How many of you read a hard copy newspaper? I subscribed for weekly delivery because that's the only way my mom will read it. I've just gotten her over to a smartphone; an e-reader would be too much of a leap. I usually read the Sunday paper if I have time. I saw three articles/opinion pieces that jumped out at me.
First, with the March for Science on Saturday, I read the coverage in the Roanoke Times entitled "Advocated fan our in global science rallies." That piece was excerpted from a much longer piece in The Washington Post. Even in those many lines of text, a name jumped out at me: Kavya Kopparapu. Kavya was quoted in the article about needing more women in computer science. Kavya was a winner of the VA/DC Aspirations' in Computing Award in 2016 and a winner of the National Aspirations' Award in 2017. It's great to see her encouraging other young women.
Second, I saw the picture accompanying an article entitled "Undergrads build prosthetic for 10-year-old violinist." I've read a lot of scholarship essays from students wanting to create the next generation of prosthetics. There is a great need for better, cheaper, and lighter prosthetics. 3-D printing will be very important in making that happen. How cool is that?
Last and most definitely least was an editorial entitled "Why are some liberals OK with shaming Appalachia?" I've been thinking a lot about southwest Virginia lately and the lack of opportunities on so many levels. I'm not sure how I feel about this editorial. Any others from Appalachia want to weigh in?
Monday, April 24, 2017
Thursday, April 20, 2017
Connecting dots with old friends
I can't believe it's been almost a year since I last posted on this blog. Plenty of things pinging around in my head, though, even if I've not written about them.
One of the reasons I started this blog was to help make connections. There have been a lot of things that I've thought about in the last couple of months along those lines, but what finally lit the fire under my behind to write was a conversation with a college friend last weekend. I stay in touch with a lot of friends from both high school and college, but there are few that I see in person. We caught up a bit and during that, we got on to the topic of what I do here at Virginia Tech. When someone asks, I normally laugh and say something like "a little bit of a lot of different things." But in this case, we ended up talking about the student engagement part of my job, which to me is the part that helps connect the dots.
She has a middle-school aged daughter who is interested in computing and is also a percussionist. When we started talking about college, I suggested her daughter would have a much better chance of getting a scholarship in computing or engineering than in music. She was surprised. I told her about Aspirations and how I came to work with the program. I told her that my passion has always been to help students in Southwest Virginia and in other under-served areas. (I'm slowly finding more ways to do that which I hope to write about soon.) I mentioned that we are still the only school in the state of Virginia that offers a scholarship to Aspirations winners. I mentioned summer programs at GMU, NC State, and here at VT.
I could talk about helping students find opportunities all day long depending on what the student is looking for. At one point, my friend said "How am I supposed to know about all of this stuff?" I said, "Ask me." Seriously. That is the reason I do what I do at work and why I felt the need to write a blog about opportunities available to students and cool things in technology.
One of the reasons I started this blog was to help make connections. There have been a lot of things that I've thought about in the last couple of months along those lines, but what finally lit the fire under my behind to write was a conversation with a college friend last weekend. I stay in touch with a lot of friends from both high school and college, but there are few that I see in person. We caught up a bit and during that, we got on to the topic of what I do here at Virginia Tech. When someone asks, I normally laugh and say something like "a little bit of a lot of different things." But in this case, we ended up talking about the student engagement part of my job, which to me is the part that helps connect the dots.
She has a middle-school aged daughter who is interested in computing and is also a percussionist. When we started talking about college, I suggested her daughter would have a much better chance of getting a scholarship in computing or engineering than in music. She was surprised. I told her about Aspirations and how I came to work with the program. I told her that my passion has always been to help students in Southwest Virginia and in other under-served areas. (I'm slowly finding more ways to do that which I hope to write about soon.) I mentioned that we are still the only school in the state of Virginia that offers a scholarship to Aspirations winners. I mentioned summer programs at GMU, NC State, and here at VT.
I could talk about helping students find opportunities all day long depending on what the student is looking for. At one point, my friend said "How am I supposed to know about all of this stuff?" I said, "Ask me." Seriously. That is the reason I do what I do at work and why I felt the need to write a blog about opportunities available to students and cool things in technology.
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