The fun part of my job

Today, I got to do the fun part of my job. I almost made up for the week of frustration that has left me very frustrated.

The other week, I decided to review the funding lines in the grant to determine if we had saved enough money to fund an extra student. The program I work on in a multidisciplinary program that involves Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Environmental Engineering.

This year, we had three really good students apply in ChemEng for one spot. We determined that we had the ability to fund one of the three through other means, which left us with two.Today, I was able to send an email to one of the students and let her know that she was, in fact, awarded one of the positions. She was so excited, asked lots of good questions, and now will try to find a place to live here.I was thrilled that *I* decided that I had a chance of finding the money when no-one asked me to look. Now, I'll admit that the shuffle game wasn't completely my idea, but the original plans for the grant didn't occur the way it was originally anticipated, but I figured out how to get the plan to work under the new set of conditions.

The other part that I'm proud of myself for is that as we determined what we needed to do to help attract these three students, we needed to ensure that two of the students who have been working with the project this year was still funded. I worked with the department to determine how we could accomplish that.

So, as frustrating as this week has been - and it will be until the meetings that I have no control over but a certain level of responsibility are finished next week - I got to hear the squeal of a graduating senior who was so excited about receiving this position that she held an almost uncomprehend-able discussion with my co-worker and it was because of me and the job I do.

(Kelly, it's an OUT of town meeting, I'm too tired to see the computer screen)