Will You Still Teach Me When I'm 64?

The first day of classes reveals a lot about the upcoming semester: how uncomfortable is your chair, how strict is the professor, and who else is taking the class.

Last week when I was waiting for my "Intermediate Fiction" class to start, one new classmate was particularly intriguing. A man in his 70s tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Is this seat taken?" Yes, one of my classmates...was an old man. I have to admit I was terribly curious as to why he was there, but no one else was acknowledging (at least out loud) on the peculiarity of the situation.

During the "tell us about yourself" portion of every first class, I found out that his name was David, he was taking part in the Alumni Course Audit Program where graduates of GW and neighbors to campus over the age of 60 can take courses for no credit. David said this spring is not the first time he has taken a class, and "Intermediate Fiction" seemed like a logical follow-up after taking "Intermediate Poetry."

While I must admit I was rather uncomfortable when David first sat down, I've come to like attending class with him. He actually adds valuable discussion to class and has interesting opinions. He does have some annoying "old man" qualities such as calling me "Miss" and saying "mmhmm" to everything the professor says, but by our second class he began to grow on me.

Although David is a rather unusual classmate, I'd definitely take him over a hungover frat boy.

One man come in the name of love

"Early morning, April 4
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
Free at last, they took your life
They could not take your pride"

Don't know who this verses were written for? Listening to the entire U2 song may help then...



Not yet?! Well, he was one of the most important civil rights activist in the US history, and tomorrow is the national holiday to celebrate his birthdate. Yep! It's Martin Luther King Jr.

If you still don't have any plans, you may want to join the GW community to honor Luther King's legacy.

585 members of the university will help the L10 Project local organization to makeover the Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School in DC, as explained on the GWU website. Remember that this hours will count towards the service challenge Michelle Obama issued in September!

However, in case you are a bit tired of college and you'd prefer to serve off campus, here you have other events to be held in the Washington, DC area.

Enjoy the day!

Bag the Complaining!

The Districts new law of taxing customers 5 cents when they request a disposable bag has created what can only be seen as a worryingly mixed reaction. After weeks of turbulent and often unexplainable weather patterns, not just in DC or America but the world, you would hope that issues relating to saving the environment would be gaining support across the board. However as an article in the Hatchet found this by no means the case.

The law itself, introduced by Mayor Adrian Fenty, cleverly tries to tackle a major issue, climate change, by giving the voters physical success they can see, the Anacostia River Cleanup. However what is worrying is how little people seem to realize that this is not minor problem and that 5 cents is a small price to pay for future safety of our planet.

Most of the people interviewed by the Hatchet that disagreed, did this on financial grounds. How overly focused on 'money-making' can a society be that they highlight 5 cents per bag, as a reason not make sure that the planet is livable for their children? The only positive that this entrenched capitalist psych has is that people are so unwilling to pay the money for a bag that they do not buy one. This inadvertently means that there is a reduction in bag consumption, and who knows maybe DC wont turn into a continuous ski resort!

Humanitarian Action 2.0

The swift and awesome humanitarian actions taken to support the victims of the murderous earthquake in Haiti, using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, are great examples for our class, Politics and the Internet.

"In less than 48 hours, the American red Cross had received more than $35m in donations - including $8m directly from texts," according to BBC News.

I am pleased to hear that GW is also taking part in this movement to reach out their hands to help the hurt, the hungry, and the homeless. Since the earthquake, I have been receiving many news feeds on Facebook from GW students:

If anyone is interested in helping out with the Haiti Relief Efforts on our campus, please come to the MSSC in Room 104, this Sunday, January 17 at 5:30 p.m. TEXT 'YELE' to 501501 to donate $5 to Haiti Relief Fund - Wyclef Jean, CNN or donate to UNICEF.

Social media has also proved itself as a great tool for news reporting amid cut-off land and mobile phone lines:

Throughout the night, we spoke to people through whichever platform they had access to – Skype, Twitter, Facebook- and collated a sound idea of what was happening right now. The necessity of using the internet because the phones were down forced all traditional news gathering to the side, and meant we relied entirely on the web. Sky was first with the information because we turned to the people there and relied on them to tell the story – and for that they are owed huge thanks.

The earthquake was a tragedy of the greatest proportions and our hearts and minds are with those suffering. But amidst the horror, last night was a triumph in web 2.0 journalism and communications; it proved that the internet allows us to share information across the globe, regardless of the scene.There is now no excuse for not being up-to-date, all of the time.

While we could be preoccupied with the downsides and noises of social networks and the internet, or those who intend to exploit people’s good intention, it is certain that these networks are turning into people's lifelines. I hope that a spontaneous order will be intact online. Spread the word.

Want to learn more about starting your own business ?

Looking to start a business? GW School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is giving you a chance to hear from alumni who took the chance and went into business for themselves. SEAS alumni Ashok Jha, Scott Gessay, and Elias Shams will give you the chance to learn how when they kick off the first of four seminars in starting a business on January 19th with their panel: “How I Got Started: Getting Your Idea Off the Ground.


Each panelist started their own business in the engineering field, but the information will be useful to anyone interested in starting a business in any field. The event is open to the entire GW community and the public without registration.


Want more? The series continues with three
more events in March and April.


Where: The George Washington University, Funger Hall, Room 103
When: Jan. 19, 2010; Reception at 6 p.m.; Panel Discussion at 7 p.m.


Want to know more, read the full press advisory from GW here.

Resume Check

You want a job, in fact you want a particular job. You send in your resume and wait. You wait and wait and wait. Finally you begin to wonder why you haven't heard back. Was it because you weren't qualified for the job? Has the position been filled already? Did it get lost? Another underlying possibility is that your resume is now lying in the trash can. Why? Because there was a mistake, one you never noticed.

The Business School sent out this notice with their undergraduate newsletter. They are offering a 48-hour resume review. For those students who don't have the time to make an appointment and speak with a career advisor, this appointment can be done over the internet. While this is just for Business School students, you should check out your school's career center to take advantage of it.

On recess

As you may have guessed, GWBlogspot is on recess until Spring 2010.