Replace youthful idealism with pragmatism.

Here is a letter that I wrote but never needed to send to the university after I found out (a couple of months after it was written) that the Admissions Office has successfully applied for UChicago to become a Davis UWC Scholars institution. But it's one of those formal letters (the first one of its kind that I've ever composed) that I'm very proud of.

***

To whom it may concern:

We are current second-year students at the University of
Chicago. Having studied at the College for a little over one
year, it has come to our attention that due to limited
resources, the University of Chicago presently does not offer
financial aid to international students. Nor is it part of a
well-endowed foundation that provides scholarships that is
also open to foreign students.

We understand that this issue is not just isolated at our
University. However, by financially discriminating
international students (the majority who choose to study
overseas), the University undermines its efforts to increase
global diversity. Having been educated in an international
environment, interacting with peers from different parts of
the world, we have experienced first-hand the invaluable and
self-defining experience such an environment brings, and along
this parallel - the presence of international students on
campus is not only an opportunity for these students to
benefit and enjoy the academics of this University, but also
enriching that of the American student.

With regards to this we invite the University of Chicago to
become part of the Davis UWC Scholarship movement. Before we
continue further, we would like to introduce ourselves. We are
a group of United World College graduates now studying at the
College. The transition from high school to university has
been met with challenges, but nonetheless blending into a
college experience that has become highly rewarding,
self-sustaining, as well as an immense joy.

We are grateful that not only did we received an international
education but that we have the opportunity to pursue our
higher education at this fine institution. We also wish to
continue the UWC spirit in our future endeavors and
aspirations. It is our hope that the University of Chicago be
made more possible and accessible for future UWC graduates.
One possible way is for the University to become a Davis UWC
Scholars institution. In case you have not heard of the United
World College movement, it is a confederate of twelve schools
located around the world whose mission statement is to educate
young men and women to become socially aware and responsible
citizens. Shelby Davis, well-known businessman and
philanthropist, impressed by the values of a UWC education,
has committed to fund UWC graduates to attend colleges across
the United States, thereby promoting and extending these very
ideals. The Davis UWC Scholars program has since grown to
embody more than a scholarship fund for a particular group of
high-school graduates. More information about the Davis UWC
Scholars program (and its origins) is available on the
website: http://www.davisuwcscholars.org/html/about-story.html

By becoming a participating institution of the Davis UWC
Scholars Program, the University of Chicago becomes part of 76
(and counting) institutions across the country committed to
bringing outstanding students and excellent educational
institutions together. In turn, students who matriculate at
our institution go on to establish themselves as motivated
individuals and global citizens, playing an active role
(including cross-cultural understanding) within the college
community and beyond. With warm regards and sincere wishes we
ask that the University of Chicago seriously consider this
wonderful opportunity.

Yours sincerely,

[my name-

University of Chicago - Class of 2010, UWCSEA Class of 2006

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200712/religious-movies

So, on account of staying in Borders for a few hours, I decided to hang around the magazine racks. I picked up 'The Atlantic' and decided to read about an article on the latest children's fantasy adaption, 'The Golden Compass'.

An excerpt of the article with Philip Pullman interviewed is here:
“I think if everything that is made explicit in the book or everything that is implied clearly in the book or everything that can be understood by a close reading of the book were present in the film, they’d have the biggest hit they’ve ever had in their lives. If they allowed the religious meaning of the book to be fully explicit, it would be a huge hit. Suddenly, they’d have letters of appreciation from people who felt this but never dared say it. They would be the heroes of liberal thought, of freedom of thought … And it would be the greatest pity if that didn’t happen.

“I didn’t put that very well. What I mean is that I want this film to succeed in every possible way. And what I don’t want to do, you see, is talk the other two films out of existence. So I’ll stop there.”

Of course, it's possible that there are people who read too much into this kind of literature which is all the more talked about because it goes to so many levels. It's the same phenomenon with Harry Potter, only except The Golden Compass hasn't garnered the same amount of craze and zeal amongst kids and 'kidults' alike.

1. Un long dimanche de fiançailles (A very long engagement)
2. La môme (La vie en rose)
3.

From the Putamayo Series (International music CDs)

Swing Band
The Cool Crooners of Bulawayo - I Van Enkulu
Triton - Mari Niça Swing
Oscar Peterson with Clark Terry - Mumbles
Squirrel Nut Zippers - Pallin' with Al
Alfredo Rey e la Sua Orchestre - Foto Romanza
Duke Heitger and his swing band - Swing Pan Alley
Renzo Arbone e i suoi Swing Maniacs -Mamma Mi Place il Retmo
New Orlean Jazz Vipers - Blue Drag
Romane - Gypsy Fire
Ku'au Crater Boys - Opihi Man
Jambalaya Cajun Band - Hey, Rock
Children of the Revolution - Minor Swing: To Djano

France
Paris Combo - Fibre de Verre
Serge Gainsbourg - Marilon Sous La Neige
Barbara - Si La Photo est Bonne
Enzo Enzo - Juste quelqu'un du bien
Georges Brassens Je m'suis fait tout petit
Jane Birkia - Elaeudanla Téteïa
Coralie Clément - La Mer Opale
Matheiu Boogaerts - Ondulé
Brigitte Bardot - Un Jour Comme Un Autre
Paris Combo - On n'a pas besoin
Sanseverino - Mal ô Mains
Baguette Quartette - Endouce
Polo - La fée clochette

Paris
Thomas Fersen - Au Café de la Paix
Coralie Clément - Samba de Mon Coeur qui Bat
Karpatt - Dites Moi Tu
Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un m'a Dit
Pascal Parisot - Je reste au lit
Karen Ann - Jardin d'Hiver
Tryo - Serre-Moi
Paris Combo - Lettre à P...
Presque Oui - L'ongle
Amélie-les-crayons - Ta P'tite Flamme
Myrtille - Les Pages
Aldebert - Carpe Diem

Caribbean Music
TaxiKréol - Mandolin
Ralph Thamur - Mi Se La
Michel Martley - Pa Manyen Fanm Nan
Kali - Parfum des îles
Haïti Twoubadou - Ki Demon Sa-a
Jean-Luc Alger - Man Bisuena
Emeline
Carimi Ayiti - Bang Bang

Just watched 'The Golden Compass' with M.S

It's such a good film.
Also, Oxford is wow. Gorgeous. I'm in love with the place and wish I could study there in the future.
Am finding the plot so wonderful.
Most terrifying suspense-filled scene: when Lyra approaches the usurped king of the polar bears and presents herself as a potential daemon. She could have gotten killed at any instant! And put Ioeryk's life at stake.
Lyra is one of the bravest child I know [in fiction].
The theme of religion and hearsay probably permeates the film, but I need an extra person to actually discuss this kind of topic.
Lyra's parents are both intellectually gifted, charming, and well-reputed people, interested in the same field, the same object, but with polarizing interest.

In the literary world, there are only two types of people: editors and writers. I belong to the second category. I don't think I can ever be so good of an editor, although having good editing skills certainly will benefit me as a writer.

I really care more about writing than most things, but I think I also enjoy reading other people's writings more than creating my own work most of the time.

Editing entails giving sound advice and tightening up an article, giving it a very good sense of direction.

There is also a big difference between creative writing and analytical, critical and factual pieces of writing.

And there's something different about personal writing, like posting on a blog.

Excerpt from Fall 2007 issue of The Midway Review, 'Allan Bloom's Closing Revisited' by Aaron Roberts

"Today, any child can flatter his hollow intellect by declaring everything to be culturally relative. But this is simply the "insight" of the lazy. It is non-philosophical and strictly dogmatic. Unwilling to confront difficult questions, they instead withdraw into their pseudo-intellectual cave. In zealously undermining all traditions of men, modern theory has created a void, which presently yearns to be filled. The truly educated and civilized strive for higher things."

This is so, so true.

From the Wall Street Journal Opinion Editorial:

"availability bias," roughly the human propensity to judge the validity of a proposition by how easily it comes to mind.

Their insight has been fruitful and multiplied: "Availability cascade" has been coined for the way a proposition can become irresistible simply by the media repeating it; "informational cascade" for the tendency to replace our beliefs with the crowd's beliefs; and "reputational cascade" for the rational incentive to do so.

***

It may seem strange that scientists would participate in such a phenomenon. It shouldn't. Scientists are human; they do not wait for proof; many devote their professional lives to seeking evidence for hypotheses (especially well-funded hypotheses) they've chosen to believe.
Less surprising is the readiness of many prominent journalists to embrace the role of enforcer of an orthodoxy simply because it is the orthodoxy. For them, a consensus apparently suffices as proof of itself.

With politicians and lobbyists, of course, you are dealing with sophisticated people versed in the ways of public opinion whose very prosperity depends on positioning themselves via such cascades. Their reactions tend to be, for that reason, on a higher intellectual level.

'The consciousness recognize themselves as mutually recognizing each other.'

'Self-Consciousness is at first simple existence-for-itself, self-identical through the exclusion from itself of every other. Its "essence" and absolute "object" is for it ego.'

-Readings on Hegel assigned in from SOSC 11100.

Out of all all the topics covered in my social science class this quarter ("Power, Identity, and Resistance"), one of which intrigued me the most (and I am confident to say that this topic was also the most abstract, perhaps even the most difficult to grapple with), but nevertheless any slight understanding of such concepts proved to be delightfully insightful, and intellectually satisfying, meaning that it was a good representation of the tradition of a U of C education, is one that I came across in one selected reading on Hegel.

This concept that we were introduced was none other than Hegel's concept of the Self, and the relationship between the Self and Self-Consciousness.

For basic understanding purposes I will attempt to demonstrate the extent that I understood Hegel (arguably the most difficult philosopher to read). In addition, the concept of how self-consciousness is established is critical, if not, elemental to the essence of my course reading. In an excerpt from Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit', Hegel methodologically and systematically analyzes the thought process behind the struggle for dominance and power between two persons. He does this by examining the relationship between the minds of the two persons. Each encounter is presented with a struggle - this struggle, in its most extreme form, can only be resolved by the death of one, for none can survive if the other is alive (along the same lines, this is eerily reminiscent of the prophecy exemplified in Harry Potter).

This conflict is based on one fundamental principle: when two minds meet, they cannot both be in the state of existence-for-itself, because this is not only not possible but cannot happen by the very definition of existing-for-itself, since it requires that the other self recognizes its existence. By having a separate entity recognize your own existence, one can confirm their existence because it is validated by an external consciousness, thereby establishing for certainty that this existence is for-itself and not merely in-itself.

Grounded in rigorous definitions, what Hegel meant concerning the importance of existence and self-consciousness for itself is none other than what every philosophers aim to identify and reach: truth. Moreover, Hegel believed that the truth of independent consciousness (and no less than what is known as real existence) is the fact that one becomes self-conscious by establishing their existence through the acknowledgment of the same subject matter in another (and therefore, external) consciousness.

Thus, the dividing line between mere consciousness (to which one can ascribe analogously to nothing more complex than a 'vegetative state of existence') is self-consciousness.

Hegel further elaborates on this concept of truth, consciousness, self-consciousness, (and the difference between relating to oneself as the Thing, existing for or in-itself), by examining the extreme relationship of subjugation and subordination between the slave and the master. But my interest in this concept of consciousness stops here, for what really interests me about this establishment and the role of consciousness in society is just this: the unity of collective consciousness.

To put Hegel's reading into context: the course was aptly titled 'Power, Identity, and Resistance', and the objective of this course was to examine the role of society and the individual, investigate the relationship between the individual and society, and deduce, reason, or apply different methodology to conclude what exactly is the relationship between the two entities. We started with Adam Smith's 'The Wealth of Nations', studied individualism, and moved on to Marx and his theory why Communism shall prevail as the dominant paradigm of social institutions, and how it will re-organize the relationship of wage-labour and wealth. Hegel's thesis on Self-Consciousness serves a role by laying the foundation for Marx's grand Manifesto of the Communist Party, in which Marx delineates the necessary social conditions under which the proletariats will rise and overthrow the existing bourgeois class and bourgeois rule which had been in power in society for so long. Marx knew that the proletariats can only stage a successful revolution if and only if they recognized themselves as a class, and recognized their common interest (this is what Marx refers to as a unity of collective consciousness; it has great implications for moral and social forces). The third text of the quarter is Durkheim's 'The Division of Labour in Society'. Durkheim presented a very different perspective - rather than applying individualism as a methodology to examine the social interactions by focusing on the individual and self-interest, he uses holism methodology to examine how society provides the social context in which the individual exists and interacts with other individuals.

Now, having established the premises of Smith and Durkheim, and establishing the role of social consciousness in Marx's dissertation, I will try to explain what it is about the role of consciousness, and self-consciousness that has struck me as particularly interesting.

Have you ever had one of those feelings where you realized the implications of a particular topic discusses or taught in class recently and seeing how this theory or concept applied to your everyday life? Well, believe it or not, this is exactly what happened with the reading on Hegel. Something eerie about the way societies are held together through social cohesion struck me as not only real but very true. I think part of the reason was having my second year in college becoming more definite in one sense and wonderfully challenged in another. I noticed how much harder second year was - courses are becoming demanding, many of us are finishing up with the core or taking interesting courses, either because they are part of our major requirements or relevant courses pertaining towards some part of our general interest (next year, I will be taking my first political science class). Anyway, each one of us are becoming specialized; we are gravitating towards what grabs us and interests us that we are willing to put in the time and effort to work for it. In a way, this is something that Durkheim mentioned in his 'Division of Labour in Society' - how by becoming specialized individuals, not only are we conforming to society's structure but we are in the process reinforcing the ties that links us together, this social solidarity that Durkheim places great emphasis on.

Unfortunately, at this institution, it isn't the degree of specialization that appears to be hindering social solidarity but the pace of it. What I mean to say is that more often than not, as each of us struggle and challenge ourselves academically that it's hard to find some common ground other than the fact that we are, in a very broad sense, experiencing the same type of struggle.

I see this a lot, mostly during problem sessions with the TA and office hours. Rather than an ample opportunity to go over any mishaps and misunderstanding (I like to think of it as clearing up any confusion, so that I would, metaphorically, walk out of that room as if the sky was clear again), it was a disastrous (okay, I'm exaggerating here, but only for illustration purposes) séance during which each student only compounded (this happens more than once) the confusion of other students, or, if not, made the allotted time for going over questions all the more inefficient.

You could say that our consciousnesses were not together at all.

I didn't know what else to do but to marvel at this new found discovery, at the same time, having to wring my hands in despair not knowing what should be done to alleviate the situation, given this knowledge.

Although, I do have to say that what I had also gleaned from my short reading assignment on Hegel's conception of Self-Consciousness as something iterated by external consciousness is that this is one of the distinguishing factor between small talk and great talk between strangers and close friends respectively.

In plain words, sometimes, even the difference between close friend talk and awkward social interaction is the ability to create some sort of connection - this connection is either instigated by the individual, or assisted by the other party.

When I moved on to Durkheim, I realized that social solidarity is a more empirical and sociological expansion on Hegel's fundamental principle of establishing hierarchical relationships between individuals in the society. As for fulfilling a personal responsibility on this academic discovery, I personally need to write about such thoughts in this journal. So hear it is. My relationship as an author with you, the reader, is a mild form of establishing my own independent thought and pensive consciousness through the reader. It cannot be established in any other way, not even by using this physical piece of work as evidence. Perhaps this is something that even Descartes fails to incorporate in his famous quote, "I think, therefore, I am".

1. The Black Dahlia
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. Hotel Rwanda
4. Little Miss Sunshine
5. Unknown unknowns.
6. Six Feet Under
7. Sex in the City

Uncle Harry said to me:

Read books - open conversation.
Soloist role vs. managerial role
Beef up
Investment banking - leading role

Subjective empirical statement
Research writing
Portfolio management
Analyst
Economic finance - fast & smooth writer
Some qualities that they look for - outgoing, responsive, sensitive

Appropriate:
Seminar related to your department of interest; exposure
Economics finance
Expose judgment - company background
Know as much as possible about anything - develop social skill
Project profile - how to invest, what is good

Running a non-profit business according to a for-profit model ensre that she makes the most of the financial prospects available to her.

Articles andblogs about Gen Y suggest that recent college graduates are not content with simply sitting behind a desk, running numbers without a view of what their efforts are producing. The members of this new generation of talents want to be creative, see tangible results, and do something that exhilarates them. The social entrepreneur model is highly exciting for just that reason - it allows individuals to leave their mark on history.

The Schwab Foundation

Bornstein (Author of How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas) notes that traditional career paths may not cut it anymore, claiming, "If you're living in this cutthroat Machiavellian world of just connecting with people and building things for profit maximization as a pure motive, you're not going to actually have a really rich life".

"As I was in the final throes of getting my most recent book into print, an employee at the publishing company sent me an e-mail message that stopped me in my tracks.

I had met her just once, at a meeting. We were having an e-mail exchange about some crucial detail involving publishing rights, which I thought was being worked out well. Thens he wrote "It's difficult to have this conversation by e-mail. I sound strident and you sound exasperated."

He urges us to replace our opposition of individual interest and social interest with a recognition that personal and collective functions are intertwined and interdependent in the ceremony and function of giving. As he declares "the brutish pursuit of individual ends is harmful to the ends and peace of all...and rebounds on the individual himself" (p. 77). Instead, he suggests, the modern world should return to some extent to the dynamics of ancient societies, and acknowledge again the social power of what we now see as purely economic interactions. He urges each individual "to emerge from self, [and] to give, freely and obligatorily," (p. 71) finding a balance that can be struck only by tempering individualistic competition with social exchange.

Mommy loves you.
With love,
Thyself.
Love thyself
Good luck on your finals tomorrow and the day after tomorrow!
Much love,
Loads of love,
Heaping plenty of love,
Airflown kiss.

Print Article Outline for TTH:

Intro has hook
Well-organized information
Each paragraph has a point

Sources & references
lib.uchicago.edu
Nexis-Flexis

Interview strategies
Research on person

Abstract:
Introduction 200-300 words. Flesh out ideas.
Question
Relevance
Outline of argument/ article
Sources gathered so far

Broken down to more specific topics
Who do you want to interview?
What do you want to write about?
Article outline.

Abstract:
Introduction
Article Outline
Sources in full MLA format

Blog - origin - evolution
Or - news dissemination