Monthly Archives: June 2009

Soft Launch of OnlyUp, Two Events, Plus a Contest!


Posted by ajlovesya

My head is spinning because of the amount of work I have to do this summer (so much for laying around!)  I wanted to give you all a heads up on some wonderful events happening for young people interested in social change and social media that I am involved in.

OnlyUp “Soft Launch” Tuesday July 14th at the 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs Summit

Starting an organization is. no. joke.  After 6 months of planning, debating, and crying we are ready to launch a fully functioning website, a social media campaign, and start raising money to fully launch our programs.  Just so you know, our website is under construction. A pretty version will be put up soon with a blog and a sign up.  Email me, allison [at] onlyup [dot] org, to sign up or for more information .

What is OnlyUp:  OnlyUp is an organization that helps nonprofits prepare for the next generation of leaders through consultations, awards, and community-coalition building.

The executive director Brandon West and I will be attending the summit to discuss the challenges and solutions to increasing viable job opportunities for millenials, who are being hit hardest by the recession.  The summit is being held by 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs.  Visit the website to learn more or follow them on twitter @80MS.  Given the kind of work we will do, we thought this would be the best time to start spreading the word and continue building a support base.

If you want to be added to the list serv, have any questions, or want to get involved, shoot me an email allison [at] onlyup [dot] org or DM me on twitter @ajlovesya

Summer SOLstice (Fundraiser): Wednesday July 1st, 7pm-9pm, Wyndham Garden Hotel Rooftop Bar 341 West 36th St. $20 for two drinks, $30 for open bar

This fundraising event is being hosted by the 2009 Fellows in the NYU Fellowship for Emerging Leaders in Public Service (FELPS) for Brotherhood/Sister Sol, a Harlem based nonprofit that provides resources and support for inner city teens.  We had the opportunity to speak with one of the co-founders of the organization and were deeply moved by the challenges young people of color face in the inner city, his compassion, and the success of the organization.  We decided to end our 6 month fellowship by hosting a fundraising event for them to support their efforts.

Please join us!  Not only will you be supporting a fantastic organization but also you will meet young changemakers and enjoy a beautiful view of NYC.

If you want to come you can shoot me an email ajlovesya [at] gmail [dot] com and let me know what type of tickets you want and how many.  You can pay at the door.

Mission Mixer (Fundraiser and Networking): Thursday, July 9th, 6:00-8:30pm Rum Bar and Lounge, 2005 Walnut Street, $15 (includes 5 raffle tickets!), buy tickets here or pay at the door.

I cant forget about my Philly friends!  This Mission Mixer is an opportunity to connect with social change makers, entrepreneurs, and bright minds of Philly and win some great prizes.  Co sponsored by The Urban Momentum Network, Premier Brand Group, and OnlyUp, the event will benefit The Nationalities Service Center, a Philadelphia based nonprofit that supports refugees living in Philly.  All proceeds will benefit NSC’s refugee resettlement efforts and will be used to provide household goods, clothing, furniture, culturally and ethnically appropriate food and school supplies to recently arrived refugees.

I’ll be there supporting NSC and talking a bit about OnlyUp.  If you are in Philly, please come out!

Brazen Careerist Contest (FREE PARTY!): Deadline Monday July 6th

I’m not trying to flatter myself here but Ive got quite a few readers, many of whom are in NYC.  If you read blogs or have one of your own, please join Brazen Careerist then join the NYC Bloggers Group (a group I started).  If we have the highest number of bloggers Brazen will throw us a kick ass party.

I owe much to Brazen for the success of this blog.  So I am more than happen to support them :-)   Plus, these guys know how to party!


Taking a Break


Posted by ajlovesya

Hey fam!

I’m taking a little break from blogging.  I need to clear my head, work on my summer schedule, and some side projects.  I’ll be back next week!

You can still follow me on twitter @ajlovesya or shoot me an email ajlovesya [at] gmail [dot] com if you have any questions.

Allison


Call for Papers: 20 Under 40 and the Future of the Arts and Arts Education


Posted by ajlovesya

Are you an emerging leader in the arts and art education world?   Then consider submitting a chapter to this exciting new book “20 Under 40: Reinventing the Arts and Arts Education in the 21st Century.”   The book will feature 20 essays by emerging leaders in the arts about the future of arts and arts education.  This is a great way to focus on your own beliefs and ideas while getting some publicity under your belt. Please visit 20UNDER40 for more info or join them on Facebook.  Good luck!

_________________________________________________________________________________

Editor/Project Director: Edward P. Clapp, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Project Advisor: Eric Booth, The Juilliard School/Independent Arts Consultant

In light of the impending generational shift in leadership the field
of the arts and arts education is about to experience, there has been
much talk about the future: who will be our new leading arts thinkers,
administrators, policymakers, and practitioners—and in what social,
cultural, and political landscapes will these individuals operate?
While there is great concern surrounding this matter, little is being
done to provide a platform for tomorrow’s leaders to share their ideas
with the larger field.

20UNDER40—a new anthology of critical discourse—endeavors to collect
twenty essays about the future of the arts and arts education, each
written by an emerging leader under the age of forty. In doing so,
this collection of essays will provide a unique arena for new ideas by
formally gathering the thoughts of young artists, teaching artists,
administrators, researchers, and other arts and arts education
professionals— legitimizing the talent of young leaders by bringing their ideas out
of the margins and into the forefront of our dialogue.

Who is a Leader?

Artists, teaching artists, arts administrators, curators, arts
advocates, arts researchers—anyone who has an idea or vision for the
future is considered a leader under the aegis of 20UNDER40. If you are
a young arts professional under the age of forty and want to make an
impact on the field—we want to hear from you!

Suggested Themes

20UNDER40 is interested in publishing essays focused on a wide range
of topics. The intention of this anthology is to be as inclusive as
possible concerning forward-thinking theories, visions, and models for
21st Century arts and arts education. Successful chapter proposals
will identify a problem within the field and pose a solution;
highlight a need and articulate a new vision, and/or; debunk an
accepted theory or practice and posit a new one. Suggested topics may
include (but are not limited to) the following:

General Themes

•     Developing new visions for arts and arts education
management and institutional structure.
•     Transforming the arts and arts education to meet the
demands of the information-era.
•     Envisioning the role of the arts and arts education in a
global economy.
•     Employing the arts and arts education as a tool for social
justice in a globalized world.
•     Bridging the gap between the multiple facets of the arts
(professional artists, arts educators, arts researchers, arts
policymakers, etc.) to foster intra-sector alignment.
•     Investigating new approaches to arts and arts education advocacy.

Specific Themes: Arts Practice

•     Envisioning the changing role of the arts in 21st Century
society and culture.
•     Hypothesizing about the future of the disciplines.
•     Making art relevant to information-era audiences.
•     Discussing the future of intellectual property and
authorship in a digital re-mix world.
•     Developing relationships between the arts and other
industries/domains.
•     Exploring the arts and cognition in light of advancements
in neuroscience research.
•     Hypothesizing the pros and cons of a “post-art” world.

Specific Themes: Arts Education

•     Developing new pedagogical models for arts teaching and learning.
•     Applying arts education to “21st Century Skills” …and beyond.
•     Discussing the intrinsic vs. the instrumental value of arts
education.
•     Crafting new methods to measure the quality of an arts
learning experience.
•     Exploring the future pedagogical function of the arts in
times of high-stakes testing.
•     Arguing for and against the formal certification of teaching artists.
•     Redesigning BFA and MFA programs to better equip aspiring
artists with the skills necessary to be most efficacious in a 21st
Century cultural economy.

Submission Guidelines

Individuals wishing to propose a chapter to 20UNDER40 will undergo a
two-step peer-review process.

STEP ONE: Submit a 1-2 page (double-spaced, one inch margins, 12 point
font) chapter proposal via our electronic submission process
(www.20UNDER40.org) by 11:59 p.m. EST on Friday, August 31, 2009.
Authors will be notified of their acceptance status on or before
September 25, 2009. Successful chapter proposals will identify a
problem within the field and pose a solution; highlight a need and
articulate a new vision, and/or; debunk an accepted theory or practice
and posit a new one. Please include your name and email address on
each page of your chapter proposal.

STEP TWO: Selected authors will be invited to submit full chapters for
a second round of peer-review. Full chapters (4000-6000 words) are due
from invited authors on or before January 15, 2010. Guidelines for
full chapter submissions will be sent to invited authors. Twenty of
the full chapters received by invited authors will be selected for
publication. The target date to notify invited authors of the status
of their full chapter submissions is April 30, 2010.

All chapter proposals must include an electronic submission
coversheet.  (See website for details: www.20UNDER40.org)

The core ideas of all chapter proposals/full chapters must be the
original work of the author. Chapter proposals/full chapters must be
written in English. Multiple chapter proposals are permitted—please
submit each proposal separately. Submissions must be electronic word
processor documents (i.e. Microsoft Word documents). Please use the
following format to label your submission: “LASTNAME.doc”. Do not send
“.docx” files.

Who is the Audience?

20UNDER40 aims to be a readable volume of essays published for an
educated, though not overly academic, audience. This volume is
designed to serve a broad inter-generational readership including:
artists, teaching artists, arts administrators, arts advocates, and
arts researchers—as well as non-arts individuals ranging from parents
to national policymakers. While 20UNDER40 will not restrict
contributors to any particular tone or mood, we suggest prospective
authors craft their prose using language that would be suitable for
publication in The New York Times.
Eligibility

20UNDER40 welcomes chapter proposal submissions from individuals
practicing at all levels—and in all capacities—within the field of the
arts and arts education. In order to be eligible for inclusion in
20UNDER40 an author must be under the age of forty by the chapter
proposal submission deadline (August 31, 2009).

If you have any questions regarding our submission guidelines or
would like to learn more about this project, please visit our website:
www.20UNDER40.org


Social Media Resources for the Young Social Change Job Seeker in New York


Posted by ajlovesya

I’ve gotten quite a few emails, IMs, and DMs about how to find and secure a  job in social change in NYC.  Ultimately, you have to put yourself out there and social media is the best way to do so.  This list is by no means complete but I think a good way to get started in your job search.

Facebook:

Twitter:

The blogosphere:

  • Brazen Careerist, an online network of millennial bloggers not only shares great work/life advice but also, organizations post blogs and job opportunities.
  • Jobs for Change, a new initiative by change.org, is a hub of social change careers and advice.

Groups and e-mail alerts:

Present your own voice:

Let people know you’re in the market, continue to work on (and showcase) your side projects, and be your biggest cheerleader.  Linked In, facebook, and blogging are great ways to get your voice out there and connect with other people who share your interests.  Additionally, these three forms of social media make it much easier for people to find you when they ( inevitably ) google you.  Here are some resources to get started:

I hope this is useful.  Please add to this list and share!


Sotomayor and the Future of Catholic Schools


Posted by ajlovesya

There are many things about Sotomayor that people are discussing; her background as a Latina from a poor family in the South Bronx is a source of both inspiration and criticism.  However, I have yet to see a focus on her Catholic school education and the implications it has for school choice and Catholic schools.

Catholic schools were created to serve the disadvantaged and continue to do so to this day, yet their history, challenges, and successes are largely unknown.    For example, in NYC, where 11% of students attend Catholic schools, a letter was recently sent to all Catholic schools by the Archdiocese of NY celebrating how Catholic school students outperformed public school students on the New York State English Language Arts Exam (again). We also know that students graduating from Catholic high schools in NYC have a 98% college attendance rate.

Well, I know this.  I know this because I work at a Catholic school and am a product of Catholic education so this information is shared freely among those in the Catholic circle.  But of course the public wouldn’t know this because in the growing discussion about school choice, Catholic schools are absent.  The debate is generally about charter schools and when Catholic schools are mentioned it is to highlight how many of them are closing.

The issue facing Catholic schools is largely a financial one stemming not just from competition from other schools (many of whom have adopted an approach to teaching that Catholic schools have been using for years) but also from lack of public support and awareness of the work we do.  We know that New York City cannot absorb all of the students suddenly without schools yet little is being done to ensure that their families have access to the schools that they wish to attend.

When Obama sent his daughters to a private school, discussions about the state of public schools—especially in DC—became more intense.  Now that we have someone heading to Capitol Hill with a catholic education under her belt, will new conversations take place?  Will Catholic schools have a greater presence in the school choice debate?  Will their successes and challenges be discussed with the public at large?  I hope so—many children and their families are depending on it.

Interesting reads:

Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?

To Save NYC’s Catholic Schools

Catholic-School Closing Tragedies