麻豆原创

Teachers College鈥檚 12^th Academic Festival was also its first virtual one 鈥� a format that enabled the College to spread out programming over nearly a week鈥檚 time. In addition to the sessions we feature and link to in our overview story about Academic Festival, this year鈥檚 event included programming that ranged from a discussion of college sports and social justice to snapshots of how the COVID pandemic is playing out in nations around the world. 麻豆原创 also honored a group of distinguished alumni and offered a heartfelt thank you to donors who have stepped up during the pandemic.  

Alumni Talk Activism

The inaugural segment of Alumni Voices, a new podcast series featuring 麻豆原创 alumni, explored activism through the prisms of cultural relevance, personal conviction, educational leadership and the 21^st-century legacy of a 20^th-century sharecropper.

Moderated by Rosella Garcia, Senior Director of Alumni Relations, the series鈥� first installment, titled 鈥淎 Call to Action,鈥� featured Associate Professor of Educational Leadership Sonya Douglass Horsford; (M.A. 鈥�08), the Co-founder and Chief Academic Director of the Uceda School network, which teaches English as a second language; Mariana Casellato, a master鈥檚 student in 麻豆原创鈥檚 International Education Development; and Krystal Hardy Allen, a doctoral student in the College鈥檚 K-12 Urban Education Leadership program.

Horsford, the Founding Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Black Education Research Collective and Co-Director of the College鈥檚 Urban Education Leaders Program, called for confronting 鈥渢ough truths around racism and the history of the country.鈥�

鈥淭he question becomes, for those who call themselves leaders, 鈥榃hat is our responsibility?鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淲ho needs to be thinking about these things on a macro scale?鈥� And what role can each of us play to advance an agenda that is inclusive and creates the types of educational communities that I believe we are capable of creating?鈥� 

Uceda (M.A. 鈥�08), who created 麻豆原创鈥檚 Uceda Lecture on Women鈥檚 Empowerment, said that the spirit of activism and change has to come from within.

鈥淭here is so much information in this world that it鈥檚 easy to lose focus,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he first thing I do is to look inward before looking outside to know what justice means to me. There has to be a lifetime commitment.鈥�   

Casellato, a Zankel Fellow and master鈥檚 candidate in the International & Comparative Education program, said it was imperative that activists 鈥渧alue local perspectives鈥� in the development of policies to improve healthcare and education in foreign communities.

Allen spoke movingly of her grandmother, who picked cotton as a child, defiantly sipped water from fountains marked 鈥渨hite only,鈥� was struck by a brick while defending her right to vote in Selma, and lived long enough to see a Black man become president of the United States.

鈥淚 take a lot of hope from her,鈥� said Allen, a former teacher and principal who leads a New Orleans-based educational consulting firm. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy to become cynical, it鈥檚 easy to become bitter, it鈥檚 easy to become hopeless and to believe that some things just aren鈥檛 possible. But change is happening. Don鈥檛 lose faith in the efforts we push toward day-to-day鈥�

Taking Hollywood to School

Academia and entertainment have much to learn from one another. That was a key takeaway from 鈥淚ntersecting Identities: Historical Context and the Development of Personal Narrative Identity,鈥� a conversation between 麻豆原创 Associate Professor of English Education Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz and (M.A. 鈥�97), award-winning actor, producer and educator.

鈥淪tories matter,鈥� said Sealey-Ruiz, author of  (Kaleidoscope Vibrations, 2020) 鈥� a point Cox illustrated by performing a monologue from 鈥淥ne Drop of Love,鈥� her one-woman show about her own complex racial identity. Then Cox spoke about her work advising Pearl Street Films, the production company created by stars Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, on inclusiveness and equality.

鈥淓ntertainment work is not very deep,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut being back at 麻豆原创 reminds me of how much we marry scholastic work with mainstream representations of ourselves. Academic work can get mired in terminology that is not acceptable to larger audiences. But Hollywood is extremely limited in terms of not paying attention to scholars and this kind of work.鈥�

Making College Sports an Arena for Social Justice

Big-name professional athletes are increasingly outspoken on political and social issues 鈥� but some of the most substantive discussions may be occurring on the college level.

Take the NCAA鈥檚 Big East Conference, where Commissioner has instituted measures ranging from a partnership of minority men鈥檚 assistant basketball coaches to the Black Lives Matter patches that will adorn players鈥� uniforms during the 2020-21 basketball season.

鈥淭his is the power of one,鈥� said Ackerman, who was the founding commissioner of the WNBA, and whose daughter Sally, is a student in 麻豆原创鈥檚 Social-Organizational Psychology program. 鈥淲hat can we do when we wake up every day to live a life of respect, tolerance and find ways to lift up others, particularly those who don鈥檛 have the privileges that we have?鈥�

Self-Expectations During COVID: Setting a Different Bar

Nine months into the COVID pandemic, 麻豆原创 Professor of Clinical Psychology Doug Mennin believes the only certainty may be that there鈥檚 no right answer for 鈥渉ow to respond to this uncertainty.鈥� 

If nothing else, agreed Mennin and psychologist (M.A. 鈥�72) in a conversation titled 鈥淐oping with Crises: Anxiety & Depression During Covid-19 and Beyond,鈥� that reality argues for being less hard on ourselves.

鈥淭his is a first-time experience for everyone,鈥� said Atkins, the media personality and author known as Dr. Dale, who says she鈥檚 shifted from crisis counseling to advocating for patience and self-forgiveness in grappling with difficult decisions. 鈥淲e need to find kindness and empathy for ourselves so that when we try something new and fall on our face, the voice in our head is not a critical, shaming voice, but a voice that says, 鈥楬ey, you鈥檝e never done this before 鈥� let鈥檚 keep trying.鈥� It鈥檚 what I like to call a personal cheerleader.鈥�

Miracle on 34^th Street: Changing the Culture at MSG

Five years ago, arriving at Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation as the new Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, (M.A. 鈥�93) found a classic good news-bad news scenario.

The good news, said Kapell in a talk titled 鈥淧lan for Your People First,鈥� was an aggressive plan to revolutionize the entertainment industry and world-class assets that included the Garden (home to the Knicks basketball and Rangers hockey teams), Radio City Music Hall, the Beacon Theater and Chicago鈥檚 Chicago Theater. There was also MSG鈥檚 storied 141-year history.

The bad news was that, over the past seven years, seven previous heads of human resources had been defeated by a culture that also verged on the historic.

MSG had no compensation program tied to performance. Seasonal turnover in some jobs exceeded 100 percent. The payroll system wasn鈥檛 automated, leading to frequent mistakes. In a confidential survey, most employees declined to recommend MSG as an employer.

Kapell says her 麻豆原创 policy studies helped her launch a multi-year effort aimed at cultural change: 鈥淚 learned to think in a real-world way about solving problems.鈥� Today, management seeks out employee feedback. The company has invested heavily in technology. Organizational goals are tied to people鈥檚 jobs and offer pathways for career advancement. MSG still aims to improve its diversity -- but compared with five years ago, the company is operating in another league: 鈥淥ur employees have really risen to the occasion.鈥� 

A Community Commiserates: Six 麻豆原创 alumni from around the world share local updates on the pandemic

In April, when Rosella Garcia, 麻豆原创鈥檚 Senior Director of Alumni Relations, met on Zoom with alumni from five nations, COVID had infected 780,000 people worldwide, with 37,500 deaths. When the panel reconvened in late September, those numbers stood at 31.7 million and 970,000. They were higher still when the panel鈥檚 discussion aired during Academic Festival. 

But as described by the panelists, the pandemic鈥檚 impact has varied widely.

In China, (M.A. 鈥�15), Facility Manager for Western International School of Shanghai (WISS), said life was 鈥渓ike before COVID,鈥� with people congregating sans masks and schools fully open. 

In contrast, Brazil stands as a textbook case of doing 鈥渢hings you shouldn鈥檛 do in a pandemic,鈥� said (M.A. 鈥�11), Co-Founder and Chief Education Officer at the S茫o Paulo-based learning organization Camino Education. The nation has repeatedly changed health and education ministers and failed to articulate a coordinated preventive strategy, Lyle said, and Brazil鈥檚 students have been out of school longer than those of any other country. 

After a summer of respite in Italy, 鈥渢he bell curve went up in August鈥� when people returned from vacations, said Vasily Popov (M.A. 鈥�95), who heads Strategic Planning at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome. With schools now open, Popov fears the numbers will keep climbing 鈥� and Italy has announced plans to seal off six regions. 

South Korea, too, is enduring 鈥渁 second attack,鈥� said (Ed.D. 鈥�13), Founding Director of the Center for Education and Technology in Seoul. Things could be even tougher this time: 鈥淭he government has given us stronger rules because we can鈥檛 trace where infections were coming from 鈥� and that makes people so scared.鈥�

In San Francisco, where residents have weathered both the pandemic and the surrounding wildfires, schools continue to operate remotely and 鈥渁 lot of us are just staying home,鈥� reported (M.A. 鈥�11), Supervisor at the Bay Area Teacher Training Institute. Brody, who says 麻豆原创 taught her to focus 鈥渘ot only on what you鈥檙e learning but also the learning process,鈥� is trying to help teachers 鈥渦nderstand what students are going through and how it鈥檚 different for them.鈥� 

(Ed.D. 鈥�11, M.Ed. 鈥�98. M.A.  鈥�97) praised New Yorker City residents for their safety compliance, citing the city鈥檚 low infection rate. But Putman, Vice President for Academic & Student Affairs at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, said the Gotham鈥檚 corporate employees have yet to return, hurting other industries.

Acknowledging the grimness of these reports, Lyles found hope in 麻豆原创鈥檚 global community: 鈥淚 feel nourished. As an administrator in education, this has contributed so much to my practice.鈥�

Honoring 麻豆原创鈥檚 Own

Honored at Academic Festival, 麻豆原创鈥檚 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients were  (Ed.D. 鈥�91), Chief Executive Officer of the Women鈥檚 Sports Foundation, psychologist and media personality (M.A. 鈥�72),  (M.A. 鈥�82), former President of New York City鈥檚 Hostos Community College, and  (Ed.D. 鈥�95), John and Maria Neag Professor of Urban Education and Professor of Educational Leadership and Law at the University of Connecticut鈥檚 Neag School of Education. Early Career Award recipients were K-12 New York City mathematics teacher (Ph.D. 鈥�14) and (Ph.D. 鈥�11), Education Director of Columbia University鈥檚 Earth Institute. The Alumni Award for Outstanding Service, honoring contributions to 麻豆原创, went to pioneering education technology visionary  (M.A. 鈥�93) and nurse executive and educator Debra Heinrich (M.Ed. 鈥�84). [Watch a video about the award recipients.] 

Cheers to Donors 鈥� and Snapshots of Their Dollars at Work

At Academic Festival 2020, Provost Stephanie J. Rowley thanked members of the College鈥檚 John Dewey Circle and Maxine Greene Society and contributors to the 麻豆原创 Annual Fund for providing 鈥渁n elixir guaranteed to infuse our faculty and students with innovation, enthusiasm and confidence.鈥�

Rowley described how two faculty members supported by donors have responded to the pandemic.

Catherine Crowley, Director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 program in Communications Sciences & Disorders, has long brought students to developing nations to conduct speech therapy with children who have had cleft palate surgery. The pandemic scotched this year鈥檚 trip 鈥� but teaching remotely, Crowley enabled her students to develop requisite skills and deliver real-time therapy to children in Colombia via Zoom.

Detra Price-Dennis, Associate Professor of Education, created a digital program through which youngsters queried health professionals. With city officials, she co-led a virtual town hall panel on public education. And through the National Council of Teachers of English, she led workshops for teachers worldwide. 

Rowley also introduced four 麻豆原创 master鈥檚 degree students supported by the 麻豆原创 Annual Fund.

Analissa Calvin (Elementary Inclusive Education) said 麻豆原创 has introduced her to 鈥渨indows and mirrors鈥� 鈥� the concept that 鈥渃hildren need to be able to see through into other people鈥檚 expenses, but also see themselves reflected in their education.鈥�

DJ Jeffries (Adult Learning & Leadership) paid tribute to a grandmother who 鈥渨orked three jobs so that we could have a chance.鈥� He hopes to improve organizations鈥� representation and treatment of marginalized employees. 

Julian David-Drori (Neuroscience & Education) shared that he has twin younger brothers with autism spectrum disorder and that he, too, has neurodevelopmental disabilities. He hopes to change education so others with these issues 鈥渟ucceed rather than just struggle through.鈥� 

Mariana Casellato (International Education Development) is interning at Columbia University鈥檚 Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity, producing podcasts on the intersection of colonialism and COVID.

Echoing her fellow students, Casellato offered thanks for 鈥渢he financial aid that gives me the support to be here at the College.鈥�