So another thing that happened in the last three months that I didn't have time to post about was interviewing for Harvard. I had agreed last year to join the Schools Committee (henceforth called SC) in interviewing applicants. But there I didn't hear anything for months and months, and had practically forgotten about it! Then came mid-January, and an e-mail from my area's SC chair assigning me 7 perspective students to interview, which a quick note saying the reports weren't due by the end of January but the end of February. OH MY! Then almost immediately there was an 8th applicant to interview. I was already busy swamped, enough to carry me through January. Thankfully I had a whole nother month after that to get them done!

But the other problem was that I have never done a school interview before, and the SC Chairman hadn't given me any training on it. I asked about that, and he forwarded me Harvard's handbook on doing interviews. So eventually when I got the time I printed it out and read it through (a feat for me, normally I would have skipped the sections that seemed irrelevant). The handbook actually helped with trying to solve problem #3: Where to do the interviews. My office is in Ann Arbor, but all my applicants were from the Livonia/Redford area because that's where I live. I wasn't going to make them go all the way out to Ann Arbor, so the office was out. And I was NOT going to have the interviews at my place. I didn't feel comfortable with the idea: a teenage child alone in a stranger's house for an hour. (Parents and others aren't supposed to attend interviews, only the interviewer and the applicant.) I was going to use my good 'ol standby meeting place, Panera Bread, when I came across a suggestion in the handbook about the students' schools. Excellent idea!

A whole bunch of phone calls, playing phone tag, and some schedule guesses, and I had two schools lined up for interviewing. Then it was time to call the applicants.

And here is why I wanted to post about this experience: Calling the students. I, being me, was very nervous at first. Tried to write out what exactly I wanted to say, first to get the student on the phone and then to the student her/himself. Phone calls have always been my one introverted trait (though I have a couple more now). I don't like calling without having figured out what I'm going to say first, even with family and friends! Plus, I need to get out relevant information without sounding like a solicitor call so I don't get hung up on. Oye....

Anyway, I get something scribbled down, and work up the nerve to go at it. And much to my surprise, many of the calls go something like this:

"Hi, my name Jennifer German, I'm calling from the Harvard University School's Committee to set up an interview with < applicant's name >. Is sh/e in?"

The other end has quiet hesitation while I'm speaking, until one key word sinks in: Harvard.

At which point I get "Oh! Yes! Hang on." And in the background as the phone is set down I hear the parent yell out with hurry and excitement "It's Harvard!"

Or I get "Oh! S/he's not here right now. Can I have her/him call you back?" I imagine with a silent 'please please please' not quite implied.

Or I get some variation of "Yes! Speaking!", "That's me. HI" or whatnot. Usual excited anticipation.

Now, not all parents or siblings, or even applicants themselves, who answered the phone reacted that way. But the first time it happened left a big impression on me... because I remember being on the other side of this process. The suspense, excitement, oh oh oh! IT'S HARVARD! I couldn't help but smile a little in my nervousness, and it did make things a bit easier moving forward in calling the applicants, helped me relax a bit. But not overall, because all of a sudden I had power. By proxy, by being able to invoke the name of the school, I suddenly was someone important who (seemed to) have control over another's entire future. And while I really DIDN'T, that's what families thought for a moment in time, and that was nearly as unsettling as being a random someone trying to schedule an appointment without getting the phone hung up in her ear.

I'll hold off on how it all went for another post. But I have to say interviewing was a wonderful experience despite the later stress of having to write reports.

And if I think to, I'll post about the day I found out I was accepted to Harvard. Some good/funny stories.

:)