Posts by Kimberly Jongsma

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Posts by Kimberly Jongsma

What Will I Do the Day After Graduation?

April 13, 2012 | By Kimberly Jongsma, Master’s Student, Urban Planning

On April 27, I will receive a Master of Urban Planning, assuming I pass these classes that I am wrapping up in the next few weeks. What am I doing on April 28? I hope not to feel a repeat of the panic I felt in May 2009, when I received my Bachelor's degree during one of the worst economic slumps in recent U.S. history. The economy is doing much better these days, and unemployment is down. I've also gained an amount of skills in the past three years that I can't really fathom. I have all the tools I…

Published in: Student Voices

What’s a (Successful) Urban Planner?

March 22, 2012 | By Kimberly Jongsma, Master’s Student, Urban Planning

Today I found out that my two good friends from the University of Michigan Urban Planning program are finalists in the Hines competition, an annual national urban design competition that encourages multidisciplinary teamwork. I am not surprised in the least to hear that they made finals. They both take on a lot of coursework, but never lose enthusiasm for urban issues outside of coursework. Hines is a demanding, fast-paced competition with a due date early in winter semester. I remember them running around, frazzled, sleep-deprived, yet still energized to do the work they came here to do. This is what…

Published in: Student Voices

Why I Chose U-M, Emphasis on M.

February 22, 2012 | By Kimberly Jongsma, Master’s Student, Urban Planning

There are three reasons I chose to go to University of Michigan. First was the fact that it had a great Urban Planning program, listed in the top 25 of the nation on major planning blogs. University of Michigan looks impressive on a resume, but even more impressive is the amount of opportunities it has delivered during my short stay here. I'm quite sure I've written about them before, but let me add that the professors I've had here have been completely solid, practical, thought-provoking, and dedicated. From countless people I have heard about the alumni network and its effectiveness…

Published in: Student Voices

Getting to Know the Colleagues

January 6, 2012 | By Kimberly Jongsma, Master’s Student, Urban Planning

Last semester, I spent a great deal of time thinking about my relationship to my colleagues. My program is relatively small, nearly 70 students per year. Still, the architecture of the Art and Architecture building does not lend to too much social interaction (which is somewhat ironic, seeing as they teach architecture there). There are few common spaces, but the one that is dedicated to the Urban Planning students is the called the “MUP Lab,” though it’s more often referred to as the “MUP Cage.” Indeed, it has a picture of some muppets displayed, inevitably. It has five computers, three…

Published in: Student Voices

Faculty Connections: More Than Just a Teacher

November 23, 2011 | By Kimberly Jongsma, Master’s Student, Urban Planning

Recently my husband got published in a textbook. A poetry textbook. Yes, I'm incredibly proud. We received a copy of it last week and it was a surreal moment to see his name in the index under Eliot and Ellison. He visited our college town, Holland, Michigan, when he received this copy and visited former professors. Hearing about his visit made me homesick for undergrad. My last semester at Hope College was my favorite. I had a biography/autobiography class with professor Natalie Dykstra, who was writing her own biography of Clover Adams. My husband knew Natalie before I did (we…

Published in: Student Voices

Balance: Tightrope

October 12, 2011 | By Kimberly Jongsma, Master’s Student, Urban Planning

Last year, when I was a new graduate student in love with her studied subject but not eager to be a student again, I had a lot of trouble balancing life and work. I could not separate the two. I had a guilt complex if I were doing something not related to homework, like washing the dishes. Clearly, the condition got a little irrational. I would sit in class wondering if my classmates had personal lives, or if they were all robots who were going to outperform me on the assigned tasks. Yet, at home, I would spend hours on…

Published in: Student Voices

Meet the Bloggers: Kimberly Jongsma

September 14, 2011 | By Kimberly Jongsma, Master’s Student, Urban Planning

Hello, and congratulations on another start to the academic school year. It's September and we are still on this earth and still learning. My name is Kimberly Jongsma, and I am from West Michigan. I grew up in Grand Rapids, studied English at my undergrad at Hope in Holland, graduated, worked for a year, and moved to Ann Arbor for my graduate career in Urban Planning. How did I go from English major to Urban Planning degree? I still ask myself that, but I have many friends in the program who have studied English literature as undergrads, too. I don't…

Published in: Student Voices

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