Karen de Olivares
Ph.D. Specialty Area: Educational Foundations and Policy
Present Position: I am responsible for the premedical advising program at Southern Methodist University, am Assistant to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and an adjunct professor in the Sociology Department. The latter is a new position. I taught a course on gangs for Spring term. It seemed to go well and indications are I will be teaching again in the spring. I am also working on research in that area.
Dissertation Topic: My interest was in how educators might deal with conflict in the classroom, specifically female-female conflict.
Prior to coming to the SOE: I was teaching as a Permanent Emergency Substitute at Northern High School in Detroit. I'd moved to Michigan with my husband after completing my M.A. I worked for a year at Northern. Prior to the M.A., I worked for the Sacramento Job Corps.
What I Learned in the Program: To describe what is different in what I know would entail writing volumes -- something that I do actually hope to accomplish, but not in this context. Being a student at UM SOE deepened my appreciation for scholarship and also lent legitimacy to my desire to learn for the sake of learning. I became a much better writer and greatly furthered my skills in policy analysis. Reflecting on my experiences as a TA at UM helped me know what I did and did not want to do as a professor. It is difficult to express the other numerous and, perhaps, less tangible ways in which I hope I have grown as a person. They are, however, no less important. The people I worked with and for in the School of Education were inspiring, caring and interesting. I will always be deeply grateful.
