Nice to see what people my age are creatively accomplishing...
It's a balancing act, I am stacking the plates...no telling when one will drop!
BusinessWeek Business Exchange
Special Report October 6, 2009, 1:23PM EST text size: TT
America's Best Young Entrepreneurs 2009
For our fifth annual roundup, BusinessWeek readers nominated a record number of young entrepreneurs. Meet the 25 most impressive
By Nick Leiber
Welcome to our fifth annual roundup of the country's most promising young entrepreneurs. Before we get started examining the new batch, consider this question: Who is more likely to start a business: A college student or a worker with a few decades of experience? Yep, you guessed it: the experienced worker.
It turns out it's boomers, not twentysomethings, who start the most businesses in the U.S. Over the past decade or so, the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity belongs to the 55-64 age group. The 20-34 age bracket, by contrast, had the lowest rate. That's according to a recent report by Dane Stangler, a senior analyst with the Kauffman Foundation, based on data collected from 1996 to 2007. It echoes research by entrepreneur-turned-academic Vivek Wadhwa, who found that twice as many tech entrepreneurs create ventures in their 50s as do those in their early 20s.
So not only are these entrepreneurs navigating the toughest economy many of us have ever lived through, they're also vastly outnumbered by older, more experienced competitors, who usually have more contacts and capital. That's even more reason to continue to give young entrepreneurs the encouragement, respect, and awe that they've received since becoming cultural icons during the dot-com boom.
Stangler says he's not suggesting young people aren't entrepreneurial or won't be. "The cachet of large, established companies has taken a hit. Job tenure has been falling for a long time. Employment is not going to recover in the very near future. People across all age groups are going to take the future into their own hands."
Dorm Room Beginnings
Brian Ruby, 25, is just one entrepreneur who is following through on Stangler's prediction. He founded molecular imaging equipment maker Carbon Nanoprobes in 2003 in his Columbia University dorm room and has since raised about $4 million from institutional and private investors. After six years doing research, Carbon Nanoprobes is now transitioning to equipment sales, and Ruby expects about $1 million in revenue in 2010. The nine-person company based in Pike Malvern, Pa., sells its equipment to universities, semiconductor firms, and material sciences companies.
Husband-and-wife team Eric Koger, 25, and Susan Koger, 24, launched indie clothing e-tailer ModCloth in 2002, near the end of their freshman year at Carnegie Mellon University. They've managed to raise a little over $3 million from angels such as StubHub co-founder Jeff Fluhr and venture capital firms First Round Capital and Maples Investments. Eric says the 104-employee, Pittsburgh-based company is profitable, with around $1 million in monthly sales, and forecasts more than $15 million total in 2009.
Logan Green, 25, and John Zimmer, 25, started Zimride in 2007 to allow carpoolers to connect online. Its 35 clients are mostly colleges but include corporate customers such as Cigna (CI) and Wal-Mart (WMT). Universities pay about $10,000 per year to use the platform, although pricing varies. Zimmer says the Palo Alto (Calif.) firm, with six employees, expects revenue of $400,000 this year and is now profitable.
Record Numbers
These are just a few of our finalists defying the odds. To assemble the group, as in previous years, we asked BusinessWeek readers to nominate candidates aged 25 and under who were running their own companies that showed potential for growth. Given the severity of the recession, we were pleased to receive a record number of nominations this year—more than 600. After the call for nominations ended in mid-August, our staff sifted through the nominees looking for the most impressive.
Not surprisingly, the majority were Web-based businesses, where barriers to entry continue to fall. There were a smattering of more traditional companies, including an aircraft seller, a specialty mushroom grower, and a machinery lubricant vendor. Compared with last year, more women were nominated, more businesses were profitable, and more had secured equity capital.
U.S. Entrepreneurs Ages 25 and Under
This summer, BusinessWeek set out on its fifth annual search to find the country's most promising young entrepreneurs. As in previous years, we asked readers to nominate candidates ages 25 and under running their own companies. After the call for nominations ended in August, our staff whittled the batch down to 25 impressive businesses. To read profiles of the finalists and vote for the business you feel holds the most promise, click on. We'll announce the top vote-getters on Nov. 9.
Note: Revenues and traffic numbers are self-reported. To be considered, founders had to be 25 or under when the nomination form was posted in late June.
1. Ascension Aircraft
What It Does: Aircraft sales and leasing
Founder: Jamail Larkins, 25
Web Site: http://www.ascensionaircraft.com/
Based: Augusta, Ga.
Jamail Larkins has been hooked on flying ever since he took his first flying lesson at age 12. The Augusta (Ga.) native completed his first solo flight at 14, performed in an aerobatic air show four years later, and earned a bachelor's degree in aviation business administration from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. But instead of following a traditional career path and going to work for Boeing (BA) or Lockheed Martin (LMT), Larkins decided to channel his passion into his own business. It came naturally. At 15, he had started Larkins Enterprises, selling flight training books and videos to local pilots, to pay for his flying lessons. "I promise you we started off selling a lot less than we do today," he says. Though he continues to run Larkins to do marketing and consulting for clients that include his alma mater, the National Business Aviation Assn., and Michelin Aircraft Tires, he says 90% of his revenue comes from his aircraft sales and leasing company, Ascension Aircraft, which he started in 2006. Larkins says four-employee Ascension is profitable and had a little over $7 million in revenue in 2008, despite the downturn. He expects revenue to increase slightly this year. He continues to fly for fun every chance he gets and is planning to get back into aerobatics in 2010.
2. Box.net
What It Does: Online collaboration tool
Founders: Aaron Levie, 24, and Dylan Smith, 24
Web Site: box.net
Based: Palo Alto, Calif.
Aaron Levie and Dylan Smith started Box.net in 2005, when they were both college sophomores, as a tool to collaborate on projects with fellow students. The pair -- childhood friends from Seattle -- soon saw business potential in an online platform to let companies share information securely. Nine months after launching, they both left school (they were at University of Southern California and Duke, respectively) and moved to the Bay Area to work on the company full time, with an initial $350,000 investment from Mark Cuban. (His stake has since been bought out.) The service, targeted toward companies with fewer than 100 employees, has 3 million users representing 50,000 businesses. Individuals can try a limited version for free, but businesses pay $15 per user per month for the premium version. The company, now based in Palo Alto, has 50 employees and has raised $14.5 million in venture capital from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and U.S. Venture Partners. The firm is not yet profitable, though Levie says revenue is in the "mid-to-high single millions," and he expects it to turn a profit soon.
3. Click To Client
What It Does: Online marketing agency
Founder: Shama Kabani, 24
Web Site: http://clicktoclient.com/
Based: Dallas
While completing her master's degree in organizational communication at the University of Texas at Austin, Shama Kabani wrote her thesis on why people use Twitter and other social networking sites. She became convinced businesses could use the tools to market their products and services. But when Kabani made that pitch as she applied for jobs at big management consulting firms such as McKinsey and Bain & Co. in 2006, she was rejected. "At that point, nobody really cared for social media knowhow. They were just thinking, 'This is a fad. Our clients don't really need it.' " Undeterred, Kabani, whose parents are both entrepreneurs, founded her own full-service online marketing firm in March 2008, to build Web sites, handle SEO, and create and manage social media campaigns. The six-employee business now takes on about 25 one-off projects a month and also acts as an online marketing department for six regular clients on a retainer basis. Fees range from a few hundred dollars for a newsletter design to $2,500 for a Web site project; monthly retainer fees start around $2,500. Kabani says Click To Client had about $120,000 in revenue in 2008, expects $280,000 for 2009, and is shooting for $1 million in 2010. Her first book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, is due out in April.
4. Emergent
What It Does: Renewable energy consulting
Founders: Jesse Gossett, 23 (left); Jayson Uppal, 23 (center); and Chris Jacobs, 21 (right)
Web Site: http://www.emergentgroup.com/
Based: Boston
Two years ago, three Tufts University students and one Babson College student attended the Energy Security Initiative at Tufts (now the Tufts Energy Forum), a group whose mission is "to spread and enhance the discussion surrounding all aspects of the transforming, global energy industry." It was there that Jesse Gossett, Jared Rodriguez, Jayson Uppal, and Chris Jacobs decided there was a need in the consulting sphere to help guide municipalities and private businesses toward using renewable energies and setting up sustainability practices. The quartet spent their final year in college researching and readying a business to do just that. Before they graduated, they landed their first consulting contract. Emergent now has about 30 clients, mostly municipalities, including the towns of Yates, Shelby, and Orleans County in western New York. The firm had $108,000 in revenue last year, and estimates it will reach $250,000 in 2009 and become profitable by 2011.
5. I Bec Creative
What It Does: Web development and graphic design
Founder: Becky Stockbridge, 25
Web Site: http://www.ibeccreative.com/
Based: Portland, Me.
While a senior at the University of Southern Maine, Becky Stockbridge wrote a business plan to start a Web and graphic design business for medical professionals, a group she found was in need of logos, brochures, and informative Web sites -- and who also had the money to pay for them. She got started in 2006 with a $4,200 grant from the Libra Future Funds, a Maine-based group that helps entrepreneurs under 25. The Maine Center for Enterprise Development awarded her free office space for one year. However, Stockbridge says she found it difficult to get through to the decision-makers in medical practices. While she struggled to make contact, Stockbridge began designing Web sites and logos for other small businesses. By 2007, she had more business clients than doctor clients and shifted her focus. Last year the five-person company had about $225,000 in revenue and Stockbridge expects $350,000 in 2009.
6. Intern Queen
What It Does: Internship placement consultancy
Founder: Lauren Berger, 25
Web Site: http://www.internqueen.com/
Based: Los Angeles
While earning her degree at the University of Central Florida, Lauren Berger says she completed 15 internships in four years. After graduating in 2006 she began helping the children of her parents' friends land internships. Soon, the idea to start a consulting business was born. But first Berger had to pay the bills, so she moved to Los Angeles and worked as an assistant at top talent agency Creative Artists Agency. While there, Berger met movie producer and director Marshall Herscovitz (Thirtysomething, The Last Samurai), who liked her concept and backed her financially for one year.
Last September, Berger launched her company -- Herscovitz has a 12% stake -- offering to vet potential applicants and match them with more than 500 companies from across the country that pay to list on her Web site. Berger says what sets her service apart is the personal attention -- she and her small band of interns review every application and Berger calls each company to make an introduction. Potential interns can apply for one slot gratis to get a feel for the service. They pay $3 for every subsequent application; employers pay an annual fee of $50 for unlimited listings. In the four months the firm was running last year, Berger says she had about $100,000 in revenue and expects to double that to $200,000 next year. A regular on the college speaking circuit, she is also planning to expand into Canada and is exploring endorsement deals with Microsoft (MSFT) and Payless Shoes.
7. ModCloth
What It Does: Online marketplace for indie designer fashion and decor
Founders: Eric Koger, 25, and Susan Koger, 24
Web Site: http://www.modcloth.com/
Based: Pittsburgh
You might not expect an indie clothing e-tailer to get the attention of equity investors. But Eric and Susan Koger, the husband-and-wife team that launched ModCloth in 2002, near the end of their freshman year at Carnegie Mellon University, have managed to raise a little over $3 million from angels like StubHub co-founder Jeff Fluhr and venture capital firms First Round Capital and Maples Investments. ModCloth's inventory strategy helps explain its success. Eric says Susan and her buyers build rapport with independent designers, try to get payment terms of net 30, and normally sell 70% to 90% of the goods within the net-30 period. "We can turn our inventory faster than we have to pay for it. That's enabled us to scale as fast as we have." Being online only and located in Pittsburgh keeps operating costs low, too. ModCloth employs 104 people -- mostly young women who, Eric says, "come at it from a perspective that's truly aligned with the customer, because they are our customers" -- up from 22 people a year ago. The company became profitable in 2007 but wasn't in 2008, largely because it spent a lot of money to redesign its Web site -- which now gets more than 1.25 million unique visitors a month. Eric says ModCloth has around $1 million a month in sales and forecasts more than $15 million total in 2009.
8. NoteHall
What It Does: Online marketplace for class notes
Founders: Sean Conway, 25 (right); Justin Miller, 21(far right); B.J. Stephan, 24 (left); Fadi Chalfoon, 23 (second from left)
Web Site: http://www.notehall.com/
Based: Tucson, Ariz.
Launched in 2008, NoteHall is an online marketplace for college students who want to buy and sell class notes. Sean Conway, who has ADHD and finds it difficult to comprehend a lecture and take notes simultaneously, says the impetus to start the company came when he noticed fellow students shared his frustration. For initial funding, the founders used $70,000 they put together from Conway's inheritance and Miller's bar mitzvah money. To access documents, users purchase credits via the site's virtual currency system ($3 buys 100 credits; notes from one lecture cost 25 credits; a study guide costs 100 credits). When a student purchases credits and redeems them, NoteHall receives a commission that varies based on the product. According to Conway, 20 colleges and universities are participating now, including Drexel University and the University of Arizona, and an additional 30 will be by December. Last year, NoteHall had $40,000 in revenue, will be profitable this year, and expects to reach $900,000 in revenue in 2010.
9. Trunk Club
What It Does: Online clothes shopping service for men
Founder: Joanna Van Vleck, 26
Web Site: http://www.trunkclub.com/
Based: Bend, Ore.
When Joanna Van Vleck graduated from the University of Oregon in 2005 with degrees in psychology and business, she worked as a style consultant, taking men and women clothes shopping. No surprise here -- most men disliked shopping but enjoyed the new duds. So Van Vleck decided the shopping process should be turned on its head. Instead of accompanying men to the shops, she would take the shopping to them. In January 2008, she opened a location she describes as a "swanky man hang-out spot," where hesitant shoppers were sized up and regaled with advice and brand-name picks. Within a month of opening, an angel investor approached her and offered to commit $500,000 to expanding the concept to other locations. But after Bear Stearns failed that March, he changed his mind.
Convinced her idea had potential, Van Vleck searched for another source of funding. During a meeting via Webcam with a new would-be investor, Van Vleck decided to shift gears. Instead of opening physical locations, she would operate the business virtually, using Webcams to meet with clients, assess their needs, and then ship a box of clothing to them. Clients would only pay for items they liked. With zero retail experience, she launched the site in November 2008, buying marked brands wholesale from suppliers and selling them retail. Trunk Club now has six employees, 36 independent contractors who work as fashion consultants remotely, and around 2,000 members. Van Vleck says the company is close to breaking even and is on track for $2.3 million to $2.5 million in revenue in 2009. She expects to close her first venture capital round with a Bay Area firm within a month.
10. Tumblr
What It Does: Microblogging platform
Founder: David Karp, 23
Web Site: http://www.tumblr.com/
Based: New York
In 2005, David Karp was running his software consulting business, developing new media for big media companies. He got the idea for Tumblr after becoming captivated by a new form of blogging known as "tumblelogging" that presented material of various formats (such as text, photo, and video) in a stream. While building a tumblelog for himself, the programmer realized other fans of the form would want to use a simple tool that would allow them to create their own. So during a two-week window between consulting jobs, Karp, who first started coding when he was 11, created the first iteration of such a tool designed with speed, ease of use, and customization in mind. Launched in 2007 for general consumption, the Tumblr platform now has 1.8 million users and has landed $5.5 million in venture capital from two rounds of funding with Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. Karp, 23, says the 10-person company is not making money yet but will be experimenting with revenue-generating features this quarter. "Goal No. 1 is growth. We're aiming this thing for a mainstream audience."
Leiber is Small Business editor for BusinessWeek.com .
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Monday, October 5, 2009
Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?
Yahoo posted the new list of greatest places to live. Australia AND Colombia are up, the US is down, Norway is up, and China is WAY up! How about that?
Norway is best place to live, China moves up: UN
Buzz up!400 votes Send
Email IM Share
Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AFP/File – A file photo shows a hiker along a famous track in Jotunheimen Park, Norway. Norway has taken the number … Mon Oct 5, 7:53 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.
The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan.
China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.
Colombia and Peru rose five spaces to rank 77th and 78th while France -- which was not part of the top 10 last year -- returns to the upper echelons by moving up three places to number 8.
The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries.
A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway. For every dollar a person earns in Niger, 85 dollars are earned in Norway.
This year's index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis.
"Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV and AIDS epidemic," said the UN development report's author Jeni Klugman.
"And this was even before the impact of the current global financial crisis was felt."
Afghanistan, which returns to the list for the first time since 1996, is the only Asian country among the bottom ten which also include Sierra Leone in the 180th spot, just below the Central African Republic.
The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.
The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091005/ts_afp/undevelopmentpoverty_20091005115324
Norway is best place to live, China moves up: UN
Buzz up!400 votes Send
Email IM Share
Delicious Digg Facebook Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Twitter Yahoo! Bookmarks Print AFP/File – A file photo shows a hiker along a famous track in Jotunheimen Park, Norway. Norway has taken the number … Mon Oct 5, 7:53 am ET
PARIS (AFP) – Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.
The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan.
China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.
Colombia and Peru rose five spaces to rank 77th and 78th while France -- which was not part of the top 10 last year -- returns to the upper echelons by moving up three places to number 8.
The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries.
A child born in Niger can expect to live to just over 50, which is 30 years less than a child born in Norway. For every dollar a person earns in Niger, 85 dollars are earned in Norway.
This year's index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis.
"Many countries have experienced setbacks over recent decades, in the face of economic downturns, conflict-related crises and the HIV and AIDS epidemic," said the UN development report's author Jeni Klugman.
"And this was even before the impact of the current global financial crisis was felt."
Afghanistan, which returns to the list for the first time since 1996, is the only Asian country among the bottom ten which also include Sierra Leone in the 180th spot, just below the Central African Republic.
The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.
The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091005/ts_afp/undevelopmentpoverty_20091005115324
Sunday, October 4, 2009
R.I.P MERCEDES DE SOSA
Such talent...
The stars burn brighter tonight...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyOJ-A5iv5I
The stars burn brighter tonight...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyOJ-A5iv5I
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Digital Day 2009
This week I ended up at a conference hosted by IAB on internet marketing featuring people from FOX NEWS and El Colombiano. They served chicken and guacamole croquettes-it was delicious!
The guy from Fox LA had one of those endearing Enrique Iglesia lisps and one thing from the conference that really suprised me was the term "internaut".
Toss that around for a second- INTERNAUT, INTERNAUT, Inter-NOT. Astronauts navigate space, but INTERNAUTS NAVIGATE the internet without going ANYWHERE. How about that? Astronauts leave the planet, internauts are chained to a 13 inch screen. Inter can also mean inside and what I got was an inside look at advertising manipulation via interweb.
1 in 4 people in our world today are online according to Internet World Stats study June 30,2009.
Net publicity ALONE generated 650 BILLION dollars last year according to Price Water House Cooper.
English is the number one spoken language online, followed by Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese.
One conference member was speaking about his nieces and nephews and said that they can't even imagine their lives without internet. The gentleman from Argentina was talking about how you have to create an experience, a relationship between the user and the brand using web pages and because of his accent, it almost sounded like a come-on. How about that?
One of the highlights of the conference was when one of the speakers started talking about all of the things we have STOPPED doing since the birth of the WWW. Virtual experience instead of REAL experiences. How odd.
The guy from Fox LA had one of those endearing Enrique Iglesia lisps and one thing from the conference that really suprised me was the term "internaut".
Toss that around for a second- INTERNAUT, INTERNAUT, Inter-NOT. Astronauts navigate space, but INTERNAUTS NAVIGATE the internet without going ANYWHERE. How about that? Astronauts leave the planet, internauts are chained to a 13 inch screen. Inter can also mean inside and what I got was an inside look at advertising manipulation via interweb.
1 in 4 people in our world today are online according to Internet World Stats study June 30,2009.
Net publicity ALONE generated 650 BILLION dollars last year according to Price Water House Cooper.
English is the number one spoken language online, followed by Chinese, Spanish, and Japanese.
One conference member was speaking about his nieces and nephews and said that they can't even imagine their lives without internet. The gentleman from Argentina was talking about how you have to create an experience, a relationship between the user and the brand using web pages and because of his accent, it almost sounded like a come-on. How about that?
One of the highlights of the conference was when one of the speakers started talking about all of the things we have STOPPED doing since the birth of the WWW. Virtual experience instead of REAL experiences. How odd.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Que vive la musica!!!
Chocquibtown!!! Grupo de Buenaventura has been nominated for a Grammy award 2009! I saw them at the Pacific Music Festival, they are AMAZING.
This group incorporates the best of Currulao and hip-hop for an inspired blend. The lyrics are powerful and quick witted, "where i come from- everyone drinks whiskey, everyone has a car,(except for us), everyone has a motorcycle, everyone eats chicken, and everyone is fed up. The whole world wants to leave, but none of us have been able to. It's not easy, but we still survive"
Check out the article featured in Spin magazine:
http://spinearth.tv/report/chocquibtown-de-donde-vengo-yo
" I won't eat the poison fish even if it's from Choco"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-155l4xcqo&feature=related
I also reccommend El Bombo and Somos Pacifico
Other songs that make me happy:
Arroz con habichuela...pure genius, rice and green beans never sounded so appetizing! I love that the lyrics are so simple, but so much fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ91NTHxZds
Today I had my first marimba lesson. My instructor rocks- no musical theory required. I already learned to play currulao with the variations. I am supercontenta!
This group incorporates the best of Currulao and hip-hop for an inspired blend. The lyrics are powerful and quick witted, "where i come from- everyone drinks whiskey, everyone has a car,(except for us), everyone has a motorcycle, everyone eats chicken, and everyone is fed up. The whole world wants to leave, but none of us have been able to. It's not easy, but we still survive"
Check out the article featured in Spin magazine:
http://spinearth.tv/report/chocquibtown-de-donde-vengo-yo
" I won't eat the poison fish even if it's from Choco"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-155l4xcqo&feature=related
I also reccommend El Bombo and Somos Pacifico
Other songs that make me happy:
Arroz con habichuela...pure genius, rice and green beans never sounded so appetizing! I love that the lyrics are so simple, but so much fun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ91NTHxZds
Today I had my first marimba lesson. My instructor rocks- no musical theory required. I already learned to play currulao with the variations. I am supercontenta!
Thursday, September 17, 2009
A little bit of jazz...
A little bit of jazz can go a long way. Last night I went to a concert at the music conservatory. It doubles as a school and a stage, like stepping into the 1950's. The concert was beautiful and inspiring. It was a bass/guitar/xylophone trio playing Charlie Parker and improv. Beautiful. I love the xylo notes, so sweet.
This is the tail end of jazz festival which ended last week. Rik Mol from Holland was by far my afavorite performance of the season. Tomorrow is the final coffee house show featuring a Brazilian jazz group. I love Brazilian jazz. This month there is a lot going on, salsa festival, international film festival, and arte en la calle, a huge artist celebration where they host an open house in San Antonio and you can shop for crafts. Looking forward to it.
This is the tail end of jazz festival which ended last week. Rik Mol from Holland was by far my afavorite performance of the season. Tomorrow is the final coffee house show featuring a Brazilian jazz group. I love Brazilian jazz. This month there is a lot going on, salsa festival, international film festival, and arte en la calle, a huge artist celebration where they host an open house in San Antonio and you can shop for crafts. Looking forward to it.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Roll call...word
The unbeaten path gets curvier and curvier. Today is the day of breaking new ground. Or being the gazelle and the lion and making a run for it...
rece$$ion cutback = making dog biscuits from scratch
rece$$ion bonus=nature walks and free festivals with folklore legends in the press box
rece$$ion cutback=less taxi fare, less eating out
rece$$ion bonus=more delicious food at home
rece$$ion cutback=no more dessert
recession bonus=my clothes actually fit
recession cutback= less trips to the movie theater
rece$$ion bonus=time for re-reading the classics
and classics of late include Brave New World.
and today's glowing example of doublespeak (1984) comes from BBC- the govt. is...
charging employees to stay at home and "sacrifice for the greater good"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8206433.stm
Maybe one day, US govt. services will rival those of the 3rd world and full 5 day week services will become a thing of the past. I still remember when...the post office never closed.
Keeping with my little scheme of cutbacks and bonuses, here is the inspiring article of the day which encompasses both themes:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8208121.stm
When life gives you too many Manchester United t-shirts, make political propaganda for a profit! But seriously, what an innovative way to transform a sad situation.
Continuing with the theme of the rece$$ion, Slate magazine posted a handy map of said rece$$ion and job loss. Interesting stuff. Found here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2216238/
I think that about sums it up...
rece$$ion cutback = making dog biscuits from scratch
rece$$ion bonus=nature walks and free festivals with folklore legends in the press box
rece$$ion cutback=less taxi fare, less eating out
rece$$ion bonus=more delicious food at home
rece$$ion cutback=no more dessert
recession bonus=my clothes actually fit
recession cutback= less trips to the movie theater
rece$$ion bonus=time for re-reading the classics
and classics of late include Brave New World.
and today's glowing example of doublespeak (1984) comes from BBC- the govt. is...
charging employees to stay at home and "sacrifice for the greater good"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8206433.stm
Maybe one day, US govt. services will rival those of the 3rd world and full 5 day week services will become a thing of the past. I still remember when...the post office never closed.
Keeping with my little scheme of cutbacks and bonuses, here is the inspiring article of the day which encompasses both themes:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8208121.stm
When life gives you too many Manchester United t-shirts, make political propaganda for a profit! But seriously, what an innovative way to transform a sad situation.
Continuing with the theme of the rece$$ion, Slate magazine posted a handy map of said rece$$ion and job loss. Interesting stuff. Found here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2216238/
I think that about sums it up...
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Catching up...all in one breath
And so it is August. The clock keeps ticking. The earth keeps moving. The wheels keep spinning.
I am watching the Mirror Has 2 Faces. Girly indulgence. I had never seen it before. I don't care if you are pretty, I love you anyway... who doesn't want that? Who doesn't want to be made over into their best self? Who doesn't want to drop the mask? Or find someone to see through it.
The job search continues, but on the winding road I met the next Bill Gates, who wants to bring a new meaning to the city's title of silicone valley. Who wants to purchase a Kia and casually signed off on it, after previewing it for all of 15 minutes. Le sigh. I want a chocolate chip cookie.
In other movie reviews, I am completely and utterly obsessed with FADO, a portuguese music movement from the 18th century portuarios. The movie was absolutly fabulous.
I have all these clothes I am not wearing. It makes me sad that I live in a place where it is better not to attract attention. I had a brush with death, runs from thieves could be my new indian name. Or something more exotic like the sunrise paintbrush.
Bouts of melancholy nostalgia, turrents of tristeza y tears. This weekend- went traipsing through the jungle and wished I had more time, que ironia.
Lemon meringue pie in a CALIfornia mansion. Fuego. Soledad. Stuffed mushrooms and white wine. Pumpkin puppy treats. I think that about says it all...
I am watching the Mirror Has 2 Faces. Girly indulgence. I had never seen it before. I don't care if you are pretty, I love you anyway... who doesn't want that? Who doesn't want to be made over into their best self? Who doesn't want to drop the mask? Or find someone to see through it.
The job search continues, but on the winding road I met the next Bill Gates, who wants to bring a new meaning to the city's title of silicone valley. Who wants to purchase a Kia and casually signed off on it, after previewing it for all of 15 minutes. Le sigh. I want a chocolate chip cookie.
In other movie reviews, I am completely and utterly obsessed with FADO, a portuguese music movement from the 18th century portuarios. The movie was absolutly fabulous.
I have all these clothes I am not wearing. It makes me sad that I live in a place where it is better not to attract attention. I had a brush with death, runs from thieves could be my new indian name. Or something more exotic like the sunrise paintbrush.
Bouts of melancholy nostalgia, turrents of tristeza y tears. This weekend- went traipsing through the jungle and wished I had more time, que ironia.
Lemon meringue pie in a CALIfornia mansion. Fuego. Soledad. Stuffed mushrooms and white wine. Pumpkin puppy treats. I think that about says it all...
Friday, June 5, 2009
finally, someone who gets it...
This article was in the LA TIMES today, called "For the 'funemployed', unemployment is welcome".
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-funemployment4-2009jun04,0,7581684.story?page=1
Loves it, I am fitting in with my generation, fight the machine. This is a great big adventure, time to start looking at the up-side. I am not trapped in a 9-5 that I hate/despise, I am gaining life experience and tapping into the universe in ways I never imagined possible.
I also spotted a study proving that living oversees increases creativity. 10 of 10 say in this economy, teaching abroad is the way to go, so I am ahead of the curve.
Did I enjoy my dance class today? Yes I did. Was the opening of 53.7 completely awesome? Of course it was. Time is a gift. It's nice to be young enough to enjoy it ;)
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-funemployment4-2009jun04,0,7581684.story?page=1
Loves it, I am fitting in with my generation, fight the machine. This is a great big adventure, time to start looking at the up-side. I am not trapped in a 9-5 that I hate/despise, I am gaining life experience and tapping into the universe in ways I never imagined possible.
I also spotted a study proving that living oversees increases creativity. 10 of 10 say in this economy, teaching abroad is the way to go, so I am ahead of the curve.
Did I enjoy my dance class today? Yes I did. Was the opening of 53.7 completely awesome? Of course it was. Time is a gift. It's nice to be young enough to enjoy it ;)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Delicious News
All things yummy... take a peak!
Tres leches recipe...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/food/6396423.html
Avacados...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/food/side/6396403.html
And exciting hints about how spices can shake up your meal... Check out the grilled cheese and oregano- grilled cheese is such a delicious classic!
http://www.mccormick.com/SpicesForHealth/Tips.aspx?dfaid=McCormickCampaigns
A little food hint, ginger can really help with indigestion!
Tres leches recipe...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/food/6396423.html
Avacados...
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/food/side/6396403.html
And exciting hints about how spices can shake up your meal... Check out the grilled cheese and oregano- grilled cheese is such a delicious classic!
http://www.mccormick.com/SpicesForHealth/Tips.aspx?dfaid=McCormickCampaigns
A little food hint, ginger can really help with indigestion!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Absolute Freedom
Courtesy of the Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/signs_of_spring.html
Touch the sky....
One step at a time I am trying to figure it out.
It has been SloW.
The secret is to do EveryThing.
Do everything sLoW. Do Small things, but do them Well.
I spent the day ogling Indian Food Blogs. I really need a CAMERA...
Time never passes down here- it's kind of amazing.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step...-TAO
My new favorite color is YeLLoW. This is pretty important because for Years my favorite color was pink/lavendar. I am celebrating that I have outgrown pink and moved on!!
YeLLoW is the color of...
ClaritY, PerCePtioN, UnDeRsTanDing, CheeRfuLneSS, eXpanSiVeneSS, mOtiVatioN, LeaderShip, LearNinG, CommuniCatioN, CreaTivitY, CurioSiTy ProDucTiVitY, HealTh, BleSsing, EnligHtenMent, InteLLect, StiMulaTing, Busy, bRigHt, RiCh, SaCred, SoLar Magic.
Properties
The 3rd Chakra is known as the Solar Plexus Chakra imbuing one with personal power and fulfillment.
The color YeLLoW has stood for WisDom and InteLLect throughout the ages. It is full of creative and intellectual energy. A sun color, it makes us feel happy and optimistic. Expansive and free to do and be all that we can be. Cheerful, Joyful, Curious, Yellow promotes optimism. Helps you feel expressive, friendly and experimental.
Some signs that the Solar Plexus Chakra is out of balance are:
Difficulty concentrating
Poor ability to make decisions or judge a situation accurately
A feeling that you are more important than other people
Procrastination in taking action or completing something once youve started.
It has been SloW.
The secret is to do EveryThing.
Do everything sLoW. Do Small things, but do them Well.
I spent the day ogling Indian Food Blogs. I really need a CAMERA...
Time never passes down here- it's kind of amazing.
The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step...-TAO
My new favorite color is YeLLoW. This is pretty important because for Years my favorite color was pink/lavendar. I am celebrating that I have outgrown pink and moved on!!
YeLLoW is the color of...
ClaritY, PerCePtioN, UnDeRsTanDing, CheeRfuLneSS, eXpanSiVeneSS, mOtiVatioN, LeaderShip, LearNinG, CommuniCatioN, CreaTivitY, CurioSiTy ProDucTiVitY, HealTh, BleSsing, EnligHtenMent, InteLLect, StiMulaTing, Busy, bRigHt, RiCh, SaCred, SoLar Magic.
Properties
The 3rd Chakra is known as the Solar Plexus Chakra imbuing one with personal power and fulfillment.
The color YeLLoW has stood for WisDom and InteLLect throughout the ages. It is full of creative and intellectual energy. A sun color, it makes us feel happy and optimistic. Expansive and free to do and be all that we can be. Cheerful, Joyful, Curious, Yellow promotes optimism. Helps you feel expressive, friendly and experimental.
Some signs that the Solar Plexus Chakra is out of balance are:
Difficulty concentrating
Poor ability to make decisions or judge a situation accurately
A feeling that you are more important than other people
Procrastination in taking action or completing something once youve started.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
The power of letter writing...
When people show initiative and creativity in the pursuit of their goals, anything can happen!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/us/politics/29michelle.html?hpw
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/us/politics/29michelle.html?hpw
Monday, March 30, 2009
Journey to the center of the earth...
Maybe not to the center of the earth, but the center of the city. It's a whole other world of commerce and hustle and bustle. We went bead shopping because there isn't a Target in miles. There were shoes- lots and lots of shoes. And people- lots and lots of people. Does anyone remember those little glass figurines that were popular in the 80s'? I hadn't seen one in ages-until today. This is the place where products go to die.
Zippers, people with microphones, beaded bracelets, needless things. I saw a cat in a glass display case. It was the most random moment of my day. I did lunch with mom at my favorite and we had a good laugh. We sat down in the most random place to have bread and coke a cola. Recently on the Management Channel (NNEERRDDD) I saw a special on the soda wars- history told from the perspective of a glass soda bottle. How little do we know about this product that we ingest daily in such large quantities.
Apparently, Americans consume 3 liters a month. Imagine if we consumed that much water. I have decided to boycott soda, but am not doing so well at keeping up my end at the moment. The abuses that occur at the hand of these companies are atrocious. We are just mindless consumers to them, we must have the product- the brand- the recognition. They were saying they hoped Russian consumers would respond just as well after the Berlin wall came down. Products are uniform, thus people should be too. Once the product came in, Russian sodas could no longer be found and soda mafias started. Democracy was just masked consumerism in disguise. And just today I saw one of the sport teams sporting Pepsi uniforms. Here, Pepsi isn't even on the menu. Lesser brand- less recognition, less product. Lessons to be learned: products CREATE a need and compete for a limited market.
The depression isn't here yet, but I saw an article in the dailies about tent communities in CA. The modern shanty town was built for all your recession needs. People aren't selling their cars, their living in them. Finally, there is evidence. Favorite article I have seen lately: wrestlers in love. I can't go into detail, but a wrestling couple met at a match and she moved to the slums for him. To love someone that much...
Zippers, people with microphones, beaded bracelets, needless things. I saw a cat in a glass display case. It was the most random moment of my day. I did lunch with mom at my favorite and we had a good laugh. We sat down in the most random place to have bread and coke a cola. Recently on the Management Channel (NNEERRDDD) I saw a special on the soda wars- history told from the perspective of a glass soda bottle. How little do we know about this product that we ingest daily in such large quantities.
Apparently, Americans consume 3 liters a month. Imagine if we consumed that much water. I have decided to boycott soda, but am not doing so well at keeping up my end at the moment. The abuses that occur at the hand of these companies are atrocious. We are just mindless consumers to them, we must have the product- the brand- the recognition. They were saying they hoped Russian consumers would respond just as well after the Berlin wall came down. Products are uniform, thus people should be too. Once the product came in, Russian sodas could no longer be found and soda mafias started. Democracy was just masked consumerism in disguise. And just today I saw one of the sport teams sporting Pepsi uniforms. Here, Pepsi isn't even on the menu. Lesser brand- less recognition, less product. Lessons to be learned: products CREATE a need and compete for a limited market.
The depression isn't here yet, but I saw an article in the dailies about tent communities in CA. The modern shanty town was built for all your recession needs. People aren't selling their cars, their living in them. Finally, there is evidence. Favorite article I have seen lately: wrestlers in love. I can't go into detail, but a wrestling couple met at a match and she moved to the slums for him. To love someone that much...
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Curry as a metaphor
So, in light of the semi-tarian revivial last night I made curry and it was AMAZING. I felt triumphant, it was a success! The rice was a little undercooked, so were the peas, but other than that I managed to stir up the sweet flavor I was craving and the color was beautiful. It turned out a very warm orange. I thought curry would be more difficult, but I embraced the challenge and was suprised at how easy it was. If my camera had batteries, I would have posted picts. The smell and the heat were comforting. Just looking at it made me happy.
Orange is the color of creativity, confidence, intuition, friendliness and the entrepreneurial spirit. I hope that the universe strengthens those things in me and gives me the courage to change.
Orange is the color of creativity, confidence, intuition, friendliness and the entrepreneurial spirit. I hope that the universe strengthens those things in me and gives me the courage to change.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Yummy
Coconut Chicken With Snow Peas
From Good Housekeeping
Ingredients
1 cup jasmine rice or long-grain white rice
1 can (14-ounce) light coconut milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
4 thin slices fresh ginger
2 strips (3 inches each) fresh lime peel
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips
6 ounces (about 2 cups) snow peas, strings removed
1 tablespoon less-sodium fish sauce
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
Lime wedges
Directions
Prepare rice as label directs.
Meanwhile, in 12-inch nonstick skillet, stir together coconut milk, broth, cornstarch, ginger, and lime peel; heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Boil 1 minute.
Add chicken and snow peas to skillet; cover and cook 4 to 5 minutes longer or until chicken loses its pink color throughout.
Remove skillet from heat; stir in fish sauce and cilantro. Serve with rice and lime wedges.
Serves 4.
Courtesy of Yumsugar...think it's dinner for tomorrow!
From Good Housekeeping
Ingredients
1 cup jasmine rice or long-grain white rice
1 can (14-ounce) light coconut milk
1 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
4 thin slices fresh ginger
2 strips (3 inches each) fresh lime peel
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken-breast halves, cut into 1/2-inch-wide strips
6 ounces (about 2 cups) snow peas, strings removed
1 tablespoon less-sodium fish sauce
1/4 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
Lime wedges
Directions
Prepare rice as label directs.
Meanwhile, in 12-inch nonstick skillet, stir together coconut milk, broth, cornstarch, ginger, and lime peel; heat to boiling over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Boil 1 minute.
Add chicken and snow peas to skillet; cover and cook 4 to 5 minutes longer or until chicken loses its pink color throughout.
Remove skillet from heat; stir in fish sauce and cilantro. Serve with rice and lime wedges.
Serves 4.
Courtesy of Yumsugar...think it's dinner for tomorrow!
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Food blogs- a new obsession
I don't know when I became a foodie, but I am pretty sure it had something to do with my good friend Ashley and a few too many batches of PINK cupcakes. And crab rangoon. And a trip to Krispy Kreme and the Olive Garden. Since that day forward, new love for food. Also, might have had to do with college. The delectable salad bar, Tracey the male cook changed our dinners! I craved food from home, which is something I do now. I search all these recipes, but haven't ventured to try them out yet. I am stocking up and preparing. Someday I will have my own kitchen again. In the meantimes, I will obsess about food quietly and desperately.
Today there was a great article in the times about- you guessed it- food! One of the times reporters ventured out into the immigrant community to see what THEIR 20 minute meals and quick stand-bys look like which I think is a GREAT idea! It makes me wonder what all my close and ethnically diverse friends prepare on the fly when they really don't feel like cooking. My stand-bys include a great recipe by real simple for spinach and sausage gnocchi, Colombian hotdogs, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and gorditas courtesy of an old friend from highschool.
After perusing the blogging world, I am impressed by the sophistication of some of these meals- how lucky to grow up in such a food centered home! Where the cookies are arty and the food is restaurant quality. We now have a cook at home and she makes every meal a restaurant experience, but I miss making the food myself. At my grandparents house, it's like living in the food wars. Colombian cuisine my tush! It is survival of the fittest. Function, not flavor these people have eaten THE SAME thing on a daily rotation for the past 50 or so years. No points for taste, I might add. Once my dad started cooking, food started looking up in our house but in my formative years, we suffered through a lot of tv dinners and hamburger helpers (pre-flexitarian years).
Basically, I guess this rambling leads to one question- where do cooking talent, ability, and inspiration come from? What attracts people to certain foods? How do people come up with this stuff?
In any case, enjoy the video! And if you have a delectable stand-by in the 20 min. or less category, PLEASE feel free to share!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/dining/11immi.html
Today there was a great article in the times about- you guessed it- food! One of the times reporters ventured out into the immigrant community to see what THEIR 20 minute meals and quick stand-bys look like which I think is a GREAT idea! It makes me wonder what all my close and ethnically diverse friends prepare on the fly when they really don't feel like cooking. My stand-bys include a great recipe by real simple for spinach and sausage gnocchi, Colombian hotdogs, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, and gorditas courtesy of an old friend from highschool.
After perusing the blogging world, I am impressed by the sophistication of some of these meals- how lucky to grow up in such a food centered home! Where the cookies are arty and the food is restaurant quality. We now have a cook at home and she makes every meal a restaurant experience, but I miss making the food myself. At my grandparents house, it's like living in the food wars. Colombian cuisine my tush! It is survival of the fittest. Function, not flavor these people have eaten THE SAME thing on a daily rotation for the past 50 or so years. No points for taste, I might add. Once my dad started cooking, food started looking up in our house but in my formative years, we suffered through a lot of tv dinners and hamburger helpers (pre-flexitarian years).
Basically, I guess this rambling leads to one question- where do cooking talent, ability, and inspiration come from? What attracts people to certain foods? How do people come up with this stuff?
In any case, enjoy the video! And if you have a delectable stand-by in the 20 min. or less category, PLEASE feel free to share!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/dining/11immi.html
Monday, February 9, 2009
MNC
M*N*C is code for minimun necessary change. It's code from Isaac Asimov's End of Eternity, great sci-fi novel that will be on video sometime in the next year or 2. It's the idea that very small things can impact and change our world and our future, mainly our ideas and way of thinking.
Today, this editorial came out in the NYtimes, showing that smaller creative initatives in education are often more effective than throwing money at a problem. According to the article, our own sucess is created by our mind. I love this concept and want to implement it widely.
Here is the article, enjoy!
Education Is All in Your Mind
AS Department of Education officials consider how best to spend billions from the economic stimulus plan, they would be wise to pay attention to which programs actually help children’s achievement — and keep in mind that sometimes very small influences in children’s lives can have very big effects.
Consider, for example, what the social psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson have described as “stereotype threat,” which hampers the performance of African-American students. Simply reminding blacks of their race before they take an exam leads them to perform worse, their research shows.
Fortunately, stereotype threat for blacks and other minorities can be reduced in many ways. Just telling students that their intelligence is under their own control improves their effort on school work and performance. In two separate studies, Mr. Aronson and others taught black and Hispanic junior high school students how the brain works, explaining that the students possessed the ability, if they worked hard, to make themselves smarter. This erased up to half of the difference between minority and white achievement levels.
Black students also perform better on an exam when it is presented as a puzzle rather than as a test of academic achievement or ability, another study has shown. These are small interventions that have big effects.
Here’s another example: Daphna Oyserman, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, asked inner-city junior-high children in Detroit what kind of future they would like to have, what difficulties they anticipated along the way, how they might deal with them and which of their friends would be most helpful in coping. After only a few such exercises in life planning, the children improved their performance on standardized academic tests, and the number who were required to repeat a grade dropped by more than half.
Geoffrey Cohen, a psychologist at the University of Colorado, found still another way to improve black students’ test performance. He asked teachers at a suburban middle school, at the beginning of a school year, to give their seventh graders a series of assignments to write about their most important values. Afterward, the black students did well enough in all their courses to obliterate 30 percent of the difference that had existed between black and white students’ grades in previous years.
Small interventions can make a big difference even as late as the college years. Dr. Cohen and another psychologist, Gregory Walton, who is now at Stanford, hypothesized that worries about social acceptance — which are common among all college students — would be especially great among black students on majority-white campuses.
So the researchers gave a group of students at a Northeastern university a detailed report of a survey showing that most upperclassmen had once worried about feeling accepted but had ultimately come to feel at home on campus. Black students who were given this information reported that they worked harder on their schoolwork than others did, and contacted their professors more. The payoff in grade-point average erased most of the usual difference between blacks and whites at the university.
These experiments may help explain the “Obama effect” on the test performance of African-Americans. Adult subjects in a study (still unpublished) answered comprehension questions from the verbal sections of the Graduate Record Examinations before and just after the presidential election. The black participants who were tested before the vote performed worse than whites; those tested immediately afterward scored almost as well as whites.
If simple interventions can have big effects, one might assume that bigger interventions would always be even better. But the truth is that some big interventions in education have had only minimal effects. Head Start, which places 3- and 4-year-olds in supposedly enriched classroom settings, and Early Head Start, which works with 1- to 3-year-olds, for example, have been found to have only modest effects on the children’s academic achievement, and these often fade by early elementary school. Likewise, “whole-school interventions,” in which teams of education engineers descend on a school and change its curriculum, introduce new textbooks and train teachers — often at great expense — typically produce little in the way of educational gain.
Some bigger programs have worked well, however. The Perry Preschool, which was set up in Ypsilanti, Mich., in the early 1960s, is a good example. In this school, highly trained and motivated teachers worked with groups of only six black preschoolers in educationally intensive sessions intended to help the severely disadvantaged children develop both cognitively and socially, and the teachers visited the children’s families for 90 minutes every week.
By the time these students reached high school, almost half of them scored above the 10th percentile on the California Achievement Test, compared with only 14 percent of students in a control group. Almost two-thirds of the students who had been in the program graduated from high school, compared with only 43 percent of control students. And by age 27, one-third of the Perry children owned their own home; only 11 percent of the control students did.
James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, has estimated that for every dollar spent on a prekindergarten like Perry, $8 has been gained in higher incomes for participants and in savings on the costs of extra schooling, crime and welfare.
Similarly, a program called KIPP (for Knowledge Is Power Program) is having remarkable success with poor minority children in middle schools. KIPP students attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., their term is three weeks longer than normal, and every other Saturday they have classes for half a day. The curriculum includes sports, visits to museums and instruction in dance, art, music, theater and photography. During one academic year, the percentage of fifth-graders at KIPP schools in the San Francisco Bay Area who scored at or above the national average on the reading portion of the Stanford Achievement Test rose to 44 percent from 25 percent. And while only 37 percent started the year at or above the national average in math, 65 percent reached that level by spring.
Such creative programs must be tested to ensure that they work as they are meant to. The United States Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, which was established by the Bush administration, has the job of making public all significant evaluations of educational interventions. The Obama administration should heed the Clearinghouse’s reports. Stimulus money should be spent only on programs that work well — and on creating new programs, which in turn should be properly tested for effectiveness.
President Obama is in a position to not only inspire black youngsters by his example, but also make an enormous difference in their schooling — as long as he supports successful educational interventions, from the smallest to the most ambitious.
Richard E. Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, is the author of “Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.”
Today, this editorial came out in the NYtimes, showing that smaller creative initatives in education are often more effective than throwing money at a problem. According to the article, our own sucess is created by our mind. I love this concept and want to implement it widely.
Here is the article, enjoy!
Education Is All in Your Mind
AS Department of Education officials consider how best to spend billions from the economic stimulus plan, they would be wise to pay attention to which programs actually help children’s achievement — and keep in mind that sometimes very small influences in children’s lives can have very big effects.
Consider, for example, what the social psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson have described as “stereotype threat,” which hampers the performance of African-American students. Simply reminding blacks of their race before they take an exam leads them to perform worse, their research shows.
Fortunately, stereotype threat for blacks and other minorities can be reduced in many ways. Just telling students that their intelligence is under their own control improves their effort on school work and performance. In two separate studies, Mr. Aronson and others taught black and Hispanic junior high school students how the brain works, explaining that the students possessed the ability, if they worked hard, to make themselves smarter. This erased up to half of the difference between minority and white achievement levels.
Black students also perform better on an exam when it is presented as a puzzle rather than as a test of academic achievement or ability, another study has shown. These are small interventions that have big effects.
Here’s another example: Daphna Oyserman, a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, asked inner-city junior-high children in Detroit what kind of future they would like to have, what difficulties they anticipated along the way, how they might deal with them and which of their friends would be most helpful in coping. After only a few such exercises in life planning, the children improved their performance on standardized academic tests, and the number who were required to repeat a grade dropped by more than half.
Geoffrey Cohen, a psychologist at the University of Colorado, found still another way to improve black students’ test performance. He asked teachers at a suburban middle school, at the beginning of a school year, to give their seventh graders a series of assignments to write about their most important values. Afterward, the black students did well enough in all their courses to obliterate 30 percent of the difference that had existed between black and white students’ grades in previous years.
Small interventions can make a big difference even as late as the college years. Dr. Cohen and another psychologist, Gregory Walton, who is now at Stanford, hypothesized that worries about social acceptance — which are common among all college students — would be especially great among black students on majority-white campuses.
So the researchers gave a group of students at a Northeastern university a detailed report of a survey showing that most upperclassmen had once worried about feeling accepted but had ultimately come to feel at home on campus. Black students who were given this information reported that they worked harder on their schoolwork than others did, and contacted their professors more. The payoff in grade-point average erased most of the usual difference between blacks and whites at the university.
These experiments may help explain the “Obama effect” on the test performance of African-Americans. Adult subjects in a study (still unpublished) answered comprehension questions from the verbal sections of the Graduate Record Examinations before and just after the presidential election. The black participants who were tested before the vote performed worse than whites; those tested immediately afterward scored almost as well as whites.
If simple interventions can have big effects, one might assume that bigger interventions would always be even better. But the truth is that some big interventions in education have had only minimal effects. Head Start, which places 3- and 4-year-olds in supposedly enriched classroom settings, and Early Head Start, which works with 1- to 3-year-olds, for example, have been found to have only modest effects on the children’s academic achievement, and these often fade by early elementary school. Likewise, “whole-school interventions,” in which teams of education engineers descend on a school and change its curriculum, introduce new textbooks and train teachers — often at great expense — typically produce little in the way of educational gain.
Some bigger programs have worked well, however. The Perry Preschool, which was set up in Ypsilanti, Mich., in the early 1960s, is a good example. In this school, highly trained and motivated teachers worked with groups of only six black preschoolers in educationally intensive sessions intended to help the severely disadvantaged children develop both cognitively and socially, and the teachers visited the children’s families for 90 minutes every week.
By the time these students reached high school, almost half of them scored above the 10th percentile on the California Achievement Test, compared with only 14 percent of students in a control group. Almost two-thirds of the students who had been in the program graduated from high school, compared with only 43 percent of control students. And by age 27, one-third of the Perry children owned their own home; only 11 percent of the control students did.
James Heckman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist at the University of Chicago, has estimated that for every dollar spent on a prekindergarten like Perry, $8 has been gained in higher incomes for participants and in savings on the costs of extra schooling, crime and welfare.
Similarly, a program called KIPP (for Knowledge Is Power Program) is having remarkable success with poor minority children in middle schools. KIPP students attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., their term is three weeks longer than normal, and every other Saturday they have classes for half a day. The curriculum includes sports, visits to museums and instruction in dance, art, music, theater and photography. During one academic year, the percentage of fifth-graders at KIPP schools in the San Francisco Bay Area who scored at or above the national average on the reading portion of the Stanford Achievement Test rose to 44 percent from 25 percent. And while only 37 percent started the year at or above the national average in math, 65 percent reached that level by spring.
Such creative programs must be tested to ensure that they work as they are meant to. The United States Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse, which was established by the Bush administration, has the job of making public all significant evaluations of educational interventions. The Obama administration should heed the Clearinghouse’s reports. Stimulus money should be spent only on programs that work well — and on creating new programs, which in turn should be properly tested for effectiveness.
President Obama is in a position to not only inspire black youngsters by his example, but also make an enormous difference in their schooling — as long as he supports successful educational interventions, from the smallest to the most ambitious.
Richard E. Nisbett, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, is the author of “Intelligence and How to Get It: Why Schools and Cultures Count.”
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