Katy Dickinson

Keeping in Touch with my College Kid

My daughter Jessica is now in her second undergraduate year at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is doing well and enjoying herself despite the un-California-like weather of her school home. She is in CMU's Humanities Scholars Program majoring in Political Science with minors in Music and Computer Science. She also working on the P4 project at CMU's Posner Collection (to record more of Shakespeare and Twain for YouTube) and she teaches karate. She is a very busy kid. I miss her. How do we keep in touch?

One way is through our blogs. Reading FeelingElephants lets me know some of what Jessica is thinking and experiencing. My respect and admiration for my daughter grows when I read her blog (although I despair that she will ever learn to spell). Jessica says she started blogging to reduce the number of status update calls required for friends and family. I find it easier to write for Katysblog when I have Jessica in mind.

Another way to keep current with my busy college kid is through scheduled weekly phone calls, sometimes using Skype. Also, for the second year, Jessica and I will be attending the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference together soon. In 2007, Jessica was on my "Girl Geeks" panel at Hopper, this year her own poster (on academic plagiarism) was accepted.

Jessica bought me a book before she left for college last year called I'll Miss You Too: An Off-to-College Guide for Parents and Students by mother and daughter Margo E. Woodacre Bane and Steffany Bane (Sourcebooks Trade, 2006, ISBN-10: 1402206410, ISBN-13: 978-1402206412). It is a good resource book on the transitions, joys, and challenges of having a kid in college.

Katy and Paul and Jessica using Skype

Jessica on Skype

Images Copyright 2008 John Plocher

Posted at 01:22PM Sep 24, 2008 by katysblog in Home & Family  |