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Jeffrey X. WattDepartment Chair, Mathematical Sciences
Professor, Mathematical Sciences
The M.L. Bittinger Chair of Mathematics Education
Department of Mathematical Sciences
- 1990 Ph.D. Mathematics and Education, Indiana University
- 1986 M.S. Applied Mathematics, Fluid Dynamics, Purdue University
- 1984 F.S. Field Studies, Emory University
- 1983 B.S. Applied Geophysics and Engineering, Michigan Technological University
Courses Taught / Teaching
- MATH 16500 Calculus I,
- MATH 16600 Calculus II,
- MATH 3000 Logic and Proof,
- EDUC M457 Methods of Teaching Middle and High School Mathematics,
- MATH 58300 History Of Mathematics
My area of specialty is Mathematics Education at the secondary and post-secondary level. My current activities involve closing the achievement gap between high school and college level mathematics, curriculum and instruction development at the undergraduate level, training pre-service mathematics teachers, and professional development for in-service mathematics and science teachers.
Publications & Professional Activities
J.X. Watt, S.P. Hundley, C. Feldhaus, K. Marrs, A. Gavrin. Developing a STEM Talent Expansion Pipeline in Higher Education: A Work-in-Progress at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. PICMET (2011).
J. X. Watt, "What Does It Really Mean to be "College Ready"? Indiana's Future: Bold Choices. Better School. Facing Today's Challenges, Finding Tomorrow's Opportunities. 2009 CELL Abstract. November 16, 2009.
J.X. Watt, Finite Mathematics, 3rd Edition, Hayden McNeil Publishing. Highland, MI (2007).
A. Gavrin, J. X. Watt, K. Marrs, and R. E. Blake, Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT): Using the Web to Enhance Classroom Learning, in Computers in Education Journal, Number 2, 14 (2004), 51-60.1.
A. Gavrin, J. X. Watt, K. Marrs, and R. E. Blake, Using the Web to Enhance Classroom Learning, in the Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education 3220: 1-13, (2003).
J. X. Watt, SEEN-Math: Problem Solving, Writing, and Collaborative Environments for Active Learning, in Proceedings of the Eighth Annual International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics (G. Goodell, editor), Addison Wesley (1996).
J. X. Watt and B. S. Ng, Assessment Report on the Developmental, Introductory, and Service Mathematics Courses at IUPUI: Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Outcomes. A Seven-Year Study. Report prepared for William Plater, Dean of the Faculty, IUPUI (1996).
H. J. Schwartz and J. X. Watt, Collaborative Writing Software for Problem Solving in Mathematics, in Computer Support for Collaborative Learning (C. O'Malley, editor), Springer-Verlag (1995), 296-299.
J. X. Watt, Compendium to Self-Study I: Instructional Assessment Results and Student Survey Data. Report prepared for the IUPUI External and Internal Review of the Department of Mathematical Sciences (1994).
H. J. Schwartz and J. X. Watt, Collaborative Learning in Writing-Across-the-Curriculum, in the Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Technology and Education (M. Thomas, T. Sechrest, and N. Estes, editors), ICTE Austin TX 11 (1994), 578-580.
J. X. Watt, Assessment Report on Developmental and Introductory Mathematics at IUPUI: Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Outcomes. A six-year study. Report prepared for Erv Boschmann, Associate Dean of Faculty, and the Department of Mathematical Sciences at IUPUI (1993).
J. X. Watt, Report on the Placement Test's Validity and Reliability and the Longitudinal Tracking of Students through the Developmental Mathematics Curriculum. A five-year study. Report prepared for the Dean of Faculty and the Department of Mathematical Sciences (1992).
L. A. Hutton and J. X. Watt, A Survey of Pre-Calculus Skills, Virginia Mathematics Teacher 19 (1992), 30-32.
L. A. Hutton and J. X. Watt, A Survey to Identify those Pre-Calculus Skills that are Weak or Missing Among Students who do not Succeed in Calculus, Ontario Mathematics Journal 30 (1991), 18-20.
J. X. Watt, National Conference on Assessment Report, Indiana University Assessment Exchange 3 (1991), 1-2.
J. X. Watt, The Effects of an Experimental Spatial Ability Treatment Program on Calculus Achievement With University Students. Dissertation Abstracts. (1990) Indiana University; Bloomington, IN.
J. X. Watt, Assessment Report on Curriculum and Instruction of Mathematics at IUPUI. A three-year study. Report prepared for the IUPUI Assessment Committee (1990).
Professional Affiliations
- Indiana Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges (InMATYC)
- Mathematical Association of America (MAA)
- American Mathematics Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC)
- National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM)
Honors, Awards and Grants
- 2015 Barbara Jackson Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate Award
- 2013 Glenn W. Irwin Experience Excellence Recognition Award for Extraordinary Service to IUPUI
- 2010 U.S. Professor of the Year Award, Carnegie Foundation for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring
- 2009 Mathematical Association of America's Distinguished University Teaching Award
- 2004 IUPUI Athletics Department's Favorite Professor Award
- 2003 Winner of the John A. Curtis Lecture Award
- 2003 IU Frederic Lieber Memorial Award for Distinguished Teaching


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Let the Cranford Florist team answer all your questions! Feel free to call or email us concerning your flower or gift basket order. Your satisfaction is important to us, and we would like to hear from you.
Call the Flwoersontime Florist team to order a flower bouquet or to ask a question on an order that has already been placed: 1-800-272-3569
Reach out to our customer service team who can assist you in a timely manner: firstname.lastname@example.com
Track Your Order: Follow your delivery at our Track Your Order Page
Your Account: Visit your Account Page to edit your payment and delivery address information.
Flowers On Time offers a 7 day satisfaction guarantee. If you are not satisfied with our service for any reason, feel free to contact us. We will either refund your money or redeliver a new product. The choice is yours. Refunds are returned to the payment method on your original purchase and typically take 1 - 3 business days. We are available 24 hours a day to help you. Thank you for your business!

subset: commoncrawl


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This young adult novel is set in Wake County in the 1880s. The Beauchamp family lives in reduced circumstances as the widowed Mr. Beauchamp tries to raise his three daughters, with help from his sisters and the family's servants. Rowena, the eldest daughter, is bored and chafes at the family's relative poverty. Rowena longs for excitement and a chance to study music. She finds both when a cousin from the black sheep side of the family arrives. Through her boldness and open-heartedness, Rowena makes new friends and heals a family rift.
Check this title's availability and access an online copy through the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.


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Kristen Stewart - Oscars 2013 Red Carpet on Crutches!
Kristen Stewart is all dolled up on the red carpet at the 2013 Academy Awards held at the Dolby Theatre on Sunday (February 24) in Hollywood.
The 22-year-old actress, in Reem Acra, exited her car at the red carpet with a pair of crutches! The "unexplained injury" did not stop her from walking the red carpet – she looked fabulous!
At the big show tonight, Kristen will hit the stage as a presenter.
FYI: Kristen accessorized with one Jimmy Choo heel, one Bloch shoe, and Fred Leighton jewels.
Make sure to tune in TONIGHT to the 2013 Oscars, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, at 8:30/7:30c on ABC!


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When Family Caregiving Is Your Second Job
Balancing your job and a loved one's care can be a recipe for stress!
This Labor Day, it's more appropriate than ever to focus on the needs of working family caregivers—those people in the workforce who also are providing care for elder loved ones.
A recent study from the RAND Corporation found that three out of five family caregivers are also in the labor force. The study estimates that these double-duty workers are providing 22 billion hours of unpaid care each year, saving money for our healthcare system, but also costing these family caregivers billions of dollars annually in expenditures and lost wages.
Working caregivers report that their caregiving role impacts their careers in many ways. They feel torn between their work duties and their loved ones' needs, experiencing elevated stress both at work and at home. They often miss out on opportunities for advancement and promotion, and must cut back on business travel and training. They use all their vacation time and sick days to provide care, sometimes taking unpaid leave as well. And if they quit their job to care for their loved one, they often find that they are unable to step back into a position comparable to their former level upon their return to the workforce. AARP also reports that 25 percent of today's retirees left the workforce earlier than they had planned in order to care for an ill spouse or parent.
Leaving the workforce early, taking a long leave from work, or turning down opportunities for advancement usually is a bad idea, financially speaking. It can have a major impact on lifetime earnings. Experts caution that people who sacrifice their paid work to care for an elder spouse, parent or other family member may find themselves, in turn, without adequate resources to fund their own retirement and long-term care due to loss of wages and Social Security earnings, and underfunded pensions or retirement accounts.
As family caregivers consider how they can make it all work, it's important to know about resources that can help. Take time from your busy schedule to learn about …
Employer programs. Workers aren't the only ones impacted by elder care. It is estimated that American companies lose $25 billion annually due to the lost productivity of caregiver employees. But more companies are learning that caregiver support programs make a big difference by raising productivity, building employee loyalty, and cutting down on the cost of turnover and training. Find out if your company offers family leave, flex time, telecommuting, job sharing, or an employee assistance and wellness program with resources for caregivers. Though some caregivers hesitate to discuss their situation with the boss, not wanting to bring personal problems to work, it's usually best to explain what's going on, and to express your continued commitment to your job.
Support resources and public benefits. Many families think they have to go it alone when it comes to caring for elderly loved ones. But it's important to research the support services that are available. In some cases, helping your loved one move to a skilled nursing or other elder care facility is the best choice. If your loved one lives at home or with you, check into federal, state and local programs, such as nutrition programs, respite care, and financial assistance with healthcare, utilities and other needs. (The National Council on Aging's BenefitsCheckup.org is a good place to begin your search.)
Professional in-home care. More families today are doing the math, coming to the conclusion that hiring professional in-home care is the way to keep elderly family members safe and well-cared-for, while allowing working family members to continue in their careers. In-home care professionals can perform many of the tasks that family caregivers find themselves doing as their loved one's needs increase: housekeeping, meal preparation, transportation, assistance with personal grooming and hygiene, medication reminders and all-around supervision. When there's a reliable professional caregiver at the ready, working family members can focus on their jobs, with a greatly reduced stress level. Stresses in their relationship with their loved one also are lessened. And for caregivers who live at a distance, having a professional caregiver cuts down on those sleepless nights and frequent emergency trips.
If you find yourself serving as the primary caregiver for your loved one, talk to other family members about the situation. Explain the impact caregiving is having on your career, in dollars and cents if need be. Other family members may be willing to contribute to the cost of home care, as a way of providing support for the elder who needs help—and for you as well.
For information on topics related to home care and healthcare, visit our Home Care and Healthcare Advocacy group on LinkedIn.
Next month: Where do today's retirees plan to live? Their response to a recent survey is surprising some demographers, who are finding that earlier predictions didn't quite hit the bull's-eye. Read "Where Do the Boomers Want to Retire?" in the October 2015 issue of Caring Right at Home to learn more.
Right at Home, Inc. is a national organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for those we serve. We fulfill that mission through a dedicated network of locally owned providers of in home care services.


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You could practically spend your entire Massachusetts vacation outdoors. In the spring, fishing, camping, hiking, biking, and cheering on the Red Sox at historic Fenway Park. In the summer, soaking up the sun on gorgeous beaches, white water rafting, whale watching, putt sinking, ice cream eating, and still cheering on the Sox. In the fall, leaf peeping at the brilliant foliage; losing your voice at a Patriots game at Gillette Stadium; petting goats, picking apples and sipping cider at any number of picture perfect small farms; and yep, still cheering on the Sox. Think there are no outdoor activities in the winter? Think again. There's skiing, riding and tubing at one of 12 fantastic ski areas; dog sledding; and ice fishing; all while heatedly discussing the spring prospects for the Sox, of course.
Sign up to receive emails about outdoor activities.
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Outdoor Adventure: It's all here
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The Cabot Manufacturing Company, which had operated a cotton mill by the falls of the Androscoggin River in Brunswick since 1857, expanded operations at the end of the nineteenth century.
In 1877, the company had 35,000 spindles operating and 550 operatives employed.
Cabot Manufacturing owned about 30 acres of land on both sides of the river and had more than 75 tenement buildings to house workers.
Many of the workers who lived in the tenements and in the northwest section of Brunswick came from French Canada.
The Swinging Bridge: Walking Across the Androscoggin
This Exhibit Contains 14 Items
View options: slideshow view | list view | Copy all items to My Album
Item 22738
The Cabot Manufacturing Company, which had operated a cotton mill by the falls of the Androscoggin River in Brunswick since 1857, expanded operations at the end of the nineteenth century.
Item 22734
By the 1880s, the tenements were overcrowded and serious concerns began to be raised about health and sanitary conditions in the area.
To help alleviate the situation, Charles E. Hacker, Amos O. Reed, George A. Stover and Frank Weatherill -- the Topsham Land Company -- decided to build houses on the Topsham side of the Androscoggin.
They decided a footbridge would make the new housing more attractive to mill workers.
Item 22732
On November 5, 1891, the developers met with representatives of the John A. Roebling Sons Co., which made wire rope and employed bridge engineers who could design suspension bridges.
Roebling is best known for the Brooklyn Bridge, completed in 1883.
The Topsham Land Co. wanted a reliable firm to design the bridge and supply materials because a footbridge in Skowhegan had recently collapsed due to weak cables.
Item 22737
In March 1892, the Topsham Land Co. received an easement from the Cabot Manufacturing Co. to land the bridge on the Brunswick side on land owned by the mill.
On May 19, 1892, the Brunswick Telegraph reported, "The iron work will be here this week and the work will be pushed along as fast as possible as Mr. Farrington [the supervisor] has got to go to Australia and supervise the erection of a bridge there."
Three houses were under construction in Topsham Heights, the name of the new neighborhood.
Item 22731
On September 15, 1892, the Brunswick Telegraph reported that the bridge, with temporary planking, was complete and commented that it was "as substantial a piece of work as one would wish to see. There is no vibration, even when a number are crossing it at one time."
The bridge was painted by October 20, 1892.
The suspension structure cost $2,000 to build.
Item 11759
While built with mill workers in mind, it was quickly apparent that the pedestrian bridge served many purposes.
Among them was children walking back and forth to St. John's Catholic School in Brunswick and parents and children to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church.
Students attending Brunswick High School also used the bridge.
Item 22727
In 1906, the town of Topsham appealed to county commissioners in Sagadahoc and Cumberland counties to have the structure designated a public highway -- so the town would assume maintenance responsibility.
Brunswick opposed the move, with the commissioners arguing that they did not know anyone who needed to use the bridge and did not want to be responsible for maintenance.
Topsham officials pointed out that about 375 Roman Catholics lived in Topsham and attended parochial schools, saving the towns some $6,000 to $7,000 a year.
Commissioners granted the petition.
Item 22726
In 1915, the wooden towers at each end of the bridge were replaced with steel towers, which still remain.
The bridge remained a major transportation asset for mill workers, families visiting back and forth from Topsham and Brunswick, children going to school, adults going to church, shoppers, and many others.
Item 22733
By 1930, Franco-Americans were firmly established on both sides of the river, with many owning grocery stores and other small businesses, as well as continuing to work in the mill.
A railroad line with tracks near the bridge entrance served a pulp mill on the Topsham side of the river.
Teams of horses hauled pulp from the mill along Summer Street to the Bowdoin Mill (also in Topsham), which made paper.
Item 22739
Bridge users on both sides of the river watched in shock during the spring flooding in 1936 as high water and ice flipped the deck of the bridge, heavily damaging the structure.
Item 22730
Residents of the tenements near Cabot Manufacturing in Brunswick also sustained considerable water damage.
After floodwaters had receded, residents surveyed the damage and the debris left by the flood waters.
Item 12351
Repairs were made to the bridge deck, among other parts of the structure, and new railings were added.
The suspension cables and the towers were unharmed, despite the beating the bridge took from the high, powerful river waters.
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) assisted in the repairs.
Item 22729
In 2000, engineers determined the bridge needed serious repairs, to the deck the hardware connecting the main cable to lower supports, and other details.
In 2006, the bridge was repaired with new railings, new decking and much other work.
Roebling's original main suspension cables remain on the refurbished bridge.
Item 22728
Some 100-300 people a day still use the bridge, even though the mills that spurred its construction are gone.
As recreation use of the bridge increases, residents and officials of Brunswick and Topsham are planning landscaped approaches on both sides and a recreational trail that will incorporate the bridge in its route.


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Terms and Conditions
1.1 Sportal.com.au is a website operated by Perform Media Australia Pty Limited ("we", "our", "us"). We are a company registered in Australia with ABN 68 090 886 132 and have our registered office at 120 Harbour Esplanade, Docklands, Victoria 3008. We are part of the Perform Group.
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text: What makes an already overblown factory-tuned Mercedes even more special? More stuff. Such is the new SLK 55 AMG special series, which gets a horsepower boost via a worked-over version of AMG's 5.5-liter V8. The special edition of the only V8-powered roadster in its segment, gets a 45hp bump from 355 to 400, with an increase in torque from 376 ft.-lbs. to 383 (largely by way of a more substantial engine oil cooler and enhanced airflow). It's also been made lighter with typical placement of carbon fiber — in this case a hardtop made from carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastic (CRP) — giving it a curb weight of 3,296 lbs, or 100 lbs lighter than the base model, and a corresponding improvement in power-to-weight ratio. Even more stuff?: 19-inch AMG forged wheels, AMG height-adjustable torsion sports suspension and AMG high-performance composite brake system (same 7-TRONIC tranny as the base model) and special racing seats. Specs?: naught to 62 mph in 4.5 seconds. All for the equivalent of around $135,900. Sure it's a bargain, in the sense of an all-you-can-eat buffet at Wolfgang Puck's.


text:
It's a lovely spring afternoon in April, and that means a full slate of MLB games. Yu Darvish has already thrown 27 fewer first inning pitches against the Twins than in his first start of the year. The Machine and his Angels are in the Bronx against the Yankees. Later today, the Rays play the Sox in Fenway, which Rays DH Luke Scott hates. I'm sure it's mutual, Luke. Direct all your Luke Scott (or Tim McCarver) hate below.
More from Deadspin


text:
Samuel Eto'o has described Chelsea manager José Mourinho as a "fool" for questioning his age and vowed to play on at the highest level for some time to come.
Mourinho, who was also Eto'o's manager at Internazionale, was caught on camera making unguarded comments suggesting the Cameroon striker was older than his official age earlier this season.
The 33-year-old, in line to feature in his fourth World Cup this summer, responded by celebrating his next Chelsea goal as if he was a geriatric.
Now Eto'o, who is out of contract this summer after scoring 12 Chelsea goals, plans to continue to ply his trade in one of Europe's top leagues.
Eto'o told africanfootball.com: "Thanks for informing me that it will be my last World Cup. Today, I am 33 years old. And it is not because a fool called me an old man that you must believe it.
"And you may have noticed that the old man was better than the youngsters. Some believe I am going to retire in the United States or in the Middle East, but I have regained the joy of the Champions League and I am going to carry on playing in the Champions League. Where? I am not going to tell you.
"But I am going to carry on playing because physically and mentally I feel great. So I am going to go to this World Cup and to the next one when I will be 37. Some did it at 42, so I can still play in two more World Cups."
Following Chelsea's final game of the season at Cardiff, Mourinho suggested Eto'o would depart this summer, at the end of his one-year deal.
The Chelsea manager will wait until pre-season before determining the future of his loan stars. Mourinho presented his end-of-season report to the Chelsea hierarchy on Monday, detailing his thoughts on all matters relating to the first-team squad. Definitive decisions on goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, striker Romelu Lukaku and the others who spent time away from Chelsea this season will wait until after training resumes on 8 July. Courtois has impressed in his third consecutive season on loan at Atlético Madrid, helping the Spaniards to the May 24 Champions League final at the expense of his parent club, and could put pressure on Petr Cech as Chelsea number one.
Lukaku spent a second straight season on loan in the Premier League, scoring 17 goals for Everton - a tally greater than any of the strikers who remained at Stamford Bridge.
Others will also be looked at closely by Mourinho, including Victor Moses, who spent the season at Liverpool, and Marko Marin, who helped Sevilla to win the Europa League.
After Chelsea's final home game of the season, Mourinho insisted there was no rush to make decisions relating to his squad.
Tellingly, though, captain John Terry signed a one-year contract extension 24 hours after Mourinho's report was submitted.
The fates of record goalscorer Frank Lampard and left-back Ashley Cole are still to be clarified, with their contracts expiring imminently.


text:
Thomas Bender, 76, Millersburg, passed away Monday, Feb. 18, 2013, at Pomerene Hospital, Millersburg, after an extended illness.
Graveside services were Wednesday, Feb. 20 in Grandview Union Cemetery, Strasburg, with Gerald Craycraft officiating. Arrangements were handled by Alexander Funeral Home, Millersburg.
He was born Oct. 3, 1936, in Canton, the son of George and Ina (Hartline) Bender, and was a graduate of Canton McKinley High School. He was a resident of Sycamore Run for 14 years and had attended the Holmes County Training Center for many years. Tom enjoyed playing the piano.
He was preceded in death by his parents.


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text:
Russia Prepares To Block Tor And Anonymizing Proxies
from the don't-give-them-ideas dept
As more and more countries start introducing Web blocks, some people console themselves with the "at least there's always Tor" argument. Politicians may be slow, but they are not all completely stupid, and they are beginning to get the message that Tor and other anonymous services potentially render their Web blocks moot. It's then not a huge leap for them to move on to the next stage -- banning or blocking Tor -- as Russia now seems to be contemplating, according to this article on Russia Today:
The head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) has personally ordered preparations for laws that would block the Tor anonymity network from the entire Russian sector of the Internet, a Russian newspaper reported.
In fact, according to the Izvestia story (original in Russian), along with Tor, all anonymizing proxy services would be banned too.
No prizes for guessing what's behind the latest move:
FSB director Aleksandr Bortnikov announced the initiative at a recent session of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, saying that his agency would develop the legislative drafts together with other Russian law enforcement and security bodies, the widely circulated daily Izvestia reported.
The news was disclosed after the Russian civil movement 'Head Hunters' wrote a letter to the FSB with a request to block Tor, as it is one of the favorite software tools for distributors and users of child pornography. The FSB replied that the request was directed to the wrong body, as crimes against public health and morals fall under the Interior Ministry's jurisdiction.
However, the FSB graciously decided to get involved anyway:
The FSB official said that the agency initiated the move as internet anonymizers were used by weapon traffickers, drug dealers and credit card fraudsters, giving the FSB an obvious interest in limiting the use of such software.
In other words, banning Tor and anonymizers is a real crowd-pleaser, since politicians can point to lots of bad people that use them. Just like they use the Internet, or postal service: and just as there are lots of good uses of the postal service and the Internet, so Tor and anonymizers are also vital for a wide range of non-evil people, notably activists and political dissidents, both of whom are already under pressure in Russia. But what is a bug for some is a feature for others: blocking Tor -- "for the children" -- would also have the knock-on effect of making it even harder for dissidents and political groups to access information and organize in secret.
Assuming that the proposed law is passed, as seems likely, the worry has to be that other countries will take note and start to think about following suit, probably playing the same populist card of fighting child pornography that Russia's 'Head Hunters' are now employing.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Filed Under: anonymity, filters, internet, online, proxies, russia, tor


text:
Download a pdf of "Cheap Labor as Cultural Exchange"
Jerry Kammer is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.
In the summer of 1969, after graduating from Wellesley College and before entering Yale Law School, a young woman from Illinois named Hillary Rodham scooped the innards from salmon at a cold, wet processing plant in Valdez, Alaska. "I slimed fish," she recalled during a visit to Anchorage as First Lady in 1994. "I was handed a spoon, some hip boots and a raincoat, and I think it was the best preparation for living in Washington." Her husband, President Bill Clinton, quipped that, "in Washington you have to trade the spoon in for a shovel."1
For decades, summer jobs in Alaska have beckoned to American college students eager to earn good money and revel in the state's natural wonders. But in 2011 about 2,000 of these jobs – at fish processing plants, national parks, and other locations – were filled by young foreigners who come to the United States under a "cultural exchange" program administered by the State Department, which is directed by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
They are participants in the Summer Work Travel program (SWT). Every year SWT provides J-1 visas to more than 100,000 college students from around the world, allowing them to work for three months and take an additional month to travel. Because they pay an average of about $1,100 in fees to the private organizations that sponsor their participation in the program, the program generates well over $100 million in annual revenues for those organizations. They pay many millions more in visa fees to the State Department and in travel expenses to and from the U.S.2
The J-1 students, as they are sometimes known, can be found at national parks and beach resorts; amusement parks and neighborhood swimming pools; seafood processing plants and farms; upscale restaurants and fast food franchises; convenience stores, toy stores, and candy shops; roadside vegetable stands; factories, warehouses and moving companies. All in the name of cultural exchange.
"The sky is really the limit," says the website of a Singapore travel agency that promotes the program through its affiliation with U.S. organizations designated by the State Department to sponsor SWT participants. The website declares that "there are thousands of cities and towns throughout America that can offer you a totally unique Work and Travel USA experience."3
There are hundreds of such agencies that promote SWT around the world. Their websites buzz with too-good-to-be true astonishment at the program's benefits for employers and workers alike.
"Sounds like a scam?" a Russian agency asks on its website, which notes that employers of SWT participants are exempt from Social Security, Medicare, and federal unemployment taxes. Then it answers the question: "It's not. This is Work and Travel USA program, designed by the U.S. Dept. of state to promote intercultural friendship."4
Critics claim that the State Department office responsible for administering the program has provided such lax regulation and permissive oversight that it has spun out of control and – in some cases – into the hands of abusive employers, unscrupulous sponsors, and predatory third-party agencies overseas.
The list of specific criticisms is long, including claims that the SWT program:
- has become a cheap-labor program under the guise of cultural exchange;
- has monetized a foreign policy initiative, creating a multi-million dollar SWT industry that generates enormous profits under the mantle of public diplomacy and presses for continual expansion around globe;
- is so dominated by the State Department's concerns about international relations that it has become blind to the negative effects at home;
- displaces young Americans from the workplace at a time of record levels of youth unemployment;
- provides incentives for employers to bypass American workers by exempting SWT employers from taxes that apply to employment of Americans. Employers also don't have to worry about providing health insurance, since SWT students are required to buy it for themselves;
- puts downward pressure on wages because it gives employers access to workers from poor countries who are eager to come to the United States, not just to earn money but also to travel within the country and burnish their resumes by learning English;
- depends upon young foreigners who must spend several thousand dollars in fees, travel costs, and health insurance. As a result, many are virtually indentured to U.S. employers and are therefore unable to challenge low pay and poor working and housing conditions;
- is not truly an exchange program because it lacks reciprocity since a negligible number of young Americans find overseas employment through the SWT sponsoring agencies;
- has become a gateway for illegal immigration by SWT participants who overstay their visas; and
- has been exploited by criminals. For instance, in 2009, a State Department cable noted an ongoing investigation of "a Eurasian Organized Crime group operating in Colorado and Nevada that is suspected of using 28 Summer Work and Travel exchange program students … to participate in financial fraud schemes."5
* * *
In the spring of 2011, State acknowledged that the Department of Homeland Security "has reported an increase in incidents involving criminal conduct (e.g. money laundering, identity theft, prostitution)" among SWT participants.6 That acknowledgement came as State issued new regulations intended to curb abuse of the program and require sponsors to fulfill their duty to monitor and advise their young customers.
State, which is supposed to oversee and regulate the sponsors, admitted that some of them had been so detached from their responsibilities that they became "mere purveyors of J-1 visas, leaving the actual program administration to third parties."7
In the fall of 2011, as criticism mounted and Ann Stock, Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs, made a series of personnel moves, she quietly pushed Stanley S. Colvin out of his job as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Private Sector Exchange. Colvin, who is challenging the move as a violation of his rights, has been assigned to the job of "strategic adviser" to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Colvin had been involved in managing the program since the 1990s, when he was assistant general counsel at the United States Information Agency. The USIA administered SWT until 1999, when it was absorbed into the State Department.
In November of 2011, State announced the first-ever numerical restriction on the size of the program, freezing it at the 2011 level in response to what it called "unacceptably high" numbers of complaints about program abuses.8
That move was a sharp departure from State's previous policy of promoting the growth of SWT – and other exchange programs – around the world.
For years, State has spread the news of exchanges with a missionary intensity. Dina Habib Powell, a State Department official in the administration of George W. Bush, called exchanges "a strategic pillar of our nation's public diplomacy."9 In 2009, Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale said exchanges are "the single most important and valuable thing we do."10
State's Dual Relationship with SWT Partners
The exchange structure was established in 1961, when Congress passed the Mutual Education and Cultural Exchange Act. The legislation sought to "increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries."11
Propelled by successive administrations, SWT grew dramatically. Its ranks of young participants swelled from about 20,000 in 1996, to 56,000 in 2000, and 88,500 in 2005. Participation peaked in 2008 at nearly 153,000 before the recession caused it to sag – to 132,000 in 2010 and 103,000 in 2011.
While State has the responsibility regulate SWT, the day-to-day administration of the program is the work of some 55 organizations designated by the State Department as SWT sponsors. Many are nonprofit organizations that administer a variety of exchange programs and enjoy tax-exempt status. Some have grown rapidly because of the SWT boom.
The relationship between the sponsors and the State Department is characterized by unusual duality that at times seems schizophrenic.
On the one hand, as the regulator of the SWT program, State oversees the sponsors and must be willing to discipline them when appropriate. On the other hand, State Department officials regard the relationship as a partnership. In 2010 Assistant Secretary of State Ann Stock called the sponsors "our key partner on the front lines of international engagement."12
Stock made that observation at the 2010 meeting of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, a trade association that lobbies Congress and the State Department for the sponsors, who themselves have a dual approach to their work. They declare an idealistic commitment to building exchanges for the sake of world peace. But they also rake in tens of millions of dollars in fees from the foreign students they bring into the SWT program.
Sponsors' income has soared in the past decade as the SWT program has grown rapidly and spread around the world. The Alliance's executive director, Michael McCarry, has said that one of his responsibilities is to lobby for federal "regulations that are permissive and allow people to come to the United States, in a responsible way."13 McCarry coordinates the sponsors' work with congressional offices, where they advocate not just for SWT, but for many other exchange programs, including those for high school students, au pairs, camp counselors, teachers, professionals, and others.
In the SWT program the State-sponsor relationship is complicated by the fact that State has allowed the sponsors to outsource much of their work – the screening and selecting of SWT participants and their orientation to life in the United States – to partner agencies in foreign countries that are not under State's jurisdiction.
Problems with Foreign Partners
In some instances, sponsors have done little more than collect students' fees as they outsourced much of their work to their foreign partners. And in some instances the foreign partners have proved to be unscrupulous or even criminal.
In 2009, for example, the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg highlighted the poor screening of a Russian agency by describing one SWT applicant who, "when questioned about why she was not attending university, admitted that she works in St. Petersburg at an erotic services salon." The consulate found that another agency was using its relationship with a U.S. sponsor to provide job offers "at U.S. companies that no longer existed."14
Such negligence and fraud were the target of new regulations adopted by the State Department in 2011. Those regulations require that sponsors vet and monitor their sponsors more carefully. Critics have called them "vague" and "toothless."
Striving to Be "Customer Centric"
As we will see, the sponsoring organizations and their partners have mounted elaborate campaigns to recruit both SWT participants and U.S. employers. Meanwhile, the State Department has complemented their efforts with a spirited boosterism of a sort more commonly associated with the Chamber of Commerce.
A month after State adopted the new regulations to control SWT, it rolled out its new J-1 visa website. In a 2011 webchat with foreign reporters, an official hailed the move as the "first step to revamping our entire Bureau's web presence to be more customer centric and user friendly."15
State was enthusiastic about the prospects for further growth and globalization of SWT. In the same webchat, one official noted its blossoming potential in some of the world's most populous countries with this excited assessment: "Brazil is a very big sending country. A lot of the Eastern and Western European countries are top sending countries. China is definitely growing. India is growing." SWT is open to the world. Yet the officials assured the foreign audience that the size of the SWT program is determined largely by the marketplace of young foreigners who wanted to participate.
State's abrupt decision in November 2011 to freeze the number of SWT participants signaled at least a tentative recognition that the program needs also to balance other concerns, including unemployment rates within the United States, the appropriateness of some SWT jobs for a cultural exchange, and the ability of sponsors to do their work responsibly.
At the same time, State announced that it was suspending designation of new sponsors for the program. Nevertheless, more than a month later, State was still declaring on its J-1 website that it "welcomes and encourages new organizations to become sponsors of exchange visitor programs,"16 the largest of which is the SWT.
"Enrich Your Resume" in the USA
SWT has boomed because of a remarkable combination of disparate forces: State Department enthusiasm based on foreign policy concerns, the hunger of young people around the world to come to the United States, intense recruitment by dozens of U.S. sponsoring organizations and their hundreds of foreign partners, and the growing awareness of American employers that the program offers them many benefits.
These forces have propelled SWT to become a worldwide industry whose capacity for growth appears to be virtually unlimited.
The young participants have multiple motivations for signing up. Even at the minimum or near-minimum wages that SWT jobs offer, many earn much more than they could at home. Many are eager to take advantage of the permission they receive to travel for one month around the United States after working for three months. They want to see the sights and improve their English.
The Divan Student Travel agency in Jordan described the SWT magic this way on its Facebook page: SWT "gives you the opportunity to achieve your dream and enrich your resume and work" in the United States.17
To pursue that opportunity, many students borrow heavily, accumulating debts that, according to critics, make them de facto indentured servants.
In his 2011 critique of SWT, Daniel Costa of the liberal Economic Policy Institute noted the report in a Peruvian newspaper that students spend up to $3,000 in fees and travel expenses to get to the United States. Wrote Costa: "This constitutes a huge investment" for a student from a country "where the median disposable family income is only $4,385 per year. He or she will be desperate to earn the expenditure back in wages."18
As suggested by the Jordanian travel agency, another fundamental force in the growth of SWT is the international infatuation with American popular culture and American mythology of individual freedom and self-reinvention.
A Google search for "Work and Travel" and "J1 Visa" provides some idea of the power and energy SWT has taken on around the world as those twin terms have become part of the vocabulary of university students. In mid-December 2011 the search produced 76,800 matches. They included material from hundreds of websites maintained by sponsors and their recruiting partners, some of which were founded by business people who saw the program's potential for growth when they were SWT participants themselves.
The websites are splashed with photos of iconic American images: Times Square, the Grand Canyon, the U.S. Capitol, the massive Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles. They promise young customers the glitz and glamour and wonder of the United States.
Selling American Cool in Moldova
The Moldovan travel company Student Adventure maintains a high-energy, multicolored website to recruit local college students for SWT jobs.
"Check It Out!" its website beckons on a page featuring a hyper-made-over Statue of Liberty. It is a super-cool version for the hip-hop era, with billowing blonde hair, red lipstick, red sunglasses, and ear buds. Instead of a torch, she holds aloft an ice cream cone. Other images of American cool fade in and out, declaring "Work & Travel, DUDE!" and "Wassup from America, Man!" Plus "See America in 3D" and "Keep Smiling".19
Student Adventure's website declares that since it was founded in 2000 it has brought over 5,000 young Moldovans to the United States. With the ardor of a preacher offering the chance to be born again, it proclaims that for many, the program "changed life totally."
Eager for an American summer, 5,547 Moldovans took part in the SWT program in 2008, when the country entered the list of top-10 sending countries. It was behind Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Ukraine, Thailand, Ireland, and Peru. It was just ahead of Poland, whose numbers dropped steadily after its 2004 entry into the European Union.
Many of the recruiting websites link to YouTube videos. They show J-1 participants at work – sliming fish in Alaska, working the grill at McDonald's. And at play – body surfing at beach resorts, marveling at the lights of Time Square, drinking and dancing and romancing at parties. The musical backgrounds are as varied as Nirvana, the Beach Boys, the electro-pop of Ke$ha. The videos are a powerful form of SWT advertising, conveying a seductive message of American cool, American opportunity, American freedom, American fun.
Social Media Feeds the Boom
The website of the Ukrainian travel agency Orange Travel touts SWT as a gateway to the "United States of America, the land where you change a lot of views, where people smile and greets each other on the streets; it is much more then crossing the ocean, your independent summer stay in the USA bring up the freedom and self-confidence you never felt before."20
Orange Travel is one of dozens of Ukrainian agencies that promote SWT. That is a particularly dense concentration, but the SWT phenomenon has exploded in many other countries, with a boost from social media.
There are Facebook pages that broadcast the opportunities and Internet forums that that spread the news, including the story that captivated Andrius Sarkunelis. He is a 20-year-old finance major from Lithuania who told the story while cleaning the counters at Boog's Barbecue in Ocean City, Md.
Sarkunelis said he learned about the program on a friend's Facebook page and then used Google to learn more. He said he had a wonderful summer of 2011 and was eager for more. "I hope I can come back next year," he said, "and I'm going to tell all my friends about this place."
The young Lithuanian's enthusiasm for SWT is commonplace among participants, especially in places like Ocean City, which offer sun-drenched opportunities for both work and good times with other young people who come from all across Eastern Europe, and in recent years from China, Mongolia, Thailand, Taiwan, and Colombia.
China entered the top-ten SWT list in 2009, sending 3,152 students. In 2010 the number grew to 5,056. Increasing attention from sponsors and a growing network of Chinese recruiters have the country poised for SWT growth, which will likely be checked – if only temporarily – by the freeze imposed by the State Department.
An Employer's Dream
The expansion of SWT has been cheered by employers, especially in resort areas where they face the loss of American students who generally return to school in mid-August.
"Our summer doesn't end then, so we had to come up with a solution," said Christine Komlos of the Seacrets restaurant and nightclub in Ocean City, where several dozen SWT students supplement the domestic workforce. "We've only got 6,000 people who live here year-round. That is not enough people to cover all the summer jobs we have when hundreds of thousands of people come here in the summer."
The manager of the Carousel Hotel in Ocean City told the Washington Post, "We absolutely couldn't get through the summer without these kids. They're great workers. They want every hour you'll give them. They work second jobs instead of partying, and they don't all leave on the same day at the end of the season. The entire summer economy of Ocean City has come to depend on European student workers."21
For employers, SWT offers an array of benefits. Some like the touch of international flair. All appreciate the access to a large supply of educated workers willing to work at close to minimum wage. The tax benefits are also attractive. Employers need not worry about health insurance since SWT participants are required to buy their own. And the program offers liberation from the difficult tasks of recruiting workers by ones and twos.
"CIEE takes all the work out of our hands," says a grateful manager at Maine's Sebasco Harbor Resort, in a video posted on YouTube. It was produced by the largest SWT sponsors, CIEE, which is based in Portland, Maine.22
CIEE and the other SWT sponsors get plenty of help from partners like New Jersey-based Seasonal Staffing Solutions. Founded in 2006 by former SWT participant Vadim Misnik from Belarus, it offers employers an international army of inexhaustible young workers hungry to earn dollars. "Most of our students will be happy to work for 60 or more hours per week," says its website.23
While the sponsors and agencies collect handsome fees from SWT participants, they offer their services to employers for free. "What does it cost to use our service?" asks New York-based InterExchange. "Nothing. As a non-profit organization promoting cultural exchange, our goal is to find exceptional staff for your business, and to help international students experience life in the United States."24
Here's the pitch of a Russia-based recruiting firm: "Hiring international exchange students … is now absolutely easy for your firm. You inform us about your needs, we select and submit the applications for you to consider and we do the rest of the hiring procedure for you."25
Many sponsors and recruiters point out SWT's cost-cutting tax benefits. Several of their websites include a "tax calculator" that allows them to tally what they save by hiring foreign workers.26
Seasonal Staffing Solutions claims that by hiring five SWT students instead of "regular workers," i.e. Americans, for the summer season, an employer can pocket an extra $2,317.27
But wait, there's more, as TV pitchmen like to say. Sponsors also make sure that employers know that despite a widespread impression that the Summer Work Travel program is limited to the summer, the reality is that the program offers "Year-Round Availability." The pitch of InterExchange is typical: "Because we recruit students from all over the world we can fill positions at any time of year."28
"It's all perfectly simple," declares the website of JobOfer.org, which was founded in 2003 by Ruslan Lysak, who was an SWT student nearly a decade ago when he was studying applied mathematics at a Russian university. "Just register, review the profiles of international students we'll be sending, and don't worry about the rest."29
Wooing Employers with Free Trips
The sponsors' pitch to employers isn't limited to touting the free recruitment of workers, their willingness to work for minimum wage, and tax exemptions. Many offer recruiting trips to Europe, Asia, and South America so employers can interview prospective SWT employees and sign them up on the spot.
Consider Chicago-based CCI, which declares that its mission is "the promotion of cultural understanding, academic development, environmental consciousness, and world peace."30 In the fiercely competitive business of SWT sponsorship, CCI offers packages to employers to "travel to exciting destinations in Brazil and Argentina to interview pre-screened applicants." For employers who hire a certain number of workers through CCI, the trips are free.31
Employers who don't sign up for the overseas travel have another option. CCI will fly them to Chicago for a "virtual job fair" that allows them to conduct remote interviews with students who are pre-screened by CCI's overseas partners.
This is the pitch: "CCI brings you to Chicago to complete your hiring process and to enjoy our wonderful city! Not only will CCI provide a venue and guidance for your international interviews, we also offer accommodations at a boutique hotel, a delightful excursion, and an opportunity to get to know our staff!"
That staff includes Debbie Best, a Senior Employer Relations Specialist touted on the website as a woman whose "extensive experience in the radio and entertainment industries and in HR outsourcing ensures that the CCI J-1 Work and Travel program brings the world to the workplace."32
Best not only arranges to take employers overseas, she also rewards the most active participants in the SWT with other incentives. She picks up the tab for round-trip airfare, four nights of hotel accommodations, and three days of skiing in Wyoming as part of the "Jackson Hole Experience."33
Consider the pitch from InterExchange, which describes itself as "a non-profit organization devoted to promoting cross-cultural awareness through work and volunteer exchange programs."34 In the late summer of 2011 InterExchange was touting its upcoming two-week trip to hire workers for summer 2012. The itinerary included stops in Moscow, Istanbul, Belgrade, and Paris, with a day for sightseeing at each location.
"You can visit one country or all four on an all-expense-paid trip designed to help you meet and recruit the best international summer staff in the world," InterExchange promised. "You'll have the opportunity to experience these unique cultures up close, and gain a better understanding of the students you'll be hosting and the customs of each country."35
Employers who hired 50 or more workers through Interexchange would travel for free – in business class to and from Europe and standard fares in between. Those who hired 15 would travel free to one country. For employers who were not interested in traveling, but who would hire at least 10 workers, InterExchange offered its "virtual recruitment tour," which brings them to the sponsor's New York offices to interview and hire in a video conference. "Travel, accommodations, dinner, sightseeing, and entertainment are all included during your stay in New York City." Cost to employers: nothing.
Preparing the Next Generation
While SWT has become a lucrative industry, its sponsors declare a higher motivation. They profess a commitment not only to international understanding but also to the preparation of young people for international competition.
"Today's global markets require international work experience, and the value added by working in the USA is immeasurable to students from overseas," says Texas-based Alliance Abroad.36
The International YMCA proudly declares its mission to "provide an opportunity for young people from around the world to challenge themselves through learning to work, grow, and live in another culture."37
Virginia-based Janus International Hospitality Student Exchange proclaims that its mission is "to provide our participants from around the world a cultural exchange program while helping them gain the necessary skills to succeed in today's global economy."38
When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke about work on an Alaskan "slime line" as preparation for Washington, she was joking. But the experience, which included being summarily fired after she complained about sanitary conditions at the plant, was valuable to her on several levels. Biographer Roger Morris writes that her trip to Alaska was an "act of restless independence" against the wishes of both friends and family. He adds that she came "back from the Northwest with a new air of self-sufficiency, if not cynicism" and then "confidently enrolled as one of the few women at Yale Law."39
It is ironic that as SWT has expanded around the globe, it has given foreign students work opportunities once seized upon by young Americans. The irony is intensified by the fact that the program is administered by the State Department, which is managed by a woman who struck out to Alaska as a way of preparing herself for the challenges that awaited her. Today in Alaska, a summer worker in a fish processing plant is more likely to come from the Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Moldova, or Turkey than from Illinois.
End Notes
1 John Aloysius Farrell, "Clinton on saxophone boffo in the Philippines", Boston Globe, November 14, 1994.
2 The Summer Work Travel program is by far the largest of 14 exchange programs in the J-1 visa category. Others include programs for high school exchange, au pairs, camp counselors, physicians, and Fulbright scholars. In 2010, more than 300,000 J-1 visa holders came to the United States, of whom 120,000 were SWT participants. The State Department states that, "The Exchange Visitor Program promotes mutual understanding between the people of the United States (U.S.) and the people of other countries by educational and cultural exchanges, under the provisions of U.S. law. Exchange Programs provide an extremely valuable opportunity to experience the United States and our way of life, thereby developing lasting and meaningful relationships." http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1267.html.
3 STA Travel: http://www.statravel.com.sg/work-travel-usa.htm.
4 http://wollt.org/hirej1students/.
5 wikileaks.org/cable/2009/04/09MOSCOW990.html.
6 Federal Register, Volume 76 Issue 80, April 26, 2011, http://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2011/04/26/2011-10079/exchange-v....
8 Jeff Gelles, "State Department puts curbs on student visa program", Philadelphia Inquirer, November 8, 2011.
9 http://www.csiet.org/media-center/quotes-testimonials.html.
10 McHale speech at the 2009 board and membership meeting of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, http://www.alliance-exchange.org/2009-board-and-membership-meeting.
11 U.S. Code, Title 22; Chapter 33. Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Program, Section 245.
12 Stock at the 2010 membership meeting of the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange, http://www.alliance-exchange.org/2010-membership-meeting.
13 McCarry speech, May 23, 2008, at a symposium titled "Strategic Initiatives for University Internationalization", at George Washington University, Washington, DC,
14 Cable from U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WL0911/S01753.htm (accessed December 6, 2011).
15 State Department rollout of new J-1 visa website, http://fpc.state.gov/164684.htm, May 31, 2011.
16 State Department website for J-1 Visa Exchange Visitor Program, http://j1visa.state.gov/sponsors/become-a-sponsor/.
17 http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28811789265.
18 Submission of Daniel Costa in response to State Department solicitation of public comments on July 2011 SWT regulations, dated June 27, 2011, www.epi.org/files/2011/SWT_EPIcomments_Final.pdf.
19 http://www.studentadventure.md/work-and-travel.
20 http://orangetravel.com.ua/en/index.html.
21 Steve Hendrix, "Foreign Legion; Every Summer, a Wave of International Students Hits Ocean City – to Work, Not Play," The Washington Post, August 23, 2003.
22 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThtHBNPoF4o.
24 http://www.interexchange.org/work-travel-usa/hire-j-1-visa-international... (See also http://www.eujob.co.rs/employerbenefits.php).
25 http://www.jobofer.org/retailindustry/.
26 Two of the websites where tax advantages are discussed are http://www.jobofer.org/taxes/ and http://www.acawe.com/apage/37545.php.
27 http://seasonalstaff.org/Tax-Benefits-For-Employers-Hiring-J1-Foreign-St....
28 http://www.interexchange.org/work-travel-usa/hire-j-1-visa-international....
29 http://www.jobofer.org/retailindustry/.
30 http://www.cci-exchange.com/.
31 http://www.cci-exchange.com/us-programs/seasonal-hiring-winter/ (See also: http://www.interexchange.org/tours).
34 http://www.interexchangejobs.org/.
35 http://www.interexchange.org/tours.
36 http://www.allianceabroad.com/participants_workandtravel_usa.asp.
37 http://www.internationalymca.org/SWT/YMCASponsor.shtml.
38 http://www.janus-international.com/j1worktravel.html#Scene_1.
39 Roger Morris, Partners in Power: The Clintons and Their America, New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1996, p.139.


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I'm very excited for this project that I've been thinking of for the past month. I love the month of December and every day I think about how blessed I am to have SO much. Even when B and I struggle, we are still SO overly blessed, it's so ridiculous. When things are hard, I have to remember how good we have it and being thankful for the little things puts it all in to perspective. I really wanted to do something at the end of December and I was reminded of a moment that I shared with my mom that always makes me remember how the 'little things' are taken for granted.
Back in the day with Mom!
I remember vividly one time complaining to my mom about how long my hair was and how it took forever to blow dry. I remember complaining that it wasn't looking good and I was fed up with my hair. My mom looked back at me and said at least you have hair. This was when she was going through chemo. I remember the look on her face when she said that to me and her bald head. Of course it was so selfish to me to complain about it, and it didn't even cross my mind. I should have thought before I opened my mouth. Almost immediately after my mom died, I donated 10 inches of hair for the second time. I donated the first time my senior year of high school.
One of the last good pictures we have before she passed away in April of 2006.
I remember what she said to me that day because I know it's easy to complain about things we take for granted. For me, blow drying my hair took me 20 minutes longer than what I wanted, but for her all she wanted was some hair on her head! To this day it still makes me sad to think about it and how I hurt her feelings without even knowing it. And now, my hair is growing out and I'm ready to donate again! To donate, you must cut off 10 inches of your hair in a ponytail. My long hair is one thing I seriously love, but I know that someone else will enjoy it more than myself, and I want to grow it back out and donate again!
I also wanted to do something for Locks of Love since not everyone can donate 10 inches of their hair. I wanted to create a goal of something that seems far fetched but I hope that I can reach it. I want to commit to raise $500 dollars the entire month of December. $500 dollars sounds like SO much and it's a scary figure, but at the same time, it will give back to Locks of Love and their organization.
I have set up a donation page and you can donate below!
If you wanted to donate directly to them, you can fill out this form and just let me know how much you donated and I will add it to the total!
I am so excited to donate my hair to someone in need of hair! I know it's going to be a big change and will be hard for me to part with, but guess what, they need it more than I do, and mine will grow back. If you wanted to participate in the donation you can as well! I will be donating my hair on the 29th and will share all the pictures and give you updates on how the fund raising is going all month! Big shout out to Kelly at Tek Salon who will be cutting and making the short hair look fabulous! I thank you in advance for your donations and am so grateful for your support.


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Path of Venus earrings with Baroque Pearl
Request a price ₹ 5,250
Delicate earrings with the Path of Venus motif and a genuine baroque pearl.
From the farthest reaches of the cosmos to the atomic structure of a single cell within the body, the same laws of form and mathematics apply to everything in nature. A consistent language of geometric design underpins every level of the universe; everything in creation is based on specific patterns, energy blueprints, whether we speak of higher spiritual realities, psychological and behavioural patterns, energetic patterns, or actual structures in the physical world.
This spiritual geometry is symbolic of the underlying metaphysical principle of our interconnectedness, inseparability and oneness; and provides us with a continuous reminder of our relationship to the whole.We are all created on the same geometric archetypes, we are each perfect fractals of the same whole; no matter how different our physicality and personality may be, we are essentially all exactly the same.
Material : Sterling silver with gold plating and a genuine baroque pearl.
100% handcrafted by our team of Master Craftsmen in India.
Also included in packaging : Concept card with a note about the collection, care card & a note from the designer. Any personalised messages can also be included. Jewellery comes in a travel-friendly fabric pouch & our keepsake pinewood box.
Length of Baroque Pearl / Chain length - 16" + 1" with adjustable links.
You are heavenly delightful, gloriously beautiful, and absolutely wonderful. Yes you, you who are reading this. You're gorgeous, both inside and out. You're perfect. You're created by Sacred Geometry, by the laws of form that define the creation of everything, from the atomic structure of a single cell, to the galaxies in the cosmos. From the nautilus to the rose, from the lotus to the stars, from music to emotions. You are made of the same formula. Yes, you with the rolls of fat and me with unruly, curly white hair; you with the burns and me with the marks; us with our short legs, dark skin, big feet, bony arms and open pores; with our stutters and our wheelchairs; single, childless, gay, divorced, abused; us who can't cook, sing, drive or count; us who hear we are difficult, defiant, deviant and odd. We who are the other extreme of an ideal woman, us who don't fit any standards or norms, not even close to an average. We are Venus, goddesses of absolute beauty. You are Venus of Willendorf and I am Venus of Hohle Fels. You are Seraph, an angel with inextinguishable light; I am Sirina, whom only the really happy can hear and even fewer can see, I am as difficult to catch as human happiness. We're fractals of perfection, a little piece of everything that's right with the world. Yes, you, my divinely beautiful girl, are absolutely perfect. My God, you are paradise!
Shipping & Returns
We deliver worldwide with free shipping within India. We hand craft your order with love and passion, and allow you the option to co-create them by choosing between stones, textures, plating options, charms, chain lengths, bangle or ring sizes. Making these pieces to your specification will take us anywhere between 2 to 10 working days (12 to 14 working days in case of custom made jewellery), after which they will be shipped out to you. We appreciate your patience with the handcrafting process and we promise that the jewellery will make up for the wait! For urgent deliveries on special request, please contact us before placing your order, at +91 9831299125.Click here for more information.


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This week in the MAKE Flickr pool we saw…
Wrench Knife with Custom Sheath from Rusty Knuckles.
Rebuilding a family heirloom w/ 3D Printing – Top half finished. from mmassie.
Plucker's Conoid comes to life from fdecomite.
Low-Poly Mask Iterations from kongorilla.
140 light bulbs from Mr Shiv.
Skewer parts from Hufnagel Cycles.


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[Global: Africa]
In Response to "Uganda: Clinton Cites Attacks Against Opposition and Lack of Election Commission Independence" www.blackstarnews.com September 22, 2010.
One of the clearest signs that you have a serious crisis is when everybody tries to tell you how you should do your work.
Every year, more than ten delegations of people from all walks of life visit Rwakitura, President Museveni's home, with some form of intention to advise him on what to do for Uganda's struggling democracy. Yes, many usually get overwhelmed by Mr. Museveni's appetite for power and simmer down without advising him to step down, which is understandable considering that Museveni will pull every string to ensure such a delegation is intimidated to full capacity.
He will exude a lot of intimidating history about Uganda's past leaders --calling them swine if you are familiar with his derogatory language. As he tells this already repeated history, he will swing his arms , until his listeners are humbled to near dumbness, while simultaneously turning his tactically widened eyeballs left and right presumably to paint the picture of a man whose vision is much better than all the other Ugandans combined.
I have not been to Rwakitura, but I know what Museveni's guests go through. Such antics are unnecessarily consummate and not good for the growth of democracy. President Museveni stopped listening long time ago. But he does not want people to know that he stopped listening. If he had not stopped listening he would disband the electoral commission without unnecessary stammering.
You will not be forgiven for thinking that only Ugandans are falling easy victims of Mr. Museveni's foolery. While reading Ambassador Lanier's --USA Envoy to Kampala-- comments about the Electoral process in the media recently , I was struck by a mixture of awe and contempt in almost equal measure. Awe, because he --despite his assumed tight schedule-- could find time to swing into the debate about the imminent election thuggery. But contemptuous because his over glorification of just a single belated step in the mastectomy of the rot is inexplicable. It is neither here nor there.
Mr. Lanier's comments made it appear as if the Ugandan democratic fraternity had solely been waiting -with folded arms - for an online voter register to have a complete vote - rigging free election. Ugandans' lamentation about elections is about neutrality of the people managing them. Their history of mishandling election results. The question of a man who fell from the grace of integrity immediately after assuming the position at the helm electoral management – Dr. Kiggundu.
What is being debated is whether the commission which presided over the wasteful, meaningless and tasteless 2001 and 2006 elections should be allowed to conduct the 2011 elections. Had they not drowned in the shame of the aftermath of the two elections all the commissioners would have resigned long time ago. In Kenya, political leaders did not stammer about what to do with the vagabonds in the electoral body. The surgery of vote thuggery started with the historic disbanding of the Kivuitu anarchic electoral body. What followed was a transparent process of putting together a new and extremely sober, independent electoral commission constituted by people whose conscience could not be defiled by anybody.
That was not enough for the electoral environment they wanted. An environment was created such that all stakeholders had a leeway in genuinely involving in all the processes: voting, monitoring and tallying. The media took center stage in the process. They did their own tallying whose results augured well with the official results. Is Uganda there yet?
I appreciate Mr. Lanier's contribution to the debate about electoral malpractices especially if his decision to contribute will include a commitment to write about the Kiboko squad and the reluctance of Government to issue national Identification Cards whose usefulness in curbing multiple registrations and voting is just obvious for everyone to see. Online registration would be okay if it were to be coupled by the phenomenon of National Identity Cards, the scraping of the army from voting since the army belongs to all candidates, etc.
The electoral commission should be disbanded, Mr. Lanier. Perhaps Mr. Museveni is not sure he can find another highly educated man of Dr. Kiggundu's stature who can bend so low as to allow his intelligence to be defiled in exchange for unfounded loyalty.
Given the high levels of disenchantment in Uganda, it is herculean to find an educated and highly profiled man taking on a job beyond which is nothing but a cemetery of shame waiting for him. President Museveni is not sure he can find another man to continue pushing forward his vote theft project. He is worried about his bogusly dwindled popularity. Without Kiggundu's commission he can not make it. That is why he can not let Kiggundu go.
Joel Luliko Wakayima is formerly National Chairman, National Freedom Party (NFP), currently a member of the Conservative Party
"Speaking Truth To Empower."
I think you have "Filtered HTML" turned on here. If you switch to "Full HTML," it will probably...
Black Star News has been producing stellar investigative journalism since 1997, including focusing on police brutality and other abuses targeting marginalized communities. We have broken several major stories. We welcome news tips to email@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.com
We need your advertising support to produce strong journalism, especially during periods of economic instability, so please contact email@example.com for advertising rates and long term packages.
Black Star News has been producing stellar investigative journalism since 1997, including focusing on police brutality and other abuses targeting marginalized communities. We have broken several major stories. We welcome news tips to email@example.com and firstname.lastname@example.com
We need your advertising support to produce strong journalism, especially during periods of economic instability, so please contact email@example.com for advertising rates and long term packages.
All content is copyright Black Star News © 2011. All rights reserved.


text:
I have now fixed MovieMeter.nl provider due to web site changes.
To get the new version launch TViXiE (must be version 1.3.2 or newer) and do the following:
* Click Tools->Update Manager
* Click "Check for updates..." button
* Check the "Show only newer or updatable" checkbox
* Select the MovieMeter provider in the list
* Click the "Update" button within the MovieMeter provider selection.
* Restart TViXiE and you're done.