A very real an tangible way...

The past three weeks of the NUF experience have been entirely different than any other point in the past year. We returned to New York the last week of May, and for me, there was the added difficulty of being injured. Complications between the insurance company and my orthopedist's office impeded the process of my recovery, but after finally getting everyone to talk to each other (it only took two weeks to get an MRI done) the actual process of discerning the difficulty took far too long (the results of my MRI didn't arrive to the doctor's office until several days after the scan was taken) all of which left me dealing with a level of pain that, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would assess at 20.5. Fortunately, the day that the scans showed up at my doctor's office, I was also able to get in to see him, and to his credit, he prescribed the best option (an anti-inflammatory medication) which reduced the swelling of the disc and allowed it to move off the nerve, relieving a great deal of the pain.

Fortunately, classes started after I started taking the medication, and had already started on the way back towards being whole. The outlink for this post is to the organization run by one of my professors for this semester, and it is to him that I credit the title. We were having quite an in depth conversation regarding the Human Resources frame in an organization, and how the language in memos, though the requester of a feedback memo might be asking for valuable feedback, might not land just right when it reaches their ear once they've actually begun to read said memo. Truer words were ne'er spake, and as I frequently communicate to the class of 2012; you can redo a budget, you can ask for another strategic plan, you can even reshuffle the organizational chart, but you cannot, cannot, cannot pull back a message.  Especially if it's on the internet. There's a leadership lesson to be learned here.

The past three weeks have been a complete test of endurance: 12 graduate credit hours in 6 weeks, several days out of the week where we are in class for a total of about 9 hrs a day, trying to squeeze in a few workouts in between piles of reading, writing effective papers, statistical analysis, and economic theorizing. As I commented to one of my classmates this morning, I feel as if one of the widely destructive tornadoes that blew through the South last month continues to rage unrelentingly throughout my cranium. So far, we've received back our Stats and Econ midterms, and papers from each of the classes where we need to submit them. Everyone has a clear idea of where they're standing, and is feeling incredibly worn and as if their reserves of motivation are running a bit low. We all do our best to keep each other up, but it's like the last mile of the marathon, where you feel your body on fire, and there's still a climb to the crest of a hill to cross the finish line...

In the midst of all the coursework is the need to find my way into a new position, something which - to quote a classmate, - is renting a lot of space in my head. But, several opportunities are beginning to show up, and I'm confident that something will solidify shortly.

However, these past few weeks have not been devoid of fun, and I'll have to follow up this post with a write up of the scavenger hunt that I designed and led, a couple weeks ago for the incoming cohort of NUFfies. As always, I intend to leave you with a bit of music, but of a different sort: One of the most amazing things in NYC is a program called 'Music Under New York' where the MTA actually pays artists to perform in the subway stations, turning the entire affair into a form of public art (see also Jerry Mitchell). To that end, the video below was one such artist that really reminded me of the spirit of New York the first weekend after I was back in class:

Media Strategy

This week has been full of unexpected surprises. For example, what started as a minor twinge in my back Tuesday night ended up being a slipped disc Wednesday morning, and that has peppered my experience throughout, up through today. To be sure, the symposium which I'd signed up for on Wednesday was a difficult experience to sit through because the very act of sitting caused me so much discomfort that I'm not entirely sure how, exactly, I was able to accomplish it for hours at a stretch. In contrast, having been to this event, I've managed to make a few new contacts, and find out more information about potential places and positions towards which I can focus my efforts. Also, it's been raining in the capitol region for the past several days, which pleases me greatly since it keeps the heat and mosquito population down, and makes the experience a bit more bearable.

The Dialogue on Diversity is a series of day-long symposia focused on different topics, and this one was specifically tailored for the purpose of discussing health disparities in the minority and immigrant communities in the United States.  One of the main presenters with possibly the greatest number of representatives from its myriad offices and subdivisions was the Federal government's Department of Health and Human Services. Specific sections spoke on topics that ranged from obesity - one study claims that every child born in the US in 2000 will in some way be affected by obesity, unless, that is, we make some changes in our diet and practices, - Food Insecurity - one representative spoke on the evolution of Food Stamps into the Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, and it's potential for wider impact in minority communities that are in need, - the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (which, it so happens, is the purpose for the title of this post,) and quite a few others, including National Minority AIDS Council, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Council of La Raza, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and several others who made clear several crucial health concerns for the future of our communities.

One of the most salient messages from everyone's presentation was the fact that information needs to be more available, more accessible, and more clear for the general public, especially those who stand to benefit from the broadest range of programs. For example, Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius put together a video commemorating the first anniversary of the Affordable Care Act.

This is fantastic, but many more people need to be drawn to the site, and made aware of the fact that Healthcare.gov is a central information warehouse where they can make comparisons between healthcare plans, search for providers, understand the law, and find contact information for DHHS personnel. Also, there is the potential for several of these organizations to partner together for the purpose of realizing their communications outreach goals, and bringing their message to their target audience. I'm hoping I can help in that endeavor in several ways, this particular blog piece being one of them. 

But that was just Wednesday...

Friday, I presented a Social Media 101 workshop for the Altrusa District 2 conference, and it went over fabulously. Altrusa International, from their website, is "...an organization of professional women and men who volunteer our energies and expertise in projects dedicated to community betterment. We are also a community service organization that espouses volunteerism, service and fights for literacy and against AIDS." They are presently in the midst of a rebranding campaign, looking to increase their membership, and in truth, having heard some of the fantastic stories that this organization has been capable of achieving, they ought to attract a very wide audience. I would personally like to see the organization draw in a much larger crowd, committed, as I am, to the public service, hence the current objective in educational attainment.

I'm always pleased by how much people change their minds in an hour's worth of presentation and a few short demonstrations. Nearly the entire room went from eschewing the concept of even getting involved in any sort of social media interactions, to questioning excitedly what are the next steps. Once they realized that you could use these newfound super powers for good instead of evil "Can we set up a Facebook page for a Community Activity?" Absolutely, go and check out the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park.) "What if I don't want to have a blog where I tell the world every last detail about my life?" That's not necessary. You have complete control over the content of your blog (and for a great example, read mine! Or, go and see the Bronx News Network) Also, don't confuse your LinkedIn with your Facebook page PLEASE!!! I was asked several times if I was available for strategy sessions (yes,) and if I had a consultation fee (also yes,) but noone seemed to flinch at that idea. Many business cards were exchanged, and I feel fairly certain that I might soon be needing a secretary. I kind of like this sort of adventure, truth be told, I'm getting to utilize my technological, educational, and business acumen, and manage my own schedule. I could see myself falling easily into this pattern. Stay tuned and we'll see how this goes. If you find yourself needing to work on such a project, find me on my LinkedIn, through Facebook, or leave a comment here.

Ya sé como convertirme en viento

Esas palabras de 'El Alquimista' me siguen de lugar en lugar. Varios hechos últitmamente me hicieron recordarlas. En fin, me he convertido en el mero imagen de lo que nunca pensaba que iba a ser: el analista estadistico y presupuestario, no muy diferente del Santomé—protagonista de Benedetti,—aunque no me haya acordado a ninguna tregua conmigo mismo todavía. Es una cosa bastante desconcertante para un lingüista, de repente contar con tanta destreza matemática, pero no hay que complicar la felicidad. Falta un més para regresarme a casa, a Nueva York, digo, la casa en el Bronx ya no me queda abierto. Sin embargo, me encantaría regresar al lugar, o quizás un lugar cerca del mismo.

Today is Saturday, and it's an odd feeling. I finished, printed, bound, and packaged my capstone this past Thursday. I could have actually put it in the mail then, but I just didn't move fast enough to get out of the office on time, so it went into the mail yesterday (Friday). The required postmark date for the final draft is this coming Monday. There is only one other classmate of whom I am aware with enough forethought and planning to have completed the project at the same time, and she is to be commended. Every other classmate I've spoken with is steadily chipping away at the final version as I write this, or has already pleaded for an extension already cognizant of the fact that they won't be capable of making the deadline. I mention this because this blog, our cohort's studies, and even the entire point of this accelerated course is to train "leaders." Leaders prove themselves in the heat of battle, under the pressures of actually being in the lead, they manage their time well, know how to access the right resources at the right time, know who to call if they don't have the answer to a problem, and so forth. 

Leadership, in contrast, is not endemic to those with a haughty attitude, a practice of unprecedented self ascription of power, the inability to speak softly and wield a big intellect, or any of the myriad personality malaises which I've witnessed in excess along this very uneven and incredibly difficult trajectory. Of course, there are several people in my current experience that do not fit the disparaging commentary above. In point of fact, I can think of several. But I am distressed and disappointed by those that do. I feel sincerely that a poor choice was made in many cases, and that these individuals, in truth, do not belong in the position of access to power.

In reality, the whole purpose of this post was to announce that I had managed, much as I did with every other version, data set, or significant piece required by the professors, to turn in the final draft early. By all counts, mine arrived the date it was due, hard copy, through the mail, and an extra one sent to the folks so they can have it on their shelf. I had to maintain a personal standard, you see, though that has caused several of my cohort members great consternation. But, I can tell you, given that the chips were down, who I would rather have on my team.

Mentor for a morning

Last Thursday I took a personal day and went up to New York City for the Mentor for a Morning event at Baruch College. I'd been anticipating this for some weeks, it was an opportunity to meet with several people with whom I would not otherwise have interacted, or, more specifically, had the opportunity to interact. Really, I dislike doing 24 hr turnarounds in NYC; I don't get to see my family as much as I'd like, I completely miss out on the opportunity to see my friends, and it feels as if there's something waiting for me on the other side of the mirror (if anyone understands the pre-Colombian mythology reference.) Officially, we are down to less than two months away from the termination of our mentorships, and it feels like I could seriously use a vacation. I told several people during my trip that they shouldn't be surprised if I suddenly turned into Ghost Rider and my head burst into flames spontaneously. 

Talking with the mentors, I've found out several things: 1) my resume seems to be needing a bit of tweaking if I'm going to anxiously pursue a communications position. 2) As one mentor mentioned - 'There's a lot of gold here.' I am often - despite any outward appearances - unsure of whether or not that's actually true, so it was good to hear it reinforced. 3) Two different mentors suggested that I take the time to attend whatever free events I could get myself into related to the agencies with which I'm interested in working. Interestingly, both also suggested the idea of sending introductory letters, and how to format them - something I always forget to consider entirely. So, in between completing the last two assignments for the semester, gingerly escorting my capstone through a wordsmithing forge, and preparing my taxes this week, I'm going to be carefully tooling a letter of introduction to several places, to be followed up perhaps around the beginning of Summer II with official cover letters and resumes. In the interim, resumes, cover letters, applications to Federal and Municipal agencies, and some serious networking has been going on, all with the objective of being able to step lively from the stage for graduation into a desirable position.

The way back and forth from NYC, however, was incredibly adventurous to say the least. On the way up, I met an Audio/Video producer who does some fairly high level work I was fortunate enough to hear about but won't repeat here. We managed to get along swimmingly, and the best part is, one of my closest friends from years and years agone is also an A/V specialist and in need of something to do. Taking care of my friends, cuz it's all about your network. The way back, however, was not so pleasant, as it took six hours plus to complete a four hour trip, something about the air inside the bus completely unsettled my stomach, and I was unable to complete anything remotely resembling 'work,' even blogging. Once safely returned to the District of Columbia, it was still an hour plus to get home since we returned at an hour when the bus/train connections slow down and are entirely disjointed. The remainder of the weekend was mostly unproductive, I'm only up to about 5 pages with the final assignment for Management II (we have an 8 pg limit. Who puts page limits on these things? Ugh,) and still have to knock out 600 words for the last Leadership class assignment, but I'm not concerned about those getting done by the end of the day tomorrow. It's the whole taxes thing that's got me worried.

While I was in NYC, since Friday was a furlough day, I made the decision to stay an extra night so I could wake up and have breakfast with my dad, who I don't get to see or interact with enough while I'm here, and spend some time with one of my close friends from the city Thursday night. He's one of the integral members of a small collective I've affectionately termed Team Green, but it is to him and the rest in that collective that Joe Cocker is dedicated:

Jeff, her son...

As promised, I'm adding a few shots from my trip to the Jefferson library, and a couple more from mid-March that show Spring waging a relentless battle to peak through the gloominess of an extended winter (although I really like Winter, Virginia winters are completely unlike the frolicking, hot chocolate necessitating, snow-flaky, snow ball throwing fun fests that are winters in New York. Here, they are just an unending series of broad, immeasurable expanses of gray clouds, unpredictable temperatures, and wind. And noone seems capable of enjoying the experience. Almost to a person I've heard a ceaseless string of complaints since the month of November from neighbors, co-workers, people I've seen at the store. Luckily for the past couple weeks we've been having temperatures trending towards a more spring-like atmosphere. As 4everJung noted in one of her social media posts: "Bring it!"

And now, some photos -

The stairwell to the second floor

Detail of one of the corner elements surrounding the ceiling glass

The ceiling inside of the entryway to Jefferson's personal collection

Stained glass in the ceiling of the main entryway

Detail of the archway over the exterior door

The 6 panels of stained glass in the ceiling

Close up of one of the stained glass panels

Exterior of the library from street level. Notice the Neptune
fountain in the foreground

The Capital building, at dusk. 

A panorama shot of the library's exterior, from street level

A few blossoms along the street leading to my block

Dogwoods, same street.

I don't know the name of these.
But they were pretty

A string of cherry blossoms. Not exactly the
National Mall, but fairly impressive.

A superb effort.

The creation of myth

 Last night, on my way home from the office, my brain buzzing from sifting through a regulation on procurement, I saw a backlit advertisement in the DC Metro proclaiming a display of Gaugin’s famous works at the National Gallery of Art. For a fleeting moment, I thought to myself, “…that piece isn’t in the Met’s collection of Gaugin…” until, that is, I realized with a sudden shock that I wasn’t in New York. To purloin a phrase that has been recently circulating the interwebiverse relating to census counts and economic pressures – this was a ‘thud’ moment. But, there were boxes yet unfilled on the crossword, e-mails awaiting responses, media messages to be crafted….

Two weekends ago, my parents arrived in town to pass a few days with me. We saw the Thomas Jefferson building of the Library of Congress which was truly impressive. I will have to create an entirely different post with a series of photos. Much as the opening statement to this entry, I was overwhelmed suddenly with the thought that I was not at home, having personally been inside of literally dozens of venues similarly adorned there, and began to feel on edge. The saving grace of the building’s environs was the fact that I heard every one of the half dozen docents leading tours around the building repeat the same refrain: “…he [Jefferson] wanted the building to be an intersection of art, learning, and culture.” So impressive was the display that I would quite well be inspired to create the same type of surrounding in my own home, once I have one, that is. Of course, I’m not likely to be gifted with several acres of Federal land and monies for the project, but a guy can dream, no?

Interestingly, on the second floor of the library was a Mesoamerican exhibit entitled “Exploring the Americas.” The rooms contained several pieces I’d never been able to see before, an unexpected pleasure. The collection’s variety of books spanned crucial recompilations of original drawings of petroglyphs, interpretations of calendar stones, depictions of Aztec, Inca, and Mayans from the origination of the ethnography field, and chronicles of the Europeans’ initial interactions with the New World.

Jefferson’s personal collection, on display on the opposite side of the library from the Americas exhibit, was a testament to the breadth of knowledge of a president and fellow bibliophile. If nothing else, it helped to embolden my own fascination for books, despite having to divest myself of the several copies I had been warehousing of former teacher’s editions of textbooks, and half dozen repetitions of novels that served little other purpose than to possess extra copies. Once this fellowship is over, and I triumphantly return to New York, I shall endeavor to install myself in a viable location, and further develop my extensive library. One of us must be responsible for the protection of knowledge.

Power

I've listed The New Teacher Project as this blog's out-link for a purpose; It's been roughly two months since I've posted something here, and in that time, the NUF mid-year conference has happened, at which we heard incessantly about leadership, what it means, precise ways for you to foment that within yourself, and what precisely to do with it after you've managed to get ahold of it. Gina Rudan spoke to us about how she helps others find the intersection of their skills and their passions, and that was an interesting conversation. David Mensah spent a great deal of time talking about finding your personal mission, and I realized at that particular point, that I hadn't really nailed down what mine was. All was not lost, however, as I realized shortly after my triumphant return to the Capital region what precisely that was.

One of my closest friends in New York has a brother-in-law that lives in the area, and inevitably, we've also become fast friends. His children likewise think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. Once I was back there, interacting with youth, it came to me like a Mack truck to the face - the youth, the future of tomorrow. That is my mission: to make sure that they are raised well, that they are shown the proper way to operate in society, that they learn well how to be valuable members of our culture. To that end, I've begun to refocus my post-fellowship job search to ensure that it has to do with Youth Development or a position as Education Director for an institution.

Amusingly, I recently read about a program in Philadelphia that has to do with interpreting in the school system. At the same time, I found myself wondering if there has been sufficient forethought and planning gone into the program for them to select a director. I know that operating simultaneously in two fields that I hold near and dear to my heart would be closely akin to paradise. We shall have to see how close to that I manage to find myself.

I continually refer back to Collins' scale of Level 5 leadership for a reason. Having participated in martial arts, operated in a school system, studied leadership through this fellowship, performed as an interpreter, written as a citizen journalist, and a whole variety of interesting things during my professional life, I believe I have developed a sense of what the term entails. I know for a fact it is horrifically overused. I also know that a majority of people overusing it have generally done so for the purpose of powerful self ascription of importance. My particular issue is education, youth development, and within that language access. So, when I see like posting a list of nearly 5,000 teachers who will find themselves under the ax due to 'budget constraints' and other efforts meant to unwind collective bargaining are solely to the detriment of or nation, and most specifically the more than 1.1 million students in the NYC Department of Education's care, I know 'leadership,' due to its overusage, is losing any semblance of validity. There is a better way, and there are agreements to be made. Students of history remember that the first thing every cult of personality did in order to rise to power was to decimate the teaching force. TNTP has been complicit in producing proposals to that end, and it is apparent that their objectives are in line with the philosophy.

Leadership is not only in the professional field, however, and this is where I find myself in a quandary. Our capstone experience is potentially one of the most intense pieces of the entire fellowship, but having done one or two dedicated research papers while in my initial Master's degree at NYU, and very similar types of brain intensive work as a teacher for 12 years - curriculum writing, and major projects that I developed to be able to utilize in the classroom, - this was perhaps less of a stressful enterprise for me than it likely should have been. I turned in 51 pages (with 52 references) nearly a week before the due date, and dedicated the remaining time to advising and coaching classmates that might be finding themselves in a difficult place. This week, I also received word from one journal that I had pitched an essay to that they are willing to accept my writing. I'm incredibly pleased about this because, not only does it result in a publication credit, it also results in remuneration! This, I believe, is more the type of leadership - thought leadership - for which we should be aiming.

Next weekend, my sister, my parents, my closest friend from high school whom I have not seen in nearly 20 years, and his wife and children descend upon my small hamlet for the weekend. My sister is also participating in a range of events and conferences with the City Council Chairman of her town, meetings with Congresspeople, and so forth as she climbs the political ladder. There is an evening planned for the DC dozen to meet with her, the City Council Chairman, and several other key players in about a week, and it will be the first time I'm in the same room with so many noteables at once. I think this is the point at which I should feel apprehensive. My main preoccupation for the evening is to make sure that I have enough networking cards available to hand out at the encounter. I can almost guarantee that there will be interesting photos from the affair.

Not necessarily as interesting as a Mariachi band headed by Antonio Banderas, but, you get the idea...