissertation,
recently setting my defense date for September 23, 2002.
As of today, I have no idea what I will do in the fall,
next year, or beyond. The end of the dissertation stage
brings as many questions as it answers.
But this much I know: If the University of Michigan will
pay me to do it, I will teach this course and trip one
more time from Ann Arbor. By way of a justification, I
could offer my intellectual commitment to experiential
learning, or argue the need to preserve the history of
the civil rights movement. All these are valid reasons,
but they miss an important truth: I teach this class
because the students who go on these trips have made me a
better teacher. I can think of no better way to spend a
semester, much less a spring break.
Look for us next year, spring break, 2003.
Joseph J. Gonzalez
If you have questions for comments for Joe, please
email him at joegon@umich.edu.
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