SAVE JESSICA!!!

SAVE JESSICA!!!

In the midst of my academic sprint towards graduation I have recently gotten hooked to American Idol.  After so many years of watching not one episode ( except for youtube clips of William Hung’s “She Bangs” performance )  of this show I find myself drawn to it by one of their contestants.   Her name is Jessica Sanchez.

Now, this story didn’t begin yesterday.  It actually begin a few years ago when I saw a youtube video of a little girl ( not more than 8 years old ) that sang masterfully, unlike any other person that I’ve seen.  She was singing Celine Dion’s “ I surrender” song like a complete pro.   Seriously, her performance gave me chills.  It was THAT good.  This is the youtube link to her performance:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNWkZVobPDg

She also has a youtube page where she posts videos of her singing covers to different songs.  This is the link to it http://www.youtube.com/user/jsanchezfan?feature=results_main

Okay!  So back to the point!  Recently,  I found out that this girl is an American Idol contestant.  She is an incredible singer and I immediately thought that well she had this “in the bag”.  What I forgot about is the fact that “America” gets to vote for their favorite singer.  Despite this I still thought that Jessica would still have it “ in the bag”.  To my surprise, she actually had to recently be saved by the judges.  WHAT!?  Why?!   This is why I will from now and forever on vote for Jessica.  She really deserves it. 

Please Vote for her as well!  Check some of youtube videos if you’re on the fence about voting for her.  Or catch her on American Idol next week.  She’s just so talented… It would definitely be sad if she doesn’t win this competition. 

PICTURE RECAP OF JESSICA BEING SAVED BY THE JUDGES

She SINGS and doesn’t please America

Judges discuss it and….

She’s saved! 

If you missed it… This is also a condensed version of what happened in the latest American Idol Episode.   Jessica gets saved by the judges http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux5Zdsi76oc&context=C471f5a6ADvjVQa1PpcFPFpqyeWw8JXiIkAh-4j3j62hg2LpC1OrA=

The Pope in Mexico!

Mexico is known for its food, its great beaches, the vibrancy of its people and culture. And sadly it is also known for its cartel problems. 

Mexico will persevere through this dark time.  When it celebrated its 200^th birthday ( a few years back), a lot of people criticized it.  To most people a country with that many problems ( both economic and political and so on)should not be spending its money celebrating its 200^th birthday.  But that’s just not Mexico.  Mexico and its people are much more than just a combination of problems.  And hence they just like any other country have the right to celebrate its existence.  

IEDP Internship!

It is now official.  I am going to go to Cabo Delgado, Mozambique for my IEDP field internship. 

          I will be working with the Agha Khan Foundation.  My main job is to evaluate an adult literacy program.  Other students from IEDP are working in different parts of Africa, some are heading to Latin America, Asia and Europe.  Oh!  And some decided to take internships here in the United States (San Francisco, New York, D.C.).  Basically, IEDP students are going to be all over the world this summer.  To my knowledge, the different organizations that IEDP students will be working for are UNESCO, OECD, IDEA, World Vision, and others. 

I think that at this point all of us have a set internship.  I am very happy with mine.  Nonetheless, it was unexpected.  My “forte” is the Latin America area.  And so I naturally thought that I was going to go to Latin America and further strengthen my career there.  Nonetheless, Professor Wagner encouraged me to work in my interest but in a different context.  Since I’m still a student of international development, Dr. Wagner thought that it be important for me to be exposed to as much of the world as possible.  And I agree.

Depending on each other’s schedules we each will be departing on different dates to our specific destinations.  As for me, I will be heading to Africa a few days after graduation.  I’m so excited!  I’ve already started preparing for Africa (e.g. applying for my VISA and vaccinations!)

Speakers on Campus

So this semester I've attended a good number of different events around campus.  Notable among these speaker events is Amartya Sen's visit to Upenn.  IEDP has also brought a good number of professional people involved in international development.  And I've had the honor to meet and even have dinner/lunch with some of the speakers whom I have learned a lot from.

The first one is Amartya Sen:
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/economics/laureates/1998/sen-autobio.html

 Dirk Van Damme
Head of Division of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI)
http://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3746,en_21571361_49995565_44146403_1_1_1_1,00.html

 Eric Falt
Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Public Information at the United nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOu9e7FRjns

 Irina Bokova
Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
http://www.bokova.eu/

 Nerissa Cook
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
Bureau for intenrational Organization Affairs, US Department of State
http://www.state.gov/p/io/132821.htm

Mayor Nutter

During lunch on Friday Mayor Nutter addressed all of the Gates Millennium Scholars that were part of this year’s Alternative Spring Break.   I was seated near the podium where the mayor was going to speak from.  When I was making my way back to my seat we sort of made eye contact and he interpret it as if I was making my way towards him, to speak to him or shake his hand.  Glad that to have the sudden chance to speak to the mayor whom I actually admire ( lol)… I scurried through my mind in order to find a “topic” to talk to the mayor about. 

A day before that he had presented the new city budget and you I could definitely tell that defending/presenting the new budget had taken a toll on his “spiritual strength”. 

Fourth Day of Community Service

On the fourth day of community service we went to the People’s Emergency Center (PEC) and to an affiliated organization with PEC called Children’s Safe Harbor (CSH).  These are PHENOMENAL organizations.  The PEC website is:  http://www.pec-cares.org/

And the Children’s Safe Harbor (CSH) is:  http://childrenssafeharborinc.org/

The PEC helps homeless people get back on their feet.  They feed and train people so that they can eventually fend for themselves and maybe even be homeowners, someday.  The children’s safe harbor specializes in helping formally abused children.  Both are phenomenal organizations.  I just cannot stop saying that.

Our task was to evaluate the efficiency of a program in the CSH.  The program was a computer class.  We interviewed both members of the staff that implemented the program and participants of the program (which were all women).  We asked questions like:  What do you like about the program?  What do you think could be worked on?  What do you think needs to be added to make this program work even better for you?  Why?  Etc.  But for me… the most important question was the last question.  Has this program helped you be more involved in your child’s schooling?  Any change before and now during your participation in the program?  I was surprised to hear how being computer literate had helped the women feel more “sure of themselves” and with enough confidence to check their children’s homework.  Through the program they had learned some English and had learned how to navigate the internet and Microsoft ( and other software) that gave them the skills to give their input in their children’s school work.

I was very move by this experience.  I just can’t believe how efficiently run these organizations were.  And how noble were the goals that they set out to do.  It’s very moving…

WEB Du Bois (Dr. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois) and Upenn

As a graduate assistant working for the admissions office, one of my tasks is to give tours to prospective/accepted students who request it.  The Upenn campus is not as big as I thought that it was going to be.   Nonetheless, my tours only cover parts of the campus.  Since, the tours are often limited to thirty minutes I basically give students thirty minutes worth of the campus.  This, I think limits both the visiting student’s scope of the entirety of the Upenn campus and my own as well (since I don’t have to learn about any other buildings on campus other than the ones that I cover during my tour).  Hence, I am ignorant to the history and location of many other buildings on campus, including the WEB Du Bois College House here on campus. 

All of the students and staff involved with ASB came to Upenn for dinner today ( Wednesday March 7^th).   The dinner was held in the Wharton Building which I was familiar with, because of its proximity to the Graduate School of Education.  Nonetheless, after the dinner we were supposed to go to the WEB Du Bois house, which I was completely unaware of.  I didn’t know that it existed.  Since, I was a student from Upenn people were expecting me to know where it was at and I just didn’t know.  It was quite embarrassing…

Of course!  As soon as I was able to get a hold of a computer I researched the house and its history.  I will not go over all of the history but it is definitely worth reading.  Here is the link:  http://dubois.house.upenn.edu/house_history.html  It is a housing building open to all and has a strong history of catering to African American issues.  Even today, “the House continues to be a center for Black scholars searching diligently for an African identity and perspective within a historically White institution of higher learning.” Again, I highly recommend the one page brief history of the house. 

As if this wasn’t enough… I also found out that WEB Du Bois was just (Mid February of 2012) given a posthumous recognition as an honorary Emeritus Professor of Sociology and African American Studies.  In 1896, WEB Du Bois was hired to be an assistant lecturer here at the University of Pennsylvania.  Because of the “times” he wasn’t given a full professorship.  At the end, this most recent recognition of WEB Du Bois as a professor Emeritus serves more as an award to the University than to the late WEB Du Bois. 

Read more about it here:  http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/penn-conference-mark-honorary-emeritus-professorship-sociology-and-africana-studies-web-du-bois