A Farewell from Dr. Lynne Rosansky
August 16, 2023
Dear GPS community,
With a profound sense of appreciation and respect for each and every one of you, I am writing to you in this forum for the last time. I officially retire on August 31, 2023. It is a bittersweet moment in time for me as I look ahead to being able to be more present with my kids and grandkids while also looking back on you all – the community I have served for the past four years.
It has been quite a journey. I sometimes imagine my four years at Brandeis like the arc of an undergraduate student’s path to a degree. The first year was such an exciting adventure – learning about the multiple GPS graduate programs; how they enable students to accelerate their career goals; how many students are enabled to access this path with our online asynchronous delivery mode and how our practitioner faculty bring their real-world experiences into the online learning path. Then - the spring of 2020 hit us and the world shifted. However, GPS was well-positioned and we continued to deliver our programs as usual. Thanks to all the faculty and staff that pivoted and supported our community! This past year (my ‘senior’ year) we have realigned some of our program offerings; introduced an internship to the User-Centered Design program; offered our first ‘mentoring’ career event; and engaged a new marketing partner to better spread the word about Brandeis GPS.
As I reflect, I am most proud of our students who are amazing, committed professionals; dedicated to their learning journey as well as to their careers. They have continued to persevere through the pandemic and subsequent ‘re-entry’ to a world somewhat changed but nonetheless demanding. Our students manage their full-time jobs; their kids and family life and still get online to complete assignments and learn the course material. One of our 2022 graduates brought his entire family (wife and two kids) from Long Island to join us in our commencement celebration. He told me that his GPS degree gave him the skills and the credential to be able to get a big promotion into a managerial role that he had always dreamt of holding. It took him 4 years but he did it and is reaping the rewards. The memory of this conversation and this student is with me forever.
My career, and indeed, my life, has been dedicated to education. When I was in fifth grade, my paper on ‘What I want to be when I grow up’ was “A College Professor.” It took me many years of being ‘a student’ to finally reach the stage of ‘professor’ and then I took on the administrative role. Those of you in management can relate to the reality that the thing you love doing (teaching for me) becomes less and less part of your everyday duties as you move up the administrative ladder. Nevertheless, being part of and influencing the teaching/learning journey kept me committed.
The teaching/learning journey is full of joys of discovery; frustrations of failure; pride of achievement and hope for the future. This journey has been my anchor and my beacon. It has been my great pleasure to be able to be a small part of this journey for many individuals along the way; whether it be helping a student resolve a conflict or designing a new curriculum. The one distinctive attribute of homo sapiens as a species is our ability to learn and adapt. Learning has been central to our survival and will continue to be central to the survival of the species and of the world. Our students are our hope and our future!
I pass the baton of leadership to my successor, Carmen Aguilar. Carmen comes to us with deep experience designing, delivering, and managing online programs. She is committed to the student experience and to increasing access to high-quality learning. Next month you will hear much more from Carmen. Welcome, Carmen!
With my thanks and best wishes on your continuing journeys,
Lynne