Back to normal

Work at Echoing Green has been full to the brim lately. In period of three weeks, I traveled to conferences in East Lansing, MI, Madison, WI, and Tempe, AZ (along with non work related trips back to Princeton.) I think it’s taken me a while to adjust to NY because of all of the hopping around. It’s always interesting to travel and meet other people who are working in our space but in slightly different capacities. My boss and I, the two people at Echoing Green who work full time on the Work on Purpose program, have learned a lot about how to define our work and Work on Purpose’s goals through our conversations with other professionals from around the country. The travel was great, but definitely exhausting and now that we’re done with a batch of conferences, it’s nice to return to regular work hours and a more normal pace.

Because my program is new at Echoing Green, my job has developed and changed quite a bit in the past few months. When I started, my work was much more focused on the book, Work on Purpose, but since we have grown our offerings, my position has changed too. I now do more work preparing for our Work on Purpose workshops, I attend events as a representative of Echoing Green, and am able to take more ownership over projects.

In the past few weeks, we’ve been working intensively on the new website, which officially launched today! I’d really encourage you to check it out and make a profile. The site is all about creating an online space Millennials to build a community around building purposeful careers with social impact. Now that the site has finally launched (when I started, the tentative launch date was October) it’s going to be really interesting to see how people interact with it.

Outside of work, when I’m not catching up on sleep from our traveling, I’ve really taken advantage of the mild winter to walk around the city on the weekends. After growing up in the suburbs, it’s great to be in the city where everything is more or less accessible by walking or the subway.

Blended Learning

I continue to be fascinated by the research I’ve been doing these days on blended learning, or the blend of online learning with traditional classroom instruction. I’ve had research interviews with a number of experts and leading practitioners in the field, and I continue to be struck by how transformative it has the potential to be. One of the most valuable things about online learning is its ability to differentiate instruction to students, which is something that all teachers would love to do but often lack the time for. A common criticism of blended learning is that there’s still a lot of room for improvement in the quality of the online learning content. This isn’t surprising given how new the field is, and it’s a place where I think we’ll see a lot of people turning their attention as the field grows. One of the leading voices in the field is Innosight Institute, and their papers and blogs are very much worth the read for anyone who’s interested!

Happy Leap Day!

First things first, for the 30 Rock fans, remember: "It's Leap Day. Real life is for March!" (Which is fast approaching, but you still have time!)

Now an update about me and the Housing Development Fund:

Things have been busier than ever. Right now is the busiest I've been since I started working here. And it's awesome. I and a couple colleagues including our CEO are full-on immersed in the huge conference/summit on residential energy efficiency that we're running early next week, and we're also in full-on planning mode for our annual benefit in April. Being that we have very few staff members working on either or both of these events, there's a lot to do - from communicating with guests, to creating briefing books and programs, to handling issues with the caterer and venue, to meeting with our consultants from Booz Allen in NYC, etc etc. It's very exciting, and at this point, it's getting stressful (though it doesn't compare to being a Princeton student of course...).

About the conference/summit we're hosting next week: If you've ever participated in Model UN or Model Congress, it's actually going to be kind of like that - but for some really important people in government, in the civic sector, and in businesses that have to do with residential energy in Connecticut. The summit is a two-day simulation, where stakeholders from all 3 sectors play a type of wargame - assigned to teams, they have to negotiate with each other and develop strategies to solve energy issues/electric rates in Connecticut based on the goals of the roles they're playing. It's really exciting because it's so new (a simulation hasn't been done for this kind of issue before), and we've also got some big players that all have the real potential to move the needle on this issue even after the simulation is over.

Mostly, it'll be fun to see how they play the game. :)

Random: At the aquarium in Norwalk - so fun!!

The Show Must Go On

The way I have been feeling lately defies description, but I think that it must be closely related to the assessment made by two of my coworkers at the Carole Robertson Center: "You're tougher than you look. We thought you'd be long gone by now."

The rhythm of my life is this: I do my job, and I recover from doing my job. The lows are low and the highs are high. One such high came this past Thursday when a cast of seven actors from the youth program put on the play we'd been working on developing together since late October. Seeing the pride they took in the finished product, however imperfect, was an incredible experience.

I bought t-shirts on sale and used fabric paint to decorate them with the name of the play. When I handed them out to the cast there were a lot of questions. "You spent your own money on these?" "Can we keep these?" "I'm hanging this on my wall!"

Twenty minutes before the play started, one of the girls in it asked me, "What are we doing next?" She's ready for a project, and she's ready now. I laughed, and asked for the weekend to recover.

It's almost Spring!

Hi everyone,
Hopefully this will up the numbers for February! I suppose I find it a little hard to write these blogs because my life has not changed to significantly--I still enjoy my job and love living in New York--but I guess I can focus on the more mundane aspects of my life. Recently I had a bit of a panic attack because I was afraid I was going to lose my job. We had a staff meeting a couple weeks ago where we were told that our budget might be cut. This led to a anxiety attack on my part and I somewhat calmed myself down by figuring out exactly what I would do if such a situation arose (it wasn't a very sophisticated plan...mostly I would just move home). But, in the end, I found out that my position was a permanent part of the project and not in jeopardy (my payroll comes from elsewhere I guess) so, at least for now, I remain employed!
Also, I am so happy that the days are longer (no more running in the dark and being unnecessarily afraid of getting attacked in Central Park).
Until next time,
Stephanie

Spring!

The days are getting longer and the weather’s getting warmer – the winter is almost over! It’s been a mild season for New York, but I’m not a cold-weather person at all. I’m happy that I finally feel comfortable leaving my well-insulated room and exploring the city. The longer I live here, the more I realize that New York is vast – it truly takes a lifetime to explore everything that this place has to offer. I’m really looking forward to the free concerts and afternoons in the park that will definitely come along with the onset in warm weather.

I can’t get too far ahead of myself, though. Before spring truly arrives, I have tons of work to finish here at the New Heights office – from writing grant applications and securing new funders to producing tons of new marketing material for the spring and summer. The entire office is gearing up for MADNESS, our annual fundraising event and NCAA tournament party, so I’m certain that there will be no shortage of event planning work for me in the upcoming weeks. At times like this, the office is pretty hectic, but also incredibly upbeat. We’re all aware that we are a team and that our nonprofit’s success depends on everyone doing their share – everyone is always eager to help one another out, which is something that I really appreciate.

Hope everyone is enjoying their February as much as I am!

MCAS and, of course, February Break

It's winter in Boston and MCAS testing is approaching- the Super Bowl for charter schools, the big Massachusetts standardized test. The test is especially important for charter schools, because that is how they (and the state) gauge their success. So, with the first MCAS test less than a month away, it's crunch-time at the Community Day Charter Public School to get the children ready. We have been doing benchmark tests, much like mock-MCAS, to get a sense of where they stand and formulate individualized interventions in the areas where each students needs help. It is a lot of work, but right in the middle came one of the biggest perks of teaching- February break. I had all of last week off, and took full advantage by getting out of Boston and heading down to visit my sister who is living in Belize. I had an amazing time, and now I am back and definitely refreshed. Now it's time to gear up for MCAS. It has been rewarding seeing the students I work with in small groups do progressively better on the benchmark testing, and with a little work I hope they'll all be able to exceed their MCAS goals. Both students and teachers have been working hard all year, so it's an exciting time to be here at CDCPS.

Happy February!

The farmstand overfloweth with potatoes this time of year. In celebration of this now-abundant crop (and in anticipation of my future job with the International Center for the Potato in Lima, Peru), a delicious recipe from Yottam Ottolenghi's amazing vegetarian cookbook, Plenty. Enjoy!

1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
8 cardamom pods
½ tsp cloves
½ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 large shallots (about 150g each)
½ tsp brown mustard seeds
½ tsp fenugreek
25 curry leaves
2 tbsp chopped ginger
1 red chilli, finely chopped
3 ripe tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
50ml cider vinegar
400ml water
1 tbsp caster sugar
Salt
400g (net weight) waxy potato, peeled and cut into 2.5cm dice
2 small red peppers, cored and cut into 2cm dice
400g (net weight) sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2.5cm dice
Mint or coriander leaves, to serve

Dry-roast the cumin, coriander and cardamom in a small frying pan until they begin to pop. Transfer to a mortar, add the cloves and work with a pestle to a fine powder, discarding the cardamom skins once the seeds are released. Add the turmeric, paprika and cinnamon, and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based pot. Add the shallots, mustard seeds and fenugreek, and sauté on high heat for eight minutes, or until the shallots brown. Stir in the curry leaves, ginger, chilli and ground spices, and cook for another three minutes.

Add the tomatoes, vinegar, water, sugar and some salt, bring to a boil and leave to simmer, covered, for 20 minutes. Add the potatoes and peppers, and simmer for another 20 minutes. Now add the sweet potatoes, make sure all the vegetables are just immersed in the sauce (add more water if needed) and continue cooking, covered, for about 40 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Remove the lid and leave to bubble away for about 10 minutes, to reduce and thicken the sauce.

Serve hot with plain rice and garnished with the herb leaves.

Thoughts on Networking

I have a confession to make: before I started my fellowship, I was pretty skeptical about the concept of networking.  Despite the fact that numerous successful people in my life--from my parents to AlumniCorps staff--had emphasized how important networking can be, I wasn't convinced.  To me, networking seemed like a mix between sucking up and begging, and I wasn't comfortable with the idea of building connections with people based upon the hope that they might employ me at some point in the future. 

However, I have another confession to make: I was wrong.  I have seen the light.  Networking is a huge part of being an out-of-college adult.  It's so important to develop connections with people because life after college in the nation's capital is not the same as life on Princeton's campus.  I don't run into my thesis advisor in the gym or my friends around campus anymore.  I no longer receive a billion emails a day from campus groups, nor do I attend classes with others who share my interests.  Instead, I meet people at happy hours, Princeton Club of Washington events, Project 55 seminars, or other organized, often one-time activities.  If I don't work to build and maintain relationships with the people I meet, they will most likely forget about me.  So, in that sense, networking is practical. 

But I've also come to see networking as much more than a practical way to stay in touch with people.  I think one could fairly call networking a PG version of being friends with benefits.  It's not just a process of sucking up to people--it's building relationships with people who share your own interests.  Being connected to people who share your passion and can support your pursuits, goals, and dreams is so crucial!  Networking is so much more than just looking for a job: it's surrounding yourself with people who care about what you care about and are interested in working toward similar goals. 

My thoughts about networking were confirmed at this morning's monthly Project 55 seminar.  We went to the Department of Justice(!) for a panel discussion on "Public Service and the Environment." We heard from a panel of accomplished public servants: Elizabeth Prescott, Georgetown University; Jeffrey Prieto, US Department of Justice, Environment Division; Robert Winterbottom, World Resources Institute; and Justin Smith, US Department of Justice, Environment Division.  They had all been in fellowships at some point in time and noted that these were life- and career-altering experiences.  Why?  Largely because of the people they met and were able to befriend--people who shaped their careers and inspired them.  That sounds pretty great, don't you think? 

Wintry (Arts) Mix

As I walk the city streets, I sense the choreographic patterns of taxis, traffic, and passersby. When I steal a peek at patrons lit up by the blue lights in a hip café, I am reminded of At the Moulin Rouge by Toulouse-Lautrec, or conversely, the sight of isolated patrons in a fluorescent-lit pizza joint calls Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks to my mind. Snippets of overheard conversations become the captions to my imagined and recombined snapshots of city life. The arts have shaped how I see and experience the world. As an arts practitioner, advocate, and historian at Princeton, I wanted to find a post-graduation opportunity that allowed me to pursue a range of my arts interests. The past few winter months have been rich with the arts experiences that I hope to fill my life and career with.

Alongside my fellowship position at Education Through Music, I also work with a former Princeton dance professor of mine on various projects. Most notably, I work with her on securing rights and permission from various artists (dancers, musicians, photographers, videographers, composers, etc.) whose work appears in a short documentary film. This includes regular correspondence with these international artists, their managers, artistic directors of dance companies, and former curators of dance festivals. We tailor legal release forms to each of these groups to ensure that their work is properly credited in the film. Additionally, I have helped draft and edit press releases and invitations for a recent art show by her husband who is an active painter.

At the same time, this side project leads me back into the world of education. I have helped my former professor organize a current course on World Dance for undergraduates at NYU, including outlining the syllabus, gathering articles by anthropologists and dance critics, and discussing possible paper topics and questions for class discussions. As a dancer, choreographer, and educator, my professor has a sensitive and unique articulation for the intricacies of cross-cultural dance and the arts.

Outside of the PP55 community, I have found this professor to be another invaluable and inspiring mentor who has opened up my eyes to the wide possibilities of arts engagement, and I am extremely grateful. Nearly every time I walk to the subway after one of our sessions, I am refreshed with the thought of potential for where my own life in the arts may go.

Finally, I also recently performed with Ensemble Dance in the CoolNY 2012 Dance Festival in a piece choreographed by Pilar Casto Kiltz ’10 with music by Max Mamon ’10 and poetry by Professor Paul Muldoon. The piece, “First Wayside,” will be further developed and performed later this spring at a works-in-progress showcase.

Looking forward to spring in the city!

Project 55: The Wall Street Alternative

Ari Altman, the chair of the AlumniCorps DC Area Commitee, recently brought to our attention a Washington Post article (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/wall-street-steps-in-when-ivy-league-fails/2012/02/16/gIQAX2weIR_story_1.html) that really resonated with me. According to this article, 35.9% of students graduating from Princeton with jobs in 2010 when into finance, as opposed to 17% at Harvard and 14% at Yale. The number didn't really surprise me--I expected it to be high. What I found to be intriguing was the author's theory behind why such a large percentage of Ivy League graduates end up on Wall Street. Of course, some go for the high salaries; some go for the social prestige; some go because they are actually interested in finance. But many end up going because, after three years of studying English literature, or philosophy, or history, they don't really have a clear direction in which they want to go, and when Bain and Goldman roll onto campus senior fall offering a secure, relatively short term position in which they can develop more marketable skills than their liberal arts background afforded them, it's very hard to explore beyond to potentially more rewarding career paths.

The author interpreted this phenomenon to mean that our Ivy League educations are not giving us enough opportunities to develop the skills that a pre-professional major offers. I would agree with Ari's alternative interpretation: namely, that Ivy League institutions are in need of more programs like Project 55. Certainly, we may not be making six figures, but we are, like the finance and consulting crowd, employed in major cities that attract lots of recent college grads. We are granted a short-term position in which we have time to figure out our strengths and weaknesses, our likes and dislikes, our interests and disinterests in the work environment. We are given numerous valuable opportunities for professional development. For instance, in the last week alone I received a private tour and attended the filming of PBS News Hour with the other DC fellows (thanks to the generosity of Kate McCleery '75), and I collaborated with one of CEP's Board members (the former executive VP at a giant private foundation who earned his doctorate in moral education from Harvard) to conduct an environmental scan of CEP's competition and give a presentation to the staff on our findings. I feel like it was a challenging and intellectually stimulating week, one in which I honed my public speaking and presenting skills, learned how to more smoothly navigate the sometimes murky waters of working with a new superior, and was exposed to a new and interesting career path. In other words, I am developing the much-needed professional skills that others go into finance to obtain, while doing something I am passionate about, and without the long hours. All in all, I think it's a pretty incredible deal!

Sunlight!

Today is the first day in a while that the sun has come out in Chicago.

After 4 years of relatively temperate winters at Princeton, I got used to just wearing a light jacket in February. But Chicago's weather is of an entirely different magnitude.*

Apparently this has been an easy winter but I have a hard time imagining what a difficult winter would look like...

One of my mentors, Peter Freeman, gave me some great advice for surviving the winter: Get out! Never one to pass up the wisdom of my elders, I'll be traveling to California to visit some friends in early March, the perfect way to get over S.A.D.


* It should be noted that I hate cold weather and that there are plenty of people who don't mind the weather here at all.

I work on Saturdays and I kinda really like it...

The first 6 weeks of 2012 have been BUMPIN here at Achievement Prep.  As I said in my last post, we're now in the thick of our recruiting season for new students for the 2012-2013.  We worked with an outside company to develop an online application this year (it's always been paper in the past) and the applications are flowing in!  It's my job to reach out to these families to schedule tours of the building so that they can see classes in action and ask questions about the school.  I've been giving tours in tandem with our new Families and Community Coordinator (who actually was FCC last year and returned after Winter Break) but yesterday I had to suddenly give my first tour flying solo.  I was literally terrified, even though I know tons of information about APA and can probably answer every question a parent might have or easily snag someone in the hallways who does, but I just felt super super nervous, knowing that a prospective parent's opinion and perspective of the school could be so heavily shaped by my tour.  But actually, it went really really well and the mom liked the school a lot.  And then I gave another tour by myself today and it went even better, so I'm feeling really good about that.  I've got eight more tours scheduled through the end of next week and a lot more parents to follow up with.  (I hate phone tag.)  What an exciting time!

Additionally, I spent a big chunk of last week working on a grant proposal that is due on Friday.  Right now, the head of school is looking it over and then is going to send it back to me for final copy editing.  It was actually really stressful and I kind of had thesis flashbacks, but I felt so good after I submitted what I had written to her, and she said it was good!  So I'm happy.

And of course, dear reader, you must be dying to know why on EARTH I am working on Saturdays.  In addition to our long school day and long school year at Achievement Prep, we also run sessions of Saturday Academy (9am - 12pm, two 1.5 hour classes) for "cuspers," students who just need a little extra push on a certain subject to achieve solid proficiency.  The Director of Academic Achievement needed someone to teach 6th and 7th grade reading & writing on Saturdays for the next 8 weeks (now only 6 left) and I agreed.  I've taught lessons in my art class and done small group tutoring but I've never really taught a class before, and it's really exciting that I get to be a classroom teacher for some of the time and then do all this behind the scenes administrative stuff with the External Affairs office.  Last Saturday I subbed for 4th grade math (money word problems), but it's back to ELA next Saturday.  I'm looking forward to it.  It's actually nice to get up early on a Saturday and then have the rest of the day after 12:30pm  free to do whatever.  If I wasn't doing Saturday Academy I'd probably sleep past 12:30pm anyway.

I really am incredibly thankful that my job has given me so much flexibility and opportunities to be creative and try new things.  PP55 is awesome!  And good luck to everyone who has interviews coming up for next year's crop of fellows.  What an exciting time!

Also, sidenote:  I really really love DC.  I love the size, I love the way the buildings are so short but wide, it makes me think of Paris.  It's so much more open and clean than NYC.  I love all the museums, all the culture and history and the way that I have totally mastered the grid (NW, NE, SW, SE).  I love that Arlington, where I live, is so nice, but it's so easy to get into the city.  I always was SURE I would end up in NYC but right now I can't picture myself anywhere but here.

Using Social Media for Social Change

Tonight’s PP55 Fellows seminar focused on using social media as a means for social change. Hosted by Philly Net Squared, the evening focused on identifying the right social media strategies to use depending on the aims of your non-profit or social justice project. There were several small discussion groups that focused on a series of wide-ranging issues. I sat in on discussion groups that addressed tools such as Hootsuite to handle various social media platforms; legal issues associated with adopting social media applications; and a discussion group on web and media strategies to maximize your organization’s reach.

The seminar was described as a “mini-unconference.” I really enjoyed the interactive format and I found the evening to be engaging and educational. It definitely provided me with some new techniques on effectively using and understanding social media that I hope to utilize in the future.

Investigative food for thought

It is almost always interesting to read scholarship of some kind that connects to whatever project you're working on.

With this in mind, I enjoyed this recent New Yorker piece. It provides a good journalistic backdrop to the work that I and others are doing at CASES.

Here are some selected quotations that especially resonated.

• "What prisoners try to convey to the free is how the presence of time as something being done to you, instead of something you do things with, alters the mind at every moment."
  
• "For a great many poor people in America, particularly poor black men, prison is a destination that braids through an ordinary life, much as high school and college do for rich white ones."
  
• "The more professionalized and procedural a system is, the more insulated we become from its real effects on real people."
  
• "This is a general human truth: things that work interest us less than things that don’t."
  
• "Instead, small acts of social engineering, designed simply to stop crimes from happening, helped stop crime."
  
• "In truth, criminal activity seems like most other human choices—a question of contingent occasions and opportunity."
• "What matters is the incidence of crime in the world, and the continuity of a culture of crime, not some “lesson learned” in prison."
  
• "There was no miracle cure, just the intercession of a thousand smaller sanities."
  

Spurred by reading this piece, I've moved on to start this book.