Welcome to the Real World

Yesterday (Thursday) morning, my boss asked me to look up an article that she had seen in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Philadelphia being the largest poor city in the country. I thought nothing of the article when I found it and sent the link to her. Due to my sleep deprivation, I am unable to come across the blog post at the moment, but a personal experience that caused said sleep deprivation made me very much aware of the socioeconomic inequalities that continue to plague this city. In a town where only 18% of adults hold degrees from four-year colleges or universities and the poverty rate stands at 25%, there is clearly much to be done to address inequality constructively. Sadly, I was part of a nonconstructive outburst reflective of these disparities.

Two weeks ago, I bought a new phone. My old one finally bit the dust, and, in a burst of upgrading glee, I secured a new iPhone for myself. I spent a little time tinkering with it, but mostly was just happy to have a phone after several weeks without one. Last night, while walking home, I called my uncle to catch up. In the middle of our phone conversation, my phone was ripped from my ear by someone who then proceeded to run off with it while I chased him, screamed, and incited others to tackle him. This was followed by an hour circling through Center City in a cop car and two hours at the police precinct. Suffice it to say, my phone was not found and I am back at square one in terms of mobile communication, albeit without the several hundred dollars I had to spend to upgrade to my now lost phone.

The very nice policemen who helped me told me that this happens all the time in Philadelphia- people will be using or talking on smart phones, and someone will come along, grab it, and run off with it. I spent the majority of the evening bawling, largely due to the shock of the experience. It's disorienting and slightly scary to have something ripped from you, and it's equally disorienting realizing that you've just lost something that you'll never get back (but still had to pay for). It's saddening to realize that I live in a city where this is a common occurrence, but the statistics certainly explain the behavior, even if they don't justify it. I would love to be in a city where everyone had equal access to various opportunities; hell, I would love to live in a country where that would be the case. But the sad reality is that we live in an incredibly unequal society, and random occurrences like my being robbed reflect these persistent inequalities. The bigger bummer is that I am now out a lot of money for what was ultimately nothing, whereas other people might be able to cover the cost of the theft of their smart phones more painlessly.

To whomever ends up with my (now cancelled) phone: I hope you got what you wanted.

¿Puerto Rico? ¡Sí, por favor!

Bienvenidos from the Region II Head Start Professional Development Conference in sunny Puerto Rico! Well, actually the conference ended yesterday and I’m back in New York, but I brought the greetings with me. The conference was an amazing opportunity and I still can’t believe I got to attend. Every day I went to fabulous trainings and seminars on various topics pertaining to running a successful Head Start program. It was like a crash course in everything Head Start. Furthermore, I was able to meet Head Start directors, staff, teachers, and parents from all of Region II. For four days we met in groups to discuss our programs’ strengths and weaknesses. We exchanged stories, ideas, and resources and worked together to find solutions to our problems. It was an amazing time to spend collaborating with colleagues towards a greater purpose.

Unfortunately some of this camaraderie was spoiled at the closing ceremony when we all learned that President Obama had announced new regulations on Head Start programs. The regulations state that if a Head Start program fails to meet certain quality standards they will have to compete for funding, with the losing programs being forced to cut slots or even close down. The entire conference was in a tizzy over this announcement and before we knew exactly what was going on it sort of felt like a grenade went off in the conference hall. After we had time to come to a full understanding of the new regulations, we realized that some of our panic was unwarranted because in and of themselves, these regulations are not a bad thing for Head Start. They will motivate poorly performing programs to get their act together, thus leading to better education for their students. If some programs are unable to make the cut, then they need to be cut so we are making the most of our taxpayers’ money. Fair enough.

In terms of the big picture, however, these regulations are worrisome because they signal a change in the attitude towards Head Start. In some ways these regulations are a warning that if the Head Start program cannot clearly demonstrate that it is effectively doing its job to close the poverty gap, it will be on the federal budget cut chopping board. I don’t believe that we need to worry because every day I see that Head Start is making a huge difference in the lives of the families we serve. Unfortunately, there is another audience that needs to be convinced if we want to continue our work. I’m confident though that Head Start can rise to the occasion.

Education Reform in Philadelphia

With the recent departure of Philadelphia School District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman amid severe budget cuts and political infighting, Philadelphia's students started school in a district uncertain about its future. Organized in conjunction with the Princeton Club of Philadelphia and Princeton AlumniCorps, Tuesday’s forum brought together educational leaders to discuss the future of Philadelphia’s education system and ongoing reform efforts. The panel featured Dr. Leroy Nunery, the acting CEO and Superintendent. It also included Marc Mannella, CEO of KIPP Philadelphia, Edward Mensah, Director of Steppingstone Scholars, Alyson Goodner '00, founder of The School Collective, and Matt Troha, Principal of Mastery Turnaround School Thomas Campus. The panel discussion was moderated by Rosalind Echols '05, a high school teacher at the Science Leadership Academy.

The focus of the discussion was on education reform and turning around a school district that for far too long has been underachieving. How can Philadelphia attract the best teachers and keep them? How can teachers from charter, public, and private schools collaborate to ensure that they are using the most innovative and effective learning techniques? How do we provide a quality public education when funding to the School District has been cut drastically by the state? How does the School District work most effectively with the Teachers Union? These were just some of the main topics covered in a lengthy question and answer session.

The overall takeaway of the evening was that while the challenges we face within Philadelphia's education system are difficult, they are not insurmountable. There are many dedicated educators and reformers who are committed to improving classrooms and making sure Philadelphia's students are college-ready and can compete in the new global economy.

The Windy City in November

It's raining in Chicago and the closer you are to the lake, the windier...which means umbrellas won’t keep you from getting wet. I work in the West Loop, which is part of downtown Chicago, and my office, the National Equity Fund (NEF), is located on the river and not too far from the lake. Needless to say my trenchcoat is getting a lot of use.

I’ve been at NEF for almost 4 months now, and feel like I’ve really gotten into the swing of things. I work in the New Markets Tax Credit department, which invests federal New Markets Tax Credits into real-estate in low-income areas. These credits are allocated to fund a variety of projects, ranging from community centers to grocery stores to charter schools. My specific role is to become the “community impact expert.” This entails understanding the variety of tools that exist for measuring and reporting on the community impact of our investments (particularly nonfinancial impact) and analyzing our community impact system. I was surprised when I first started my research that not much literature exists on nonfinancial impact measurement (think jobs created, goods and services provided to low-income communities, environmental sustainability), especially as it relates to the New Markets Tax Credits. The existing literature is scarce because the investor demand for nonfinancial performance measurement is relatively new. Looking at the “triple bottom line” (people, planet, and profit) rather than just the “bottom line” (profits) is a recent trend for investors.

I’m originally from the Midwest, and though I had visited Chicago numerous times, living here is another story. I’ve become familiar with Chicago’s many neighborhoods (instead of just the Museum Campus and a few blocks on Devon Ave.) as well as its public transit system (no car this time around). In fact, I’m a pro Chicago bus-rider; and I’m sure that once it hits zero degrees outside I’ll appreciate that buses stop every block. In addition to riding buses, I’ve also been able to explore Chicago a fair amount since moving here. It is a fun, beautiful city, though very spread out and segregated. I especially noticed this while training for a Halloween half marathon (the Monster Dash—I really recommend it for all you runners!); demographics and neighborhood services really do change block-by-block.

It looks like my lunch break is over and thus, so is this blog post. Have a great week and Veteran’s Day weekend!

I guess it really isn't summer anymore...

I think I was in denial for a while that I had actually graduated and wasn't going back to Princeton. The fact that I started my fellowship a whole 5 days after leaving Old Nassau didn't help that illusion, as it just felt like another summer internship that would end in 10-12 weeks and have me back in my dorm by Frosh Week. I can't decide if it's a good or bad thing that I've fallen into such a routine that I've barely noticed how much time has really passed. I guess it's good in the sense that I feel comfortable with my routine and I'm enjoying what I'm doing, but a bit of a bad thing because it is going by so quickly and I want to make sure I make the most of the time that's left. But now, as the leaves are changing, Macy's is decorated for Christmas, and I need to wear my ColdGear Under Armour to go running outside, I think it's finally sunk in that it is not the summer anymore and I am indeed in the "Real World."

Granted, my "Real World" is living at home with my parents, but with the free rent and home cooked meals, that's not a terrible deal. I could do without the commute, but there are worse things. People-watching on the LIRR has quickly become one of my favorite pastimes - every Long Island stereotype you can imagine is present in full force on those crowded trains home. I like to think I don't fit into any of those categories, buttt I have been told my accent is coming back a bit (although I still contend that "dog" should not rhyme with "frog" or "log"... all of you non-LawnGuyLanders are saying it wrong). Being at home has also been more exciting than I anticipated. For instance, a week or so ago there was some drama on the homefront when the Jets' Monday Night Football game conflicted with Dancing With the Stars. Needless to say, my mother won and got to watch DWTS... which by the way is quite an addicting show (vote for JR and Karina!).

But in all seriousness, if any prospective fellows are reading this, living at home really isn't bad at all, and you'll actually be able to save up a bit of money from your fellowship. It hasn't had any impact on my ability to attend the Project 55 seminars and other events, and I've had a couple of great meals with my mentor (who has been FANTASTIC to talk to, so make sure you take advantage of that relationship). It did seem a bit harder to meet new people at first since I wasn't actually living here, but there are definitely ways to do that - I just joined an intramural soccer team with some other Princeton alums, and I'm really excited for that to get underway. Going out does take some extra planning and foresight, but I'm sure you'll have friends living in the city who will let you crash on weekend nights (or whenever else you need to) so you don't need to worry about catching that last train home. Just offer to pay for the cab ride back to their place and maybe some late night pizza and you'll be good to go.

Confidence Boost at a Conference Booth

Recently I had a week-long work "field trip" of sorts: I spent the last week of October at the Union World Conference on Lung Health in Lille, France. Actually, it qualifies as my first business trip! This was a very exciting opportunity I owe to Aeras' amazing Project Coordinator's being in her third trimester of pregnancy, as she normally is in charge of representing Aeras at our booth at this annual conference. I was really looking forward to meeting people from around the world and getting to dust off my French. However, I was also REALLY nervous about saying the right things about the organization, answering any hard questions and flying. (Gosh, traveling is awesome, but people just were not made to be shot through the air at 35,000 feet... or at least that's what my sweaty palms always tell me...)

Before leaving, I reviewed information about Aeras' tuberculosis vaccine pipeline, our mission and strategy, but I was still pretty nervous walking over to the conference center the first day the exhibit booths were open. I had never worked at a booth; I didn't know what to expect. Luckily, Aeras was co-sponsoring a booth with a European-based organization that also is working to develop TB vaccines, so I had some company and a live example of how to properly deliver our messaging to passersby. After the first few people had visited our booth, my nerves died down, and I began to really enjoy interacting with the conference attendees and became confident in my knowledge of Aeras and its mission. I got to meet doctors, advocates, and potential collaborators from Afghanistan to Zambia. And though I was in the conference center on most days from 8 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. or later, I was able to walk around the incredibly charming city of Lille and enjoy the local delicacies, mussels (moules) and waffles (gaufres)--but not at the same time... ew! Another highlight was getting to sit in on a session about TB diagnostics when a very kind work colleague took over booth duty for a few hours on the last day of the conference. We also got a tour of the Museum of the Pasteur Institute of Lille, which presents history on Louis Pasteur (who would have been a painter rather than a scientist if it weren't for the disapproval of his father) and Albert Calmette and Camille Guerin, who developed the first and only vaccine against tuberculosis (BCG).

This experience was meaningful for several reasons, but the two biggest takeaways were 1) having a chance to practice Aeras' messaging in an active way that improved my confidence in my ability to effectively communicate information and 2) meeting people who shared their communities' struggles with TB. It's one thing to hear figures like 1/3 of the world has TB and 1.4 million people die every year, but the cause of developing more effective tools to combat TB gained new imperative after meeting people for whom the development of a new TB vaccine would directly improve their quality of life.

First Seminar

Last Friday, October 28th, the Washington DC PP55 Fellows had their first seminar.  We met at the law offices of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Farragut and boy, have I never sat at such a large, fancy, stone conference room table.  The lobby of the office alone was like something out of Good Housekeeping and I reminder myself vigorously that paralegal is one of my many potential career paths for next year.

Our speakers were Ambassador Anthony Quainton '55 and Alan Platt '65.  The two made up a panel of sorts that was moderated, so to speak, by former PP55 Fellow Alison Laporte-Oshire '09, on the topic of careers overseas and in foreign policy.

I must admit that a negative experience overseas last summer left me discouraged from working abroad and I've never really had an interest in being a policy wonk.  I chose to be a History major because I like narratives and looking at broad themes over time, and never once took a Politics class because policy doesn't really interest me that much (although I am gradually learning more about education policy and finding myself interested in that).  HOWEVER, I still found the seminar, which mostly addressed  our panelists' career paths and some of their opinions on the foreign policy stance of the USA, very interesting and informative!  I really enjoyed meeting Princeton alums who have done a lot of great things over the courses of their long and distinguished careers, and I felt reassured to hear that even these men weren't really sure what they wanted to do when they left Princeton.

Upcoming seminars will include topics such as grad school and managing up -- I can't wait!

October 28th was a big day for me because:

1. I got to sleep late.  (A seminar at 9am vs. being at school at 645am?  yes please!!)
2. We had our Public Charter School Board enrollment audit which I've been preparing for since literally my first week of work and everything went well and as far as I know all the paper work checked out.  (This is a big deal because we get money for every student who attends the school that is a DC resident so everyone has to prove that they are truly enrolled in the school based on attendance and actually live in DC.)
3. We had our annual Fall Fest celebration to celebrate the end of Quarter 1 Exam week and we got to do lots of fun fall crafts and dance in the cafeteria to fun music.  LET ME TELL YOU, the 5th grade scholars at Achievement Prep sure as heck can teach you, me, and everyone and their mom how to dougie.

This is the 11th week of school which means it's my 17th week of work!  And I can't believe how cold it is here in DC -- it totally snowed over the weekend.