Meeting the fellowship

On Monday night, the six journalists who are part of the Massey College community were formally introduced to the fellowship. Massey is a college that prides itself on a number of traditions-- the journalism fellowships being one of the things that has always been a part of the fabric of this corporation.
I'm not offhand sure how long the journalists' reception has been part of the calendar here, but we had ours last night. The master, John Fraser (think Saturday Night), invited a number of prominent members of the journalism and media communities to come have dinner at Massey. Dinner here is a somewhat formal event, with all the members of the college in their gowns (yours truly wears a simple black gown with the red rose on the back-- senior fellows have some additional red stripes along the shoulders of theirs), graces in latin, etc.
Afterwards, the journalists proceeded to the Upper Library where after an elegant introduction from Fraser, each of us was given some time to speak to our background, why we wanted to come to Massey and what we hoped to get out of the year.
We are a very eclectic group with a diverse background. I learned a little bit about each of my colleagues here-- both the other Canadian Journalism Fellows and the two associate fellows who will be sharing large portions of our journey with us.
Given the amazing breadth, depth and accomplishments of the graduate students here at Massey, it was humbling to be put on the same stratosphere as them for part of an evening.
In other fellowship matters, the courses are beginning to narrow down. I've decided to continue auditing the Battles over History Education as well as Issues in Numeracy and Literacy. I still need to find a third (or fourth) course to audit this year-- likely something non-OISE. However I'll be back in the undecided boat come January as the two OISE courses I am following are only fall term.