Letter For Portfolio

12043 Spinnaker Dr. Tega Cay, SC 29708 April 22nd, 2009 Ms. Cathleen Morreale Coordinator, Public Service Internship, Peer Mentor, and Experimental Learning Programs PhD Candidate: Educational Leadership and Policy – Higher Education Administration Cora P. Maloney College: University at Buffalo, State University of New York 255 Capen, SUNY Buffalo Dear Ms Morreale Instead of formally introducing myself as I would in absence of knowing you, I will begin with the purpose of my letter. You may think that it is considered cheating in writing this letter to you for fulfilling the portfolio requirement, but I would beg to differ with what I am discussing in the extent of this letter. Regarding our previous conversation about a possible opportunity for myself to take part in the planning and eventually the participation in a more engaged version of the class I was enrolled in this past semester (CPM 252), I would like to provide a bit of a follow up to our discussion. I am excited to have received this information and am anxious to hear the progress of this opportunity that we spoke of. I would regard this as an issue that is relevant to Buffalo and the surrounding area in context of educational opportunities currently available as well as possibilities for creating a more dynamic learning environment for the students and staff of the University at Buffalo. I fully support your efforts in pushing for the more experimental opportunities in education and your engagement with the placement and coordination of internship opportunities for students. In conclusion, I would like to offer you my assistance in the implementation of this opportunity. I know this will probably not entail any reward in form of salary or even credit, but I see it as a reward that is a precursor and gateway to future involvement in the opportunity aforementioned in this letter. To provide balance and mutual involvement for this composition, I would like to stimulate some sort of debate or collaboration of ideas. I feel that as a UB student, there should be a mandatory class, (like library skills, except more extensive), geared towards public speaking and group dynamics. There is a course based on speaking but it is restricted to COM majors. This frustrates me because I have a hard time with public speaking compared to my literary skills and feel that any student in any major should be provided with a platform course with these skills embedded early in higher education. What is your position on this? Best,

Brennan T. Feldman UB Student: member of CPM252, Community Resources: Buffalo Moving Forward