#listen listen i do not have any experience with how scholarship competition and administration works in thailand | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

calebfm · 3 years

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❝ i’m just saying — there’s no way someone can keep up with a schedule like that and not be popping something ❞ CALEB GARDNER, who resembles JORDAN FISHER and is the SOCIAL CHAIR of BETA TAU RHO , is TWENTY-TWO years old and responds to HE / HIM .𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘢 ; 𝘴𝘩𝘦/𝘩𝘦𝘳

hello hello one and all, tis mira coming to you unfashionably late from the gmt+1 timezone 🌻 i overuse emojis & underuse my common sense and that’s all you need to know about me tbh ... so let’s move right along to telling you about my boy caleb !

so cal is a lil’ type A monster, between classes, basketball, his various jobs & his frat position it’s a miracle he gets 6-8 hours of sleep every night ( actually that’s a lie, he often doesn’t )

which is partially just who he is as a person, but also comes from having major imposter syndrome :/ he comes from a family who struggled to make ends meet + as the youngest kid of his family with four older brothers it was easy for him to fade into the background and not really get much attention or praise . ( he has a very loving family though, he was just a bit of a shy kid and his parents didn’t really have the time to make him come out of his shell ) all of this to say, when he got the acceptance letter + full ride to this fancy school it was all a bit overwhelming & he still has a hard time believing the administration didn’t make a mistake . he often feels super out of place & has even talked to his guidance counselor about dropping out a few times, but in his heart he knows that it would be a dumb decision and he’s nothing if not rational

he studies finance which is about as exciting as it sounds ( sorry to the finance nerds out there, couldn’t be me but i respect it ), he picked it to have job security more than anything else . he’s not a straight A student by any means but he does as well as could be expected from someone who has very little time to study

he loves photography ! he started a lil’ side gig for event photography his first year at kingshill which got pretty big through word of mouth, so he’s often in the shadows at the parties and events his classmate’s parents throw to take pics ( but when he practices it as a hobby he mostly just walks around in nature a lot and takes pics there, those are the rare quiet moments in his life )

some more about his personality: he’s a lil’ more on the introverted side, a great listener though & just a very warm kind of guy all around. the type of guy that rarely starts a conversation first, but once you get to talking you end up having a weirdly deep conversation even though you barely know the dude

also usually puts other’s needs in front of his own and has a hard time saying no to things, even if they’re a major inconvenience

however ! holding his own in a big family with annoying & loud older brothers has made it pretty easy for him to fake a more extroverted personality . people often have a hard time believing that the quiet kid diligently taking notes in their stats course & the frat guy handing out shots and smooth talking people into staying a bit longer at the biggest party of the year are the same person

which is to say that he’s a super effective social chair tbh … since he’s able to keep up with both the boring administration & organization side of things, but he can also liven up a party that’s growing stale

the constant social interaction required of him in his role ( together with his busy ass schedule ) definitely takes a toll though & you’ll often find him hiding out in quiet corners at parties to take a breather or napping in weird places during the day

hmm those are the most important things for now i think, my wanted tag is here but it’s super bare bones atm so i’m mostly putting it here for future reference ! i want so so many plots but a few i’d kill for:

a dumb lil’ social chair rivalry about who throws the best parties where they outdo each other in more and more ridiculous ways every time & try to sabotage each other, can be serious if your muse is very competitive, but most likely it’d just be lighthearted dumbassery

exes... good terms or bad terms, cal honestly doesn’t have a whole lot of them since he doesn’t prioritize romantic relationships in his life at all (*cal vc* i can squeeze in a movie night from 9-11 on thursday in three weeks, does that work?), maybe the two had different expectations of how serious it’d be?

on that note, caleb always thought he was straight but has tentatively started to experiment in college, so uh . cute boys hit him up 😌

someone who met him at party while he was drunk & in some kind of a rare bad mood, he was rude to them and/or embarrassed them in some public way, because of this bad first impression they think he’s the stereotypical obnoxious frat dude & want nothing to do with him . he’s usually more than fine with people leaving him alone but this is about the principle of the thing, y’know? so he’s determined to prove them wrong & does nice things for them to get them to like him, because caleb realizing that some people just don’t like you is simply unrealistic

rich kid who is condescending & rude since they found out cal is here on scholarship (either they’re just anti poor people or there’s a deeper reason for their dislike) … all i want is for some punches to be thrown 🙏

drinking buddies who can only stand to be around each other when they’re intoxicated

a sorority girl who he has a mutual agreement with that they’re other’s +1 at frat/srat functions, it’s probably all platonic but they have a good time & it stops randos from hitting on them

and so so much more ! i have a lot of ideas but i mostly just like making my plots personal to the characters themselves, so let’s vibe & figure something out together

i’m not gonna ask y’all to like this to plot because i am the Worst Person ™ and i will forget to check the notes, so please just im me or hit me up on discord if you wanna plot 🥺 and if you’re shy don’t worry, i’ll come bother you soon enough 💖 that would be all, thank you for reading !

#✧ / out of character .#i've been loving using small gifs lately but i might succumb to peer pressure and switch to icons #time will tell #kingshill.intro

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ariafsar2 · 6 years

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MICHAEL LUWOYE

“I stayed in the audience, a few feet from where Mike Pence was sitting with his family. The whole audience was completely charged on every level of the political spectrum – some were cursing and heckling Pence.” – Michael Luwoye

Meet Broadway’s new Alexander Hamilton Story by: Aisling O’Leary Interview: Michael Williams Ladies and gentlemen, there’s a new Alexander Hamilton in town. For someone who never initially planned to get into theatre, Michael Luwoye sure has made strides in his unintentional career. Now confirmed as the next Hamilton in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit Broadway show by the same name, it has all been quite the unexpected journey for the young actor. Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama, Luwoye was more musically inclined if anything, playing guitar and intending to go to college for music theory and composition. However, when the University of Alabama offered him a highly competitive scholarship in their theatre department, it was an opportunity that seemed to seal his fate.

Moving to New York almost four years ago, he made his New York stage debut Off-Broadway in ‘Invisible Thread’. Nominated for a Lucille Lortel award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical, it was on the heels of this performance that he auditioned for Hamilton. Originally going for the role of Hercules Mulligan/James Madison, the last thing he expected was to be cast as both the alternate to Hamilton as well as the understudy to Aaron Burr. However, as the only cast member to perform these two principal characters in the same day – as Hamilton in a matinee only to reprise the role as Aaron Burr in the evening run – he proved himself more than capable for the task. “I feel like I have something to prove because no one has any clue who I am. I’m still in the shadow of the first three Hamilton’s that have come before me. I don’t look like them, I don’t have their experience – so how do I prove myself to the New York audience in just three hours?”

Trying to prove himself seems to have been a constant hum in Luwoye’s life since moving to the theatre capital. During his first three years in the city, he went through the typical actor’s grind of “going to auditions with big name people, never hearing from them and simply getting burned from continuously trying to establish myself.” But then the opportunity to audition for Hamilton came around and Luwoye knew that “there was a claim of ownership that I hadn’t experienced with any other audition process. The way that I composed myself for this was different from any other at that point.”

As the fourth actor to step in the shoes of this prolific role, what is it exactly that he personally brings to it? “One of the challenges of playing my current role is how to create a human character amidst the phenomenon that is the show. Playing a character who talks about death made me think about my first three years in New York, with its extreme ups and even steeper downs. I modelled a lot of things in the show on these experiences, with the first act in particular drawing from this time. All of those experiences ignited some sort of fire in me that made me feel like I need to continue what I’m doing because I know that if I stop, I’m going to fall in a state of stasis.” It is this determination with his career that especially makes him relate to Hamilton’s character because “the one thing about this man was that he was consistent in his persistence.”

As an historically significant show during a politically turbulent time, Hamilton further solidified its legacy last November by addressing a message to Mike Pence when he went to see the show with his family. Appealing to the Vice President to “uphold our American values” and to “work on behalf of all of us”, how did Luwoye feel about the cast speaking out? “The way it was handled was the right way to do it. We’re in an age where it seems like we’re not heard. The evening Mike Pence came was a very good opportunity for us to say something. I understand the perspective that Pence and his family came just to enjoy a night of theatre but at the same time he is also a public servant whose job it is to listen to the people. For us, to come out with a statement was the best course of action to take outside of silence.”

As an alternate at the time, Luwoye didn’t perform that evening. Instead, he had the unique insight of being one amongst the crowd witnessing the event unfold. “I stayed in the audience, a few feet from where Mike Pence was sitting with his family. The whole audience was completely charged on every level of the political spectrum – some were cursing and heckling Pence; others were loudly applauding him. And I thought, that is America. That’s our audience – that’s what happens often when you go to the show – because not everyone buys into the story. I think that Trump’s response didn’t have a good base, to say what he did. It was incorrect. It’s important to engage with empathy. With this administration it’s hard to articulate that kind of engagement without it being seen as some sort of battle, or a war on words. There’s no real space for listening. And I think it’s because of that that our statement was swallowed up into a misguided firestorm.”

#Michael Luwoye #Hamilton #Alexander Hamilton #Hamilton Broadway #Hamiltour

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manelyec · 4 years

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Conference Carolinas Spotlight on Alex Sobers

Written by: Bob Rose

When you grow up in Bridgetown, the capital city on the Carribean island of Barbados, life has its own pace and rhythm.

“A typical day back home was going to the beach with friends, eating good Carribean food and just enjoying life,” said Olympic swimmer Alex Sobers, a six-time NCAA Division II All-America selection and recent graduate of Emmanuel College. “Things just happen naturally there. We really don’t have much of a set schedule.”

So, just how casual was the lifestyle?

“Let me just say this,” said Emmanuel Swim Coach Allen Gilchrest. “It was definitely island time. Even church didn’t start on time. When Alex committed to coming to Emmanuel, his father was most concerned about who was going to wake him up for morning practice. I told his dad that we would teach Alex to wake himself up!”

Coach Gilchrest did much more than that during Sober’s collegiate career. Under his tutelage, the lanky Barbados native set nine school records. He owns Emmanuel’s top marks in the 50 (19.72), 100 (43.2), 200 (1:34.76) and 500 (4:19.41) freestyle events and the 200 (1:19.87), 400 (2:54.99), 800 (6:28.34), 200 medley (1:26.42) and 400 medley (3:11.81) relay events.

Yet the crowning moment of Sobers’ resume at Emmanuel was when he claimed the 500-meter freestyle national title at the 2019 NCAA Division II National Championship. It marked the first time that an Emmanuel student-athlete has won an individual NCAA national championship in any sport.

Of course, swimming has always come naturally for Sobers, who grew up in a neighborhood that was a five-minute walk from Miami Beach (Barbados, not Florida) and the Atlantic Ocean.

“I remember at a very young age, my mother would take me to the beach and we would stay for hours,” he said. “I always had a love for the water. When it got dark and mom wanted to go home, I’d always plead for ‘five more minutes!’”

Alex speaks fondly of his parents, who made many sacrifices during his childhood. His father, Wendell, has worked as a technical supervisor at the local telephone company for more than 20 years, while his mother, Bertha, is an elementary teacher who taught both Alex and his younger brother Mihael (now eight years old) in their formative years.

“My parents came to all the meets,” he recalled. “They also would drive me to practice every day. They took vacation time so I could train in Florida and New Jersey at elite camps, too.”

Sobers learned to swim at the tender age of four and by the time he was eight, he joined a swim club. Over time, he became one of the island’s fastest swimmers. Soon, many U.S. college coaches had Sobers on their recruiting radar--especially after he qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“It was such a surreal moment for me,” Sobers said of his first Olympic experience. “I still look back and ask myself, ‘Did I really do that?’ I wish every athlete could experience what I did.”

Perhaps his greatest memory was Rio’s Opening Ceremonies.

“It was so exciting,” he said. “Parading around the track and waving the Barbados flag while you’re on camera. And you’re among the top athletes in the world. It was a very proud moment.”

Sobers finished a modest 44th in the Men’s 400-Meter Freestyle in Rio, certainly an impressive showing for someone only 17 years old.

Fortunately for Gilchrest, Sobers had already made a commitment to Emmanuel before he left for Brazil.

“He asked for a gap year before starting college,” the coach said. “We were happy to oblige.”

However, the young Olympian still needed permission to enroll at Emmanuel a month late due to his participation in the Summer Games.

“I had to petition our administration,” recalled Coach Gilchrest. “I remember sharing a press release from Stanford which announced that (five-time Gold Medal winner) Katie Ledecky would be allowed to start classes late due to the Olympics. That must have swayed our people, who granted permission. Now we call it 'The Alex Sobers Rule!'”

Gilchrest, who had offered Sobers a scholarship sight unseen, still chuckles about the eventual arrival of his prize recruit.

“Alex was big but he wasn’t very strong when he came here,” the coach said. “He arrived straight from the Rio Olympics. In his first week in the weight room, he couldn’t bench press more than 100 pounds. But he listened well and you could see his determination. He gained a lot of strength and power that first year, and as they say, the rest is history.”

As he continued to whittle down his swim times, it became quite apparent that Sobers was headed for stardom on both the collegiate and international level.

HIs Emmanuel tenure culminated at the 2019 NCAA Championships, where he placed second in the 200-Meter Freestyle competition--where his 1:34.76 time was only one second off the winner, Adrian VanderHelm of Simon Fraser University (1:33.56)--and followed that performance by winning the 500-Meter Freestyle event in a clocking of 4:21.09. He also ranked among the top contenders to win both events his senior year until the 2020 NCAA Championships were canceled midway through the event.

Sobers, who came to Emmanuel as a shy, somewhat inhibited freshman, began to open up his personality as he became more acquainted with his teammates and the college life. However, those same teammates still enjoyed ribbing him for being soft spoken and so humble.

Coach Gilchrest tells the story about Sobers’ reaction to winning the school’s first individual national championship at the 2019 NCAAs. It was classic Alex Sobers.

“After every race at the Nationals, the public address announcer would interview the winner,” Gilchrest shared. “He calls Alex over after he wins the 500-Meter Freestyle. Everybody knows he’s a man of few words. The announcer sticks the mic in front of him and asks ‘How do you think your race went?’ Alex doesn’t break a smile. He just gave him a one word answer. ‘Good.’ It was hilarious. All the guys at the pool were just cracking up.”

What Gilchrest appreciates most about Sobers was not the medals he won, but the fact that the personable Barbadian kept his commitment to Emmanuel even though he received many late offers from bigger schools.

“He could have changed his mind and gone to a Division I program, but he stuck with us. That was a testament to his character. I was committed to him and he was committed to me. He believed in what we were trying to do in building a program.”

What made Sobers’ commitment even more impressive was Emmanuel’s transition from NAIA to NCAA status was unexpectedly prolonged. Initially, the process was expected to take three years, clearing the way for Sobers and the team to be eligible for NCAA postseason competition in his very first year on campus.

Sobers never wavered. He stayed loyal to the Lions’ program, allowing Gilchrest to build a championship program centered around his ace sprinter from Barbados.

If there is one word that describes Sobers and his time at Emmanuel, the word is gratitude.

“Emmanuel was a great four years of my life,” said Alex, who graduated this year with a degree in Sports Management. “Coming from a whole different country, I just loved the experience. My teammates pushed each other in both the classroom and in the pool. It definitely changed who I was as a person. I made a lot of friends and It was so much fun.”

Sobers also reflects fondly on how the sport of swimming has enriched his life.

“Swimming has taken me around the world,” he said. “I’ve seen China, South Korea, Peru, Columbia, Brazil, Hungary, Mexico, so many places. It also allowed me to go to a great college in the United States. I’ve honestly experienced things I never thought I would do.”

Now, Sobers serves as a graduate assistant coach at Boston College, while he pursues a Master’s Degree in Sports Management and trains for the Tokyo Summer Olympics, which were rescheduled from 2020 to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also plans to return to his homeland and become involved with helping at-risk children.

“I want to get youth more involved in sports in Barbados,” he said. “Sports is a unique way to bring people together and change their lives. There are so many benefits and keeps kids from getting into trouble. The experience can really change their perspective of life and future goals.”

While he is determined to improve his standing at the next Olympics, Sobers also finds himself in the unique position to impart wisdom to undergraduate swimmers at Boston College, sharing what he learned competing in the 2016 Games.

“My main message to them is to always keep pushing,” said Sobers, who hopes one day to also become a sports agent in the United States. “Never give up. If you work hard and sacrifice, anything is possible. When you have a dream, you never know where it might take you.”

Alex Sobers is living proof. His childhood dreams, hatched on the tiny island of Barbados, has led to national championships, the Olympics and so much more. Bob Rose is a longtime sports public relations executive who has worked for the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, the NFL Cardinals, Cal, Stanford and other organizations. Conference Carolinas’ official storyteller, Rose will incorporate unique features through his “Body, Mind, and Soul” series into the 90th anniversary celebration.

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weaverhighschool · 5 years

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Mr. Moses: February 5

Kyle Kent Anderson Sr., Class of 1980

Question: What did Weaver mean to you?

Answer: Good Question. I can give you the 2 hour version or I can give you the short version. Pride, culture, sense of community, lasting friendships.

Question: So you’re still friends with your friends from Weaver?

Answer: My class, 1980, has a reunion every 5 years and we’ve been doing our reunions since we graduated, our first reunion was 1985. We encourage other classes to do the reunions. We had a pretty close-knit class.

Question: So you were proud to be a part of Weaver?

Answer: I was very proud to be a part of Weaver. I’m from Hartford, I’m 4th generation Hartford on one side, 5th generation Hartford on the other side. So my mother and father attended Ridgefield Street, the original Weaver.

Question: What was the highlight of your time at Weaver?

Answer: The biggest thing was graduation, going across the stage at the Bushnell. I had a lot of positive experiences at Weaver, I was captain of the basketball team, captain of the football team, president of student council, vice president of my class. I was pretty active and pretty engaged in the school so when people talked about Weaver in a bad light, I didn’t let them talk about Weaver in a bad light or talk about the stereotypes of Weaver, I was very proud to be a student.

Question: Who influenced you when you were at Weaver?

Answer: My parents, my brothers, teachers, Doc Hurley, I had the whole support. The African proverb, ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ I was a part of that village.

Question: Do you think that people really need that village? Do they need it just in high school or in life?

Answer: Yes, yes, most people can’t get anywhere without help from somebody and I had a lot of support around me. I had a lot of support to make sure I did the right things and made the right choices. I was young once, even today I still need help sometimes making decisions, but you still need that support mechanism. I know the teachers were very supportive when I was at Weaver and I’m sure they still are now. Some teachers are more supportive than others, I had my basketball coach, my football coach, they were in the school at the time, the principals, the principals knew my parents personally so I couldn’t skip class and be successful because they would call me out. I was tall too, so I couldn’t hide too much.

Question: What do you hope for the new Weaver?

Answer: I hope that you guys can carry on tradition and the legacy. By doing these collaborative building partnerships that you guys understand you come from a rich culture, rich heritage, and Weaver means a lot. The alumni from both Weavers, because you’re looking at Ridgefield where my parents went and where I went on Granby Street, different buildings but the same culture. We were Weaver proud, we were Weaver strong, we were proud of Weaver. The green and white meant a lot to us and there were a lot of very successful people that came out of Weaver. Sometimes you hear about those negative stories, but those positive stories like it’s happening here, just like I know it’s happening here, those positive stories aren’t told. So it’s up to you guys to do what you’re doing now, to tell those positive stories. People went on to ivy leagues, one guy from my class was a movie star, Eriq La Salle, we had another guy go to the Super Bowl, Eugene Robinson class of ’81, I was on city council in Hartford and we had elected officials, so there’s a lot of good people come out of Weaver doing great things. We have doctors in our class, Gary ---, these are my classmates, these are guys I went to school with.

Question: What do you feel about the stereotypes of Weaver?

Answer: I was the first one to stand up and say, ‘listen, I’m not a big dumb jock, I got good grades in school.’ I was good, I got a scholarship to pay for my education. So you look at the stereotypes, don’t become a statistic, don’t become a stereotype. You understand, I’m African American, I have a strong heritage, I’m four generations Hartford, five on the other side. I know Hartford, I live across the street. This is my elementary school, this was called Barbour, so this was my elementary school. I grew up playing basketball right behind the school. That park, I grew up in that park playing basketball, football, and sports and stuff.

Question: Do you think it’s important for African Americans to break the stereotypes that are put against them?

Answer: Yes, as a matter of fact this is black history month and this is where we shine. My wife and I just came back from the African American museum down in Washington DC. [It was] breathtaking. Now’s the time to go because the lines aren’t as long at the low season. I know about the culture of the West Indians that came to Hartford. I know about the Latino community that came to Hartford, everybody came to Hartford, and the African Americans came to Hartford early on to work the tobacco up at Bradley field. All those fields up there were all tobacco fields and then you have migrant workers coming here to work that. That’s how my great great grandparents came from down south to be migrant workers. Dr. King worked tobacco in Windsor for his first job. Martin Luther King worked tobacco. He was in Hartford, Windsor, and there was a church in Simsbury that he was pretty friendly with.

Question: What does it mean to be a graduate?

Answer: It means carrying on a sense of pride, sense of culture, and people who came to Hartford paved the way, because there were only three schools at the time. There was Weaver, Hartford High, Buckley, and we had Prince Tech., an emerging technical school but there were only three high schools at the time. Most of the north end students went to Weaver and you had students that were straight A students and straight F students who didn’t care about anything. We had guys who had fights, we had people that would skip class, but there were those who understood that in order to do something for yourself, education was the key. Education was the way out, to see the world, to become productive citizens of this community or of the world. Our teachers showed us that education was the way to free yourself.

Question: How is your life now, after graduating?

Answer: It’s actually pretty good. Like I said, I served on city council for four years and I’ve been very civically engaged with the community. I have three children. My daughter is in dental school, my oldest son just graduated from Central and my son goes to Capital Prep., he plays basketball, he’s on the debate team, he’s doing some things over there at Capital Prep. I can’t complain, I’m blessed I would say, I’m blessed. I’m 56 years old, I’m a work in progress. I’m still trying to get it done.

Question: Do you think that Weaver created some of those blessings?

Answer: Absolutely, the teachers at Weaver gave us 1. The confidence to be competitive in this world, they gave us the encouragement to go out and try different things, they gave us the push along with our parents to say, “okay, whatever you want in life you work hard, dedicate yourself, make sacrifices and make right decisions, you can achieve any goal that you want to achieve.” That was kind of sewed into us those four years at Weaver. The administration did that, don’t ever forget this name: Walter Doc Hurley. Remember that name, he was like Mr. Weaver. You want to make sure, this spring on Ridgefield there’s going to be a statue, that’s Doc Hurley’s statue, it’s covered up right now with a blue tarp but that’s a rendition of Doc Hurley’s statue. Years before it was the World War II memorial for those Weaver graduates who served in World War I, I’m sorry World War I. That’s been long gone but now they’re going to put a Weaver statue, a friend of mine helped put that together.

Question: What is one piece of advice you want to leave with us today?

Answer: I would say, once piece of advice is to ask yourselves, “What do you want out of life? What is your life mission?” And it may change along the way, but what do you want to do with your life? If you want to do something positive, if you want to do something negative. And whatever that is, write it down. We talk about goal setting, you talk about quick goals, immediate, and long term goals. So if you’re thinking about something long term, how do I get to that goal? What do I have to do? Do I have to graduate from high school, do I have to graduate from college, do I have to go another route, do I have to go to the military? So whatever you want to be, whatever you want to do with your life, and just keep it for yourself don’t share with your friends, don’t share with your parents. When you’re out there you’re going to make mistakes, your parents can’t be with you 24/7. So you have to learn right from wrong and making right decisions. Every decision you make is going to affect your life in some kind of way, either positive or negative. You want to make sure you have a barometer to say, “okay, am I on the right track?” You put those goals and set those goals and I think you can accomplish whatever you want to accomplish. The world, I wish I was coming up now, because now the world is your oyster. That’s an old saying, but you know the world is opportune because we didn’t have cellphones, we didn’t have (audio ends)

Ms. Johnston February 5

Kyle Kent Anderson Class of 1980

Question: What did Weaver mean to you?

Answer: Every year it meant something different to me and every year it grew on me. My freshman year I didn’t know a lot coming from middle school then I went to 415 Granby Street so I went to that Weaver and my parents went to Ridgefield Street. I’m 4th generation Hartford and 5th generation Hartford on one side. My brother went to Ridgefield Street. Every year it grew on me.

Question: What was a highlight from your time at Weaver?

Answer: Graduating was the first, we had graduation at the Bushnell downtown, that’s where all the Weaver graduations were and it was an exciting time. I played sports in high school, senior year I was captain of the football team, captain of the basketball team, president of student council, so I was pretty engaged in the school. It gave me training, time management, how to get your studies in, make sure you get yourself in shape. You know Doc Hurley? On Ridgefield and Greenfield Street there’s a statue, right now it’s covered with a tarp but it’ll be unveiled in the spring and that’s a statue of Walter Doc Hurley. He was an educator from Weaver and a Hartford legend. He was very influential in my life, he got me my scholarship to play football in college at his alma mater, I went to Virginia State University [a] HBCU School. I loved it.

Question: Did you have any other influences at Weaver?

Answer: I would say almost the entire staff influenced me at Weaver. Being there four years, you kind of knew all the teachers, they lived in the community. My parents were involved in the community, so they knew my parents from church so it was hard for me to skip class or not do well because my parents would find out about it and get the call, my coach would yell down the hallway, “Kyle get to class or I’ll call Jackie.”

Question: What do you hope to see in the new Weaver?

Answer: I hope you will continue the legacy that we started and that started before me. I’m trying to keep that Weaver legacy alive, that Weaver pride, keeping it in check, that’s why I’m doing this, so you’ll know about Doc Hurley and the people that came before. Weaver has a rich tradition. Weaver has a lot of famous graduates, in my class alone we have Eriq La Salle who’s a movie star, he lives in California now and I’m only 56, I’m not that old but there are a lot of people doing very well for themselves. Weaver has a rich tradition of graduates.

Question: What do you think is Weaver’s legacy?

Answer: Since Weaver’s been here as long as Hartford Public Schools, so when my parents went to Weaver they were the minority. So you look at that tradition, the students were very strong academically, athletically. It was a school that produced a lot of educators and a lot of people came from Hartford. You look at what’s been done prior and how you move it forward. I had a piece of that legacy to keep the positive image going because some of the stereotypes you deal with I also had to deal with, plus I was big, I’m playing sports, they would call us names. If we went out to play suburban schools they looked at us as inferior, but the teachers at Weaver told us that we weren’t inferior, the teachers at Weaver gave us the courage and the confidence to say we could free ourselves.

Question: What does it mean to be a Weaver graduate?

Answer: Proud. I’ll always be a Weaver Beaver. This was my elementary school, I lived across the street.

Question: How is your life now?

Answer: I think I’m blessed. I have three children. My oldest son is at Central [Connecticut State University], my daughter graduated from dental school, and my youngest son goes to Capital Prep, he’s a junior. So, I served on city council in Hartford, I’m not a millionaire but I’m blessed in a million other ways.

Question: Do you have a favorite memory as a student at Weaver?

Answer: One? I have quite a few. Graduation was key because my parents were very excited, my whole family was there, I’m the youngest of four boys, we all grew up in the North end of Hartford, we’ve never been incarcerated, we all have college degrees and we’re all productive citizens of this world. And you don’t hear about that, you don’t hear those stories. So that was a big thing because I got my education and I was ready to take the next step and go to college. From an athletic standpoint, when I got my acceptance to go to college for free, that was a very proud moment, and then turkey game. Back in the day we played at Dylan Stadium and my senior year I was one of the captains of the team and Hartford High wanted to get us out of the game so we couldn’t play the game so my senior year I played ¾’s with a busted knee and we won the game with no time left on the clock and that was one of the better games in Weaver, Hartford High turkey game history.

Question: Why are you proud to be a Weaver graduate?

Answer: I don’t know any other way. I’m 3 generations Weaver graduates. My parents went there, their parents went there, two of my brothers went there, I had an older brother who graduated from Weaver, three of my brothers went to Weaver, but one of them went to Simsbury High, and another went to it’s called the Masters now but it was called Westlidge back then, so they went on two of us are Weaver graduates. It’s a part of our legacy, a part of our heritage. We had those sports days and we had those strong academic days.

Question: Do you wish your kids could have went to Weaver?

Answer: Yes, yes, because I am going to tell you why, because I think that you can get the same education no matter where you go as long as you apply yourself. That is why I went to Weaver. A lot of my friends went to Northwest Catholic. My parents couldn’t afford that. A lot of my friends went on Project Concern. Project Concern started busing people out and I didn’t want to do it. Matter of fact, a lady up the street, a friend of mine up the street started Project Concern, her name was, she is now deceased, was Trudy Mero, she was a part of that whole, before it was called the Choice program, it was Project Concern where you took inner-city students and bussed them out to the suburbs. I got my bus right here, up and back and there was no late bus, so we had to walk home after practice. When it snowed out, we didn’t cancel school, we went to school, so we had to persevere and do some stuff. So when I say I bleed green, I bleed green on many levels as you see.

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taesthetes · 7 years

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hi petal, it’s vn army anon~ these past weeks have been quite hectic for me, I just for it all to be over already. but I hope you have been well! how was your weekend? and thank you, I hope I’ll be able to enjoy it a bit despite working a lot for it. and we’ve ordered tailored dresses as a class for our prom’s theme and I’ll go try it out tomorrow if I’ll find the time for it! so I’m curious how it turned out and what it’ll look like one me~ our theme is "chicago", I personally don’t like the–

–title in terms of too much of dancing involving + I hate the choreo, it’s too sexy, like we curve a lot lol. but at least I’m in the back and don’t have to dance much. ah yes, over here we have schools that belong to the state which u don’t have to pay anything but to get on one you’ll either have to have good grades or pass the entrance exams&then there are private schools where u don’t have to take anything but pay for each semester. which ofc costs a lot&many ppl can’t afford it.–

–but I’ve heard the school system in the US is intense, so u have to pay on any college unless you’ll get a scholarship?? like how are u supposed to pay it all off tbh, in the end ur still a student and not like money falls from heaven to u so that’s pretty non logical of the goverment to do? also I’ve read somewhere that students who’re still educating aren’t allowed to have part time jobs? that most of them do it secretly but idk if that’s true? ah yes, it must be that title,–

–I didn’t look it up&translated it on my own right away lol. I enjoyed the book too so hope you do as well once you’ll decide to read it in vietnamese! I’m rly happy u listen to it that often, in the end I decided to make&publish it for u ♡ GD is a king, one of my first kpop idols I liked^^ good to hear u had fun! wish I could experience it someday:) and last minute or not I’m sure u looked CATastic hehe;D ooh and HP!! wish I could see u with that costume:O have a shiny day&sweet night, petal ❁♡

hi, raindrop!! 💗 omg i hope you have time to relax soon D: i’ve been good! i have the entire week off next week for thanksgiving break, so i’m just lazing around ahah. ooo wow, does everyone have matching outfits that go with the prom theme? do you like the dress? how do you like it? did prom already happen? how was it? :D i didn’t know you have choreography for prom omg that’s so cool!! but yes to being in the back and doing less dancing because i would prefer being there too and doing the minimum when it comes to dancing lmao

oh goodness, the state schools sound really competitive, and unfortunately, private schools are really expensive ): and yes! sadly, you have to pay for any college here unless you earn a scholarship. it really sucks to have mountains of student debts after you graduate, but luckily, i got a scholarship and my parents are paying the remaining portion of my tuition. the government makes us pay lots of taxes and that money goes towards the public universities, so i don’t understand why they make us pay tuition for public colleges too /:

and you’re allowed to have a part time job while going to college! there are no restrictions. you can have a full time job or do anything you want while going to college. the college administration doesn’t really care what you do as long as you pay tuition and don’t do anything that can negatively affect the college’s reputation.

i didn’t know it would be chicken soup for the women’s soul either :o when i first saw the title, i read it the same way you translated it as well :D hopefully, i’ll be able to borrow it from the library during christmas break! and i love the playlist so much!! i’m still listening to it in between me replaying t swift’s reputation album ahah thank you so much for taking the time to make it 💕💕 i never really got into bigbang or any of the members’ solo careers, but i think i’m most familiar with taeyang’s solos, more specifically his solar album, because my sister liked it.

ahhh, i hope you come visit someday and get to experience halloween!! ahaha i felt pretty catastic, and the hp onesie was so nice and comfy to wear all day omg i wish i could wear it all the time. i’m sorry for the late reply, but i hope you’re doing well!! i hope you’re having a good day or night, too, raindrop 💙

#replies #anonymous #vn army anon

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mybunnyliesovertheocean · 4 years

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The Things We Do

It’s Women’s History Month and I am spending the day thinking about women. Well...what I’m actually doing is watching Salt Fat Acid Heat on Netflix with Samin Nosrat and wondering about the choices we make versus the ones we allow ourselves to be pushed into. Why our passions don’t always fuel us, why we turn away from them. How do we get to places we never really wanted to be?

I think the easy answer is fear. We worry that our loves won’t make us money, won’t make us successful (whatever that means), that it’s somehow not acceptable on some level. We turn away from things that truly make our souls sing to comply with industry standards...be a part of something we aren’t even sure we belong to. It’s a strange mentality really, everyone trying desperately to play a game when they aren’t even sure what the prize is for winning. Or if they even want it. The cost however is astronomical, sometimes charging us our entire being, something bright and beautiful that we cover with layer upon layer of things other people want “for us.” Drowning that sparkling thing with dark sheets that render us unrecognizable from everyone else’s pile of dreams covered in conformity. It’s convoluted and messy and contrary to our nature, so why do we do it?

Samin is mixing pesto with a mortar and pestle and it’s quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen and I’m wondering why we make things so complicated.

What is most striking and endearing about Samin is that she doesn’t fit any traditional boxes. Her heritage, her look, her voice....all things the modern day television star isn’t supposed to be. She chuckles heartily, immersed completely in whatever or whoever is in front of her, cameras be damned. She’s authentic and darling and licking pork fat off her fingers with the same enthusiasm that I have when my coffeemaker starts spitting out espresso in the morning. She’s your best friend, your wine date, your own personal foodie but in an approachable, endearing way. She is absolutely stoked in her situation, filled with screen-traveling elation that you can practically smell.

I think we do ourselves a disservice when we eschew the things we truly love to do the things we think we “have to.” If you don’t follow your bliss, what are you doing?

Now she’s crying over Parmesan cheese. I love her.

I was a physics major when I began my university experience. I was good at it, a weird niche that I excelled at and that seemed to bring me all sorts of attention from my classmates. I tutored and consoled and did my best to explain how I figured out our homework so quickly but in reality, my brain was just wired properly for it. Sometimes I couldn’t even explain how I figured things out, I just knew. But I hated it. It wasn’t fun or exciting, I just liked being the best at something. As I moved through the years at my university, the classes became smaller and the competition stiffened. Suddenly my little parlor trick was a threat to those around me vying for academic roles and scholarships they considered me to be hoarding. And I was usually the only woman. And not in a fun Big Bang Theory kind of way, but in a semi-sexist hateful way. Chosen last for group projects, ignored in class, and left out of study groups, I started to realize that this talent I had was making me both wildly unhappy and unpopular. Not that it had ever been particularly giggle-inducing, but the whole fiasco was coming to a head.

One afternoon, sitting outside the art building and waiting for my elective Art History class to begin, I found myself searching for famous works of art around the world. I had started a list of things I wanted to see and where they were in the world, a sort of impressionistic bucket list that required me to leave Texas, an idea that appealed to me greatly. Suddenly I paused. I was gripping my coffee cup so tightly and grinning so hard that a girl walking by had smiled ever-so-slightly at me, tipping her head to the side and probably wondering what on earth had me so worked up. I was....elated. In that moment, I was so excited about something that I couldn’t contain it and it was the first time it had happened in so long that I was somewhat floored by the feeling. If I hadn’t noticed her noticing me, the moment might have passed me by altogether.

I changed majors immediately.

Well, I say immediately but at a giant state school infatuated with red tape and protocol, it took me a few weeks. But I did it. My studies became something new, something I loved. I wasn’t the most knowledgable in my new field, but I was definitely passionate. I looked forward to choosing my schedule and I began volunteering at the local history center and ultimately became a docent at the museum on campus. That museum quickly became my happy place. But somewhere in between graduating and applying for my first big girl job, I got caught up in things and ended up in an administrative position for a department on campus. A great job with great people doing great things, something I felt fulfilled by in a way. But ever since I took that turn, I’ve lost something. I can’t quite put my finger on it, it’s not visible or noticeable, just not quite right.

Samin just dove into a salt-sprinkled ice cream cone in Japan with the enthusiasm of a child on a sweltering summer day next to the ice cream truck. She’s standing in a beautiful little store surrounded by barrels of salt, some strong and fine, others mild and coarse, all topped with delicate wooden scoops. Her curls are shiny and tucked behind her ear carefully, no curls allowed to ruin her ice cream moment.

I think we place too much weight on the word “happy.” I don’t think it’s something you can actively strive for as all the self-help books shout at us. I think it’s more simple than that. I think it’s actually stopping to recognize a special moment, an item that makes you smile without you really even knowing it. Mindfulness maybe?

The point is, ever since I turned from the things that made me the most happy: museums and art and writing and creativity, I’ve noticed a struggle that I couldn’t quite identify. I felt this immense pressure to do something “smart”, take a job that “makes sense”, and I don’t think either of those things were actually true. What makes the most sense and seems the most intelligent is for me to do what makes me content, what makes my heart flutter and race.

They say that if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life. Then why do we constantly allow ourselves to be bullied into jobs we don’t want or careers that don’t feed off our passion? Do we actually value those things or are we just saying one thing and doing another?

As I watch Samin at 40 years of age navigate the culinary world without shedding a scrap of herself, I am realizing that I simply listened to the wrong person. There are plenty of people in the world doing what they love and encouraging us to do the same, we just missed it. The beautiful thing that I’ve learned from this whole thing is that it’s never too late. The idea that we are locked into anything is utter nonsense. I know that at the age of 36 the whole world is still out there for me to explore, it’s not suddenly revoked once you hit your 20s. That realization makes me both incredibly hopeful and fantastically excited. It’s not over y’all, it’s only just beginning.

So here’s to Samin, to her passion, to her knowledge, to her influence. To encouraging me to turn away from that which doesn’t make me truly elated. I think we should all agree that if something doesn’t make you “Samin-with-pork-fat” happy, get rid of it.

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prosperopedia · 6 years

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Alternatives to Going to Colllege

Nearly two decades ago I visited my wife’s family in Texas to propose to her. The vetting process for her family involved finding out about my plans for college and career. I remember staying up until four o’clock in the morning debating with her grandpa this question: Is college necessary?

His argument was unequivocally this: If a person wants to be successful, he needs to get at least a 4-year college degree.

My rebuttal was this: College is good for lots of people, but not for everyone.

If you discuss college attendance with almost anyone who is part of what’s known as The Greatest Generation (people who grew up in the Great Depression years) or even those from those who are Baby Boomers (people born in the late 1940s through the early 1960s), you’re very likely to hear some stern advice for pretty much anyone who’s planning to be a family breadwinner: Get your college degree!

I understand that rationale. In the past (until about 20-30 years ago), if you wanted to separate yourself from the competition when it came to getting job or even have an opportunity to be considered for employment at all, you’d need to have a degree. Most well-paying jobs required at least a Bachelor Degree. In many cases, higher paying jobs that had the most opportunity for advancement required graduate degrees, a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) or a comparable achievement.

Technology has changed all of that in so many ways.

There is so much education available in so many different forms through so many different channels that universities and other higher education institutions are scrambling to keep their relevance in areas where they once had a monopoly.

I’m going to share with you some alternatives to attending college that can make you successful and can put you ahead of many of your counterparts who choose to spend four or more years at a university. These alternatives include:

Finish Your College Degree While in High School

Entrepreneurship and Business Ownership

Working Your Way Up the Ladder

Specialized Trade Schools

Online Courses

Coding and Technology Bootcamps

Military Service

The family in which I was raised included five boys, all of whom have grown up and become successful breadwinners for our respective families. All of us make well over $100k per year and have already achieved or are well on our ways to achieve millionaire status before age 50. Only two out of the five of us (my brother and I) have college degrees. The highest earner among us currently, my youngest brother, didn’t spend any time in college.

I read an article several years ago published by Forbes entitled, The Great College Hoax, which puts some shocking perspective on the well-published statistic that college graduates make on average over $1M more than high school graduates over the course of their careers. The Forbes article describes a quickly growing problem with college graduates who are so steeped in debt that their hope for the future has been nearly exterminated. In too many cases to make more than their non-college counterparts. If you listen to the Dave Ramsey show (a popular program about debt reduction and financial management) on any given evening, you’re likely to hear at least one of these people call in desperate for help.

So, if you’re looking for an alternative to lining up with the rest of the crowd, many of whom haven’t bothered to calculate the potential ROI of their college experience, blithely headed off to college because their parents or grandparents told them that was the right thing to do, regardless of whether they are capable of paying for their education, I’m right there with you. And I’m saying this from the perspective of one who has a BS degree in Manufacturing Engineering with a Business Management minor. It took me 9 years to get it, and I’ll admit that it has given me opportunities

Some of the reasons I have observed for people seeking alternatives to a 4-year or longer university degree include:

The college expense can’t be justified. For example, paying over $50,000 to get a degree to teach history and make $40,000 per year simply doesn’t make sense for most people.

The time commitment. 4 years is just too long for some people.

They want to be more proactive about their education instead of having to take general education and other required degree classes that are not useful and that they wouldn’t choose to take otherwise.

They have a desire to pursue a specific life goal that makes college a distraction.

Their high school grades and current education level disqualify them.

Finish Your College Degree While in High School

So, this option is sort of like “going to college”, except that you don’t have all the overhead that comes into play when you graduate from high school and head off to a campus to start fresh as a…well, freshman.

For the ambitious (homeschoolers are the most common ones to do this) there are plenty of programs that allow you to complete a college degree while you’re still at home.

I recently found a program called Unbound, which allows you to piece together a degree from an accredited university in a much more flexible way. Here are the details of that program.

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Entrepreneurship and Business Ownership

In our modern economy, there are so many opportunities to become a successful entrepreneur that the opportunities can make attending college much less appealing. You can read my post about how to become a successful professional blogger as one example. There are also tons of free and cheap courses on how to start and build a business on Amazon or through other digital channels.

Even outside of the digital entrepreneurship world, there are hundreds of different kinds of businesses that you can start for low entry cost and have a business that within one year of building the business makes as much as most college graduates who (four years later) are getting their first jobs.

Sales and Other Commission-Based Jobs

If you have the type of personality that makes you willing to beat the bushes as a salesperson, you can make some serious bank in that career, and most of them don’t require any college experience. Some of these sales-based jobs can take time to build up a foundation of clients and an income stream that would support you, but there are many sales jobs that allow you to start earning good commissions right away.

The sales world has a spectrum of people ranging from those who barely make a living or fail altogether to those who are making hundreds of thousands each year. Those I’ve seen who are most successful are ones who have learned on the job, through internal and external sales trainings, and who have consciously developed the skills that allow them to sell well and to maximize the amount of income they receive for each hour of work. Most of those skills can’t be learned in college.

One of the books I’ve read that I suggest for people who are going into a sales career is The Sales Acceleration Formula. That book evaluates the overlap of marketing with sales, and will help you take your sales skills “upstream” to become a good enough marketer to make closing deals much easier for you.

Working Your Way Up the Company Ladder

A Harvard Business Review study (ironic source, right?) found that 8% of CEOs of companies they sampled did not complete college.

The article summarizing the study describes successful people who made their way to the very top (you don’t have to be the CEO to have a good career, by the way) without a college degree were very results oriented and were very good at attracting top level talent.

A substitute for college identified in the article is military experience, which is another great alternative to college. See below.

Specialized Vocational or Trade Schools

There are plenty of high paying jobs available that don’t require a four-year commitment (or even a two-year commitment in some cases) to be hired. On the list of high paying jobs that don’t require a degree, published by The Balance Careers, are diagnostic medical sonographer, which requires as little as a one-year certificate), and tool-and-die maker, for which training can received on the job as well as through a vocational school.

Online Education Courses

There are online courses available for almost any subject you’d care to learn about through community learning websites like Udemy.com, Coursera.com, Lynda.com, and from university online course programs.

These courses include topics like online marketing (Facebook ads, content marketing, lead generation), photography, graphic design, and lots of others that provide a firm foundation for building a fulfilling career.

Coding and Technology Bootcamps

One of the most prolific opportunities for people who are inclined towards technology are coding and technology bootcamps. These technology bootcamps offer programs that last for four to six months and are designed to place you in a job (in fact, the companies who run the camps are rated based on placement) that often pays as high as what you might expect

These coding bootcamps normally cost around $10,000 to complete. Compared to a 4-year college degree, you don’t get nearly the amount of theory and other stuff, but that’s not really a negative. You get the skills you need to change your career and successfully get a job that pays well without “wasting” so much time on those topics that a university would need to teach to be accredited. You can often learn those deeper theory topics (more efficiently even) while you’re on the job.

Coding careers are not for everyone. If you’re interested in going this route, I’d highly recommend taking some aptitude and propensity tests to avoid going down a path toward a career that you’re simply not cut out for.

Often, coding bootcamps will offer scholarships, especially to underprivileged (minorities, single moms, etc.) groups. If you need financially help paying for a coding camp, I’d suggest looking at a few different bootcamps (they can vary widely in their approaches to financing the bootcamp) to see what they offer by way of discounts, scholarships, and financial aid.

Military Service

Especially for those who feel they are unprepared for college when they graduate from high school and want some experience in a disciplined environment, the military is a great option. As mentioned above in the discussion about the Harvard Business Review study, many of the CEOs who didn’t have college degrees had military experience. The type of learning

Another great reason to choose the military as an alternative to going to college is that it represents a payment of service back to the most extraordinary country that has ever existed. Serving in the military is an honorable endeavor, and allows you to develop and demonstrate patriotism.

Should You Choose College or Do Something Else?

It’s true that the old school mindset of “college degree or bust” is giving way to the growing number of alternatives. That trend is also being affected by the increasingly exorbitant costs of the traditional on-campus pursuit of a 4-year degree.

I believe there was value for me in earning my BS degree, most importantly the fact that I found my wife during the second to last of my four senior years. I enjoyed the atmosphere and I have a lot of good memories of being on campus. I also ended up wasting a lot of money taking courses I didn’t need, and I essentially wasted hundreds of hours doing busy work assignments that I would not have chosen to be part of my education experience.

As long as you intelligently estimate what is going to be the return on your time and money investment, you can do well either way. If you choose to go the route of going to college to get a Bachelor’s Degree without having spent time considering the financial value it will provide you (just as you would with any other investment, except more so with college because of how much of a time and money commitment it is) compared with the financial burden it will place on you, you will likely regret the decision. However, if you have made a plan that considers the ROI of a 4-year college education, you can move ahead with your college plans with confidence, or tweak them to ensure that you hit your target.

If attending college is not in your future, I hope this list of alternatives to college is helpful for you to take the next steps in your educational and employment career.

If you think of other ideas of alternatives to attending college, please feel free to share them with us in the comments or by interacting with any of our social media channels.

The post Alternatives to Going to Colllege appeared first on The Handbook for Happiness, and Success, and Prosperity Prosperopedia.

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kristinsimmons · 6 years

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What Parents of Athletes Should Know About Injuries and Abuse

By EMILY ANDERSON

I’m not a parent. But I was once a gymnast. Now I teach at a medical school. As far as my own injuries, I consider myself lucky; I can walk through airport security without setting off any metal detectors. But I certainly have had my fair share of visits to the emergency department, the orthopedist, the chiropractor, and the physical therapist – as an adult and as a child, at times without a parent present.

We heard so many powerful statements from young women at Larry Nassar’s sentencing hearings. As I read and listened to these women confront their abuser, I was empowered by statements like those of Kyle Stevens, who said: “…little girls don’t stay little forever. They grow into strong women that return to destroy your world.”

But I wondered if parents of male athletes were paying as much attention to the Nassar story as were the parents of young girls. Now that the first male gymnast has come forward to accuse Nassar of sexual abuse perhaps they will.

As a health educator-turned-bioethicist who studies physician sexual abuse of patients, I have some practical advice for parents.

First, if your child is at a competitive level, talk to him about injuries now – before they happen. Tell him how important it is that he is honest with you about his injuries. Emphasize that his health is more important than anything else. Injuries will occur at inconvenient times – after plane tickets have been purchased for an away competition, after tens of thousands of dollars of been spent on training, before the offer of a college scholarship is finalized. Let him know that you will never be angry with him, that he will never be in trouble for being hurt. Your child has worked tirelessly. She is a perfectionist. She is an overachiever. She is a risk taker. She is a badass. She may not have been alive when Kerri Strug hobbled down the vault runway on an injured ankle at the 1996 Olympics, but she’s seen the video. She knows how much you have sacrificed – whether or not you have ever pointed this out. And whether it’s because she doesn’t want to disappoint you or her coaches, or because she doesn’t want to miss an opportunity, voices in her head are telling her to say that it doesn’t really hurt that much. National team members speaking out against Nassar mentioned instances where they specially asked to receive treatment in private, because they were worried that if their coaches or parents knew, they wouldn’t be allowed to compete. In order to truly respect his victims and prevent future abuses, we cannot ignore that as a physician, Nassar offered much that these young athletes needed – relief from physical pain, emotional support in an extremely stressful environment, and an ally when they were being pushed to train or compete while injured. Make sure your child knows that you are her ally.

Second, accept but that injuries are inevitable. Prepare to decide whether or not your child will be allowed to train and/or compete when injured. You will make these decisions in consultation with coaches and physicians or athletic trainers, but ultimately you as a parent are responsible for your child’s safety and welfare. Nassar himself said this during a 2013 podcast.

Third, there is a simple, practical way to prevent abuse by a physician or trainer. Nassar initially denied any misconduct, and then changed his story to claim that vaginal penetration was “standard treatment.” If your child requires ongoing treatment for an injury, and especially if you will not be present for every session, ask the treating physician or trainer, in front of your child, to describe in detail what that treatment will involve. Then, say to the provider, in front of your child: “If you decide to do something different, or someone else will be involved in treating my child, please tell me first.” And to your child, in front of the provider, say: “If the treatment you are receiving seems different from what’s being discussed here, ask to stop immediately and tell me.”

This suggestion may be perceived as putting responsibility for preventing abuse on vulnerable victims. But there’s no harm in educating all patients about what to expect at the doctor’s office. This improves the patient experience. Institutions –USA Gymnastics, the International Olympic Committee, and Michigan State University – and administrators and coaches working at those institutions are also to blame for ignoring complaints about Nassar and perpetuating the cultures that allowed him to abuse so many young athletes for so long. The health care system must also take greater action to prevent physician misconduct. But institutions are slow to change, and bad apples are difficult to screen out. Talking to your kids more can’t hurt.

Emily E. Anderson, PhD, MPH, is associate professor of bioethics at Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago and a Public Voices Fellow at the OpEd Project.

What Parents of Athletes Should Know About Injuries and Abuse published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

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kristinsimmons · 6 years

Text

What Parents of Athletes Should Know About Injuries and Abuse

By EMILY ANDERSON

As a health educator-turned-bioethicist who studies physician sexual abuse of patients, I have some practical advice for parents.

Emily E. Anderson, PhD, MPH, is associate professor of bioethics at Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago and a Public Voices Fellow at the OpEd Project.

What Parents of Athletes Should Know About Injuries and Abuse published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

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kristinsimmons · 6 years

Text

What Parents of Athletes Should Know About Injuries and Abuse

By EMILY ANDERSON

As a health educator-turned-bioethicist who studies physician sexual abuse of patients, I have some practical advice for parents.

Emily E. Anderson, PhD, MPH, is associate professor of bioethics at Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago and a Public Voices Fellow at the OpEd Project.

What Parents of Athletes Should Know About Injuries and Abuse published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/

0 notes