Toy Drive!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at Angelwish. December means crunch time as we work to organize, publicize, and manage our holiday toy drive programs. Without the generosity of our Angelwish donors, many of the chronically ill children we serve would not receive any presents this holiday season as their parents continue to struggle to pay for their medical bills and make ends meet in this difficult economy. We are therefore working as hard as we can to reach out to as many potential donors as possible.

On that note, I am very excited to announce that the Class of 2011 officers have decided to partner with Angelwish for a holiday service opportunity. All '11ers will be receiving an email in the next day or so detailing the program, but if you want to get a head start looking through the Wishlists of our partner care centers (or aren't a member of our class) you can visit our personalized page at princeton11.angelwish.org Even if you can't donate at this time, scrolling through the toy lists is actually a great mini-break from work...

These online donation pages are a modern twist on the traditional toy drive, and we work closely with hospital social workers nationwide to make sure the items on each Wishlist fit the needs of their patient populations. Best of all, 100% of your donation will go directly toward purchasing the gift - the little bit of overhead there is has been taken care of by corporate contributions.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Dread Knots and Shifting Desire

This fellowship year has provided me the unique privilege reflect on the types of change I'd like to see in the world. Whether through attending the PolicyLink Equity Summit in Detroit in early November or exclusive Princeton sponsored networking events, I've met a vast array of people who are offering interesting solutions to very real challenges.

I've struggled, however, with the question of whether these privileges and opportunities actually work to eradicate the types of structural inequalities I'm working against, or simply reify them.

One of my job responsibilities is to help teach people of color from Chicago's West Side how to navigate corporate - and often white - work environments. While I'm offering a real service to people who otherwise might be passed over, I often feel as if I'm normalizing the clients to the white supremacist patriarchy. For example, many clients come to class with hair styles which are quite common in North Lawndale such as dreads, afro's or braids on men. All of those hairstyles, however, prove to be barriers to employment. So we typically advise people to cut their hair in a way that white people will find less threatening.

But I feel my time would be better spent educating prejudiced employers that every black man with dreads is not Lil Wayne. Instead, when I meet people of power and privilege I have to perform an exaggerated congeniality to ensure that they don't find me (a lilliputian, Princeton educated man of color) threatening.

Oscillating between the militarized ghetto's of Chicago's West Side and garden parties in Lakeview is such a thoroughly disorienting experience that I struggle to imagine what a meaningful engagement between the two worlds might look like.

Ten Commandments of the Bronx County Hall of Justice

1. Thou must pull up, and keep up, thy Trousers.
2. If a Youth, thou art Advised to bring thy Mother.
3. If thou seeketh thy Attorney, thou must approach every individual dressed in business attire.
4. Thou must place thy cell phone on "vibrate", lest thy Lil' Wayne Ringtone disturb the Sanctum Legis.
5. Speaking of the Sanctum Legis, thou must leave the crying Baby outside. 
6. Thou must refrain from wearing the shirt commonly known as a "Wife Beater". Put another way, thou must not show thy Biceps.
7. Thou must not curse off thy judge, lest thou be Remanded.
8. If thou art asked to Allocute, thusly admitting thy commission of a Crime, it is advised for thou to remember the specifics of thy Crime, and not resort to Vagueries.
9. Thou must Show Up.
10. Thou must Wait.

Networking Made Easy

I have always been a little wary of the concept of "networking." To me, the line between this so-called "networking" and the much less euphemistic "sucking up in order to move further along in your career" seemed to be dangerously blurry and perhaps non-existent. I told myself that I would very much prefer to advance on my own personal merit rather than on my ability to schmooze. Today, however, I learned that the dreaded and slightly disdained world of networking is not actually as tainted as I initially believed it to be. In fact, in the Project 55 world, networking is as simple as showing up to social events planned for you and talking with twenty+ successful Princeton alums who are there for the sole purpose of meeting you and helping you on your way.

That pretty much sums up my experience with networking through Project 55. Earlier this month, AlumniCorps held a special Project 55 gathering for current and past fellows, volunteers, and Board members. I was able to meet and talk with many of the people there and happened to take the metro back to Maryland with one past fellow (Princeton '08) who now works at the Kennedy Krieger Institute (a premier center for kids with developmental disabilities/neurological disorders). She was thrilled to hear that I was interested in child health and development and immediately gave me her card and encouraged me to get in touch with her if I had any questions. I just had dinner with her tonight, and I learned so much about how she got to where she is and the different paths I can pursue. I was so impressed by how quickly she has advanced in just a couple years since graduation, and by her willingness to help me--she even told me to send her my resume so she could forward it on to various people in the field, should Project 55 not work out for me next year! All of this from a quick 15 minute conversation on the way home from a cocktail party--it seems like networking can actually be a pretty painless experience, with minimal schmoozing required!

As for my work at CEP, it looks like big changes are in store for me over the next couple of months. Both my supervisors with whom I have been working closely since the beginning of my fellowship will be retiring/leaving for a new position by the end of the calendar year. It will definitely be interesting to see how the lack of supervision will affect my position--I'm sure I'll have more to report on that in my next blog post!

Importance of the "Unimportant"

Last Tuesday we held our “International Feast,” NYCCD’s version of Thanksgiving. The event took a lot of preparation and to be honest, as I microwaved 300 chicken nuggets, I wondered if it was worth our while. But as everyone arrived for the feast I became sure that it was. Many parents at our school live in rough conditions, work two jobs, and have young babies. It is often difficult, therefore, to get in touch with them and even harder to get them to come to the school. Yet in spite of all this, more than half of the parents filed in that day. Most proudly carried a contribution, a tray of food from their culture ranging from Moroccan couscous to Chinese chicken dumplings. As the children sang festive songs and everyone feasted on the International assortment, I thought about how important the seemingly unimportant is. We spend a lot of time here organizing parties, toy drives, etc., but I now believe this is almost as important as the time we spend orchestrating speech and physical therapy. Making the families feel some allegiance to NYCCD and excitement about their children’s progress is incredibly valuable.

Homecoming x 2

While I did not make it back to Princeton for Homecoming weekend, I was fortunate enough to be home for Thanksgiving last week. During college, it was often difficult for me to travel all the way to California (and back again) over such a short break. This year, I was so grateful to take off for a few days and spend time with my family whom I have not seen in 6(!) months. Vacation time is definitely one of the perks of “life after Princeton.”

Despite battling the busy airports, nearly missing one of my flights, and spending two hours wondering if my checked bag had made it onto the plane, it dawned on me that my return to New York City really was also a second homecoming. Over the past half-year, I truly have settled into my new city. (A former dance professor of mine noted how much more “at ease” I seemed in my body; I certainly trust her reading of body language.)

The first day back to work was a busy day at the Education Through Music office. This time of year is the beginning of the holiday giving season and, as such, we are preparing to send out over 1,000 appeal letters seeking support for our music programs. This is quite a task in organization (and patience) but I know the fruits of our labor will be worth it. From the ETM program staff and music teachers, I have been hearing about the repertoire that each school is preparing for the upcoming holiday concerts. From the handbells to hand-choreography, each one sounds like it is going to be so much fun, not only for the students, but for all the teachers and parents in attendance. I can’t wait to attend and see these kids perform in the first big concert of the year!

Complete Creative Control!

I am endlessly amazed at the variety of different tasks that fall onto my plate here at Achievement Prep.  I will admit that not all of them are intellectually challenging, but those that aren’t still require creative thought and approaching problems from several different angles.  And I most certainly get to be way more creative at this job than I would at a different office job.

Case in point, my most recent “baby,” our High School Placement Bulletin Board.  The task:  create a board that showcases our eighth graders, what high schools they are applying to and what their favorite schools are.  Creative control: complete.  (These sorts of tasks are great for me because I love being totally in control of the execution of my own artistic vision.)  And wow, did I have to be resourceful and make letters out of other letters for the banner because we didn't have enough.  Darn straight those h's are made out of m's and l's.

My list of other tasks in recent days have included:

• Behavioral data tracking for the whole school
• Organizing game bins for use during indoor recess (I LOVE ORGANIZING)
• Online research for potential APA merchandise
• Data entry for updated DC Health and Oral Exams for our scholars
• Data entry to our online disciplinary database
• Updating the school library with loads of new books
• Assisting our Office Coordinator who broke her foot!
• Teaching Art Club
• Helping my supervisor plan, prepare, and execute last week’s Family Night

Today, the teachers are upstairs working with data from our most recent Achievement Network assessment.  I’m down at my desk brainstorming ways to increase attendance at our Family Night Events (last week we had Family Health and Wellness Night, which was awesome!) and trying to decide upon best practices to get the staff and scholars involved at future events.  But as you can see from my list above, I am the go-to person for getting random stuff done that needs to be done.  It’s great to feel that my coworkers know that I am dependable and responsible and always ready to lend a hand!

p.s.  Shout out to Schuyler, fellow DC P55 Fellow working in Education, for telling me about Young Education Professionals DC (YEP-DC) which is a group that organizes events and has a great list serv with lots of event announcements and job postings, all having to do with education in DC.  Anyone who is interested can check out their website here: http://www.yepdc.org/  and join their Google or LinkedIn Group here:  http://www.yepdc.org/join.html

p.p.s.  Related:  for any prospective P55 applications who want to work in education – DC is the place to be!