Asian Polyglot

A friend of mine posted something about The Lottery on Facebook last night. It’s a documentary about charter schools in Harlem, a neighborhood just a few blocks from where I currently live. I’ve heard things about schools in Harlem, but to be honest, I didn’t know much more beyond that it’s typical of many inner-city schools in America. I took a break from exam studying and watched this movie. Though the film itself was a bit one-sided and the statistics were somewhat questionable, it did served as much needed inspiration, and got me thinking about education in the USA.

After receiving my primary school education in Taiwan, I continued the rest of secondary education in a suburb of Saint Louis. Although both were public education, I was stunned by the difference. I will never forget the first day of math class in 6th grade, when the teacher gave out multiplication timetable test. I could not believe it. Time table was drilled in our little heads since well before second grade and I was ready to do some advanced algebra. When the teacher approached me to ask me why I wasn’t doing my time table, I gave her a “are you for real?” look and said, “I am finished.”

Needless to say, the school system that I was a part of was average at best. Although I didn’t turn out too badly, I know many of my classmates only made it as far as the community college. The high school promoted a program that feed students into community college rather than a 4-year degree university. As a result, many do not complete a 4-year degree. Guidance counselors and teachers did not inspire students to think of sky as limit when it came to career aspirations and college choices. To compensate for the lack of preparation, my sister and I both graduated high school early and jump started on college courses at community college. My sister actually received comments along the lines of “you are making a terrible mistake” when she decided to leave and to give up her seat as Student Body President. Where is the priority?

Yes, I wish my high school put more focus on SAT prep and pushed for opportunities beyond community college and the University of Missouri system. But some people simply wish their school taught them how to read and to write properly. I spent my undergraduate years at SLU mentoring kids from the City of Saint Louis schools. The experience was heartbreaking. Even working with kids as young as 4th and 5th grade, I knew they were already so far behind academically, that to catch up with the average American will take immense effort and resources that these kids were not receiving.

The American education system reflects the inequity that this country is fighting via various Occupy movements. It would have been nice to move into a more affluent neighborhood where public schools were more college-prep. For kids in the inner-city, it would’ve been nice to be born into families that can afford to live in nice school districts. To a larger extent, one’s fate is largely determined by where one was born. It probably would be nice for the children in my Cameroonian village to be born in an industrialized society where teachers show up to teach regularly.

I still believe in the American dream. After all, I managed to crawl as an immigrant child from a low-income family into the Ivy walls, albeit via mediocre public school system. Anything is still possible in this country, more so than many others in the world. But as great as this country is, shouldn’t a child’s fate be less dependent upon the neighborhood where he or she grows up? And shouldn’t a country that prides itself on entrepreneurial spirits able to come up with a “business model” that can help schools properly meet its supply and demand?

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Oh SIPA. You never cease to amaze me.  I have been so involved with my life in New York and the happenings at Columbia that I haven’t written much about these really amazing past few months. It’s finals time and stress is in the air, but what really impresses me is how my SIPA colleagues manage to handle this stress with such humor. Slight variation from the LSE exam time, when people have anxiety episodes in the library on a regular basis.

The week began with an article titled, “Write Like Columbia Grad Student in Easy 20 Steps”. My first thought was, “surely this is not a serious advice piece. That would have been really lame.”  Sure enough, it was a hilarious and a mostly true insight into how we, or certainly I, write papers. My favorite is step 14: Read a few articles in The New York Times, because you’re a grad student and it’s your responsibility to stay informed. Right? There is absolutely a positive correlation between my news intake and time spent procrastinating.

Later in the same evening, I saw a posting of our own SIPA version of Ryan Gosling. This is apparently a new trend of people putting sayings eluding to relationships, concerning a certain niche group of people, on Ryan Gosling’s pictures. I’ve seen it in a couple of places, the International Development Ryan Gosling is pretty good. The fact someone at SIPA created a SIPA Ryan Gosling Tumblr makes this a school-wide tactic on procrastination. This is my favorite:

To top it off, today, I saw a YouTube video of a Stats Jingle. Apparently two statistics TAs decided to add a little holiday cheer to stats exam prep and created this funny number:

I gotta hand it to SIPA. Talk about a bunch of well-balanced people. No reason to take life so seriously. Have a little fun, even during exams!

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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. In the past 6 years, I have only spent one Thanksgiving in the USA. I am beyond excited to be back. Celebrating this holiday in the foreign land, while at times memorable (those Peace Corps Thanksgivings were pretty epic), usually is pretty anti-climatic.

Even though I am staying in the City and not going home for Thanksgiving, I am at least in the US and can make all the American dishes that I’ve missed so much! Very much looking forward to the cooking fest that will begin later this evening and stuffing my face all day tomorrow. Holidays in good company can be as amazing as with family.

Is it bad that only during this of the year that we sit down and think about things we should be thankful for? I guess better once a year than never. The longer I am away from Cameroon, the more I take simple things in life for granted. I am taking this occasion to remind myself all the wonderful things I should be thankful for in life, however simple they may be.

Things I should not take for granted:

• Running water
• Not doing laundry by hand
• Broadband Internet – remember when I wasn’t able to stream videos.
• Constant electricity – all day, everyday.
• Family – far away, but always there.
• Amazing friends from around the globe
• The opportunity to study at Columbia SIPA
• NYC friends new and old that’s made my time here really amazing
• Living right across from SIPA that takes commute out of my life
• Career possibilities that lie ahead, regardless how uncertain it may feel right now.
• Easy access to bubble tea, Starbucks, Trader Joe’s, sushi on a regular basis.
• Despite how I gripe about certain events in my life, I am thankful for each moment. Even the years spent in the suburbs. I am shaped by the moments that I lived.
• Being alive
• All the books I have access to and that my Books for Cameroon project is not dead

I am especially thankful this year that Cristina has continued with my Peace Corps project and leading Phase II. It would have been such a shame to see the project disappear after my departure. She is working very hard raising money to fund the second phase.

This year, why not give your next $5 latte/beer/martini to this project? We are thankful for your contribution!

Learn more & Donate today!

I hope you are all spending this holiday with loved ones. Remember the little things in life & enjoy this holiday season! Happy Thanksgiving!

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Had an amazing time leaving NYC for a bit to attend Africa Gathering in DC. Unlike other typical African conferences, this was literally a gathering of ideas from entrepreneurs ranging from film, music, to solar power, agriculture investment, to youth voting promotion, women’s empowerment. Each speaker discussed their ideas for 20 minutes and it was a packed day full of inspiring moments.

As I am in the midst of job searching, this was the kind of inspiration that I needed. Being surrounded by people who truly believe in what they do remind me that finding purpose in a career is absolutely possible.

Beyond the great inspiration, this was also the first event where I live tweeted with many cool tweeps whom I had been following on issues regarding Africa. Even without prior realization, I found myself in the same room with @LightSolar, @InnovateAfrica, @Solar_Sister, @KateBomz and more. With the hash tag #AGDC, each organization that presented, we found their twitter handle and there was instant interaction not only within people tweeting in the room, but with everyone else out there who was following the conversation. People and groups such as @VoteorQuench, @kambale, @khwezimagwaza, etc were noticed. Even @WorldBankAfrica retweeted one of my many tweets!

It’s nice to step out of daily routines and search for tidbit of inspiration everywhere. I look forward to many more gatherings as such, and to that end, I must plug for the African Diplomatic Forum that Columbia SPAN (SIPA Pan-Africa Network) is hosting next Friday, November 18th! If you are in the NYC and has time to attend, it’s free to the public and should be very interesting and inspiring! If you are unable to attend (since it is on Friday, and people have jobs and whatnot), follow hash tag #CUADF for the play-by-play livetweets!

PS – a fellow blogger wrote beautifully recapping some key speakers from the conference. Check it out!

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School of International and Public Affairs

Happy Halloween! Somehow, November is upon us, the first snow of the year came and went, yet I had not written much about my time thus far at Columbia SIPA. Life has been busy, but in a positive and fulfilling way. Columbia is a magical place. I feel myself growing all the time. Everything I thought I wanted out of life and career changes constantly as I become inspired by a speaker, a conversation with professors/fellow students, or an intriguing lecture. People say you need to come to graduate school with a clear career purpose and direction. That makes sense, to a degree. I knew exactly what I wanted, or so I thought. The soul-searching is incredibly confusing and scary, but better now at 25 than 30 dull years of being an office monkey later and then experience some severe form of mid-life crisis.Tho perhaps this process never ends, but I am learning that it’s not a bad thing to learn about oneself.

Columbia Quad - my happy place

Anyway, all that to say that it has been an exciting few months at Columbia SIPA. This place is everything I had expected and more. I am being challenged in ways beyond my wildest imagination. Beyond academics, I find myself asking very big questions about life, global poverty, financial crisis, and more. When you have a diverse student body where people are interested in subjects ranging from energy, to development, to international finance, to security policy, conversation with your peers keep your mind constantly active and thinking of problems from different angles.

Butler Library - oldest library on campus, but one of many. Never need to worry about not getting a seat.

While academics is an important part of SIPA, and its wide range of course offerings helps tailor one’s graduate education to his/her interest, I find that the most valuable aspect of being at Columbia is the experience. It’s the diverse student body that I described, the array of career panels that help you learn more about what xyz actually does, the fact you can decide at 5:30pm that you will spend your evening listening to Jeffrey Sachs, the President from xyz country, or the UN representative speaking about one important issue or another, and the array of activities that are constantly happening not only at SIPA, but on the Columbia campus as a whole. In the end, academics constitute only a fraction of your SIPA experience, and taking advantage of all that Columbia has to offer, and cultivating this network of amazing student body will serve you well into the future.

Some highlights of Columbia SIPA happenings thus far:

• During the 2nd week of classes, my concentration (International Finance and Economic Policy) took us to a campsite two hours outside of the city for a little bonding experience. I got to meet a lot of cool 2nd year students. The downside of being a dual degree student is you get caught in a weird limbo between being new, but also a 2nd year.

• SIPA Student Association (SIPASA) throws many good parties, and the boat cruise along the Hudson is one such event.

• One day, randomly, a market appeared at the Columbia Quad.

• My love for Africa has not died and I joined SPAN (SIPA Pan-Africa Network). They hosted Taste of Africa during the first week of classes for students to try out different dishes from the continent. To create the atmosphere, African music was played; when P-square came on, I felt at home. Just a little plug for SPAN, we are hosting the African Diplomatic Forum open to all, so if you are in the NYC area, come join us for this exciting event!

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