New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center

My fellowship at the Heads Up! Pediatric Literacy program takes me to nine of the program’s 11 clinic sites. In my next few posts, I’ll try to describe what it’s like to visit each one. Activities at each site are different, and that makes things interesting!

New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center: In 1992, the Heads Up! Program was founded here, and originally ran out of this hospital only. My office is here, so I order books and pay invoices for the entire program from this site. I usually spend just a few hours a day on these tasks, and am in Cornell’s clinic or at other program sites at other times.

There are two pediatric outpatient clinics in my building at Cornell. One is on the 3^rd floor, where my office is, and the other—the Medicaid clinic—is on the 5^th. Patients with private insurance are typically seen on the 3^rd floor, and those with government-issued insurance are typically found in the 5^th floor waiting room. (At least, this is how I think it works. The pediatric specialties also seem to run out of the 3^rd floor clinic.) The book program runs on the 5^th floor, but not the 3^rd.

It should not surprise me that the clinics look different, but it does. Recently renovated, the 3^rd floor boasts a colorful floor, fresh paint, and inviting murals. The waiting room is spacious, comfortable, and well stocked with magazines. The Medicaid clinic appears to see a larger patient volume and has a playroom, which the children love. But it also has some walls with chipped or dirty paint, and far fewer colorful, inviting features. At busy times, there also never seems to be quite enough seating for waiting patients and family members.

I chose this fellowship because I am troubled by health care disparities, and want to spend my life attempting to alleviate them. Excellent care—the most important thing—is given in both clinics, but I can’t help but wondering when the 5^th floor’s last paint job was. I know about reimbursement issues, but I can’t help but wish the two clinics could be equally beautiful, and feel somewhat stung that they are not.

Of all the clinic sites, my activities at Cornell are the most diverse. In addition to my role as the book program coordinator, I am helping with several clinical research studies, and attend grand rounds or another medical lecture once or twice a week. On Mondays, I also shadow a physician for a few hours. The Monday shadowing is in the “preemie follow-up clinic,” where the development of premature infants (now older and living at home) is tracked until the medical team feels confident that the child is developing appropriately, and is receiving services, if any are needed.

Building the Plane while Flying it

I'm starting to understand why "Build the plane while flying it" was on the page.

During my first supervision meeting (about 3 months ago!), my supervisor and I went over a page of Umoja's guiding principles. Some of the listed principles included keeping students at the center, and meeting students where they are. My supervisor went through the list and discussed some of what she thought were the most important principles (though she stressed that all are important). Most of the principles were self-explanatory or seemed obviously relevant to my work. When we reviewed the principle "build the plane while flying it," I remember thinking that really only applied to the staff members in director positions or the chief officers. The idea behind the principle is this: Umoja does really great work for the students, teachers, and communities that it serves. In order to do good work, you sometimes need to take risks. Moreover, you need to follow through. I believe that this is part of the beauty of the organization. It has also taken some getting used to.

I don't want to go picture-crazy in this post so I will just attach one from the open mic that we just had on Thursday.


The event was coordinated by one of the teachers at the school and the Writers Workshop students I work with helped put up fliers, they all attended the event, and a few of our students (such as the one pictured above) performed. The event was well attended (as I hope you can see from the picture), and there was so much talent in the room. I would definitely call the event a success.

I am one of the facilitators for the Umoja Writers Workshop. Since I was an English/Creative Writing student at Princeton, I figured the particular position would be a perfect fit for me. This has definitely been a learning opportunity. The Writers Workshop is not new to Umoja and the bar has been set high. The challenge for me has been trying to maintain the standard for a group when I am new to the group and have never facilitated a group of more than 15 or so students (Writers Workshop has 30). My co-facilitators for the group are two of the chief officers of Umoja. I was nervous/intimidated about working with them but it has been such a great thing. As I discussed with my supervisor, even though I am facilitating this semester, this is also a time for learning and professional growth. That being said, there are days when one of the co-facilitators will lead (model) a particular activity so I can see how it is done and then work towards being able to lead that particular activity myself. We try to make sure that the program is rigorous but is engaging and relevant for the students. To do so, we have made a few changes to the curriculum, the structure of our day, as well as our facilitation styles. We recently had a group meeting with this year's facilitators and one of last year's facilitators to have some "thought partnership." We're building the plane while flying it. The program has already had 10 sessions but we are still adding to it, fixing it and working out the kinks. I don't know that we will ever be 100% satisfied but the point is to work towards that.

The concept of building the plane while flying it also applies to my fellowship at Umoja in general. My job responsibilities are not set in stone (and I have learned not to get too comfortable with anything). While I know that I am responsible for the Writers Workshop program and much of the background work required (such as coordinating field trips, etc), my other role was not clear for some time. I had a pretty good idea, however, that my other role would be in restorative justice. I recently began shadowing my supervisor in the Peace Room to run peace circles/peer mediation. We then recently discussed me working with the student leaders instead. I have learned to be patient throughout the process and to be ready to jump in wherever I'm needed. As I continue on with my fellowship, my position is still being crafted/redefined.

The greatest thing for me, to date, has been the relationships I have been building with the students, teachers, school staff, and the Umoja staff.

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In very different news, I had a great time meeting up with Emily (one of the D.C. fellows) yesterday. She was in Chicago for a conference and it was nice to catch up and exchange stories about our fellowship experiences :)

Homelessness Training Session

Yesterday I went to a training session about the emergency shelter system for families in Massachusetts. I was surprised at the hoops families have to jump through to be housed in a shelter. The state agencies deter families from applying, makes it very hard for them to be eligible, and makes it challenging for families to re-enter the shelter system if they leave. I was overwhelmed by the obvious faults of the system, but also the struggle that there aren’t easy solutions. Children’s HealthWatch, my fellowship organization, is working on report about the negative maternal and child health effects that are evident among families behind on rent. Typically the health of children is most compromised among homeless children, but our analyses revealed that families behind on rent have a strikingly similarly poor health status. I am struggling with what to do with this information and how positive change can be inflicted on the systemic level. My fellowship has both a research and a policy component and while I have done research before the policy side is more new to me. The policy side to scientific analyses is the area where I am learning so much about. At first glance there seem to be easy systemic solutions such as using funds for housing subsidies and housing stabilization to avoid the need for shelters. While MA policy does have a new emphasis on homelessness prevention what happens to the thousands of families already homeless? While it is clear the current system isn’t effective as all shelters are at capacity, yet more families need the services daily, how can the system transition into one where there is less of a need for shelters? At the point closest to impact, these children and families need a safe place to sleep tonight. I have been lucky to see examples of answers to some of my questions and thoughts in other research topics I’ve been working on. For example the there is a Food Stamps/SNAP coalition meeting that I attend monthly, where members of all sorts of different organizations come together to problem solve and brainstorm ways to reach more families and ensure families are getting the greatest benefit possible. This group has implemented many improvements to the program over the years and in one instance I know there change became a national standard. Having spent so much time at Princeton in the library researching and thinking through issues it is exciting to be in a position where I am still able to research and think through real life problems, but I have the opportunity to go one step further and see the action steps that follow.

Spotted: Former P55 mentor and current First Lady

My last few weeks in DC have been very exciting and very busy, but for the purposes of this blog entry I’ll focus on just one exciting event: Last week, my mentor took me and another P55 fellow to a Democratic National Committee event featuring Victoria Kennedy (the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s wife) and First Lady Michelle Obama. We had the opportunity to briefly meet Mrs. Obama, and of course, we excitedly informed her that we were fellow Princeton graduates and current Project 55 fellows. She responded with equally genuine excitement, telling us that she had formerly been a P55 mentor in Chicago (I will admit that at this point, we ruined the moment a little bit by replying, “We know!”) and wishing us luck with the remainder of our fellowship year.

It was a real treat to be able to see her speak in person – she was incredibly poised, eloquent, and sincere. Her remarks covered topics ranging from Bo Obama’s first birthday party (she referred to him as her “new son”) to her personal connection to the health care reform bill because of her father’s battle with multiple sclerosis and her hopes for the Democratic Party in the upcoming election.

The event was held at Mrs. Kennedy’s home, and in her introductory remarks, she mentioned that some of the first discussions about the recently passed health care reform legislation took place just a few years ago, in the dining room where we had all been munching on hors d’oeuvres minutes earlier. I felt like I was being given an intimate glimpse into the personal and professional lives of some of the country’s most important Democratic policymakers – I was a real “Washington insider,” if only for one night.

After the event, I had dinner with the other P55 fellow and both of our mentors. We had a great conversation about our various career trajectories and our experiences at Princeton. (Apparently, back in 1995, there was neither a Starbucks nor a J. Crew on Nassau Street… hard to imagine, I know.) They also gave us both helpful tips on networking at conferences and suggestions for improving our fellowship experience.

My experience with the mentoring component of my P55 fellowship has been fantastic – and not just because my mentor cooked dinner for me and brought me to an exciting political event (although those things were great!). As I navigate this new, unfamiliar job in a new, unfamiliar city, it’s been very comforting to know that I have the support of a fellow Princeton alum who genuinely wants to help me adjust and succeed, both personally and professionally.

Looking forward

Seeing my partner in crime at the Foundation Center making an appearance on the blog reminded me that I should put in a word about my own experience here.

One of the great things about working at the Foundation Center is the convenient access to the many resources that it has to offer. October has been "Arts Month" at the Foundation Center, featuring programming related to everything from finding fiscal sponsorship as an artist to engaging celebrities with your organization. I've made an effort to go to a number of these events, primarily because I consider myself an artist (of the musical variety) and so am interested on both a professional and personal level. Though I've decided at this point that I don't plan on pursuing music full-time as a profession (unless something really remarkable were to happen in the next year...), it is undeniably a passion of mine and a big part of why I wanted to be in New York this year, and something that I hope to pursue throughout my life. I also have a number of friends who are trying to "make it" in the arts world, so at the very least I reasoned that the knowledge I gained through these workshops could be of use to them.


I found some of the sessions more relevant to my interests than others, but they all confirmed that the arts organizations, and especially those related to music, are something that I care deeply about and hope to participate in or support for years to come. You don't have to become an artist, actor, or musician to realize that cultivating a love and appreciation for the arts in culture in society at large makes the world a generally more exciting and enjoyable place. A couple of decades down the line, I would love to be on the board of an arts organization, putting my enthusiasm to good use.

New Frontier

Ok, Ok, I just got an email reminding me to blog. I know I haven't blogged in a while, but in fairness I also haven't cleaned my room, put away my laundry, or done my dry cleaning in a while. At least I'm blogging now. I think that means I get to leave my clean and as-of-yet-unfolded laundry in a heap in my room. Right?

I recently passed a big milestone at the Foundation Center. I have now been working here longer than I've ever worked anywhere. All of my previous summer internships were 10-12 weeks, and I am now in week 13!

It's really exciting to see how different the last few weeks have been compared to weeks 10-12 of an internship.

I am becoming much more familiar and comfortable with the culture of the Foundation Center, and I'm feeling like I am positioned to make more meaningful contributions. For example, I made my first professional presentation to a group of co-workers about ways that FC NY can take advantage of social media tools.

If this had been an internship, that presentation would have been the end of my summer. I probably would have finished it near the end of my time, and then I would have stranded it as I went back to school. Now, instead, I'm starting to take action.

I just created a new facebook page for Foundation Center New York, which I hope will grow and become an interactive community for people in the nonprofit sector living and working in the NYC area. Check us out and like our page!

Foundation Center New York is a great resource for young nonprofit workers and our courses and materials could likely help each of your organizations as well. Besides, I set a goal of getting 500 people to like the page by December 31st, so I need you to help me out!

I've got plenty to work on now, and I'm just very exciting to be gearing up rather than finishing up!

This Month

I recently went to the first Princeton AlumniCorps panel discussion. The purpose was to discuss being a Board Member of a non-profit, and how to go about it, what it entails etc. I do not plan on joining a Board of a non-profit anytime in the near future, but found it interesting to hear others discuss their experiences, and concerns. So, if any of you are reading this blog, and are interested in volunteering for a local non-profit, or joining a board, you should contact John Shriver.

On a completely different topic, I urge you to go see Waiting For Superman if you have not done so already. This is the second documentary that I have seen discussing Educational Reform, and I found them both to be inspiring. True, I am biased, but nonetheless, I recommend it. There is a lot that pertains specifically to DC, and the current Educational debate that has been going on during the Mayoral election.

Cocoa-Soaked Realizations

I've never quite understood that phrase, Life is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get. If I have a box of chocolates, I am pretty sure that inside the box, there will be an assortment of chocolates. And I'll eat the chocolates. And they'll taste good. Simply put, I know what I'm gonna get.

The revised version of that Gumpian motto, then, seems to apply particularly well to this blog. I open it up, to be confronted with one of an assortment of fixed subjects. "An aspect of my professional responsibilities." (Mmm... milk chocolate.) "A new experience in a new city." (White chocolate.) "A conversation with my mentor." (That chocolate with the little pieces of almonds in it.)

So perhaps none of these posts shimmer with any resonance beyond the simple satisfaction of munching on a piece of chocolate. But at the end of a box of chocolates, I usually feel pretty good. And full. Full, and good. I think we'll all feel this way when this iteration of the fellowship blog comes to an end. We'll scroll past the group pic, give that text a scan and, if only briefly, we'll get consumed by the commonality and yet difference of the tapestry of the fellowship experience - say, the character education builders in DC, say, the social explorations of New York - but then, say, our struggles with acronyms and public transit, say, our initial confusions and gradual moves towards mastery, and we'll think to ourselves, What a Wonderful World -- You know, I probably shouldn't have eaten the whole box at once, but, ultimately, it was a beneficial decision...

The Technology Corridor

Everyday on my way to work at the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, I drive by a sign that declares I-270 is the "Technology Corridor." For clarification, I-270 is the route that connects Northwest DC to the more suburban regions of the metro area, namely Bethesda and Rockville, where Aeras is located. In the past few weeks, I have gained more of an understanding of what this sign actually means.

Aeras, itself, is an excellent exemplar of the kind of technological activity that is taking place in this corner of our nation's capital. The organization, a product development partnership, collaborates with a broad range of other groups, including academic research intuitions, biotechnology firms, and pharmaceutical companies, to identify the best approaches to a new, and direly needed, TB vaccine (It is estimated that nearly 2 million people die from TB each year, and the current vaccine is widely regarded as ineffective in preventing against pulmonary TB in adults, which constitutes the vast majority of TB cases). Aeras is a unique organization because it has its own vaccine discovery, assessment, and manufacturing departments. At other PDPs, these services are provided by outside contractors. In the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to explore what goes on in the lab here--in particular, the types of immunological techniques, such as intracellular cytokine staining, that Aeras researchers use to complete their assessments of vaccine candidates. In the future, I look forward to learning more about Aeras' state-of-the art manufacturing facility, which has the capacity to produce over 200 million doses of a new TB preventive.

I also had the opportunity to join my P55 mentor, Dr. Philip Murphy, for lunch and a tour of his laboratory at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Visiting the NIH campus was an awe-inspiring experience. The campus, a beautiful former estate of the Wilson family, is large to enough to house 60 buildings, while retaining its green and park-like landscape. Dr. Murphy works in the largest building on the campus, the Clinical Research Center, which also happens to be the largest government building in the United States. The building has numerous laboratories and patient facilities, all to provide the most cutting-edge resources to clinical researchers and the patients enrolled in their trials. For example, Dr. Murphy showed me one particular laboratory that has the capability, using lasers, to remove individual cells from a sample of human tissue.

So far, I have had a great experience in Washington, learning about the important research that is taking place in this great city. I very much look forward to experiencing and learning more as the year progresses.

Technically Assisting

Right now I'm procrastinating from collecting data about demographics and AYP status (Adequate Yearly Progress) about school districts. It can really take forever, but I'm finding that I enjoy collecting and analyzing data. And by analyzing, I mean sticking it into Excel and making a graph out of it, but I'm getting much better at using statistics. Which is good, because I've managed to never have taken a statistics course in my life.

I am in my third month of fellowship, and this means my health insurance has kicked in. Time to make every doctor's appointment ever. I feel like a grown-up.

My job responsibilities continue to broaden. While I still am the Maker of the Charts and the Recorder of the Minutes, I've been getting into more meetings with different people. I've helped create some videos that help advertise the different kinds of technical assistance we do.

I still hesitate in telling people that my organization does "technical assistance" because it sounds like IT. Foundations, Inc. does a lot of things under the umbrella of "technical assistance," including oversight of developing schools and educational programs, grant proposal assistance, helping education peers network, etc.

Of course, sometimes I'm kinda an IT person. By virtue of my age, I am a little more fluent with technology than your average adult over the age of 40, so often I am the go-to person for tech needs. It certainly makes me feel a lot smarter than COS 126 did.

I guess it's also important to mention that I was on a panel for Project 55 AlumniCorps Fellowships up in Princeton last Tuesday. It was fun, and I sincerely hope we can get more interest into the Philadelphia area! How can you resist a community who pronounces 'water' like 'wood-er'? (Yes, I grew up with this pronunciation and still slip sometimes...)

Promise Neighborhoods

It’s been two months since I began my fellowship at The Community Group (TCG) in Lawrence, MA. My experience so far has been gratifying, educational, and very enjoyable. TCG runs a variety of educational programs – preschools, a charter school, and after school programs in public schools. I’ve had the opportunity to work on many projects so far. Every week I help out with a teen parent support group at the local public high school. We try and teach the girls health, parenting, and life skills. I cannot imagine the challenges the girls face daily, yet they still manage to come to school every day and are on the road to graduating. I’m very happy to be able to support them in every way I can.

I’ve also worked on developing a mentoring program for TCG, have begun a healthy eating initiative for students and staff, and have served as a substitute teacher! Recently, I’ve been asked to put some of these projects aside for now, as TCG was just awarded a Promise Neighborhoods grant. (Has anyone seen Waiting for Superman?) Only 21 organizations in the country were given this opportunity. I’ve been asked to play a large role in organizing and implementing our grant. The goal of Promise Neighborhoods is to provide “cradle to career” services for children in one particular neighborhood in Lawrence. Modeled after the Harlem Children’s Zone, Promise Neighborhoods strives to improve educational outcomes for children by providing a spectrum of social support – everything from healthcare services to parental resources. I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, but I am very excited!

Noodles and Freud

It has been so long since I last saw Kathyrn that I’m afraid I will not be able to recognize her and her penchant for glamorous blazers, but as I speak to her secretary Isabel to confirm that I am standing in the right place, I discern her pink outfit, a blur in the rotating doors of the building. She hugs me and smiles.

We speed through the “how have you beens” and “how is work,” and during the moments of silence, I feel that she searches for a subject upon which to focus. We go from my obsession with folding bikes, to her hikes in the North, and finally return to my academic interest: clinical psychology. When I mention my work with families at Settlement Health and New York Center for Child Development, she asks why I don’t think about obtaining my teaching certificate. Is it something in my face that tells her how exciting it is to work with children? Is it a glow, a hint of something she hasn’t noticed when I speak of other possible career interests? It’s as if I accidentally revealed a guarded secret through my eyes without knowing it.

Yes, I confess to her that if money and time were not an issue, I would get my masters in clinical psychology and then my PhD. Nervous to ask my next question and uncertain whether it's appropriate to the conversation at hand, I whisper, “How does one stay true to oneself?” Surrounded by classmates that opt to enter the finance or consulting industry, I convince myself that they are the only legitimate ways to make a living. Kathyrn smiles knowing all too well that the answer to my question is no Oprah’s Book Club exclusive. “I often associate success with money,” I shamefully admit. “Usually the people that associate success only with money have a low self image,” she explains. Spending seven years to get a degree for a job that does not pay the thousands that consultants and investment bankers make is not what I would call ideal.

We explore from where my interest in clinical psychology stems and how exciting it is for me to be in a session with my supervisor at the clinic who is a psychologist and never fails to encourage me to pursue clinical work. There are no more silent moments, only the steady rhythm of two engaged minds drafting, taking turns taking the lead. She looks at her watch and apologizes for having to leave so soon despite the fact that she generously took a 1 ½ hour lunch to meet with me. “Take baby steps. The good thing is that you are young and you can try on different suits. It seems like you are noodling this out a bit more.” I am confused by the last statement, imagining in my mind what it is like to noodle out ideas and wondering what ingredients one adds to make the original dough. I think (or I hope) that it means that I am preparing to make one of the best pastas of my life.

Off hours

I can barely hide my excitement as I rush to catch the N to Astoria where, I imagine, my friends already sit around a table drinking Eastern European beer whose names we can’t pronounce. Once a week, the odd group composed of two men and two women gather around at different points around the city to recount the weekly adventures as p55 fellows.

Only two weeks before, I waited outside of Shake Shack, nervous that no one would show up to my first planned NYC event. Like a boy preparing the punch before his first house party, I kept glancing at my watch to make sure for the fourth time that I still had a few minutes to prepare. Is my stance right, does my hair flow, and are my clothes still pressed? Not long after, the four of us sat enjoying our fries and hamburgers, relieved to have loosened our work clothes and accidentally stained some of them with ketchup.

Today, when I arrive to the Bohemian Beer Garden, I get carded despite the fact that I can claim to have some stubble and start to walk toward the backyard park when Sarah, the first arriver, waves at me from the bar. We walk together to the tables outside and sit with our bodies braced for the autumn chill. The other two fellows stroll in with their friends and before long each side of the table laughs at different tales being shared, narratives only interrupted in order to decide who will buy the next pitcher. Peale just finished a 10k in the mud, Paul decides to plan the Brooklyn Bowl Fest, our next event, and Sarah worries about what she will cook the next weekend- meatballs or chicken soup. By 6 the wind, subtly piercing in the eve’s wake, makes us draw close as we say goodbye until the next week.

More on Character

I hesitate to follow Cam's great post about character ed. but I thought I'd post a bit more about what we're doing here at CEP.

October is perhaps the busiest month of the year at CEP as we're gearing up for our huge National Forum on Character Education. I usually love organizing get-togethers and fun events but certainly had no idea just how much work it can be to put together a 3-4 day conference for 800+ people. We've all been super busy at the office, but it's a good sort of busy because we're actually accomplishing something. CEP's National Forum is the biggest of its kind in the country, and this year is actually our 17th Forum. Bullying is a major issue on everyone's radar these days, and character ed. is definitely part of the solution, so I'm excited to hear from all of our wonderful speakers at the Forum

This is also the first year that we're holding the Forum on the West Coast, in San Francisco to be exact. As exciting as this big move west is, the 3 hour time difference + shipping issues+ foreign territory have complicated our plans a bit. It definitely keeps us on our toes, but everyone's pitching in and helping out - 20 days to go!

My Work So Far

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's posts, both from DC and elsewhere! I wanted to give a basic little intro to where I work and what my organization does.

Well, it's been about two months since I started my fellowship at the Character Education Partnership (CEP), along with Farrell Harding '10 and Leif Johnson '10. We're located a few short blocks from the White House in downtown DC. CEP is a small education nonprofit that advocates for the character education movement. The name sounds descriptive enough to make the meaning self-evident, but I find that most people don't understand character education at first blush. "Is it about religion in our public schools?", a little voice asks the mind of the leftist. "Extreme political correctness?", whispers the mind of someone on the right. "Extremely useless because some kids can't even read and write?", chimes the mind of the data-driven reformer.

In fact, character ed is useful, vital, and neither religious nor leftist indoctrination. Character education simply means that teaching basic ethical values is at the heart of education. Respect, kindness, integrity, hard work..these are traits that are just as essential to the education of a child as the ability to read or do long division. The problem is that most schools have abrogated the responsibility to teach kids to be good people. Character ed doesn't mean an actual class on ethics and values-though some schools do incorporate them-but can simply be expressed in two words: high expectations.

A child doesn't have to be the brightest scholar to know that it's wrong to cheat, wrong to disrespect faculty, wrong to not give their best effort in class, wrong to bully. An aversion to these traits needs to be cultivated, and a proclivity for them needs to be actively dissuaded. Every child should graduate from elementary, middle, and high school with a strong academic foundation, and reforms toward that end are critically important. But over and above academics, schools need to stress character in all that they do so that students progress through adolescence and into adulthood with a strong ethical foundation. It's great when a school graduates students that are academically successful, but whether or not a student is bound for college or going straight into the workforce, they should at least know that basic values like integrity and respect serve you well in all that you do.

CEP basically tries to encourage schools to adopt character ed and actively stress important ethical values. In addition to raising awareness, we publish research and curricular resources, carry out professional development training, run a national awards certification program for schools with character ed, and hold a yearly conference.

That's the little character education treatise. With that introduction–a sort of macro view of what my fellowship is all about–I want to delve into day-to-day work activities as well as life in the city in later posts. Move from high-minded to the nitty-gritty, so to speak. To all of my fellow P55ers out there..best of luck with your work!

Cam Lloyd '09

Part IV: Using IIC to Support Hybrid Value Creation

As promised, the conclusion to my essay-come blog post…my blessay? Can I coin that? Anyway, here goes. Below are several examples of how various hypothetical companies in Chicago might leverage IIC dollars to fund innovation, through CSO partnerships and the exploration of Hybrid Value Chains. (warning: If you’ve read none of parts I-III, the following will be a bit of a non sequitur)...