Welcome

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Joseph Cooch, a fellow tutor and second-year law student. I hail from the great state of South Dakota (at least I think it’s pretty swell) where I completed my undergraduate degree at the University of South Dakota. When Eric asked me to be a part of this project, I could not pass up the opportunity. I look forward to working with you, and hope that you will find success in law school.

Second, let me add my views to the mission statement. This project and its complementary projects are an attempt to capture the wisdom of crowds. By that, I mean we are attempting to gather thoughts, ideas, and opinions about law school from different people with different backgrounds to gather a richer picture. Then, we will disseminate that information to you. As Eric said, we “want the blog to find you rather than you needing to find it.”

Finally, I will leave you with this to ponder (I know. Corny.):

"Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth." (Quote contained in Mary Schmich's 1997 Chicago Tribune article, “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young.” The article was made famous by the song “Wear Sunscreen.”)

I know you are peppered with advice. I ask, though, that you listen to that advice. Honestly evaluate it. Then, decide if it is helpful. This, in my mind, is the best use of advice.

Once again, welcome. Enjoy the ride!

Joe

Test Post and Mission Statement

Yo,

I'm not going to pull any punches here.  The Hamline Tutor Blog is part of a larger suite of projects, and I'm hoping one or all of them will stick.  That being said, I'm a person with a lot of aspirations (as are my partners in this project) and our ultimate goal is to improve the law school experience for current and incoming students alike.

This project began with a problem I had with Hamline's current online setup (TWEN and some other stuff).  There's nothing particularly wrong with it in terms of function, but the lacking aspect of is that no one (and I'm generalizing) is "plugged in."  It does a bad job of making information easily accessible.

I chose a blogger formatted project because every Hamline student receives a gmail compatible email account by attending and it easily accommodates people receiving updates through Facebook and email.  Basically, I want the blog to find you rather than you needing to find it.  The opposite of the current online setup.

Why have this blog at all?  We have professors, don't we?  That is true.  But I assure you that they will not always be around and will not always give you an answer that remedies your confusion on an issue.  The benefit of this blog and the connected account, hamlinetutors@gmail.com, is that a question can be disseminated to multiple sources of help.  If one tutor can't explain a concept to you adequately, another can try, etc.

As of now, this project is in beta.  We have a lot of work to do in terms of content, theme, and basic advertisement.  Yet, I have at least one other intelligent tutor working with me to make this great.  So enjoy our labor of love and good luck in 2011.

Eric