This last weekend I spent in DC working with UpGlo national on a collaborative Iraqi Career Summit with The List Project.
During the two-day event, over 45 Iraqi special immigrants took part in resume development, job search strategy, networking and interviewing skills workshops, while interacting with more than 100 volunteers and employers.
These new Americans were some of the most brave, intelligent, skilled, and optimistic people I have ever met. If you aren't familiar with The List Project, Upwardly Global, or immigrant & refugee issues, please get involved or ask questions. We've all got a lot to learn. Knowledge and understanding are great first steps.
-Tadd
The first step is welcoming our Iraqi allies into our communities.
Congratulations to all the 2008 NYU graduates, including me!
I attended the Valedictory Ceremony this week at Radio City Music Hall and it was quite an event. I was honored to receive the Pi Lambda Theta Rho award for leadership and service to my school. I certainly tried my best to support my classmates. Honestly, anything I did for my classmates was my pleasure, given the intellectual stimulation and challenge they provided me with over the last 2 years.
Finishing my masters degree is quite bittersweet in nature. While I feel a great sense of accomplishment and closure, I also feel strange and sad to transition into an alumni. Being that I've take classes each of the past six semesters (including summers), it's quite strange not to be thinking about my upcoming classes.
Can it be the case that I DON'T have an assignment I should be working on over the weekend? WOW!
In closing, I have to thank Professors O'Connor and Bronner for all their support, guidance, and wisdom. I truly developed and learned so much here at NYU Steinhardt, and am proud to call myself a Business Education graduate!
Prospective students: what do you want to know?
I'm a wealth of knowledge for you.
A few words on today. It was both hugely typical and totally surprising.
I woke up a little late and arrived to work slightly later than expected ~9:30am.
I checked in with my boss and the team on a variety of subjects including: the increased flow of clients, bottlenecks in the resume revision process, and VOLUNTEER recruitment.
I made some calls to tomorrow's new class (cohort) of immigrant professional job seekers and the class is set to be my biggest yet (25 people).
Rushing out of the office, I just slipped into class as it was beginning. I got to work through a major conflict that occurred between myself and another classmate (and the entire group). Group dynamics is never just what it seems on the surface.
In my second class, I witnessed a surprising display of unprofessionalism by a professor. This isolated incident of a professor silencing one of my classmates really left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm not sure exactly what my reaction to the event will be, but I know the entire class was appalled by the way the feedback was delivered.
I really hope this does not reoccur. And don't doubt there will be some scathing comments on his course evaluation!
Sorry for the lack of detail, but it's late, I don't want to write anything I'll regret tomorrow and bedtime approaches.
After just writing a long update I lost the text when I accidentally navigated away from the page. So instead, I'll just share a picture of the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico where I recently took a break of my own. Spring break for me (this year) is being spent working.
-T
I'm very excited for the upcoming collaboration between Upwardly Global and NYU's chapter of Delta Pi Epsilon. DPE is hosting a networking event on the evening of March 27th. This event really helps UpGlo's immigrant professional job seekers to polish their professional presentation and to meet potential networking contacts.
Any interested parties, email me and I will post more details this week.
-Tadd
President's Day is not a "holiday" to which I give very much though. While anyone who knows me, recognizes the disdain and disappointment that I feel towards out current President and his administration. This is clearly because I do not respect leaders who misrepresent their interests, and I do not believe that President Bush places any value on diversity.
So I decided to celebrate President's Day by taking a look at our current president's website. You should do the same.
Just take a look at the recent Judicial Nominations (and confirmations) listed on the official White House
Website. I'm not going to even comment on what I think of his choices. However, I ask you to scroll through the list, and ponder if these choices at all represent the demographics of the American public. I find the lack of diversity shocking and horrifying. How can any minority expect to find justice when those nominated and confirmed to the executive judicial branch include extreme gender uniformity? And where is the ethnic diversity?
I'm just not sure that there is ANY effort being made to align these choice with the population they are meant to represent. This is a major problem.
Hopefully, the fact that the Democratic Presidential nominee will be either a Black man or a woman shows that the American public does not support this disregard for diversity and accurate representation.
Of course, if you prefer to celebrate Presidents day with a little retail therapy,
you could head out and charge up those anticipated "tax credits". I wonder if we'll have to pay them back like last time?????
Tomorrow I will attend the first meeting for each of my final two courses at NYU. Of course, I ordered my books and they are set to arrive on Mon or Tues.
Also, my sister is defending her PhD. thesis (NYU-CAS) this Thursday.
Exciting week!
(I'm already a bit exhausted!)
Ah well, early to bed this evening and let's see if I make it to work for 9am.
I invite you to listen to these words. I ask you to consider these words.
Specifically, please consider their relevance to our current state of affairs.
Truth and wisdom are timeless.
Tragically, Dr. King's wise words need only very minor changes in order to bring them up to date.
A of the many reasons Dr. King is one of my heroes is that his words are timeless and his wisdom is limitless.
I find such hope in the fact that 2008 brings American's the choice between two Presidential candidates possessing integrity and wisdom, and who just happen to be a woman and a black man. Why is this even remotely an issue?
The state of journalism and the media?
Any journalist who even touches upon these characteristics reveals him/herself to be tragically ignorant and discredits him/herself..
Can they not inquire into the candidate's values, priorities, and aspirations instead?
Please.
Can we demand that our long ignored opinions (and votes) cease to be ignored or nullified?
Let us please consider the words of Thomas Jefferson in our own Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
The 19th Amendment to to Constitution (horribly overdue) awarded equal rights to women.
Previously, Abraham Lincoln had ruled out the injustice of slavery in his written word:
"That on the first day of January in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any state, or designated part of a state, the people whereof thenceforward, and forever free; and the executive government of the United States [including the military and naval authority thereof] will, during the continuance in office of the present incumbents, recognize [and maintain the freedom of] such persons, as being free, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
I do not understand why race and gender are even issues.
Ha! I wonder who will be the first gay (Presidential) candidate and what "shock and awe" will they encounter?
We still desperately search to find an individual who can express the truth and wisdom found in the words of America's Patriot Minister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
I wish good riddance to the misguided men of 2000-2008. I am still dumbfounded that such a cowardly man as Dick Cheney will never have to answer for his actions.
At least this presidency has a common theme: lack of accountability.
So after you finish listening to Dr. King' speech, I offer you the hopeful voice of Donny Hathaway. Please listen.
