December 2008 Archives

In the previous post, I mentioned that certain works of art take up residency in our minds so that years later, we still experience the same emotions we felt when we first encountered them.

The title pretty much sums up my life through the calendar or academic year.  I suspect some other professors may have similar "yearly rhythm".

When classes are in session, there is very little time to do research. So once classes is over, like winter break and summer, that is my prime research time. So for the next month or so, research is moved to the front burner and teaching to the back burner.

So what am I doing over winter break? Besides trying to crunch out some research work, I need to prepare for next semester's classes. I will be teaching Medical Nutrition Therapy, and since clinical practice changes, I have to update my teaching materials. I am also preparing 2 talks, one for the regional meeting of the American Culinary Federation (the professional organization for chefs) and the other for the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Dietetic Association (the Massachusetts chapter of the professional organization for Registered Dietitians). There is also work for the committees that I serve at Simmons.

On top of that, I'll accompany (on the piano) a short children's concert, then play organ for 3 services straight on Christmas Eve.  It'll be exciting, but I need to schedule in some practice time. When I was a kid, I didn't like to practice. My parents had to sit next to the piano to make sure I practiced.  But now as an adult, I actually enjoy it.

In short, I'll be really busy, but it will be rewarding. I am looking forward to the work. Hope you will have a good holiday season!

One of my great, great pleasures of December's at Simmons College is sitting and relaxing with Susan. High atop the new Lefavour Building, with the cold damp outside, I can sip cider and nibble on homemade cookies whilst listening to my dear friend speak about the Best Children's and Young Adult Books of this last year.

The theme was "Eating Up The World" - a celebration of life, and eating literally and figuratively - accompanied by gastronomically visualized cookies in the shapes of mouths. Piles of picture books and a few novels end up all over the floor at Susan's feet, where she gently placed them, like children may do as they release their books to gravity next to their beds as they as well fall off to sleep.

Oftentimes I get asked, "Where did you go to school?"

After I answer them and rave about Simmons, I usually get the follow up question of "Does Simmons know that you are a walking advertisement for them?"

The truth is- I love Simmons College and I want the whole world to know about it. I didn't just spend four years away from home, partying and studying occasionally. I grew up more in those four years than I did in the previous 18. I met my friends that "get me" and will be there for me for a lifetime. I gained a better understanding of the world and more importantly, of myself, which I am so thankful for.

Simmons wasn't always my first choice school though. Rewind to Spring 2003. I was a senior in high school in southern New Hampshire. I attended public, coed schools pretty much my entire life up until that point. I knew I wanted to go to "the big city" (aka Boston) for undergrad, but also knew I wouldn't make it in a large university setting. While most of my peers were staying local, I was looking to go out of state. I loved the calm simplicity of my New Hampshire upbringing, but I never really felt like I fit in. I've always been more of a city gal myself.

Thanks to the Common Application, I was able to apply to as many schools as I wanted. I narrowed it down to a few coed Boston area private institutions that were as different as night and day. My mom threw in a real monkey wrench and asked me to take a closer look at Simmons as well.

After a Simmons campus tour, I told my mom that the school was beautiful and offered a lot of educational resources, but I didn't think that the "all girls thing" was the right choice for me. My mom not willing to take that as an answer had me do an overnight visit. I'm sure that could have been a great idea except it was in the middle of midterm exams and no one left their dorm rooms except for dinner at Bartol. While midterms are a very real part of the college experience, it's not really what you want to highlight to prospective students. Needless to say, I left my overnight visit feeling the same way that I came in.

March came and the heat was on for picking the institution that I would be attending in the fall. In the end it came down to a medium sized Boston based university, a small private Catholic college in the Boston area (which I was offered a scholarship to) and Simmons. I threw out the medium sized Boston based university when they wouldn't offer me any on campus housing (I didn't want to live off campus my first year. That was a whole lot of responsibility I wasn't ready for, plus it makes it difficult to meet people.) To make my final decision, I decided that I would sit in on a class at the remaining two schools.

While I sat in on a class at the small private Catholic college in the Boston area, I felt like I was in high school all over again. The loud, jokester guys were in the back of the class and the quiet girls that like to learn were closer to the front. That day, they happened to be giving presentations and they were a joke. I kid you not, one group of the loud, jokester guys held up a posterboard that they clearly put together the night before and showed a clip of the Dave Chapelle show (did I mention it was an English class?) To top it all off, the school didn't really offer my communications major.

I then sat in on a communication class at Simmons and I had a "Eureka!" moment. Here I was in a small class full of smart women that liked to learn and weren't afraid to show it. Each student had a nice computer provided to them and a roomy space to work in. There was a great professor facilitating a hands-on lecture and encouraging discussion- even with me and I wasn't a student there! I knew that this is where I was meant to be all thanks to Professor Dan Connell's Journalism course, which I later took my junior year.

I find it really funny how things work out in the end. The following fall I entered Simmons College as a freshman and had the best time. I really blossomed as a person in my four years there (all of which I was given on-campus housing for!) I graduated feeling prepared for all of the challenges that lay ahead and a "kick butt" attitude. I was no longer afraid to speak my mind.

The professors at Simmons are so knowledgeable in their fields and are wonderful people too. They support you in your journey, cheering you on even after graduation when you're out making your mark in the world.

I think it also goes without saying that the age old adage "Mamma knows best" is true as well!

I believe I chose Simmons as much as Simmons chose me. And choosing to go there was the best decision I ever made.

 

In times of need, we must turn to the oracle of knowledge, otherwise known as teenage sensation Cher Horowitz in Clueless. During a moment of enlightenment, Cher tells us "It's like that book I read in the 9th grade, that said 'tis a far, far better thing doing stuff for other people.' " Well Cher may be a little off on the quotation, but her motivations are completely intact. That's why we're taking a moment to dedicate a post to a program that's taken months to pull together. Also, I think it's interesting to demonstrate a little bit of what recent Simmons grads like myself are doing with their days. So here goes...

A frequent subject in the newspapers, this year, a whole new demographic has been visiting food banks. Forget the stereotype of homeless people, and realize that people using food banks are employable family members who have simply fallen on hard times. While the food banks shelves' are close to bare, the 9th Annual Spirit of Giving Food Drives gives us a chance to help out our friends and neighbors. Simply visit any Shaw's or StarMarket through December 20th, and purchase a $5, $10, or $15 bag from the store's display. Your donation will go straight to a food bank in need. We had two amazing kick-off events this week in Mansfield and Manchester with our celebrity spokesman, Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo. I was dead set on getting a Celtic to be our sponsor this year, and it took myself and my boss over 6 weeks to get it settled. But finally, we agreed and Rajon did an amazing job! While I may be a little fried from pulling a 60 hour week and getting up at 4 in the morning (At Simmons that was when i would go to bed after a night of writing English papers!) I have to say rolling in a limo with one of the star Celtics is pretty fun.

One of the most fun and satisfying moments of our kick-off event was watching Rajon film a television public service announcement I co-wrote. Working as a freelance writer isn't exactly the easiest job in the world, but it's definitely very fulfilling. Check out the video below!

Rajon Rondo for Shaw's Spirit of Giving

With a program like the Spirit of Giving, it's easy to see how just a little money can make such a big difference. $5 provides a family with a nutritious and delicious meal from a variety of food sponsors we worked very hard to attain. So for all you Simmons folks, head across the street and stop into Shaw's. Just $5 can make an amazing difference for a local family in need.

Food Drive New England

Dear readers,

Last month I wrote about my early life after college. I hope that it was clear that my experiences then are still with me today influencing all aspects of my design work. This month I will explain how serendipitous it was that I became a designer, and then recall further digressions (critical choices I made) before becoming a full-fledged practicing designer and now teacher of design.

While I was attending graduate school for city planning in the late 60s and early 70s there was an atmosphere of anxiety across the country about all students at all schools. We were labeled rebel rousers. Whatever it meant at other institutions, for mine, Yale University, it meant the administration avoided contact with the students and left us on our own. They seemed afraid of us. We could do what we wanted (even enroll in classes outside our prescribed area of study) as long as we didn't cause harm or injury to people or the institution. (Unfortunately the building that housed my department was set on fire and a few students became suspects; later it turned out that some local residents had been responsible.)

A little older than most of the grad students and paying my own way, I was determined to get my money's worth from the university, if not from the City Planning program that had been taken over by student activists the year I arrived. Soon I found myself taking the following classes among others: Constitutional Law, Economics of Land Finance, Life Drawing, and Intro to Graphic Design. (Other students got credit for community organizing projects in downtown New Haven. But I'd had my time as a block worker in East Harlem; now I was at school to beef up my academic credentials.)

Through an open doorway in the building where City Planning courses were held, I had noticed the Baby-Graphics course, as it was affectionately called, taught by Chris Pullman, a recent graduate of the design program who would later become the VP for design at WGBH in Boston. He welcomed me into this class saying I could audit all the design courses I wanted - he encouraged me to participate fully if I attended. What a thrill. I had always loved making things with my hands, but I never knew there was a college discipline devoted to design. I had been an American Studies major in college. By the time I'd completed my masters in City Planning two years later, I had as many courses in graphic design as anything else. The department permitted me to return to Yale for one extra year and I received a second master's degree in graphic design.

At this point any intelligent and career-minded person, would have moved to a city and found a job as a designer. I was, without question, the least trained of anyone in my class and clearly needed some first hand experience. But I had other plans. (While in VISTA I had married a civil rights lawyer whom I met a few years before in Mississippi. He was now serving in Saigon as the head of an organization called the Lawyers' Military Defense Committee that provided free legal counsel to GIs in the war zone. The program created by US lawyers and philanthropists who believed that the constitutional right of military personnel -- to be represented in court by a civilian attorney instead of a military attorney if requested -- was being denied, because of the distance from America. Who could afford to bring a lawyer to Saigon?) So after finishing my graduate work in 1971, instead of a job, I set out to join my husband in Vietnam and to see another part of the world. On the way there I would spend time in the Far East: I studied pottery in Kyoto for four months while teaching English to Panasonic engineers in Osaka, I took photographs for a graphic designer in Hong Kong, made my way over land and sea to Korea, and visited the gambling casinos in Macau. Finally around Christmas of 1971 I reached Vietnam.

Because I knew that I would need to earn money to travel in Asia, I had obtained forms for submitting freelance articles and photographs, plus a letter of introduction from the New York Times before leaving the US. (I had had some photo experience because in those days one was required to take photography when studying design; my graduate thesis was a slide show - no PowerPoint back then - on the garbage crisis in New York City.)  Armed with my letter from the Times indicating that I was a freelance photographer, I set out to take pictures of civilian life in Vietnam. (For example, I photographed a caesarian birth performed with only the aid of acupuncture.) Everyone else was photographing the war. I traveled the only way one could - by military transportation. It was an eye-opener. I cannot tell all the stories on this blog, but suffice it to say, some were heart rending, others terrifying as when our C130 plane was grounded due to fog, and we were forced to travel by jeep through an ambush zone with gunners at each window; or when my plane circled for four hours around the spot where an American pilot had been shot down, until he was rescued. Eventually I left South Vietnam because my husband and I were granted visas to North Vietnam - the first Americans allowed into this communist country in 2 years. Stories from there include our bugged hotel room and a hasty departure because the United States started bombing above the DMZ (demilitarized zone) in North Vietnam after a long quiet period. Our hosts feared for our lives.

We spent the next few months in Laos, a country swarming with CIA agents and American military who lived in a compound that resembled a perfect US suburb complete with swimming pool, movie theatre and popcorn. Imagine! (Vientiane, the capitol of Laos, had no paved roads at that time.) The CIA regularly tried to pry information from us. We hadn't much. While there I converted a letter to a friend back home about my experiences in Japan, into a story, and sent it off to the Times. Acquaintances told me honestly that it wasn't publishable; it was too personal. Imagine my surprise and delight, 6 months hence, when I found an acceptance letter and check for $400 waiting for me in Singapore. The article appeared on the front page of the Travel Section accompanied by a response from the Times Tokyo Bureau chief. For a while I thought I might try being a journalist and worked on a story about hippie travelers in Asia. I went to the home of the exiled Dali Lama in northern India where hippies tended to gather, and spent weeks at Hindu ashrams meditating and leading the ascetic life in order to experience the lives of these travelers.

But the lure of seeing the rest of Asia attracted me more than being a journalist. My husband and I roamed South-East Asia, first on a riverboat exploring a jungle in Borneo, then for three months taking in the sites and arts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Finally we landed in Singapore where we joined two new acquaintances (a German photographer and American writer) to launch what are today known as the Insight Guide books with over two hundred titles. (The company was purchased by Houghton Mifflin in the 1990s). This, as one might imagine, was a totally different experience than the political life I'd been mostly leading previously. Here, working with one of the best photographers I would ever meet, but taking no pictures of my own, I learned virtually everything I know about how to take a picture. I also experienced a publishing company being created from scratch. We all did as many jobs as we could. I created a comprehensive photo archive for the photographer, Hans Hoefer, <http://www.hoefernet.com/>, accompanied him on shoots in places as far away as the Himalayas in Nepal. It was during these sessions, by some sort of osmosis, that I learned the techniques required to convince a timid subject to let one take his/her photograph, to understand what unusual angle would work best to bring the subject to the printed page, and to know what lens would suit the subjects' peculiarities. Without taking any pictures of my own, I seemed to learn all the skills I needed to later be a professional photographer.

I took no pictures for almost a year while I worked in Singapore. Then I left the publishing company, deciding that I must return to America because I was becoming too entrenched in the cushy life westerners had in Asia. Something told me I was avoiding what I should really be doing. It was all so appealing and comfortable in those foreign, but hospitable lands. It took me five months traveling through Nepal, India, Israel, and Greece before arriving back in the USA in the fall of 1973. Then I began looking in earnest for work as a graphic designer.

Here are some photos from those days:

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This ends Phase 2 of my adult life. Tune in next month for the story of my becoming a professional photographer and designer.

I wrote with such enthusiasm for my writing endeavors in my last entry, so I thought it best to follow up. It's easy, I think, for a writer to wax poetic about the writing process before you actually sit down and DO IT.

The act of writing, romance aside, looks like this: I force myself to sit at my desk with my laptop, even though the thought of lounging on the coach is more appealing. The dog curls up on her blanket near my feet. By the time I set to work she's snoring. Loudly. If things go well and start clicking along, I can work for a long stretch - taking breaks for snacks, the dog, etc. If things AREN'T going well, the distractions at home are limitless, the very worst being the kitchen: instant gratification at it's finest. Writing rarely involves any instant gratification, which somehow makes that piece of chocolate all the more irresistible. Not to mention destructive.

Does the story just pour out of me and onto the paper, like those mystics in ancient Greece who transcribed stories whispered to them by the gods? Not exactly. If the words do tumble out, I know that those words still have a lot of tinkering and rearranging in their future - and many of them (even the ones I like best in the moment) may be cut entirely. But that's nothing to shrink from. That's the writing process. And the process itself--even with the occasional whining, the chocolate-eating, the fear of whether or not this project will ever get off the ground--is inspiring, in and of itself. Or so I remind myself when I feel the need to wax poetic.

Money is tighter than usual this year. We are all starting to feel the pinch. With the holidays right around the corner, it can be difficult to get in the spirit when all you can think about are the upcoming expenses you really can't afford!

The good news is that we are all in the same boat. Since money is more scarce than usual for everyone, we are all trying to find less expensive ways to have a happy holiday season. It's far less likely this year that anyone will scoff at you for getting more creative in your gift-giving (and who wants to give a gift to people who do that, anyway? Those people deserve coal in their stockings!)

I have assembled some fun, easy ideas for creative gifts that even you can make (yes, I'm talking to you - with the two left thumbs!). I have tried to include gifts that would suit a wide range of recipients and also that your whole family, from kids, to parents to grandparents can get involved in making.

My wish for you this year is that you let the financial crisis work for you rather than against you. Step back from our consumer culture for a month or two and look for ways to spend some quality time with your family and friends. That's really the best gift, after all, isn't it? What better way to spend time together than creating gifts for your loved ones, right?

Here are my ideas for you. Please share your own at the end. I would love to hear them!

Enjoy!

1. "Thank You" Frame

Perfect for: Mom, Wife, The Person Who Always Takes Great Care of You

This is a simple concept, and an easy gift to make, but it is one that will be treasured for years!

First, visit your local dollar or discount store and find an 8x10 frame. Go home and find a great, old photo of you and the recipient. Open Microsoft Word (or your favorite word processing program) and choose a nice looking, readable font. At the top of the page, in large letters, type "Thank you for..." Start a new paragraph. In smaller letters, start typing everything you can thank the recipient for, large and small, from as far back as you can remember through today. Feel free to include inside jokes and humorous memories as well. Once you start typing, you might find it difficult to keep it to just one page! When you have nearly filled the page with text, insert the photo you chose into a corner of the page. Make sure you adjust the photo and text each to a size that allows you to keep everything all on one page. When you feel that the page looks nice, set your printer settings to "best quality" and print your creation on a nice piece of paper. Pop the page into the frame you purchased earlier, and you have a gift that is sure to be treasured for a long time!

2. Hand-Stamped Stationary Set and "Letter of the Week" Club Membership

Perfect for: Mom, Grandparents, Your Friend Who Loves Writing Letters, Loved One Who Lives Far Away

This is a fun and easy gift idea that can be very personalized to the tastes of your recipient. However, you both will soon realize that the real gift is the peak into each other's busy lives that you will be sharing with each other!

To make the gift: First, go to your local craft store or online and choose a rubber stamp that reminds you of your recipient. Perhaps your loved one enjoys the ballet and so you choose a stamp with a picture of a ballerina. Maybe your recipient loves fishing and you find a great stamp with a picture of a fish. You could even find three stamps of the person's initials for creating a monogram. While picking out the stamp, choose a stamp pad in the recipient's favorite color.

Next, you need to decide if you want to buy a package of pre-cut and assembled blank cards from a craft store, or if you want to purchase some cardstock and try your hand at cutting, folding and assembling some cards and envelopes yourself. Once you have a few created (10-12 is a good number to aim for), begin stamping away! Use the stamp on the front of each card and a corner of each envelope so that it is clear they are a set. Once the stamps have dried on each piece, find a coordinating piece of ribbon and tie the whole set together. It will look like you purchased them in a boutique!

Wrap up the gift (consider purchasing a nice pen from a discount store and even throwing in a book of stamps) with a certificate you print off the computer enrolling the recipient into the "(Your name)'s Letter of the Week Club"! Choose 10 minutes one day each week (plug it into your e-mail calendar or phone alarm!) to sit down and write the person a quick letter. Buy or make yourself a set of cards and have a book of stamps on hand so that you never have an excuse not to write! In each letter, share highlights of the previous week and that you are thinking of the person. They will be thrilled with this gift that keeps on giving all year long!

3. Sports themed no-sew tie blanket

Perfect for: Husband, Teens, Sports Fans

These blankets are great! They are so warm and perfect for those chilly winter days ahead. At the same time, any sports fan loves to receive gear that is appropriate and useful for toting around when they are cheering on their favorite team. The best part of this gift is that it is so easy to make and comes out looking great!

To make the blanket: First, you need to buy the fleece material in the theme of your recipient's favorite team. For an adult sized throw blanket, you need 2 yards of one color/pattern of fleece fabric and 2 yards of a complementary color/pattern. Fabric stores do carry professional and college sports team themed fleece material, but I recommend buying through the stores' websites. It can be hit or miss to catch the exact fabric you want in the store, especially if you live in a different part of the country from your recipient. I would recommend checking out Hancock Fabrics, as I have noticed they often have licensed fleece on sale. If you wanted to save even more money, you could simply choose two colors of fleece that are the colors of the team and I'm sure the blanket will be an equally welcomed gift!

Construction of the blanket is easy. Lay the two pieces of fabric on top of one another and smooth them out so that all the sides and corners are pretty matched up between the two pieces of fabric. If you have a large area of floor that you can work on, that would be best. Second best would be a large dining room table or work table. Cut a 4"x 4" square from each corner of the blanket (through both pieces of fabric) and throw out the four (really eight) small pieces of fabric that you just cut out. Now, making sure that the two large pieces of fabric don't shift around at all, make your way down the four sides of the blanket, using a good pair of scissors, cut 4 inch slits, 1 inch apart, around the entire quilt (through both layers at once). When you are done with this step, you will have two large pieces of fabric (still laying on top of one another) with fringe around all four sides of the blanket. Now, start in one corner, tie each piece of fringe together, top layer to bottom layer - I would recommend a tight, or double knot for each piece of fringe. Work your way around the entire blanket. When you reach the spot where you started, you are done! Your recipient will be proud to be able to cheer for his or her team in style!

4. Personalized Coloring Book and Crayons

Perfect for: Kids

This is a fun gift to make and it is always a big hit! Your child's eyes will light up when they open their present and see a book full of their own adventures, ready for them to color! The best part is that it is so easy to create.

First, download a free "photo to sketch" software program such as this one. Then, either scan in your favorite photos of your child or collect your favorite digital shots. With the free version of the photo-to-sketch program, you need to upload the photos to the software one by one. As each photo is converted to a sketch, cut and paste the photo into a Word document. Most coloring books have one large drawing per page, so you should set the sketch to take up an entire sheet of paper. Decide if you want to include a caption at the bottom of each page. Print off all of the pages you have chosen, staple them together, with a piece of cardstock on the top and bottom of the stack, stick a color photo of the recipient on the front, and voila! It's a gift that is sure to be treasured! Pair the coloring book with a pack of fat crayons from your local department store for a complete gift.

5. Dress Up Chest

Perfect for: Kids

This gift is literally a treasure chest and you can make it happen for next to no cost. The first step is probably the most challenging, but you have lots of flexibility. You need to find something that can serve as the "chest" - I suggest visiting the Salvation Army, thrift shops, Craigslist.org, discount department stores, and garage sales (if you live in a less wintery area of the country!). Search for any type of large, sturdy box, with a lid. (I would caution you to be careful that the lid is not too heavy if your recipient has tiny fingers!). Then, feel free to personalize the box to suit the recipient. Use paint, stamps, stickers, glitter - anything that you feel will stir the imagination! Once your box is finished, start by raiding your closet and your halloween storage box - pull out anything that you no longer wear that would be fun for your child to use to dress up in. Get creative! Ideas would be a man's button shirt and a belt to be used as a dress, hats that are no longer in style, worn ladies' high heel shoes, a man's suit coat and tie, etc. If your own closet has been thoroughly combed, a trip back to the thrift store may be in order. Look for things like boas, oversized sunglasses and sparkly necklaces, uniforms and hats traditionally associated with different types of jobs (great finds would be a fireman type hat or an old nurse's uniform). If you are feeling brave, consider throwing in some costume makeup into the dress up chest to help your child with the finishing touches! The dress-up chest is sure to be well loved throughout the years!

6. Photo Calendar

Perfect for: Grandparents, Busy Parents, Teachers, Friends

This is not a new idea, by any means. You may have even given a photo calendar as a gift in the past. The great thing about it, however, is that it is the type of gift that never gets old! Even if you give a photo calendar to the same person every year for the holidays, they will be sure to love each and every one (they won't be exactly surprised after awhile, but they will still love the gift!).

If you have a simple level of familiarity with cutting and pasting photos and tables into Microsoft Word and Excel, you can create a calendar on your own pretty easily. If you need a little assistance, you can join a site like CalendarsQuick ($9.95 for unlimited use throughout the entire year). This site provides the calendars for you and shows you easily where to cut and paste your photos.

If you want to get really creative, you can even include special dates such as birthdays and anniversaries throughout the calendar. You might consider coordinating the photos associated with each month with the special dates that fall within that month.

Once you have created the calendar to your liking, you can print it off your home computer printer. The recipient is sure to enjoy the photos you include throughout the year!

7. Hot Cocoa Basket

Perfect for: Teens, Young Adults, Chocolate Lovers

This is an easy, inexpensive gift that is a wonderful way to give comfort to your loved ones during the chilly winter season.

Start with a basket of any size and style. You might have one around your house that you could use. If not, many discount and dollar stores sell baskets very inexpensively. If you live in the Northeast, the Christmas Tree Shops sell baskets very inexpensively and always have a wide selection. In the same vein, search the holiday sales for a couple of inexpensive coffee mugs that remind you of your recipient. Now it's time to fill your basket with goodies!

The secret to this basket is repackaging the items to give the basket a "boutique" (read: expensive!) feel. Go to the store and purchase the following items: a tin of hot cocoa mix, a bag of mini marshmallows, a package of heavy duty plastic spoons, a package of dipping chocolate, supplies to make your favorite cookies, and plenty of cellophane and ribbon to repackage all of the items (if you can find a package of small cellophane bags, that will be even better!).

If you have cellophane bags, open a few of them and fill them halfway with the hot cocoa mix. Fill each one to the top with mini marshmallows and tie each bag with some ribbon. Now you have several individually sized hot cocoa packets! Melt the chocolate until smooth and, holding each spoon by its handle, one by one, dip several of the spoons into the chocolate until the heads are completely covered by chocolate. At this point, you could add sprinkles for a festive touch, or leave the spoon as it is to cool. Wrap each spoon with cellophane and ribbon. Finally, bake a batch of your favorite cookies and wrap them festively. Arrange all items within the basket. A nice touch to include might be a holiday CD you could find while shopping for your basket and supplies. This time of year, you can often find such CDs for only a few dollars.

8. Tree Ornaments

Perfect for: Everyone!

I have always considered handmade, personalized tree ornaments to be the perfect gift. First, they are never the wrong size. Second, except in very rare cases, even if the ornaments are completely a different style than that of the recipient, the recipient will still use and enjoy the ornaments, since they do not feel they have to display them in their home throughout the year. Additionally, if you find an ornament that you would like to make, it's easy to make several of them at once in that style, and still personalize each one to it's recipient. Finally, as with all of these gifts, handmade items often come with extra care and thought included!

There are countless options for you to consider when choosing a pattern for an ornament, and it really comes down to what you feel like you can do and what you enjoy doing. Should you use wire and beads? Should you paint simple designs on globes? Should you bake cookies and turn them into ornaments? Should you use paper to create something interesting? As you can see, the possibilities are really endless.

Visit the blog "Not Made of Money" for directions to create 23 beautiful ornaments for your tree!

9. Baked Goods

Perfect for: Everyone!

I can't imagine anyone without a smile when receiving their favorite homemade pie, batch of cookies, or fresh loaf of fancy bread!

If you are a novice baker, you will need little more than access to an oven and a trip to the grocery store with your favorite recipe in hand!

You can purchase nice cookie tins, often for less than $1.00 each, at local discount or dollar stores around the holidays.

Once you have your recipe, ingredients and cookie tins in hand, start baking! It might take an afternoon to get through all of your baking, but you are sure to have lots of happy recipients when you hand out the gifts!

10.Family Recipe Book

Perfect for: All Members of Your Family, Especially Young Adults Just Getting Started on their Own

This idea may take a bit more preparation than some of the others on this list, but the preparation, itself, may turn out to be a gift for you that you were not even expecting! Think back to all the major family events you can remember - Thanksgiving? Christmas? Graduation Parties? Birthdays? What were the special foods and dishes that stand out in your mind as a part of those celebrations? Chances are, there are several dishes that are special and meaningful to your family. Start creating a list of all of those favorite family foods.

Next, make some phone calls, and better yet, some visits, especially to the older members of your family to track down the recipes. While you are visiting with each older family member and copying down their recipes, ask them about their earliest memories related to these meals and write down those stories as well. Ask everyone in your family for copies of photos, new and old, of your family over the years at special family events.

Once you have all of this information collected, type it up into a recipe book. You can divide the recipes however you think makes sense (often, they are divided into appetizers, entrees, desserts, etc.). Between the recipes, include the stories and photos that you got from your family members.

Print out several copies of the recipe book in color on nice paper. This is a great gift to give to all of your family members - and one that will be treasured for generations!


How do you hope to get creative in your gift giving this holiday season? Please share your plans - I would love to hear them!

I have mentioned in a previous post that I am a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Nutrition. To explain that further, let me describe what researchers in life sciences do after they emerge from their labs, the field, or other research venues armed with data.

There's basically two things people do with their research results. Very often they do both of them, but one of them is more important than the other. OK, enough suspense, so what are these things? One of them is to submit their research results to a scientific meeting.  If the organizers deemed it worth presenting, the results is presented either in a 10 to 15 minute talk, or in a form of a "poster".  The poster is usually 4 feet tall and 8 feet across where people lay out their research.

The other, and the more important thing, is to publish the research results in a "peer-reviewed journal".  So the researchers write up the research in a specified format, send the "manuscript" to a journal.  The editor will then send it to 2-3 "reviewers" who will critique the manuscript.  Reviewers are experts in the particular topic. The editor gets comments back from the reviewers, and decide whether to reject the paper, or ask for revisions and then re-consider accepting the paper.

Scientific journals usually have an Editorial Board, which is a group of experienced reviewers who will review many manuscripts each year. There are also ad hoc reviewers, whom the editor invites to review a manuscript here and there once a while.

In high quality journals, the vast majority of manuscripts do not get accepted the first time. If the author gets a notice to revise the manuscript and re-submit again, it is considered good news. I actually got a "congratulations" from one of my professors when I submitted my very first manuscript to a journal and received a "revise and resubmit" letter.  The whole review and revise process easily takes 5-6 months.  Then it is a few more months before the manuscript is published -- by then it is called a "paper".

Once it is published, the mass media may pick it up and run news reports and articles, and interview the lead author on it.

Last week, most of the Simmons community took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday by traveling home to see their families and enjoying a delicious meal.  Here in Paris, Thanksgiving is less apparent -“ I still plan a meal with close friends, but I do have to work that day.  In addition, some of the staples are hard to come by - cranberries, sweet potatoes, and canned pumpkin to make the pie.  

Thankfully, however, there is an annual event during the third weekend of November that I have to look forward to: the wine fair!  The Salon des Vignerons Independents, or Independent Winemakers Expo, is usually held the weekend after Thanksgiving at Paris' largest expo center - Porte de Versailles.

The best part about this event, besides sampling any and every kind of French grape-made alcohol you could imagine, is that you can actually talk with the folks who've made the stuff.  Winemakers and their families travel around the country twice a year to participate in the fair, where they will let you taste their wines and answer questions about their products.  

The expo center is organized into 20 alleys (A-T) and each winemaker has their own alley and stand number.  The armagnac that we buy, for example, was at stand M-43.

The photo below is a quick look at alley M.  The colors marking the stand names denote different regions, as everything is all mixed together!

This is the time of year when we are all getting excited -- and stressed out -- because the holiday season is here. We are buying gifts, going to holiday parties, making our homes festive, closing out fundraising campaigns...and beginning to think about the new year both personally and professionally. The thought of a new year, a new start exhilarates us. All the undesirable experiences of 2008 can now be put aside and replaced with positive thoughts of 2009. Some of us look forward to it because it is fresh and new and some of us have had a really trying year so we're desperate to start over. It's like when we were kids and we were playing with friends. Maybe we lost a game and we refused to accept it so we said, "Do over, do over." There was that innocence of childhood where the rules didn't bind us. There was nothing that said we couldn't do that over right then and there. And most of the time, we were able to convince our friends to do it over...except for those friends who wanted bragging rights. No luck there...

 

So naturally, the new year is coming, we want change, so we make our list of New Year's resolutions. It's a tradition and a great one. So why is it that after a couple of months, our resolutions fall to the way side, we can't even find our list, our resolutions slowly but surely become a distant memory. What is the #1 resolution? Going to the gym and getting fit. Year round members are now surprised that they have to wait in line for the treadmill. Who are these people and where did they come from? Until about March, and things return to normal.

 

After years of doing the same thing, making lists and not following through, I decided to change my strategy. The concept of a list of ways to make my life better was a good practice. I realized, however, that I treated it as a tradition, as a discrete task. So once the list was made, I was done. I had done my good deed to myself for the new year. Mentally, I invested in making the list but not in seeing the list through. So I switched gears. I began making a list of "goals." It may seem like semantics, but it made a difference to me. This is a list that I add to throughout the year as I learn things about myself; I usually update it several times per year. Sometimes I am inspired by someone else and other times I am determined to not make the same mistake twice. Although my list evolves throughout the year, I always begin the new year with a list of goals to work toward.

 

This form of goal setting is what works for me. Let's regain that innocence of childhood and not wait until the new year is coming to have the attitude of "Do over." Self-reflect throughout the year and make your goals throughout the year. Make it a habit, a way of life. Determine the things you want to "do over" or simply do better or begin doing in your life.

 

Here are two of my goals for the new year (so you can keep me accountable):

• Deepen relationships with family and friends. How well do you know your aunts and cousins? Yes, you are related, but what do you really know about them personally? What is your closest friend's favorite color? Sounds like a silly question you would ask the boy (or girl) in high school you had a crush on, but do you know the answer?
• Think more outside the box and consider [what seems to be] the impossible or unattainable. Look at the companies and professionals today who are thriving. Look at the technological advancements. Look at our new president-elect. The one thing that all of these examples have in common is the ability to think outside the box and challenge the existing platforms.

 

Best of luck for the new year! Be encouraged.

In last month's blog, you met a Simmons alumna whose field, epidemiology, saves lives by preventing or controlling disease. But, we all have financial lives, too, and the recent gyrations of the stock market have certainly struck home that we need to look out for our financial health.

 

This month we'll be speaking with Simmons alumna, Ashley Provencher, Class of 2006, who is deeply committed to understanding the conditions of poverty, and especially to understanding how to utilize public policy to lift individuals out of poverty. Ashley, who double-majored in math and economics at Simmons, is in her third year at American University where she is pursuing a Ph.D. in economics. I think you'll agree that Ashley's combination of personal commitments and strong academic training equip her to tackle this deeply rooted, complex social problem.

 

Ashley Provencher, B.S. in Mathematics and Economics, 2006; Master of Arts in Economics, 2008

• How did you get interested in math, Ashley?
  
  I liked math in grammar school - I even enjoyed times tables! When I arrived at Simmons for orientation, I had no idea what I was going to take. When I picked up the course catalog, I thought, I'm good at math, so I'll start there. The thing I didn't know was economics. I remember that there was a "modes" requirement and that I had to pick one or two courses from each of the six modes categories. I decided to take Microeconomics and Calculus I together in my first semester. I figured that I'd always be able to link math to economics.
  
  
• What did you think you wanted to do with math?
  
  I knew it was something I always enjoyed. I always liked doing my homework - getting the right answer is always so gratifying! When I fell in love with economics, I discovered it helped me get from the abstract level of mathematics to everyday life and decision-making.
  
  
• How do you use math on a daily basis?
  
  Well, today I spent four hours running regression to predict female head-of-house need for childcare. The decision to go to work is simultaneously the decision to seek childcare. We're looking to see what predicts women's demand for child care. Later in the day I led a study group where, among other things, we noted that the model of an individual household as a unitary entity making decisions doesn't really fit reality since there's bargaining power relationship between couples. A lot of social science is trying to guess whether a relationship is linear or binomial and then trying to see how the guess pans out based on data. However, you're usually using proxies, so it's impossible to get a precise match between a mathematical model and real-life. You always fall short.
  
  
• As an undergraduate, how did you spend your time and energies outside the classroom? How did your knowledge of math support your passions?
  
  I've always been interested in understanding poverty. I saw poverty in my hometown, Norwich, a rural town in eastern Connecticut, but I observed it on a grander scale in Boston. In my first year at Simmons, I worked in the America Reads program in Dorchester as a service learning activity for my microeconomics course. I came to understand that economics is not just about pricing and money. It's day-to-day involvement, it's decision-making, it's behavior. Some of the kids we saw were from struggling homes, e.g., homes where there were drug problems or where a father had been killed in a drive-by shooting. The eye-opener was seeing how the community worked together - or not - in the midst of those struggles. The America Reads program ran in the afternoon or sometimes first thing in the morning, before school began. Many parents were hard-pressed to pick up their children because they were either working extra hours or working late. A lot of kids went home to families where there was no one to read to them or help them with homework because they lived in a single parent household or in a non-English speaking home.
  
  At Simmons, a lot of my internships involved working with Massachusetts state agencies where I got to see how the government distributes money across the state.
  
  In the summer following my sophomore year, I worked at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a non-partisan research group downtown that's been around for decades. This was a wonderful, small, research group. I got to understand the Massachusetts Chapter 70 School Aid formula and see how the money is allocated and spent.
  
  In fall semester of my senior year, I was able to write a research program under an economist at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was an amazing opportunity to work under an economist and have the experience of writing something very technical!
  
  My last internship ran from winter 2006 until the end of summer 2006 when I started graduate school in economics at American University. I worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston in the New England Public Policy Center. There I worked on numerous projects, did lots of support work like writing policy briefs, interacted with prestigious individuals, but also had the opportunity to work with peers. The latter was very important to me because at my other two internships, I didn't have a working relationship with people my own age. Working with peers gave me good friends who seemed as driven as I was to go directly on to the Ph.D., and who didn't think that this was crazy! Working at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, of course, broadened my exposure to economics.
  
  
• Where do you see yourself in five years? How will math help you get there?
  
  I think I want to work at the community and state legislative level to address urban poverty. I'd like to graduate in the next 1-2 years. Right now my research centers on U.S. children in poverty. I want to work on policy that affects children who live in poverty, especially policy that helps give them increased social mobility. This requires me to look at a data set and see patterns and, even before that, to design survey tools which get at patterns.
  
  Farther down the road I want to continue to focus on urban poverty. I think that to really have an impact, everyone needs to be involved, not just government agencies. I was happiest when I had my hands in everything:  working at the community level, working with government agencies, and working with a think tank to shape good policy. I'm more inclined toward working with the local community and state legislature. I really want to get my hands dirty at the local level, on a daily basis, and help states figure out ways to assist communities. In my internship at the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, I learned that the Chapter 70 School Aid Formula gets revisited every 5 years, and voted on every 10 years. At the federal level, legislators have argued for 40 years to change the poverty level but there's been no change. It's harder to affect change at the federal level because, unless there's an issue that cuts across all 50 states, it's difficult to get legislation passed.
  
  
• Do you have any advice for fellow alums?
  
  What I've seen for myself and my friends is that what matters is not whether you have a plan for what to do with your life right after graduation. What really matters is knowing what makes you happy. You should love what you're doing!

If you have questions for Ashley or about this series of math portraits, we hope you'll write!

In my last post, I traced my career path.   Somewhat oddly, I left out the MBA part.  You know, that degree that I received from Simmons?  Gee, why would that be strange on a blog post for Simmons?  Oh, I see...

In my defense, I ended the story with becoming an IT Director, which happened ~3 years before I started at the School of Management.  You probably don't want to hear excuses, though, so I'll stop dithering and get down to my real questions: What about that MBA thing?

In 2002, at the age of 28, I became the IT Director and head of technology for a Boston law firm.  I had less than four years of experience in technology and a degree in biology from MIT (as cool as bio is, I really didn't need my lac operon knowledge at a law firm).  Although I certainly had the spunk and resources to do the job, I kept wondering, "What do I not know?"  In other words, I didn't know what I didn't know.

I was pretty sure that I had a good handle on technology.  But the business part?  That was the mystery.  I could get through a budget, and I had built a great team of good people, but what was I missing?  What could I be doing better?  How was I holding myself back by not knowing about business?

It took me a while to decide on a business school, despite having wanted to go for a while.  Why?  Well, honestly, I really wanted to go to Harvard.  Or back to MIT.  But neither had a part-time program that coincided with my goals (MIT has something for executives in science or engineering, but not exactly the OB concentrations that I wanted), and, after buying a house, I couldn't afford to quit my job and go six figures into debt.

Enter Simmons.  I started looking at local part-time programs, and Simmons responded to my inquiry almost immediately.  I went in for a meeting a few days later, and was intrigued by the quality of the faculty and the concept of an all-female class (quite the opposite of the IT gender skew I'm usually around!).

I took my GMAT, applied, and started the program less than two months after my initial inquiry.  Culture shock aside, I have to admit that there were times that I wished I had done more research.  However, as I got deeper into the program, I realized that the same classmates who drove me nuts because they didn't remember enough algebra to handle Econ had brilliant insights in our other classes.  I realized that I was surrounded by amazing women who I never would have met otherwise.  I realized that I had learned what I didn't know before, and I was given the skills to actually use the knowledge as well.

Thanks to that Simmons MBA, I was able to get another job as head of technology at a larger firm, and I am no longer afraid of what I don't know.  Instead, I have the courage to ask about things, and the resources to understand the answers.  Business isn't easy--largely because it's not a hard science--and I'm very grateful to have that MBA.