JHU's Center For Talented Youth

This past week I received a phone call from a Project Manager for Johns Hopkins University's Center For Talented Youth Program saying that I an employment opportunity opened up for me as a Senior Resident Assistant at a site in Pennsylvania. I was originally told the enrollment rates were so low, they had been forced to cut a number of spots and that the likelihood of new ones becoming available were slim to none. You can imagine my surprise when a Baltimore area code appeared on my phone and I found myself accepting the position immediately!

I am a former student of the program back when it was called IAAY in '96 and then CTY in '97. I came back to work for their Civic Leadership Institute (developed with a sister program in Chicago) as a Resident Assistant. Grateful for what my experience had been as a student, I was eager to play a dynamic role in creating a similar positive experience for my own students. The three weeks I spent in Baltimore were truly remarkable and I cannot wait to join the staff at my new site this summer. As a Senior RA, I will be in more of a supervisory position, responsible for training and leading the staff, handling any disciplinary issues, and maintaining a close line of communication with administrators. The hours are crazy and I get maybe two days off in seven weeks. I will be distracted beyond belief and for that I'm even more grateful.

CAFE

Attention all artists! Interested in applying to shows all over the country with the ease of a mouse click or two? Register online at callforentry.org to create a comprehensive online profile with up to 100 images of your work and an artist's statement. Once registered, you can view all the upcoming listings of art shows, pick those you'd like to apply to, and send in your images/payment directly online!

SOLD! and a Conference Winning roll call

Alas, my group show on the New Paltz campus has ended! It was dismantled and its contents distributed to new homes on the walls of my room February 24th. The Art Society of Kingston (ASK) "Generation Gap" show has also come to a close. "I wish that I could have been warned", the print I posted in my last entry was featured on the cover of "Art Times", a small Hudson Valley Arts guide. I was unable to attend the opening. I did manage to sneak a peek at the show on Valentine's day and I'm incredibly excited to say that the print was sold! I'm flattered and truly grateful for the publicity and support of my work.

My father, who has really come around to the idea of me studying art in general, has also offered to buy one of my prints as an act of support. I will be sending him a framed copy of "Poster of a girl" in the mail shortly. :)

This month has been a whirlwind of activity and I can't say enough how grateful I am for the opportunities I've received. This past weekend I represented New Paltz an annual Residence Life conference at SUNY Cortland. Our team of 12 student leaders from New Paltz put together a lipsync for the conference's roll call challenge that really wowed the crowd and won first place! There are links to the video all over facebook, so I'll see if there's a way I could post it here!

Her morning Elegance and Small Steps Forward

Yay for Small successes!

I've recently been a part of two small group exhibitions at the Art Society of Kingston in Kingston, NY! ASK is a wonderful arts organization with beautiful gallery space and an amazing array of talented members who frequently show there. My first print was selected for a juried show titled "SUNY New Paltz Printmakers: Contemporary Printmaking" that was held Jan 3rd-Feb 3rd. Not only was it featured on their website, but it was featured in a printed review of the show alongside BFA and MFA candidates I really admire. The second piece, another smallish photo silkscreen print is currently on display in another juried show at ASK titled "Generation Gap" until Feb. 28th. You can currently view the print here or on their website: http://www.askforarts.org/exhibits/details.php?num=271

Wanted: Significant Something

I've developed a curiosity with the human experience, relationships/dating, and the "self advertising" that has quickly become a major part of all of the above. I've read hundreds of personal ads in the interest of art (and my own curiosity) and even wrote a few of my own. Occasionally, a creative one will catch my eye and I wanted to share them...here's one of hopefully many more to come. It's titled "Wanted: Significant Something"

Description/Position Summary:
My company’s public relation’s department currently has a part-time opening for a ‘Probationary Friend’. You must understand this is an entry level position and as such, you may be terminated at any time for any reason.

However, the right candidate will rise quickly and could possibly be interviewed for the lucrative full time position of Significant Other at a moments notice. Keep in mind, we are looking for only the best and brightest talented individual to fill this position. The Significant Other is a cornerstone of our company and can be a very rewarding position. This person will where many hats and be able to change them tactfully and gracefully to suit the given situation. The Significant Other is responsible for contributing (at least in part) to emotional stability and support, physical tenderness and excitement, as well as mental stability and entertainment. The exceptional Significant Other may also pursue the “Life Partner” Track, which will lead to a much broader spectrum of benefits and responsibilities. Our ideal candidate will possess the following characteristics:

-Be self-motivated
-Be a great team player
-Have great creativity
-Caring: not only for themselves, but the company as a whole
-Detail-oriented
-The ability to work long hours and overtime
-The ability to finish work in a timely manner
-Open to direction and adaptable to change
-Must have excellent written and oral communication skills
-A great ability to multi-task
-Excellent time management skills
-The ability to work in a fast-paced, occasionally stressful environment
-The ability to prioritize based on limited information
-Must be able to work independently
-Excellent problem solving skills
-The ability to work very closely with a partner
-The ability to meet performance quotas
-A winning ‘can-do’ attitude

Desired Skills:
-The ability to lie comfortably in front of a movie
-The ability to ask and answer questions over dinner or drinks
-The ability to chase sunsets at a moments notice
-The ability to understand that no one is perfect
-The desire to make the company greater than the sum of its parts
-The desire to take and use vacation time effectively and often
-The desire to find a compromise between two differing view points
-The desire to smile early and often
-The desire and love of love

Qualifications/Requirements:
Candidate must have a high school education or better. Candidate must also have 2-5 years experience of related experience. No beginners please!

Salary/Benefits:
Salary is commensurate with experience. Great benefits package for full time employment!

This company is EOE.

Against the Grain

I've had very little to write here other than....

• "dating" is strange and nearly a non-existent practice of our generation
• online personals seem like a human sears catalogue
• if girls spent as much time and energy on their education/careers/something worth while as they do on their waist lines, makeup, and hair in the pursuit of male attention...so much more would be accomplished
• and that I, inexplicably, just can't seem to relate...

"Today I was a terrorist"

The clock ticked idly on the wall as I stood in the lobby watching a team of firemen in their rubber-duck HasMat suits carry the last of my fellow victims across the grass to the yellow tent erected on the other end that I’d come to learn was a “Decontamination” station. I’d been “dead” for three hours give or take and by this point I was the last “victim” in the auditorium around which all the commotion had been staged. It was my entire fault.

My mother, a contractor and member of the controller team evaluating responders during the exercise, had asked me if I would like to volunteer to be a “victim” in an exercise they were holding at the fort and if I wouldn’t mind being “decontaminated”. The very word provoked a number of questions but I arrived Wednesday morning armed with a backpack full of snacks and my bathing suit under my clothes. I was ready.

Mom didn’t mention anything about being a terrorist.

The evidence was highly suggestive, a letter detailing a possible motive for the attack, tucked into the furthermost pocket of my backpack. The fire alarms of the building were set off and the victims waited to be rescued. There were five of us staged in the auditorium—not including two heavy looking dummies that also required rescuing—and fourteen in total. It was an hour before firemen entered the building and three more had passed before firemen packaged my limp body on a yellow sled and dragged me from the building with my backpack as evidence.

An initial decontamination shower had been unleashed in front of the building and the team of firemen carrying me paused beneath it until I was thoroughly soaked. I shivered despite the sun and I tried not to smile as the firemen overhead remarked that for a dead body, I sure seemed cold. I squeezed my eyes shut as I was transferred from the sled to a portable conveyor belt inside the HasMat decontamination tent. When I opened them, the four pretty female GI’s leaning over me were discussing procedure. “This is where we’d remove your clothes and begin decontamination”, one of them said to me. I piped up and told them I’d come prepared and they processed me without hesitation, fed my arms and head through a plastic body bag, and folded my arms over my chest. My bag was searched and the evidence eventually made it’s way into the hands of the authorities.

They told me I could go home.