The Corporate Odyssey:
A Journey of Challenges and Recognition
My life’s odyssey has been shaped by a commitment to empowering exceptional students and a pursuit of excellence. It all began with a brilliant mind and an engaging attitude, leading to a successful ‘corporate’ career as a production control coordinator for an aerospace company. Managing a significant commercial spares desk and overseeing millions in monthly deliverables, I excelled and gained recognition. However, my suggestion to introduce interpersonal skills classes was met with resistance, leading to my eventual outcast from the corporate circle.
Carlos:Joe, from the first time we had lunch together, I’ve been struck by one thing: like me, you really believe that you can make the world a better place. Am I right?
Joe: I plead guilty to that one.
Carlos: Maybe that’s one reason we hit it off so well from the beginning.But it’s one thing to believe we can make a difference and another thing to actually make a difference.
“Education is a passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those, who prepare for it today”, as proclaimed by eminent civil rights activist, Malcolm X, bears a deeper intellectual connotation. It brings out the very holistic foundation of education as an instrument of social awareness and development,with a subtle mention of its contemporary beneficiaries, “the Youth”. Yes, it is the young people who through their rational interpretation of core educational principles, harness the progressive socio-political development of the world.
The recent phenomenon of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shift to the digital mode of learning, have accentuated the need for increased efforts towards larger educational accessibility, quality and affordability, central to the role of global development in complete coherence with the recently initiated in the “Education for All” under the broader purview of the “MillenniumDevelopment Goals”, laid out by the United Nations, thereby demanding more nuanced responsibility of the young blood in spearheading a meaningful atmosphere of social inclusion , cohesion and stability.
Educators like Dr. Gillian Kabatereine believe that education is the key to developing young minds and helping them improve their economic circumstances. Dr. Gillian got her PhD in education and curriculum design at Columbia University in New York and returned to East Africa to use her knowledge and skills to make a difference in the education sector. Continue reading Impacting Education in Low-Income Countries – by Pearl Kasirye→
Landmark Project with Innovative Curriculum, Facilities, and Increase in Faculty Will Transform the Next Generation of Advertising and PR Professionals
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, (UT) and Knoxville-based advertising agency Tombras have partnered to create a first-of-its-kind landmark program and investment plan to modernize and expand advertising and public relations education.
Key goals for the newly named Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, which will be housed in UT’s College of Communication and Information, are to double the number of Black, Indigenous, and people of color entering those industries after graduating from UT and to help make advertising and public relations industry demographics more representative of state and national populations.
Carlos:Joe, it’s been more than two decades since we started working together at the Harvard Summer Institutes for Higher Education.Lots of continuities, but also lots of changes.
Joe:Yes, I first attended your sessions on diversity in higher education in the late 1990’s.
Carlos: Even through I’d been doing diversity workshops for a couple of decades, using the Harvard case study method was a brand new experience.
Joe: The Harvard Graduate School of Education’s summer programs have a distinctive leadership development structure.Very immersive, retreat-like experiences for cohorts of a hundred or so higher education administrators.I recall framing your early sessions as “diversity and community.”
Dr. Nagwan R. Zahry is assistant professor of communication at U. of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC). Originally from Egypt where she was a Sr. Program Manager for U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and U.S. Midwest Universities Consortium, Nagwan got her PhD from Michigan State U. in media and information. After graduation, she became an assistant professor of communication and in 2018, she joined UTC where she teaches social media marketing, public relations, media and diversity. Her research focuses on science communication, health communication and persuasive messaging.
Hear the discussion:
1- What are some of your research findings that surprised you?
2- would you elaborate more on your media and diversity course?
3- Does your research areas change overtime? If so, why?
And learn how to counteract scientists’ negative stereotypes as governors try to communicate empathy during Covid-19.
As the debate rages on the extent of equity and social justice for all, two perspectives are emerging. On the one hand, the traditional school of thought represents people who believe that things are going well and that the system operates well based on their conception of equity and social justice for all. These traditionalists assert that our system is fair and that it works as it is supposed to do. They further claim that the system’s operation aligns with the founding fathers’ statements in the 1776 Declaration of Independence. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that their Creator endows them with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Carmelo Piazza (Carmelo the Science Fellow) is the Founder of the Brooklyn Preschool of Science. He is a Brooklyn born educator who taught for the Department of Education for 17 years and is now the owner of three independent science based preschools.
The Brooklyn Preschool of Science is an inquiry-based interdisciplinary school that uses play to holistically connect subject areas. The school aims to excite young kids about learning and engage their innate curiosity about the world. The school features a living wall of plants, a 300-gallon fish tank, and a multitude of living creatures that reside in the classrooms.
Carmelo talks about the value of teaching preschoolers math/science as early as 2-3 years old and discuss how science is the only true way to bridge the gap of inequality in education.
Hear the conversation about equity in education from these experts based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This podcast is part of the ADR Black-Jewish Dialogues.
Ardena Garth Hicks: Education Activist
Ardena is a Hamilton County native and practicing attorney who is the 2020 Legal Aid Society Pro Bono Attorney of the Year. She is a member of the Hamilton County Partnership Network Board of Directors, appointed by TN Education Commissioner Candace McQueen. The Partnership’s charge is to “review the progress of the five schools in the Partnership Network- which have been deemed priority schools by the state…and make recommendations to the Hamilton County Board of Education and Network leadership to support students’ growth and development.”
She is President of Chattanooga Endeavors, Inc., a non-profit organization which advocates for the interests of citizens repatriating from incarceration. Ardena previously was Special Prosecutor for Child Abuse cases with the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office. She served as Hamilton County’s first elected District Public Defender from 1990 to 2014 (3 successive 8-year terms), having been appointed to the newly-created position by Gov. Ned McWherter in 1989. Ardena graduated as a Ooltewah HS valedictorian, earned her bachelor’s degree at Middle TN State U. and earned her Juris Doctor (JD) degree from the U. of Kansas.
Dr. Jill Keegan Levine: Education Administrator
Jill is the Chief of Innovation and Choice for Tennessee’s Hamilton County Schools, a district of over 45,000 students. Prior to this role, she served as the Chief of the Opportunity Zone, a learning community focused on turnaround of the twelve highest needs schools in the district, as well as serving previously as the Chief Academic Officer of the school district.
After graduating from Wellesley College with a double major in Music and History, Jill began her career teaching 3rd grade and directing musical theater productions in the New Orleans Public Schools. She was the principal of Normal Park Museum Magnet, a Chattanooga Pre-K through 8th grade school, for 14 years. She led the transformation of two low performing schools into award winning, innovative, exciting and challenging places of learning. In 2012, Jill was recognized as the National Magnet Schools Principals of the Year. From 2013-2015, she served in the Obama administration as the first full time Principal Ambassador Fellow at the US Department of Education. In that capacity, she worked closely with Secretary Arne Duncan to increase the department’s focus on the importance of school leadership.