Architecture spans both the Arts and STEM and is one of the reasons for advocating that STEM become STEAM and include the Arts in the acronym. When I began the ADR series on Women in STEM, I received a request to include an article on women in Architecture. What follows is a conversation with two of the professionals at Hollywood-based 5+Design: Associate Principal Mi Sun Lim and Senior Designer Bahar Mahgerefteh.
Category Archives: Make a Difference
Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.
How My Mother and Bob Hope Taught Me the True Meaning of Christmas – by Joel L.A. Peterson
It has been fifteen Christmases since my mother passed. But, I can’t help remembering all the lessons she taught me – especially one regarding what Christmas is all about. It was Christmas Eve, 1987. I was a young naval officer and I had been at sea nearly 100 days straight escorting U.S.-flagged tankers through the Persian Gulf in the largest convoy operation since WWII. On this particular Christmas, my ship, the aircraft carrier, USS Midway, was just outside the Strait of Hormuz, off the coast of Iran, while Iran and Iraq were approaching their sixth year of war with each other.
Let’s Talk About BiPolar Disorder – by C.
The world was recently rocked by the untimely death of Robin Williams by suicide. Some called him weak and a coward. Some wondered how he could just leave his friends and loved ones so callously. Some wondered how such a funny and talented person could just give it all up so horribly. The truth is he didn’t die by suicide. That may have been his final act but it didn’t kill him. It was his depression that killed him long before he finally hung himself.
Inner City Students Need a Chance to Be Brilliant – by Martin Davis
Young people in the inner city public school system face peer pressure daily, pressure just for speaking proper English, asking questions in class, turning in homework, carrying books to and from school, and studying for tests. When I heard African American students talk about these challenges, I knew right then and there that something had to change in our schools. That’s why I created the Be Brilliant project. A change in our children’s mindset was in order.
Continue reading Inner City Students Need a Chance to Be Brilliant – by Martin Davis
We Will Do Very Little Business On A Dead Planet – by Christophe Poizat
It is a sad but true fact: we will do very little business on a dead planet. The pristine beauty of our planet is at risk of being destroyed. What has taken hundreds of millions of years to elaborate and many species could be forever gone within a few decades because of the negative impact humanity has on planet Earth.
Continue reading We Will Do Very Little Business On A Dead Planet – by Christophe Poizat
Imagine All the People – By Yvor Stoakley
Close your eyes. Imagine that you are the average white American in the early 21st Century. You can visualize yourself as president of your country (or country club). You can see yourself as the object of widespread adulation for winning an Oscar or Olympic gold. You have no difficulty picturing yourself as a graduate of Stanford or Harvard or Duke, as an inventor, as a diplomat or a thousand and one other achievements. But when you focus your mind on your fellow Americans of African or Asian or Native or Latin heritage, what do you imagine then? What images spring to mind?
Climate Change in Nigeria – by Olumide Idowu
Climate change has become a new reality and a worldwide phenomenon with significant variation in weather patterns occurring over periods ranging from decades to millions of years.
Nigerians ask what is climate change for them; can Nigeria be affected; what impact will it have it on Nigeria? Can we mitigate the negative impact and ensure that climate change/global warming does not have disastrous consequence on Nigeria?
Continue reading Climate Change in Nigeria – by Olumide Idowu
Climate Change and the Media – by Olumide Idowu
The Policy Advocacy Project Partnership on Climate Change (PAPPCC), a network of Civil Society Organization and Professionals concerned about the threat of Climate Change to Lagos, recently organized a 2-Day Sensitization workshop for Media Professionals with two cardinal objectives: a.) Demystifying the concept of Climate Change and b.) Advocating for a robust policy framework addressing Climate Change in the State.
Continue reading Climate Change and the Media – by Olumide Idowu
Inequality is Threat to Justice
“Inequality – in any form, against any person – is a threat to justice,” says Matt Hipps. Hipps, an assistant professor of political science and director of First-Year Experience at Dalton State, hopes to see public programs at the College geared toward getting people to discuss inequality in multiple forms.
Family in Sepia — by Poonam Chawla
A black-and-white photograph curled at the edges pressed between the pages of Anna Karenina falls into my hands as I fumble about the bookshelf. Anna Karenina. It appears I was using the photograph as a bookmark and apparently gave up after page 662. Do not judge me, dear Reader – I was only fifteen at the time. No doubt, I found the drama of my own life infinitely more interesting.