Note from the editor

Athena Perrakis
Ed.D. student,
Rossier School of Education,
University of Southern California
aperrakis@aol.com

Welcome to the newly renovated version of Extra, a student-run publication designed to serve a wide range of academic audiences. Since I was invited to join Extra as its editor, just one month ago, I have established a new and different vision for its creation and purpose. My goal is to generate an on-line forum for educators and students, who wish to share their experiences and interests with other, like-minded individuals. Dr. Ben Varner, a faculty member at the University of Northern Colorado, is the faculty advisor for this journal, and has worked diligently to help establish Extra as a forum for scholarly communication. At present, Ben and I are working to align ourselves with students and faculty from both high schools and universities, so that eventually we can lend a voice to many different people, at all levels of education, from a variety of locations across the country.

We hope that you will continue to support us during this period of change and growth. My colleague, Jamie Grasser, would like to expand at least two sections of our journal, to add creative writing and editorial sections in the coming months. I would like to invite anyone with a background and interest in academe to submit an article for consideration and potential publication in future issues.

Many people contributed to this issue and their work should be recognized. In addition to Ben and Jamie, I would like to thank Peter Grzeskow -- our web master -- and Steve S. Pec, the editor of Extra's parent journal, Academic Exchange Quarterly. Thanks, also, to my faculty advisor at USC, Dr. Linda Hagedorn for her input and advice. Finally, a special note of gratitude to our contributors, and our readers! If you have any comments, questions, or submission ideas please pass them along to me. I would be more than happy to hear from you. See you in April!