Baby, I'm a star!!!

A couple of weeks ago, there was an email solicitation by my negotiation instructor for Kennedy School students to participate in a taping that would be used on the Katie Couric show.  

It was a segment to promote the book “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg.  It was about how women negotiate and how they are perceived in the workplace.

 Katie Couric - Women negotiating at work

As you can tell from the video, they picked my clip and the clip of another one of my midcareer classmates to be on the show.

How’s that for a Harvard moment?  I go to class one day and end up on national TV a couple of days later!

And just for the record, Lisa’s clip shows her as angry.  Originally, I was the one who was supposed to display anger but I refused to feed into the stereotype of an “angry Black woman” so Lisa did it.  Lisa is one of the sweetest people that I’ve had the pleasure to meet and it was a shock to see her act so angry. (And it was an act!)

I make a concerted effort not to feature other people or mention them by name in my blog in order to respect their privacy.  However, Lisa likes to fly below the radar.  She’s an amazing activist for women’s rights, especially for women who have endured sexual violence in the Congo and Somalia.

Check out her website and if you feel so inclined, please volunteer to participate or make a financial contribution.

Run for Congo Women
A Thousand Sisters
Lisa Shannon - Wikipedia

57 days until commencement

Harvard Memories: Harvard Yale Game

The Harvard-Yale game is supposed to be LEGENDARY.  It’s simply known as The Game. So, who was I to miss out on the opportunity to participate in something that was a Harvard tradition?

First things first:  Let’s talk about the tail gate party!

The one advantage that we older students have over the younger students is that we can buy good alcohol and throw one heck of a tailgate party.  Case in point: The Bloody Mary bar.  Yes, our tailgate party had a Bloody Mary bar and mimosas. (In our minds this was perfectly reasonable since we were starting to drink at 10AM)

Breakfast in a cup

This drink was the breakfast of champions!  Absolute Peppar, V-8, cheese, salami, olives, pickled green beans, Tabasco and celery!  Yum!

The game started at Noon.  Guess what I was doing at noon?  Hint: I was still outside the stadium.

Once I was inside the stadium…the game was OK.  It was all kinds of fuzzy though. I barely remember the half time show (Aztec temples and a whale?) but not much else. I blame it on the alcohol.

(The white thing in the background is the whale)

Oh yeah.  Harvard won.

58 days until commencement

And the final countdown begins...

Since I have been slacking horribly on this blog, I’ve decided to be ambitious and make one blog post a day to chronicle my last 59 days before graduation and my last 60 days on campus.  Guess what? I’m already behind a day!  Today I’ll make two posts to make up for missing yesterday.

Yesterday and today, I was part of a phone-a-thon to reach out to newly admitted Harvard Kennedy School students.  In the middle of the first call, I had a flash back to when I was newly accepted and to all the questions that I about what it meant to be going to Harvard. 

My first question was: How in the blazes am I supposed to afford almost $100,000 for one year of school?!  That’s a lot of money.  Especially since at that time I had not worked a permanent job in about 4 years.  I had picked up some contract work to get by, but it wasn’t like permanent work (with benefits) and a steady paycheck. 

My second question: What am I supposed to do with my boyfriend? At this point we had been together for year.  I had told him that if I was admitted that I was going to leave, but I don’t think either of us believed that I was going to get admitted.  (Surprise!!)

My third question: What in the hell was the admissions office thinking?! Of course, I wouldn’t have applied if I didn’t think I could get in but it was still a shock to get the email and then the paper admissions letter.  So much so, that I didn’t tell anyone that I was admitted for several weeks because I was sure that Harvard was going to retract their offer.   I only began to tell select people after the registrar’s office cashed the check for my deposit!

I can’t believe that all of these memories came flooding back in the space of one phone call. I guess now I can look back on it and realize that it was all going to work out even if it wasn’t exactly the way that I had envisioned.

So far, it’s been a wonderful ride. 

59 days until commencement