Going Deep

Peter works at CentroNia, a bilingual charter school in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, D.C. (Above is a picture of the school.) He works in a program called Studio R.O.C.K.S. (which stands for Reading, Outdoors, Creativity, Knowledge, and Self-Discovery). Last year he was a teacher in Studio R.O.C.K.S. for second grade. This year he's lead Studio R.O.C.K.S. teacher for grades 4 and 5. It's an extracurricular program where the kids explore music, movement, gardening, technology, and the visual arts during "out-of-school time." (Even though it might take place in the middle of the school day.)  In Peter's case, most of the units he teaches involve either music or sports. (Why he doesn't include gardening in his units is, quite frankly, beyond me.) Peter first worked for CentroNia in his senior year of college, when he tutored there every week. One thing led to another and now he finds himself in his second year at the school. Most of the kids come from a home where Spanish is the first language. So even though English is the language of the school, Peter gets to use his Spanish a lot, especially in interactions with parents. He loves teaching and he loves the kids, and they clearly love him, as we saw when we popped in at the school last winter. 

Going Deep

This is the "Mary Harrison's summer" edition of Going Deep. I know that most kids have started school already, but it's still technically summer for Mary as Autumn Quarter doesn't start until September 24. She's been on campus all summer working, but at the beginning of September she reduced her hours and/or finished her jobs when Sophomore College (more on that below) started.

In the summer Mary had three jobs. At the first she worked 20 hours per week at the Stanford Social Innovation Review as a Marketing Intern. SSIR (forgive the acronym but it's easier to type) is a quarterly magazine which focuses on not-for-profits. Her duties include things like updating their social media feed (Facebook and Twitter), as well as organizing materials for both live conferences and web conferences. There's a live conference scheduled to take place on campus this week so that's been a big part of her job lately. Mary worked at SSIR part-time during her freshman year, and she plans to stay on part-time during her sophomore year. When my mom and I were on campus last month we got to meet her colleagues at SSIR, which of course we enjoyed.

Also during the summer Mary worked 20 hours per week at the Center for Deliberative Democracy, an on-campus organization, where she got to assimilate research and write a paper. It was interesting work and she enjoyed her time there. She finished there last week.

A small but fun part of Mary's summer was working as Digital Editor for the Stanford Daily, Stanford's school newspaper. All summer long, the Twitter and Facebook feeds for the Daily were provided by none other than Mary Harrison. During the school year she will go back to being a regular reporter for the paper, as she was last school year.

And finally, this month Mary's taking a course at the Stanford Sophomore College, an optional interim program that is offered in September for sophomores only. The kids can take one class, which is condensed into one month. She's taking a Political Science class.

Through all of this Mary has been on the move. In June she moved from her regular dorm to an on-campus house, where she lived all summer. Last week she moved from that house to her Sophomore College housing. She's there til next week, when she moves to her permanent sophomore year housing. It's a lot of moving for one girl, so I think she can skip the weight room this month without feeling too much guilt!

Going Deep

It's a big day when Brad is both featured in a New York Times article AND a TV show that he worked to create from the ground up has its premiere, so today the blog will "go deep" about the show "Clean Break." If you're wondering, isn't Brad a marketer (yes he is) and if so why is he making a TV show, well ........ it's complicated. The way it usually works for advertising on TV is that they (the marketers) make a commercial and then put it on a TV show which they believe their target consumer is going to be watching. "Clean Break" is different in that the entire show was created and produced by and for Schick Hydro (with lots of help from great creative partners) to showcase itself. BUT, there is no product placement within the show or any mention of the product on the show. (Don't worry, during the commercial break you'll get to see some Hydro commercials.) The idea is that they created a show which they think is exactly the type of content their consumer (18 to 34 year-old men) wants to watch and identify with. The premise behind the show is three 20something guys spend 10 days in Hawaii to get a "clean break" from the routine of their daily lives (while there they partake in exciting adventures and these experiences cause them to think about changes they might want to make in their lives once they return home), similar to the way that Schick would like men to take a "clean break" from the routine of always using the same razor (made by their arch-competitor, who shall remain nameless). We were in Hawaii when the Maui portion of the show (episodes 4-6) was filmed. The footage is great, the camera work is fantastic (here's a link to a blurb from the company that filmed it), the story is compelling, and it's just plain fun to watch. "Clean Break" airs for six weeks on FuelTV, beginning tonight at 11:00 p.m. (The full episodes will be available on Fuel's website after they air on TV.) In addition, Schick partnered with Yahoo!Screen to show mini-episodes on its website (which you can view right now). There's also the usual Facebook page which has links to much of what I've just mentioned (if you want to make Brad's day you can "like" their page). And for a more professional version of what I've been trying to say here, there has been lot of press for "Clean Break" today, and here's a sample. So whether you're an 18 to 34 year-old male who would love to have this exact type of "clean break," or whether you're anyone else and would simply like to vicariously escape for a few minutes to Hawaii with these guys, the universal message is that taking a break from routine is a good thing. I hope you have a chance to watch some of "Clean Break" and that you enjoy it!

Going Deep

And so it's almost time for another era to come to an end. Mary is about to start her spring quarter final exams, and by the time she's done her freshman year of college will be behind her. This year she lived in Larkin (with about 100 other freshmen), which is one of the six dorms in Stern Hall (600 students in all, mostly freshmen). Like her brothers and parents, Mary was fortunate to live in a freshman dorm where she met some wonderful people. I predict that her Larkin friends will be her closest friends not only for the next three years of college, but for the rest of her life.  And so I was happy when this morning I saw on my Facebook newsfeed lots of photos from celebrations that have been taking place in Larkin during "Dead Week" (the week prior to the start of finals). It's with Mary's permission that I share this with you. (She's standing in the upper right of the photo, with pig tails.)  Notice the kids' Larkin scarves and smiling faces. The motto of the dorm is "Larkin Love," and it shows.

Going Deep

I'm sure you haven't slept all night wondering (or for some people, worrying) who was going to be in the inaugural post of Going Deep. But one look at the above picture of Jumbo the Elephant and you've probably figured it out . . . it's John! Yay for John who involuntarily volunteered to go first!!! (Also known as a mother's prerogative.) And the topic is . . . his summer job!! This summer John is working for the Tufts Conference Bureau, where he has worked every summer since his freshman year. (Which means this is his fourth and final summer.) What exactly is the Tufts Conference Bureau? Well, it's basically a conference and special event service that the university runs throughout the year. During the school year most of the events are in-house for the university, and run by the full-time Conference Bureau staff. But in the summer when the students are away, the Conference Bureau becomes primarily a conference service, with most of the conference attendees staying on campus during their conferences. College students are employed to staff the operations side of things in the summer (most, but not all, are Tufts students), under the guidance of the year-round Conference Bureau staff. Whether they are hosting on an SAT-prep conference, a Russian youth hockey camp, a summer Masters program, or a business retreat, the Conference Bureau arranges the housing, accommodations, food, and facilities that the various conferences need, as well as attending to any alumni who wish to take advantage of the opportunity to stay in a Tufts dorm room during the summer for a nominal charge. This year John's job is Operations Supervisor.  Click here for a link to the Tufts Conference Bureau.

Brad and I were in Boston on Sunday. It gave us the chance to have lunch with John and to help him move a carload of stuff from his house to the dorm he'll be living in this summer. One of the perks of working for the Conference Bureau is getting to live on campus at virtually no cost, and also getting a daily meal in the dining hall.

This is John and me in front of his dorm. He lives on the first floor, and just outside his room is a large living room with a big screen TV (and cable!). Upstairs is a kitchen, so John can cook his own dinners. This year he is working an 8:00-5:00, Monday through Friday schedule, which will give him free weekends. (Whereas in prior years he worked varying shifts on varying days, rarely had two days off in a row, and never knew his schedule until a week or two ahead of time.) All of which means, I think John is set to have a great summer.

Introducing: Going Deep

Tomorrow will be the first installment of my new recurring blog post, Going Deep, in which I will highlight one of us Harrisons. The idea won't be to brag (though I can't promise there won't be a little of that) but rather to go a bit in depth about something interesting that one of us is doing. Going Deep won't be on a regular schedule like Flashback Friday, so you never know when one might show up. Tomorrow will be the first installment. Who it will be and what it will be about, no one will know until tomorrow. Stay tuned!