Posts Tagged ‘Education’
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Friday, January 20th, 2012
Claudia Emerson, professor at the University of Mary Washington, discusses her journey into poetry, her stumbles across the way and her love for teaching students she thinks of as her own children.
By Colin Daileda
Courtesy of Miriam Berkley / Blue Flower Arts
Claudia Emerson sits in a coffee shop looking like the modern writer she is. Her thin frame outlined by a large glass window to her right that displays the quaint red brick buildings of Fredericksburg. Her fingers spread across her MacBook Pro as she peers at the screen, her glasses perched halfway down her nose from her bright brown eyes. She seems to be, like any other writer with a laptop in a coffee shop, lost in thought.
But Claudia Emerson is not any other writer. Although she’d be the last person to tell you, she’s a poet who’s won everything from the Association of Writers and Writing Programs’ Intro Award to the Pulitzer Prize, and currently holds the Arrington Distinguished Chair in Poetry at the University of Mary Washington, where she is a professor.
Has being a lifelong Virginian influenced you?
“Except for two years in grad school when I was in Greensboro, N.C., I’ve always lived in the state. I’ve been very defined by the state, but I always say Virginia is more than one place. I was really defined, until the last 10 years, by being in more south-side Virginia. But before I got this job, tenure track, I did a lot of adjunct teaching. I taught three years at Washington and Lee, which is another pretty distinct region.”
When did you decide to be a poet?
“When I was about 28. I always knew I had an artistic something or other, but I wasn’t sure if it might be journalism or … music for a while. If you had said, ‘What kind of writer do you think you’d be?’ at one point I would have said short story. ”
How does a poetry book come about?
“You need to … send the poems out to different magazines. Chances are you’re not going to get [the book] picked up by anybody unless your poems have appeared in a significant number of magazines. That’s really true for young writers. Then there are first book contests that are legitimate. I entered a lot of those and didn’t win any of them.”
What kind of reading do you do?
“I read a lot of poetry in various stages. I judge a lot of book contests. I served on the Pulitzer jury twice and the Library of Virginia Jury three or four times—that will involve 30 books, 50 books. But I still read a lot of fiction.”
Is it hard to teach and write at the same time?
“It comes and goes. If you have particularly difficult students, sometimes it will eat up a lot of your time trying to bring everybody around. But … every once in a while I’ll have an incredibly gifted group. They’re very exciting to work with, but working with gifted students can be extremely demanding. But I’m pretty good to be disciplined about it. Especially now, after my good fortune of the Pulitzer Prize, the school gave me a distinguished chair, which dropped my teaching load down to two classes every semester. I don’t know that I’ll ever write super fast.”
What do you try to impart on your students?
“It’s always hard … to resist teaching them your aesthetic. It’s always challenging to find out where they’re coming from … and then try to help them direct their reading loads. [A friend and poet] said to me recently, ‘It’s important for young writers to read, but to have them read as writers.’”
When did you figure out that you might actually be pretty good at writing poetry?
“I think it was in graduate school that I began to have a sense I was a better poet [than fiction writer]. They accepted me in poetry, so I focused on that and made it my business to study with people who could help me do this better, and to be open to the criticism.”
What’s your favorite thing about teaching?
“I’ve got pretty good at spotting when somebody is pretty gifted, and [I] tap them and say, ‘You’re gonna do well in this class, but it’s bigger than that.’ … The other is [my students are] at the point where they’re gonna leave me for a while. I never had my own children, so I get this sort of pseudo-maternalistic thing. But that’s fun … to see them go off and know that they’ve gotten into graduate programs … or have begun shifting toward the next phase.”
Your favorite thing about poetry?
“It’s always been challenging to me, to get the idea, to think I have a fresh metaphor, to mull it around. I’m a very, very messy writer. [The beginning] might just be a word or an idea or an image and then it all mulls around for a while, and I’ll go for my run in the morning or go for a bike ride and I’ll say, ‘OK, it’s time to start drafting.’”
Do poets have to teach? How do you make a living off of poetry?
“You don’t. I think you teach at something. I always say to my students, ‘This is not a professional degree that will lead to teaching.’ It might, I’m not gonna tell you, ‘You can’t have what I have,’ but it’s a long haul for some of us. It was a pretty long haul for me.”
Why do you think poetry matters in an age of the Internet and social media?
“I think now it’s thriving more than it was when I began. I think publishing’s changing what with Kindles and Nooks and Amazon and all that stuff, but writing programs are thriving; people turn to poetry quite a bit. Poetry as a genre isn’t just one thing. It’s experimental forms, it’s narrative, it’s lyric, it’s all over the place. My students at Mary Washington still want to hold a book in their hands. Poets have always been a minority in the world of literature, but we’re very resilient; we’re like vegetarians. We may not have a restaurant in every town or even a dish on every menu, but we’re there.”
You write songs in addition to poetry. Are the two similar?
“They’re kind of similar. For me, like the genres themselves, at one point they were closer together, and then they grew apart. I still like to look at meter and form in poetry in ways that in music is more subtle. I write in collaboration with my husband and a friend of his. We’ll get out a chalkboard and share a bottle of wine and write songs and have a grand old time.”
You perform with your husband, too. What’s that like?
“It’s fun. When I was in my 20s that was one of my possible aspirations, to play music. I just got to the point where I thought, ‘That’s not my gift; I’m just not talented enough.’ I don’t think you can really be a good songwriter if you don’t play well. [My husband plays well]; he really does. If I ever make up any little thing, he’ll take it over and immediately apply all these chords to it that I can’t play.”
Where do you see yourself in five-10 years?
“Happiness is a funny thing. [In] Marilyn Robinson’s novel, “Gilead,” the narrator reminds you at one point that happiness is not an end place, that it’s a byproduct of doing work that you like, being in healthy, satisfying relationships, that kind of thing. You can’t constantly be chasing career things without remembering that it’s the pursuit not of some end place, but of happiness, which is to do good work.”
(January 2012)
Posted by Lindsey Leake / Friday, January 6th, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Fairfax woman sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering 2-year-old granddaughter at Tysons Corner Center
Inova Health System may create major cancer center
Controversial testing benchmarks a factor in number of public schools receiving Virginia Index of Performance awards
Prince William County Police identify officers involved in last month’s fatal shooting of armed burglary suspect
Chantilly middle school students caught drinking at school
(Compiled by Lindsey Leake)
Posted by Lindsey Leake / Tuesday, December 20th, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Fairfax County may spend $29.8 million on two new elementary schools
Baby Jesus statues stolen from Nativity scenes throughout NoVA
Virginia Railway Express proposes 3 percent fare hike
Ashburn realtor indicted for role in $7 million mortgage fraud scam
Virginia soldiers return home from Iraq just in time for Christmas
(Compiled by Lindsey Leake)
New Option in Education Coming to Fairfax & GMU Professor Receives International Poetry Award
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Friday, December 2nd, 2011
New Option in Education Coming to Fairfax
Fairfax County has one of the best public school systems in the nation. So why would it need a charter school?
“Having the best public schools in the nation means moving forward as a school district,” says Eric Welch, executive director of the Fairfax Leadership Academy. Welch is pushing for the charter school in order to decrease the large achievement gap in the eastern part of the county.
Graham Road Elementary School is the proposed site for the charter school, catering to those seventh- to 12th-grade students who are low-income, ESL and in danger of dropping out or not going to college.
The eight-hour, 206-day school year would give teachers more time to give students the attention and college/career education they need. The charter school would also help alleviate some of the overcrowding in Falls Church and Annandale, says Welch. In order to fund the school, the charter would get federal grants, private foundations and per pupil funding.
“It’s not separate from the school district; it’s a pilot they can learn from,” says Welch. The application was turned in to the State and School Board in October. If approved, the school would open in August 2013.
–Lexie Ramage
GMU Professor Receives International Poetry Award
For Rei Berroa, a longtime professor of modern and classical languages at George Mason University, today isn’t just another Friday. It’s the day he’s receiving the 2011 International Poetry Award in Trieste, Italy, for his lifetime achievement in the field of poetry.
Author of more than 25 books, Berroa, whose poetry will be translated into an Italian anthology, has also been the literary advisor to Teatro de la Luna, an Arlington-based theatre company since 1991, plus coordinated an annual “Poetry Marathon” at various sites over the past decade.
-Lorin Drinkard
(December 2011)
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Monday, September 26th, 2011
Local Latinos Must Overcome Many Obstacles to Acheive Success in School.
by Renee Sklarew
While attending Potomac Falls High School in Loudoun County, Dennis Rosado was student leader of UNITY, a multicultural group offering students a place to have a voice and share ideas. Rosado worked hard in school and was accepted into George Mason University. What drove him to excel? Rosado explains, “Within most Hispanic cultures, family is extremely important and holds a powerful influence in the lives of the children. One of the biggest fears I’ve always had was disappointing my family. I use this as a way to motivate myself and study hard.”
Unfortunately, not all of Rosado’s friends graduated with him: “I became very frustrated with two of my Hispanic friends who didn’t seem to care about pulling their grades. I slowly distanced myself from them because they were getting into trouble.”
The research/advocacy organization Virginia Kids studies the challenges children face while living in Northern Virginia. Kathy May, director of Virginia Kids, says the organization published a recent report outlining how certain geographic areas “are pockets of poverty where children are at greater risk of becoming pregnant, having food insecurity and dropping out of school.” Virginia Kids included 2010 data by the Virginia Department of Education showing how, region-wide, nearly half of all drop-outs are Hispanic students.
“Some professors have coined a new phrase—‘push out rates,’ because it takes the blame off the kids,” says Mays. “The problem is not a bad kid or behavior issues, it’s a systemic problem. Schools may not fit students
“Those who come to us as teenagers, still learning English, are [at the] greatest risk of dropping out. It takes so much time to catch up, and many have demands to help financially support their families.”
who aren’t the typical suburban white kid.” Virginia Kids’ research revealed kids drop out for different reasons, including: “My family needed me to go to work,” or, “I needed to take care of the little kids at home.” Although most state and federal funding is directed at early intervention—pre-schools, child care or home visits—immigrant children entering school in the upper grades are the most likely to leave school without a diploma.
With limited resources, what should communities do to curtail high school dropouts? Besides mentoring programs, one way is to support funding of the public libraries, says May. “With immigrant kids, libraries are their lifeline to the new world.”
Rachel Harlan is director of Youth Services at Arlington Central Library, which oversees programs for teen parents, volunteer/work experience, summer reading and after-school study programs in six locations, including recreation centers. Recent budget cuts have forced libraries to reduce their hours and services; and in response, libraries now target their programming to support kids who need it the most. Harlan mentions one group specifically: “Those who come to us as teenagers, still learning English, are [at the] greatest risk of dropping out. It takes so much time to catch up, and many have demands to help financially support their families.”
Currently, Rosado serves as the administrator of Facebook’s Hispanic Student Association—a group working to promote positive relationships within the Latino community. When asked what he’d say to a friend dropping out of school, he replies, “If they’re money driven, I tell them staying in school would help them earn more money in the future. I tell them the consequences of not having a high school education will lead to a stressful life.”
(October 2011)
zhu difeng/shutterstock.com (Barrier); J. McPhail/shutterstock.com (Graduate); vectorkat/shutterstock.com (Diploma)
Posted by Rebekah Lowe / Monday, September 26th, 2011
GMU’s Entrepreneur MENTORS
by Colleen Sheehy Orme
By Jesse Lefkowitz
The American dream is alive and well, and just around the corner for many Northern Virginians. Mason Small Business Development Center (Mason SBDC, www.masonsbdc.org), located in the City of Fairfax, is making it happen for the metropolitan area’s entrepreneurs. The center is affiliated with George Mason University and located approximately one-half mile from campus. In operation for 14 years, their mission is to positively impact the regional economy.
The center’s inspiring mantra, “We provide guidance that will turn your ideas into an enterprise,” is enough to motivate any budding business. If that is not enough, this profound resource provides its services at no cost thanks to a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Small Business Administration, Virginia SBDC Network and the George Mason University-Mason Enterprise Center at the Office of Research and Economic Development.
Mason SBDC provides essentially everything a business needs to start and succeed. An individual may ask general business questions and network through a course, “Counseling 101,” and even be the recipient of valuable one-on-one mentoring. The center provides these services while staying true to their sponsors and their metrics for job creation, job retention, capital formation, new business starts and overall economic impact.
Staffed by two full-time employees, John Casey, director of Mason SBDC, and Mona Anita Olsen, assistant director—along with two staff counselors and 20 volunteer counselors—the center worked with over 740 businesses in 2010. Quite an impressive number thanks to Casey and Olsen who have created an effective and efficient matrix that allows their team to service such large numbers. “When I came on board we just handled Fairfax County,” says Olsen, who received her bachelor’s from Cornell, master’s from the University of Virginia, and is focusing her George Mason University Ph.D. work on apprenticeship. “We then took on Arlington and Prince William so we had to figure out how to bring our model to scale, especially with changes in the economy.” Director Casey earned his bachelor’s from Colgate and his master’s from George Washington University; he originally began as a volunteer at Mason SBDC.
“Out of the 740 businesses we worked with, 480 of them received one-on-one counseling by mentors, and 260 received other assistance from the center,” says Olsen. “Alumni and really interesting industry people come in to give advice to the clients. Therefore, we are able to provide over 100 hours each month of one-on-one counseling. We have a lot volunteers who are here because they want to make a difference. That positive word of mouth is something I don’t know how to quantify because it is so powerful.”
“We have close to 50 businesses that we helped start in 2010; and so far in 2011, we have helped our clients start 21 new businesses,” says Olsen. How we hit the goals and also provide service really comes back to our strong team. We are all very, very much intrinsically motivated because we want to be here. We are pretty clear up front that we are looking for businesses that really do want to make an impact on the economy and the local community.”
The Mason SBDC is a testimony to the successful businesses they are accommodating. The center comprises the same dedication, commitment and management that it takes for those they mentor to succeed. What they are able to so successfully deliver to so many is indicative of the spark that propels the entrepreneurial spirit to succeed—to take, as their tag line says, “your idea” and turn it into something tangible … your very own American dream.
Companies Who Have Worked with Mason SBDC:
• Visionary Consulting Partners: www.vcp-llc.com
• Steve Gladis Leadership: www.stevegladiscommunications.com
• TalaTek, LLC: www.talatek.com
• CorePerformX: coreperformx.com
• Ferretti Designs, LLC: www.ferrettidesigns.com
• Joy Unlimited: www.joy-unlimited.com
Student Internships:
• Mason SBDC takes on about 10 students every semester.
• High School students commit between 2 and 10 hours per week.
• College students commit between 10 and 15 hours per week.
• Students from all over are accepted. Apply online at www.masonsbdc.org.
• Visionary Consulting Partners: www.vcp-llc.com
• Steve Gladis Leadership: www.stevegladiscommunications.com
• TalaTek, LLC: www.talatek.com
• CorePerformX: coreperformx.com
• Ferretti Designs, LLC: www.ferrettidesigns.com
• Joy Unlimited: www.joy-unlimited.com
Student Internships:
• Mason SBDC takes on about 10 students every semester.
• High School students commit between 2 and 10 hours per week.
• College students commit between 10 and 15 hours per week.
• Students from all over are accepted. Apply online at www.masonsbdc.org.
A Success Story
When Andy Macias moved to Virginia and retired from the military, he reached out to Mason SBDC. “It’s a gold mine, not just from the consultations, but it’s led me to network and other resources that I would not have known if I hadn’t gone to Mason,” says Macias. “And it’s all free. … That is what is amazing.”
“If it’s a marketing person I need, they will hook me up; if it’s a manufacturing person, a lawyer, an accountant, they will hook me up to them,” says Macias. “The most beneficial thing I’ve taken away is it’s exposed me to resources I didn’t even know existed, be it people, businesses or courses they offer.”
A year and a half later, Andy’s Tailgate Cruisers (www.andystailgatecruiser.com) is now thriving and providing happy sports fans an easy, convenient, no-mess-to-clean way to yummy tailgating. Andy is living his entrepreneurial dream with plans to expand.
(September 2011)
National Archives’ Exhibit on How the Government Shapes Diet Opens Friday
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
(Image The Foundation for the National Archives)
The National Archives’ newest exhibit, What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? The Government’s Effect on the American Diet, opens on Friday, June 10. From war gardens to FDA dinner plates, the exhibit highlights the American government’s historical involvement in the way its citizens eat, through “production, regulation, research, innovation, and economics.”
The United States government has a long history of involvement in Americans’ dinner tables. According to NPR, who got an early tour of the exhibit, founders Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin were known to bring food from abroad, like olives and rice, to see if they could cultivate them here, and the Department of Agriculture routinely shipped explorers abroad to find food that would flourish in American farmlands.
According to the What’s Cooking website, the exhibit features four main categories: farm, factory, kitchen and table. The farm section concentrates on how the government helped shape the American agricultural complex, including the introduction of farm subsidies; factory focuses on the horrifying state of early industrial food production and how it was eventually cleaned up; and kitchen and table cover similar topics like the government’s involvement in promoting healthy eating, and wartime diets.
It also has a picture of Nixon’s last meal as president: pineapple, cottage cheese and milk. Mmm, mmm.
There’s more on NPR about the coming exhibit, including an interesting anecdote about how the U.S. government discovered that some preservatives were actually poisonous: human experimentation!:
“[Harvey] Wiley kept notes and tables of the effects the meals had on his volunteers. Often, they became violently ill. One note reads: “#5 was nauseated and sick during the night of February 1 and vomited all of his dinner. He did not eat breakfast on February 2.”
Isn’t that nice?
What’s Cooking, Uncle Sam? will be in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery in the National Archives building starting Friday, June 10 and will run to January 3, 2012. Chef Jose Andres pop-up American eats restaurant made in collaboration with the exhibit is scheduled to open up July 4.
- Kris King
Posted by Lynn Norusis / Thursday, May 19th, 2011
Apple’s first retail store in Tysons Corner celebrates 10 years
Fairfax woman awakes to intruders hands around her neck
Where to head for tailgaiting now that Jiffy Lube Live has banned it
Loudoun considering pulling out of Dulles Rail Project
Drive-by purse snatching leaves Leesburg woman unconscious
Local high school graduates struggling at community colleges
Local Sixfortyseven Nixes TV to Focus on Education
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, July 21st, 2010
Derek Luhowiak maintains that he pulled the plug on tomorrow’s planned taping of “Eat St.” for Paperny Films (they’re rolling with Rebel Heroes today), not because business is flagging (as PF seemed to suggest) but because he’s reached a philosophical/professional crossroads.
“We were so busy that in fact our next step was to become a restaurant or grow to a large trailer. Neither of which we wanted,” Luhowiak informed us via email. “Knowing that, we did not feel right using airtime that could go to promote another local business so that they can succeed with their dream.”
So, what’s next for the seasonally-inspired-food-cart-cameras-evidently-adore?
That would roughly be teaching.
“Local Sixfortyseven will continue to operate as a private for hire catering focusing on small intimate parties where I can really focus on utilizing our food to its fullest,” Luhowiak pledged, adding that he’s hunting for more land to sustain additional crops, an expanded apiary and “a small flock of birds.”
Luhowiak also expects to up his hands-on instruction, mapping out plans to incorporate food preservation, home butchering and biodynamic horticulture classes into his forthcoming culinary curriculum.
“The one thing I have learned in the last five years working with the local food industry is that no one model fits and you have to be willing to improvise on a dime as the industry progresses,” he said of his still-evolving, education-first mission.
Oh, and don’t worry about the Paperny folks.
They’ve already made arrangements to stalk the D.C. Slices truck instead.
–Warren
Additional Senior Deal Discoveries
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, October 23rd, 2009
By Tiffany Peng
In our November issue, we detailed senior savings exclusive to Northern Virginia Magazine readers with proof of age. Continue below to check out where to score additional deals on dining, entertainment, travel and education for the 55-and-older crowd.
SHOPPING
On the first Tuesday of every month, seniors aged 55 and older who shop Senior Day at Belk department stores receive a 15-percent discount off their entire purchase. And every Tuesday, the same set gets a 10-percent discount at Ross stores (check for participating locations).
Other retailers don’t require shopping on a particular day. Examples: Goodwill gives seniors aged 55 and up a 20-percent discount on their entire purchase, excluding new items, daily. And, similarly, some Banana Republic locations offer a 10-percent discount to seniors aged 65 and older every day.
DINING
Some of the deals we discovered include the following: Arby’s (10 percent off for ages 55-plus), Burger King (10 percent off for ages 55-plus), Dairy Queen (10 percent off for ages 55-plus), Taco Bell (10 percent off for ages 65-plus), and McDonald’s (64 cents for coffee, iced tea or soft drinks for ages 55-plus). Again, due to a modern age of franchising, these discounts can vary depending on the location, so it’s best to call ahead of time to find out if a particular location is a participating one or not.
For those who prefer to sit and stay a while, Bob Evans restaurants offer seniors aged 55 and older a special senior menu that includes lower prices and smaller portions. Other chains that offer a special senior menu include Denny’s (for seniors 55-plus), IHOP (for seniors 55-plus) and Friendly’s (for seniors 60-plus).
Additionally, Old Country Buffett allows seniors aged 60 years or older to purchase a Senior Club Card for just $1, which grants seniors discounts on every adult buffet meal they purchase for one year. For those who do not wish to purchase the Senior Club Card at Old Country Buffet, every weekday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., seniors 60 years or older receive a discounted adult buffet meal for only $5.99. Still more dining deals: AARP cardholders receive 20 percent off at Boston Market, and seniors aged 65 and older save 10 percent at Pizza Hut.
ENTERTAINMENT
Nearly all area movie theaters offer some form of a discounted movie ticket for seniors, including local, independently owned theaters. For instance, Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax offers Wednesday Senior Day, where seniors ages 60-plus can watch $4 movies.
If you enjoy catching live acts on the cheap, check out Wolf Trap. The performing arts park offers a senior citizen discount of 50 percent for in-house tickets for those adults ages 65-plus starting a half hour prior to performances (subject to availability).
Of course, it’s always good to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, too, and seniors 62-plus can purchase for a small price the America the Beautiful Senior Pass, which provides access to all U.S. National Parks and a 50-percent discount on some Expanded Amenity Fees on facilities and services such as camping and swimming. Go to http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm for more information.
The Virginia Department of Recreation and Conservation offers a variety of discounted senior citizen passes for admission to Virginia state parks as well as for parking, boat launching and amenities, which include camping, park merchandise, equipment rental and shelter/amphitheater rentals. Additional information is available here: http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/.
TRAVEL
If you happen to live in the City of Alexandria and are at least 60 years old, you may want to pay attention to this. The City of Alexandria Department of the Aging offers seniors who live in Alexandria taxi services for only $2 to visit grocery stores and pharmacies within the Alexandria city borders. They will also take seniors to medical facilities in a radius of five miles outside of the city (excluding Lorton, Woodbridge, D.C. and MD) for only $2.50. Call 703-836-1840 the DAY BEFORE to make a reservation or to apply. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (closed on weekends and holidays).
Elsewhere, the Seniors-On-The-Go! taxi program is available through the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. Seniors who are at least 65 years old and meet certain income criteria can participate in this program, which includes taxi coupon booklets that are worth $33, but only cost $20. If you apply and are eligible, you may purchase up to $528 worth of booklets a year with an actual cost of only $320 per year. (Residents of the City of Alexandria and the City of Falls Church are not eligible).
EDUCATION
Thinking about taking some classes but don’t want the headache of homework and exams? The Osher Lifetime Learning Institute (OLLI) at George Mason University offers daytime classes, lectures and special events led by qualified OLLI members and teachers from George Mason University. Classes meet for 90 minutes from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays for four terms—a total of 26 weeks per year—at locations in Fairfax, Reston and Sterling. OLLI members are entitled to a George Mason photo ID card and with it can enjoy many campus privileges. Aside from class, OLLI also offers various social and volunteer activities.
The annual fee is $350 for membership at all three sites and $150 for a Loudoun-only membership. There is also an introductory rate of $150 for one term.
(November 2009)