Body Language

This past week I went up to Philly to visit a gradschool to check out their Environmental Education program.
I took the train which was kind of exciting because other than the commuter rail into Boston I've never been on a 'big' train before and it was really nice.
Philly has a very impressive public transportation - not so impressive aesthetics to the city but I think I'm spoiled by how nice D.C. is... You can also use Google as a reliable commuting source and it tells you bus, train, and metro schedules and how to get from place to place which is something that D.C. does not have - if I had known about Wmata (D.C.'s public transportation website) I would have lived in a different place from Mt. Rainier because I was relaying on Google and where I ended up moving to takes me only 11 minutes to go to work on subway but on Google it was telling me it would have taken an hour and a half...but I'm getting off topic.
What I really want to discuss is body language and how we orient ourselves when talking to someone.

As I mentioned I went to visit a gradschool the other day - I got in earlier than expected (thank you Philly for being efficient) and explored around the campus for a little while.
The one thing that threw me off/was kind of neat was the feeling on being at a Castle. All buildings were stone and everything 'fit' together very nicely where Farmington has a hodgepodge of brick, asparagus sculpture, and stick frame houses that give it community character and you can tell that UMF is integrated into the town.
This school is a campus plopped in the middle of three major roads and has special entrances and it just does not have an integrated feel -and I would need a car. Although the public transportation is great up to the college there is a separate campus for science programs and I'm pretty sure I would need a car just to get around which is annoying because I sold mine.

Walking into the admissions building reminded me a lot of walking into Merril Hall with a giant staircase but when I went into the room and all of the chairs were set up in a speed dating kind of way. I do not really like describing it as that but I feel as though that is the best way to describe how the room was set up. There were professors on one side and when it was your turn you went and sat across from them.
I waited for a couple of minutes and began people watching trying to get a feel for the body language of the room. One professor was looking anywhere but in the eyes of the potential grad candidate, a couple were looking around the room and seemed completely uninterested, and a couple of professors had their hands to their chin with a couple of fingers placed on their face and slumping.
I walked over to one of the professors slumping, received a weak handshake and you could already tell that she was not interested in what I had to say.
I mentioned that I like alternative education and already have some experience working at a 4-H camp teaching environmental ed and gardening and she just shuffled papers, glancing over my transcript.
I was asked what I was doing down in D.C. and I said that I am interning in National Geographic's Education Department and her attitude completely changed. Suddenly she was sitting up, there was a smile on her face and she was making eye contact with me. Just dropping one name changed everything and changed how my interview went.
My transcript was actually looked at, we went over courses that I already have knocked off of the program (earth science classes, math, etc.) and she was genuine in how she treated me.
The interview ended with her telling me that I am a very driven and determined individual for someone so young and that she cannot wait to see my application.

It completely BAFFLES me that just because I am able to drop the name of National Geographic I am suddenly a worthy individual. And she hit the nail on the head - I am determined and I am driven and although sometimes I freak out about what I am going to do with my life, I do have goals and my attitude towards work and school are parts of my personality that I really appreciate.
The more time I spend at NGS the more I realize that this internship is truly a step in the door anywhere I go but it should not be the defining moment in my life that makes me a potential candidate for a job, acceptance into master's program, etc. It is my personality and attitude and work ethic that will help me move forward in my life.
Although it is probably not the school for me (I still need to do a little more research) going to that interview was not only a grounding experience but a learning one because now I know that maybe a small private school is not the option for me.

I guess the lesson learned is be careful of your body language because you never know who is going to walk through the door. I think if my experience had been a little different this school would still be high on my list. National Geographic is important to have on my resume but I had to be impressive to get here.