The long and winding road of the job search has finally come to an end. I have been offered and intend to accept a position with Year Up in Washington, DC. I should start at the end of next month. Year Up is a growing national non-profit, originally based in Boston, which conducts a year-long program for urban youths, aged 18-24, helping them to gain access to the corporate world. The organization works with many corporate partners including AOL, Freddie Mac, Bank of America, JP Morgan and State Street Bank just to name a few, and was given a Social Capitalist award by Fast Company magazine (long known for their leadership in identifying key business trends, as seen in their article "Joe Trippi's Killer App") last year solidifying their place as one the country's best and fastest growing non-profits. You can learn more about us at www.yearup.org.
As for me, I'll be filling the role of Apprenticeships and Grants Coordinator, which means I will be interfacing a lot with our corporate partnerships, helping to secure placements for the students we enroll in the organization, as well as liaising with alumni and also mentoring a few students along the way.
If you can't tell, I am thrilled to death by the prospect of joining such a wonderful organization and moving to a great place like DC. (On that note, if anybody needs a roommate, let me know!) I'm sad to leave Boston, especially at the height of a pennant race, but am ready for and excited by what's next.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Camille...Sorry, Have We Met?
I have one question after last night's Top Chef.
Who was Camille? I really didn't know she was on the show until she went home.
Seriously, the reason she went home is that she finally distnguished herself. Poorly. Her idea of miniature pineapple upside down cakes fell about as flat as Sara's uninspired "Semifreddo" the difference being that Camille had never done anything of note on the show, good or bad.
I will say this, the pineapple idea was really solid, combining fruit and dessert in that setting was a good idea. However, every idea that flowed from that kernel of goodness was completely off base. There is so much that they could have done with pineapple, including lots of things that did not involve having pastry chef experience, that would have been both inventive and tasty, and they went in exactly none of those directions. They thought they'd be able to cry foul at the judges table and limp away becuase they had no experience. Not in this competition, baby.
On another note, while Casey's dish was probably fairly weak, I think it came about as a product of environment as opposed to lack of skill or mailing it in. Working with the hair-brained scheme twins, Howie and Joey, must have been exhausting. Finally knowing she could not go home her distracted mess of a creation didn't seem so bad in the final analysis. Hopefully next week, we'll get back to mano a mano cookoffs rather than the team aspect.
Who was Camille? I really didn't know she was on the show until she went home.
Seriously, the reason she went home is that she finally distnguished herself. Poorly. Her idea of miniature pineapple upside down cakes fell about as flat as Sara's uninspired "Semifreddo" the difference being that Camille had never done anything of note on the show, good or bad.
I will say this, the pineapple idea was really solid, combining fruit and dessert in that setting was a good idea. However, every idea that flowed from that kernel of goodness was completely off base. There is so much that they could have done with pineapple, including lots of things that did not involve having pastry chef experience, that would have been both inventive and tasty, and they went in exactly none of those directions. They thought they'd be able to cry foul at the judges table and limp away becuase they had no experience. Not in this competition, baby.
On another note, while Casey's dish was probably fairly weak, I think it came about as a product of environment as opposed to lack of skill or mailing it in. Working with the hair-brained scheme twins, Howie and Joey, must have been exhausting. Finally knowing she could not go home her distracted mess of a creation didn't seem so bad in the final analysis. Hopefully next week, we'll get back to mano a mano cookoffs rather than the team aspect.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Independence
Since I read the news last night about President Bush's commutation of the 30-month sentence levied by a jury on I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, I have been literally consumed by anger. I wanted so desperately to get my feelings on this matter out to you. I haven't been able to think of the words.
Keith Olbermann did.
Read every word that he wrote and spoke on tonight's "Countdown" on MSNBC. Then read it again. Then search for it on YouTube and watch it. The visceral anger in both Olbermann's words and the tenor of his voice give even greater depth to his words. Here is a man who stands up. Here is a man, quoting from a lexicon of Americana so broad and deep as to include James Madison and John Wayne and who steadfastly and passionately demands of the President of the United States to come to the same conclusion many of us already have, that it is time for him to go. Here stands a patriot, a man who loves his country so deeply that he is nearly brought to tears by the actions of a government with utter distaste for the people they are meant to govern.
Let me be clear. I stand with Keith Olbermann. I stand with every word he spoke and with the power of his voice like a clarion call crying out in the wilderness. The time has come for patriotic Americans to demand better of the government in whom a thin plurality of us have twice called to serve. What happened to Scooter Libby was not a miscarriage of justice, it was the complete undoing of justice in America. We are barely thirty years from Watergate and we have allowed ourselves to be duped again by mad charlatans who crave only power, nothing more and nothing less. This country needs more brave men and women to proclaim that they are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
They must no longer be allowed to question my patriotism, my commitment to this grand idea of America, simply because we disagree. What kind of arrogance is that? What kind of cowardice is that? And they must not be allowed to subvert the laws which hold this country together.
This president, this administration, and this government have failed to serve the American people. It is high time they consider their misdeeds. And if they will not, then the Congress must do what is right and begin drafting Articles of Impeachment against Messrs. Bush and Cheney.
Happy Independence Day.
Keith Olbermann did.
Read every word that he wrote and spoke on tonight's "Countdown" on MSNBC. Then read it again. Then search for it on YouTube and watch it. The visceral anger in both Olbermann's words and the tenor of his voice give even greater depth to his words. Here is a man who stands up. Here is a man, quoting from a lexicon of Americana so broad and deep as to include James Madison and John Wayne and who steadfastly and passionately demands of the President of the United States to come to the same conclusion many of us already have, that it is time for him to go. Here stands a patriot, a man who loves his country so deeply that he is nearly brought to tears by the actions of a government with utter distaste for the people they are meant to govern.
Let me be clear. I stand with Keith Olbermann. I stand with every word he spoke and with the power of his voice like a clarion call crying out in the wilderness. The time has come for patriotic Americans to demand better of the government in whom a thin plurality of us have twice called to serve. What happened to Scooter Libby was not a miscarriage of justice, it was the complete undoing of justice in America. We are barely thirty years from Watergate and we have allowed ourselves to be duped again by mad charlatans who crave only power, nothing more and nothing less. This country needs more brave men and women to proclaim that they are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.
They must no longer be allowed to question my patriotism, my commitment to this grand idea of America, simply because we disagree. What kind of arrogance is that? What kind of cowardice is that? And they must not be allowed to subvert the laws which hold this country together.
This president, this administration, and this government have failed to serve the American people. It is high time they consider their misdeeds. And if they will not, then the Congress must do what is right and begin drafting Articles of Impeachment against Messrs. Bush and Cheney.
Happy Independence Day.
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