WOMEN SHAPING HISTORY

Women’s History Month is a time to reflect on the achievements of women in the past. It is also a time to recognize the achievements of contemporary women who have made outstanding contributions in various fields. Education Update interviewed a number of multi-faceted, fascinating, dynamic, intellectual women who have improved the lives of people all over the world. Here are their responses to the following questions: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- • How did you choose your current career? • What are some of the challenges you’ve faced and how have you resolved them? • What are some of the accomplishments you’re proudest of? • What would you describe as a turning point in your life? • Who have been the most influential mentors in your life? • What advice would you give to young people today?

Ruth Messinger, Executive Director of the American Jewish World Service
One of the things that’s fun about politics is that it’s full of challenges everyday, trying to convince people both legislative and government colleagues of new ideas and  finding new ways to make change.
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Carol Berkin, Professor:
Stories of Women in History
By Dorothy Davis
Why did she pioneer women’s history? “One of the reasons was because I had a daughter. I didn’t want her to look into the past and not be able to see her face.” READ MORE

Dr. Alexandra Levine: Caring, Humanistic Physician
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Without intending it, Dr. Alexandra Levine, Chair of the Division of Hematology at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC), must surely find herself her at the center of two extremely important issues: the role of women in science, and research into AIDS. READ MORE

NYC Comissioner Martha Hirst Advocates Pursuing Passion Over Prestige
I think my proudest accomplishment was spearheading the effort for a landmark civil rights legislation, which was the gay rights bill enacted in 1986. READ MORE

Debunking the Stereotype of the Female Boxer:
A Visit to Gleason’s Gym
By Gillian Granoff
Women Learn Valuable Lessons
In and Out of the Ring
Ashley compares the skills needed to win a boxing match with those required in a game of chess. To defeat your opponents you must adapt your strategy to each new situation. READ MORE

Interview with Olympic Medalist Nadia Comaneci
I like to tell young people to work hard for your goals and live in the moment. You should also appreciate the goodness around you, and surround yourself with positive people. READ MORE

Mary Lu Christie: Journey to Afghanistan
By Nazneen Malik
Christie has been an active presence in Afghanistan and continues to play an instrumental role in developing educational programs for Afghan women and children. READ MORE

Seeing a Better World Through the Camera Lens:
Lisa Gossels
By Gillian Granoff
Her long brown hair cascades over her shoulder as she offers me some tea. Her maternal instincts have become a large part of her identity as a filmmaker. READ MORE

Manhattan Borough President Virginia Fields’ Dedication to Education
By Liza Young
The major theme woven through her public address is the idea of inclusion: that every resident of NY have access to quality health care, education, and housing. READ MORE

Renee Fleming: Lyric Soprano Expands to Jazz
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
The Inner Voice” is the name Renée Fleming gave to her recently published autobiography The Making of a Singer, but of course it is the outer voice, that gorgeous lyric soprano, that opera lovers and classical music critics have called one of the beautiful sounds ever heard.
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Women’s City Club’s 90th Year
By Dorothy Davis
The feisty Women’s City Club of New York is 90 years young. Suffragists started it in 1915. In 1920 they got the vote. In the 1920s Eleanor Roosevelt joined and began a public service career that changed the world. READ MORE

A Female Horse Racer Blazes New Trails for Women
By Gillian Granoff
For Ms. Ingrassia being a trailblazer was never a goal. In fact she characterizes her career choice as simply “geographic.” READ MORE

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Dr. Maya Angelou
Dr. Maya Angelou is the Reynolds Professor at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC where she teaches a master class in World Poetry and Dram–atic Performance. READ MORE

SPOTLIGHT ON SCHOOLS

Women Rising
By Matilda Raffa Cuomo
What an amazing lifetime it has been for those of us born in the age of radio, Buck Rogers and the Great Depression, and have lived to enjoy pocket cell phones that make calls, record them, and that take pictures, develop them, and even take dictation – along with space travel and bikini bathing suits. READ MORE

Building Quality in After-School Programs:
The After-School Corporation (TASC)
By Lucy A. Friedman
The After-School Corporation (TASC) began in 1998 with 25 programs in New York City and has grown to support more than 250 programs across the state serving 55,000 children. READ MORE

Interview with Gail Noppe-Brandon:
Creator of a New Methodology
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
It isn’t often that a writer with dynamic ideas about how to transform the teaching of communication skills can point to her own public school child as an example, but Gail Noppe-Brandon, whose slim, eloquent book, Find Your Voice: A Methodology for Enhancing Literacy Through Re-Writing and Re-Acting  (reviewed in this issue) certainly knows first hand how a shy seven-year-old can come to life, creatively and intellectually, under the tutelage of a patient teacher and an imaginative idea. READ MORE

Liberty Partnerships Program:
Empowering Young Women
By President Augusta Souza Kappner
I recently spent some time with a young Latina woman who is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College. She is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in neuroscience at the University of Chicago. READ MORE

HS Student & Tanzanian Ambassador Build
Bridges in Education
By Liza Young
During a time of natural disaster occurrences and threats of terror, it’s especially reassuring to know that there’s hope for growth and revitalization and fostering of friendships between democratic and pluralistic societies. READ MORE

Technology Education Coming to a Halt
By Melinda George
Imagine this scenario: today’s students, for whom multimedia technologies have always been an integral part of learning, are suddenly denied modern education tools. READ MORE

Turning Urban Schools Around
By Cheryl Riggins Newby
According to the U.S. Department of Education, the principal must gain control of the learning environment and culture of the school and completely reform the school’s way of doing business, top to bottom, through a coherent, systematic, and effective vision. READ MORE

Women & Philanthropy at Marymount
By Sybil Maimin
Marymount School, a K-12 college-preparatory, independent, Catholic day school for girls on the Upper East Side, takes seriously its mission statement to “educate the heart and the mind.” READ MORE

Women Still Under-Represented In Elective Politics
By President Judith R. Shapiro
The question of women’s achievement today is often clouded by a condition that I call “information denial”—the belief that advancement for women is no longer an issue in our society, even though the facts tell a different story. READ MORE

OUTSTANDING TEACHERS OF THE MONTH

March 2005
In 2003, Education Update began the tradition of honoring teachers each month for their outstanding work on the “frontiers” of education.We are now continuing the tradition which will culminate in
a ceremony in June 2005 with Chancellor Joel Klein in attendance.
READ THIS MONTH'S HONOREES

COLLEGE & GRADUATE SCHOOLS

Sarah Lawrence College Hosts Conference
On Crises in Education
Confronting the Crises in Education will focus on critical issues rocking the early childhood and elementary education communities, including the pressures to introduce academics in preschool, the achievement gap between middle-class and disadvantaged students, and the rise of standardization, high stakes testing and school choice. READ MORE

College President’s Series:
President Jeremy Travis, 
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.
Jeremy Travis, in office barely six months as John Jay College of Criminal Justice’s fourth president, talks with the consummate ease and reflective intelligence of a long-time member of the CUNY administration. READ MORE

UWF, A Public University With A Small School Attitude
Going to college is all about exploring who you are and who you want to become. Today’s students want to earn a degree in a field of study that truly excites them, but just as importantly, they want to discover their life’s passion in a place where they feel comfortable.
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SPECIAL EDUCATION

President Raab Establishes Center For Gifted
Studies at Hunter College
By Dorothy Davis
“Children need to know that it’s okay to be smart,” said Hunter President Jennifer J. Raab recently. “Special classes, schools and curricula are also required to meet the special needs of the gifted child, who is often bored and uninspired in a regularly paced classroom.”
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Jeremy Goes to Camp Good Grief
What the tragedy of The World Center brought to wide attention, what the tsunami disaster reemphasized, and what every household knows when a loved one dies, even from so-called natural or inevitable causes, is the unique effect of death on children. READ MORE

METRO