Podcasts about weinberg college

Scientific Sense ® by Gill Eapen: Prof. Elizabeth Johnson is Assistant Professor of Medical Social Sciences and Pediatrics at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University.Please subscribe to this channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/ScientificSense?sub_confirmation=1

Scientific Sense ® by Gill Eapen: Prof. Prem Kumar is Professor of Information Technology in the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and Professor of Physics and Astronomy in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University. His current research is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Army Research Office (ARO), and the Office of Naval Research (ONR).Please subscribe to this channel:https://www.youtube.com/c/ScientificSense?sub_confirmation=1

Preena Shroff, a third-year student at Northwestern, hosts the “Weinberg in the World” podcast and interviews Joel Meek, a 2001 graduate. Joel, who recently served as VP of finance and operations at Reddit, discusses how his studies in economics and mathematical methods shaped his career. He emphasizes the value of a broad education, mentioning impactful classes in astronomy, psychology, and Japanese. Preena and Joel highlight how Northwestern's interdisciplinary approach teaches students to think critically and approach problems creatively. Transcript: Preena Shroff: Welcome to Weinberg in the World podcast where we bring stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. My name is Preena Shroff, and I'm your student host of this special Weinberg in the World episode. I'm a third year student majoring in neuroscience and global health with a minor in data science, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Joel Meek, who graduated from Weinberg College in 2001 with a bachelor of arts in economics and mathematical methods in the social sciences. Joel most recently was the VP of finance and operations at Reddit, a community platform where users submit content and share advice for other members. Throughout his technology career, Joel has led functions across sales, operations, business development and finance. Joel, thank you so much for being here with us today. Joel Meek: Very excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Preena Shroff: We are so excited to learn about your work in technology, but would love to start out with how your career path was shaped by your time at Northwestern. So maybe if you can tell us more about your undergraduate experience. What were some impactful classes, extracurriculars or maybe even mentorship experiences that you had, which impacted your postgraduate career? Joel Meek: Of course. Yeah, so I think as you mentioned, my major at Northwestern was economics and mathematical methods in the social sciences. I'll start with the economics. Actually, it was really helpful for me in studying both macro and microeconomics to just get a broad view of how the economy works. How does things like the money supply affect inflation, employment, GDP growth? Why are some industries more fragmented than others like the restaurant industry or why are some products more price sensitive than others? I can't say that I use sort of economic theory directly in my day-to-day career, but it definitely shaped my perspective when thinking about different business challenges in my business career. And then with mathematical methods in social sciences, this is really a very data centric major where you're looking to apply your knowledge of math to a social science. And so actually my senior year I did a thesis that was similar to the movie Moneyball with Brad Pitt and I looked at which baseball players yielded the best bang for the buck. So really bringing that sort of background to the business world and being able to break down problems was really helpful. And then I think last, just being part of the College of Arts and Sciences, it was awesome to really just get a broad exposure to a wide array of topics. I still remember taking my astronomy class and just learning about the universe and how it was formed or taking a psychology class, which has helped me better understand the inner workings of the mind and how people work. And I took Japanese, which eventually led me to go living in Japan for a year after college. So I think in total, when I really think back about Northwestern, it was building that curiosity and that love of learning that's really helped me take on new challenges once I graduated. Preena Shroff: Wow. Yeah. Thank you. And I think something that a lot of students here at Northwestern maybe aren't able to experience just yet but kind of have an idea is that these classes are teaching students how to think as opposed to exactly what you're going to require in your career. It's more about how to approach problems and how to develop from that. So thank you for sharing that. Joel Meek: Of course. Preena Shroff: So now moving forward a little bit beyond Northwestern, what led you on your career path? So which skills would that be, interactions or experiences that you were able to build up that have been critical in your field today? Joel Meek: Yeah, so when I graduated Northwestern, I honestly didn't really know. I knew I wanted to do business, but I didn't really know what type of business I wanted to do. So I ended up choosing banking and consulting as my first two jobs out of college. And it was actually a really good first couple jobs to do out of college because you really get a 30,000-foot view of the business world. I got to work across a ton of different industries and work on a ton of different problems, and I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I really liked numbers and finance, but I wasn't really into the 80-hour weeks of the finance world. In consulting I loved the business problem solving of consulting, but I really wanted to be the decision maker actually owning the decisions. And so I ended up transitioning into technology, which was really exciting because all the innovation that was happening, and I moved into more of an operator role, which I ended up doing for the past 16, 17 years in technology. I think the skill that was probably most important that I got from Northwestern that I was able to apply to my career was really just, I mean you mentioned it, just problem solving. In the technology space in particular, things are moving very quickly and often there is not a blueprint for how to solve a problem because it maybe hasn't been solved before. I can think of a time when I was at Pinterest and we had millions of users on the site and we had a challenge with a lot of spammy content on the site, people that were trying to get click baited into clicking through the links and then trying to take advantage of people. And so we only had a small team because Pinterest was, when I joined, was still less than a hundred people, and we had to figure out how to clean up this site that had millions of users so that they didn't have a bad experience. So there was really no playbook for how to do that, and you just had to really approach the problem from first principles and break it down. And I think that building that skill set through really helped me later on in my career. Preena Shroff: Yeah, absolutely. And I think actually I wanted to ask you for a follow-up on your discussion about that pivot point from investment banking into the tech industry. I know students nowadays go in with a mindset of whichever career they're looking to get into, they want to make sure they're very well-prepared beforehand. And sometimes I guess a pivot isn't something you can always plan for. My question is, do you think a student today who might encounter this sort of pivot or maybe is trying to plan one thing and ends up might changing? Do you think it's still possible to have that kind of career switch today? Or what advice would you give to a student who's maybe unsure about that decision? Joel Meek: You can definitely make career switches. I probably made four or five career switches in my career from right out of college. I was in banking, then I went to consulting. I ended up jumping to work for Google where I worked in their Google cloud division when cloud computing was taking hold in an operational role. And then my boss gave me an opportunity to move into sales, and then I jumped into some startups. I went to Pinterest, I went to Reddit, eventually ended up running finance at Reddit, was my last job. I would say that if I think about just my path, I would do a lot of moonlighting. I would do a lot of just researching the place where I wanted to go or the new function I wanted to go into. I would meet with people, I would just try to be a sponge and soak things up as much as possible. And what I learned was that it can be difficult to make a career switch, because people will look at your background and say, "Well, how are you relevant for this job?" But what I learned is it only takes one. You only need one person to be willing to give you a chance. And I was fortunate to have a few moments in my career where someone was willing to take a chance on me, and then it's up to you to prove that you can do it. So I definitely would not hesitate if you're interested in making a career change. Just go for it. Just start learning as much as you can about that path that you want to go. Eventually, if you keep trying, you'll get there. Preena Shroff: Yeah, thank you. That's great advice. And I know you brought up Pinterest and Google. I actually wanted to ask you, having been closely involved with building up a developing company or at least a department within each of these last three companies, Google, Pinterest, and Reddit, how do you manage conflicting priorities between growth and sustainability? So by that I mean just company growth and also making sure it's economically stable, everything's on track. Joel Meek: Yeah, it's a great question. I think it's really going to be very company dependent, and it's also probably going to be dependent upon the stage of the industry in which the company operates in. I can start off with Google. I joined in 2007, and this is when cloud computing was the buzzword. Before that everyone was using Microsoft Office, Windows, Excel, PowerPoint on a desktop, and we were providing that all in the cloud at a much more affordable price. And we knew we had a critical window where we could get market share. And so really the focus was really on, at that point, growth. We had our eye on profitability and sustainability always, but really we felt like this was important enough for Google as a company that we wanted to grab market share. When I was at Pinterest, I joined in 2012. Again, it was about less than a hundred people at the time, the giants were Facebook and Twitter, and they had many more users, a lot more employees, a lot more capital. And we knew, again, we had a short window to get market share. And so our focus was really on growing our users and growing our revenue. We had our eye on the unit economics and we wanted to make sure that we could get there and we knew we did, but we were willing to pull forward some investment and be less profitable in the short term to get growth in the longer term. And I'd say the same thing was true at my experience at Reddit as well. So in all three of my experiences, it was really around growth in the short term and then flipping the profitability in the long term. Preena Shroff: Okay. Yeah, for sure. And thinking about how would you make that kind of decision? What about a company and where it is in development lets you decide between profit and making that shift? Joel Meek: Yeah, I think it's going to be a function of the industry that you're in. What is the competitive landscape look like and how important is scale? And we knew that it was only going to be a handful of players in this cloud computing space really serving these wholesale applications like email, docs and calendar. And so it was our moment to really sort be that option that people went to, and then if we didn't, someone else was going to go there first. So I think in other industries, maybe it's more fragmented, maybe there's less competition. Maybe you have a competitive advantage over the competition where you're able to charge more and you can focus a little bit more on profitability. But it's just going to be, I think, specific to each company and industry that they're in. Preena Shroff: Is there any job that you've felt gave you a full circle moment back to your time at Northwestern? Maybe any experiences like that? Joel Meek: Yeah. When I was at Google, one of the first things I was asked to do is to help bring Gmail calendar, Google Docs to the universities throughout the United States. Preena Shroff: Oh, wow. Joel Meek: And so we were looking for a few brave souls to be some of our initial customers. And actually Northwestern was one, I think maybe the first university, if not one of the first five universities to use Gmail calendar and Docs. I remember we had a whole campaign to get the students motivated to switch over. We called it Kid on the Bus and we painted a school bus and we drove it to Evanston and I sat, I think in front of the Rock, it was handing out flyers to tell people all about Gmail calendar and docs. Credit to Northwestern. They were pioneers in adopting new technology. And that was a really cool full circle moment to bring that stuff that I was passionate about back to the campus. Preena Shroff: That's a great memory. And I know you mentioned earlier that you wanted to get or be more of the decision maker in your role. And so I was wondering, since Northwestern from graduating from Northwestern to all the way to today, how has your leadership style evolved over time, whether it be decision making or just working in a group setting? Joel Meek: So directly out of college, I think I was much more of an informal leader. I was an individual contributor. So it was more about leading through example, working hard, being a part of a team, prioritizing integrity in everything that I did. It wasn't really until I entered the tech industry that I became more of a formal leader. I was actually quite fortunate. The division in Google I joined was led by Sheryl Sandberg, who later became the chief operating officer at Facebook. And she placed a really high premium on attracting talented leaders as well as investing in leadership training for junior managers like myself. So it was really valuable. I got frameworks around how do you hire A players, how do you organize and structure your team? How do you set strategy and goals? How do you execute? How do you run one-on-ones, deliver feedback, how do you promote, how do you fire people? I didn't know any of that. And I got a really good education in my first job in technology at Google. And then through that, I over time learned what kind of leader I was. I learned about what I was good at, and actually I learned about what I was not good at. And from there I learned to play to my strengths and then build a team around me where I was weaker. For example, I was always really good at structuring problems and creating process for us to scale things to really, really large numbers. But I wasn't the most creative person in the world, so I'd always make sure there was people on my team that would be able to bring new ideas. I think it's really when I understood who I was as a leader and what I was good at, that's when I was actually most successful in my career. Preena Shroff: And I think it's really incredible that you've been able to find so many mentors along the way. And even within Northwestern, I know students are always seeking mentorship, whether that be from alumni, their professors, anyone in the industry they're interested in. Do you have any advice for finding mentorship or is it something you seek out or something that can just develop over time? Joel Meek: Whenever I was choosing a new job, whether it was in banking or in technology at Google, Pinterest or Reddit, I was not just looking at the job I was going to be taking, but I was looking at who I'd be working for because your boss is someone you're going to spend a lot of time with. And I was very fortunate to have a few really great bosses across my time at specifically Google, Pinterest, and Reddit. And I learned a ton from them, and it really shaped who I was as a leader. So I would just say as you're jumping into the working world, have a really focused eye for who your boss is going to be. Make sure that you gel with that person. Make sure you think about, "Okay, what can I learn from this person? How can I grow with that person?" That will be almost as important as the job that you pick. Preena Shroff: Okay. Yeah, for sure. And then taking a pivot here, I guess for those of our listeners who are interested in working in the tech industry, what is the common misconception about working in the industry that you would like to debunk? Joel Meek: Maybe a common misperception is that either it's like everyone's working on the next big thing or everyone's going to get rich quick. The reality is that even for the next big thing, there is a lot of very routine day-to-day mundane stuff that's required to make that happen. And it ends up adding up to something amazing, but it's just like every other job, there's going to be that methodical day-to-day work that you got to do. And then in getting rich quick, most companies, most startups don't succeed just statistically speaking. And so I think it's an amazing experience. It's where I've pursued most of my career, but I think if you're doing it just for the money alone, it's probably not going to work out. You got to really just love technology and love being a part of that startup culture. I think that's going to probably breed more success than just going there to try to make money. Preena Shroff: Yes, for sure. That's great advice. And then I actually have one more question and then I might do some follow-ups based on everything. But I guess in terms of career overall, are there any obstacles or challenges that you've overcome? I remember you mentioned in Pinterest there was difficulty dealing with scammers or something like that. So anything like that, like a challenge, an obstacle, and then did your time at Northwestern impact your approach to solving this problem? Joel Meek: Yeah, honestly, I would speak to my career. I think the biggest obstacle really was just getting doors opened. And I still remember at Northwestern, applying for those, for example, banking and consulting jobs. Thankfully there was an amazing career center at Northwestern, but I think I ended up doing 30 to 40 interviews. And I can't say that my success rate was good, but it only takes one. And thankfully I was able to get the job that I eventually took and had a good experience from that. So I would just say be very entrepreneurial and opportunistic about going for the thing that you really want. And I think building up an ability to take rejection is actually a really important skill because I probably was rejected way more times than I was accepted to things. But what I found was whatever the next thing I wanted to do in my career is that as long as I kept swinging, eventually a door would open and I'd be able to jump through it and have success. Preena Shroff: Yeah, it seems like a theme. Only one door, only one person, and then you can get to where you are. Joel Meek: Exactly. Preena Shroff: Yeah. No, that's really great, and this is really insightful and super helpful I'm sure to all the students who are a little bit nervous about starting their careers as I am in my third year, just kind of looking towards the future. It's very daunting just to be like, "It's about to happen now." So it was really nice speaking with you about that. Joel Meek: Thank you. It was really nice talking with you as well. Preena Shroff: Thanks so much for joining us today. Have a wonderful day, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Weinberg in the World.  

In this episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast, host Preena Shroff, a third-year student at Northwestern University, interviews Peter Waitzman, the CEO of Expedition Money and a 1999 graduate of Weinberg College with a degree in Economics.   Transcript: Preena: Welcome to Weinberg in the World Podcast, where we bring stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. My name is Preena Shroff and I'm your student host of this special Weinberg in the World episode. I'm a third-year student majoring in neuroscience and global health with a minor in data science, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Peter Waitzman, who graduated from Weinberg College in 1999 with a Bachelor of Arts and Economics. Peter is now the CEO of Expedition Money, a financial wellness program aiming to provide educational content and coaching to help individuals and families achieve financial independence. Peter, thank you so much for being here with us today. Peter: Well, thank you very much. It is a pleasure to be here. Preena: Yeah. We are so excited to learn about your work in finance, but would love to start out with maybe how your career path was shaped by your time at Northwestern. So if you can tell us more about your undergraduate experience, what were some impactful classes, extracurriculars or mentorship experiences that you had which impacted your postgraduate career? Peter: Yeah. So as you mentioned, I came to Northwestern for economics and got immersed in that student body. So a lot of my friends were economics majors. And something similar that you and I share is that I lived in Ayers CCI at the time, which also had a lot of economics people, especially with its commerce theme. So from classwork to just the living experience on campus and even my social life were really surrounding me with people that were like-minded. And economics encompasses a lot of different things, but one of the things that I really liked that is a little bit outside the coursework right now is that it connected me with some of my really good friends who are really good friends today, but we were able to do stuff together, whether it was in classes or starting businesses on campus or doing projects together or researching or just sitting around in the lobby and kicking around ideas or reading the Harvard Business Review or whatever, just having people that share some of the same ideas. And a lot of that was some entrepreneurship. I think it was a little too early to think about that at the time. We didn't really think about starting businesses kind of that freshman, sophomore year, but it was just nice to be in that culture. And then when I started taking classes, people would turn you on to certain things. So one of the classes that I surprisingly liked, it wasn't necessarily in economics, but was the public speaking class. And I remember one of the exercises there was to take a controversial topic and take one side of it and defend it. And I really liked that because what it made you realize is that not everything is going to be a win-win-win situation for everyone. So sometimes you're going to have to take something and you're going to have to do some convincing with it. And it really impressed upon me that you're going to have to be, one, a good communicator when you get out into the real world, make the case for what you're doing, be succinct, get your point across, those types of things, and that's going to be really helpful. And then all of the economics classes that came on top of that, just to help you understand how the world works and incentives and the market dynamics and all of those types of things really was a nice way to put that puzzle together so that when you came out of school, you had a good perspective, a good base for developing what you wanted to work on or go into your career. And obviously, ultimately, I went that entrepreneurial route. Preena: Absolutely. Yeah. It's pretty cool that the residential college system was where you found a lot of those connections right off the bat starting in college. So go Ayers. My unbiased opinion is Ayers is the best residential college. Peter: One thing, it's funny you call it Ayers, because Ayers wasn't added on until I was there. So at that time, Mr. Ayers was getting involved and so we put the name on there. So to me, and for people of my vintage, it's still CCI, but I like how some people now know it as Ayers, so very cool. Preena: Yeah. So let's talk more about beyond Northwestern and what led you on the career path. So I know you talked about different econ classes that kind shaped your experience. What skills were you able to build upon that have been critical in your field today? Peter: Yeah. So one of the things that Northwestern directly led to was going in the economics world, a lot of people come out of college and go into consulting and it can kind of be a natural transition into the real world for people. And I did that for a couple years. So I did two years in consulting before I went into banking and then investment management, and then financial planning. And so the dots, the path there is actually not super uncommon. I don't know that it's a super common path, but it makes a lot of sense, I think, being naturally born out of the economics seed from Northwestern, and a lot of people who go into consulting maybe kind of branch off into different things. But I kind of still follow that financial path. And what that did for me at the time was just give me a lot of exposure to how things work. So one of the things that I realized from economics is that you get a lot of macro picture, kind of big picture, even if you're doing microeconomics, it's kind of very generalized. But when you get out into the workforce and you start working as a consultant, you kind of understand how business works and the business requirements and those things that go into big projects. But then when I went to the bank as an analyst, you really start seeing real-world stuff. You're looking at data that is moving the needle on the products or services that you provide. And then when I went into financial planning and investment management, you're starting to paint that side of the picture as well. How does this impact individuals and what are the motivations there and the incentives and what are people using, and how does the top level of banking and financial services providers fit into what the consumer needs on the front lines? And so having that broader picture really helped me then continue to move forward, and that's when I started moving away from the products and services side of things into what is generally more financial wellness. So how do we make people healthier, happier, more fulfilled, maybe chase retirement early, balance life and work better, raise a family, kind of have your cake and eat it too. Just generally be able to live and exist in life, which is very difficult. I've even said the game is kind of rigged these days. It's really hard to make the amount of money, and you may not feel it now, but we kind of live in a high inflation environment, and there's so many challenges for people. It's either earning enough money or finding a place that's cheap enough to live or having a job that's secure. The myriad of things that really plague people and things that people struggle with. And so that's why then I started to step back and actually worked... I was working for a large financial services company at the time and they wanted to launch a financial wellness project, something a little bit more encompassing, a little more general. And so I went into the home office and then we started building that and I spent a few years doing that. And then I continued the path of financial wellness and building financial wellness programs for a couple other companies after that. So ended up helping develop financial wellness companies or financial wellness programs for three companies following that, and then went off on my own and built the financial wellness program that I really wanted to build. So that's how I ended up getting there. So kind of a lot of different steps. It's not necessarily A, B, C, D, but it didn't really deviate as far away as I think a lot of career paths can or they can really pivot. And I certainly embrace that too. And for the people that kind of want to go off and do something that's very different from what they got trained in, there's never maybe the perfect opportunity to do that, so you just want to do it. Preena: Yeah. Yeah, it makes sense that you said you had a couple different jobs working in the industry before building upon your own program. So I guess I kind of wanted to ask, maybe the mentorship aspect of that, do you know if there's anyone who specifically provided a particular mentorship experience for you? Or what advice do you have for students who are looking for support along their career paths? Peter: Yeah. Mentorship has been one of those things that I think has really evolved over the last couple of years. Not even the last couple of years, but over the last couple of decades. And so when I was a student and then even when I went and left school and actually participated in the mentorship program to Northwestern students at the time, so at that time I was meeting a couple students, and this was fairly early on in my career, there's a lot of value to that. I feel a little bit like mentorship has changed in a way that on one hand, people who can be and should be mentors and have that life experience and maybe are an expert in their industry or subject matter experts are almost gun-shy about becoming mentors because they're worried about the time commitment, they're worried about, hey, the imposter syndrome of it, even though maybe they shouldn't be. And so it's harder these days I think to have formal mentorship relationships than it ever has been in the past, especially when there isn't structure. It's not part of a company, and sometimes in a company they'll have a mentorship program and they will take this person and pair them up with this person. And so one of the things that I've talked about is not necessarily putting that pressure on you, because the benefit of having a mentor is awesome, or the benefit of even just having the opportunity to do a Q&A or to pick the brain of someone who maybe has gone the path that you want to go is super valuable. In just a short conversation, you might get some insights of, "Hey, this works, this doesn't," or, "Based on your personality, I think you should try this," or, "Here's a person I want you to meet." And they can be so valuable, so important. Just that short amount of time can save you so much trial and error or so many headaches on your own. And so without putting that pressure on people, what I say is that you should just feel free to reach out. I know that we have some directories of Northwestern alumni or people that you just meet on LinkedIn or maybe even a connection somewhere else, but, hey, can you make this introduction? Can you sit down with me for 30 minutes? Can I buy you a cup of coffee? Can I just have a Zoom meeting? Can we just talk about some things because I have some questions? And even if you don't establish a formal mentorship relationship, I think just having that connection is really valuable and it opens the door later to having another one. And you actually might have a formal-like mentor relationship that doesn't fall under the category or get the label. And, actually, to be honest, even now, it's easier than ever, I think, because let's say there is someone in your industry that you want to talk to, you slide into their DMs or send them a message, or social media can make some of these connections sometimes. So just being able to pick their brain, like I said, is really valuable. And if you can have a formal mentor, someone who will stick with you over longer periods of time, awesome too. Awesome too. But sometimes it just helps to take away that pressure of that commitment over a long period of time and just start with that conversation and then see where it goes. Because honestly, sometimes you might move away from that industry or that path or whatever it might be, and there's someone else is going to help you, and not having that formal relationship allows you to feel less commitment to try to just hold onto a relationship and not go somewhere else that might get you some better information too, so kind of my thoughts. Preena: Absolutely. Peter: And just likewise, people had questions for me. I'm always happy to respond to emails or to set up a meeting or grab a cup of coffee or whatever it might be, because I really want people to get the right information. I want to be an open book. I want people to not make the same mistakes I did and have better efficiency and more fulfillment and all these other things. And obviously that's why I put together my program. But trying to get people to short circuit that, find that wormhole to their delta quadrant as fast as possible, I think that's really meaningful to people when life can be so chaotic anyway. Preena: Yeah, I think what I'm gathering from what you're saying is communication is really important, and just getting better, getting practice, talking with people, getting to know the background of other people and take from that what advice they can provide for you. Peter: And you never know what short conversation... I totally agree with you because even for you and me, we just had a short in the line conversation once, and you never know where those relationships are going to go and those connections and the conversation that you have that you might find you have a similar thread in life or whatever that might be, sometimes those things can be really meaningful and last a lifetime. So for sure. Yeah. Don't underestimate any moment. Preena: Yeah. So speaking of communication route, I know you started out as a content creator. How would you say your experiences as in the content creator back when you were starting off your career, how can that be applied to students navigating social media today? And then what challenges might you anticipate if you had started your career, for example, next year? Peter: Yeah. Man, this could be a huge all encompassing conversation. I think what I want to boil it down to today is the common denominator of the value of attention, the value of having a platform and the value of having visibility. Because it's not just about, say, marketing a product. Honestly, when a business is trying to use social media, they're usually trying to get their products and services out there, build their reputation, expand their brand, all these other things. But I think one of the things that we undervalue as an individual, and we talked a little bit about communication, that social media can be such a powerful way to expand the reach of our communication. So if we have that communication. And whether it's finding a job or raising your visibility in the industry, or making a connection for other people, or trying to make an impact on your community or your movement or whatever it is, you can have a great message, great skills, but if no one's there to hear you, it's like, does a tree make a sound if it falls in the forest? But if you can figure out how to leverage social media to expand your reach, that can be so powerful. I'll tell you what. Right now, economy's a little slow, people are trying to find jobs. A few years ago there were graduates, wonderful, talented students looking for jobs, and an advantage was to have some of your content already out there, some of the things that you wrote about, opinion pieces, papers that you wrote for school, whatever it might be, just things you were passionate about. Even if it wasn't expansive and Mr. Beast level of type of content, just having some of that could be a differentiator when you're out looking for a job or reaching out to someone to be a mentor or to get a volunteer position. And it doesn't have to just be social media. It can be a book. I've written some books in the past. Those have helped get my message out. It can be doing workshops or presentations or online webinars or whatever you want to do, but don't underestimate the power of the technology and especially these free platforms where I think because they're free, a lot of people are already using them, we say, "Hey, I want to be known for what I do," but sometimes you have to be your best advocate. You're the person advocating for yourself and putting that out there and leveraging the platform. So when I think about content creating, it's not just about trying to get attention for no reason, but what's the purpose? And then for a lot of people, I think that can be your own satisfaction. So like a charity or a cause you're committed to, but it can also be just for your professional advancement or improvement or the next position or speaking engagement or whatever it might be. Preena: Right. So for you, it was your passion for finance and helping others achieve financial wellness and also sort of helping you build your platform to engage with others. Peter: Yeah. And so I actually have a number of YouTube channels, and one of them is called Expedition Money Snacks, where it's just one-minute-long videos, very short kind of TikTok format, but here's a concept, here's an idea, maybe you haven't heard of this, or maybe it's a quick bit of news. I try to make things that are very bite-sized. And then I have my Expedition Money. That's more long-form. And those can be 20, 30 minute videos where I deep dive into a topic. So what you want to do is not necessarily put everyone into the same box. People are going to consume in different ways, and which you want not necessarily is put yourself center, but you want to put their consumption desires front and center, and you want to try to serve to them because if you're not getting the attention, if you're not getting that content in front of people, then it doesn't really matter. I can create a lot of content and no one wants to consume it, and so then it's not really having an impact. But if I can craft it in such a way that, hey, it's fun or it's interesting or it's bite-sized, whatever it is, then at least we have a chance at maybe having that deeper conversation. We might have a chance at talking about more developed or nuanced or complex financial topics later. So just trying to keep that door open and keep the information top of mind for people front and center. Preena: Right. Yeah. For sure. Okay. I think we can kind of turn or pivot a little bit to more so the expedition money side of things. I guess a couple of questions I had regarding your program is why did you decide to make your own program instead of continuing to partner with financial service organizations? Peter: Yeah, it's a really good question. It's actually a pretty easy one for me to answer, and that's because every time I was at a company, there are usually some guidelines that the company has for some reason. Maybe it's company policy, maybe it's the type of products and services that they're in, and they don't want to necessarily create content or tools that maybe aren't in their wheelhouse. And I've done it for financial services companies, I've done it for HR benefits companies, and the reasons are different. And so in many ways, every time I was building a program, there was just something out of bounds in that program. And I really felt like a true comprehensive effective financial wellness program would embrace everything. So, for example, one of the big topics and one of the topics I've talked about for years is side hustles. So if you're familiar with the term side hustle, it's kind of like moonlighting, maybe doing something part-time, something as a hobby, as a passion project in addition to your day job. But a lot of people in the industry don't like talking about side hustles because, hey, they think, well, as an employer, I don't want to believe that my people have side hustles. I want to believe that they're fully fulfilled here. Or as a financial services company, we don't want people becoming entrepreneurs because that muddies their taxes or whatever it might be. And so side hustles have been kind of a third rail topic in a lot of ways. And for the last couple of years I actually was on the speaking circuit a lot doing a presentation called Go from Getting By to Getting Ahead: Why Side Hustles Must Be Part of the Financial Conversation and trying to get financial services companies to embrace the topic of side hustles. Because for a lot of people, they're 9:00 to 5:00. The math does not necessarily equal everything that they need out of life. It doesn't equal taking care of their living expenses today. It doesn't put their kids through college, it doesn't put enough money away for savings and retirement and fun and all these things. So there's this gap, this delta that we need to address, and sometimes side hustles can do it. And so one of the things that I wanted to do was build that program that didn't have anything that was off of a reservation, per se. We could talk about anything that would help people get ahead financially, find financial independence, whether it's money hacks or rethinking, like the tiny house movement or minimalism or create a budget or whatever it might be. And so that's really why I did the program, so that I could have creative control over it and put in all these topics. And so that's the genesis of what I did. Now, not to say that any of those programs that I helped build or any of the other programs out there aren't good, because they're wonderful. And if you can find what you need in any of those programs, absolutely use them. But that's what I wanted is just something even more comprehensive and more encompassing than the programs I'd seen out there before. Preena: For sure. Peter: With that, there are a number of drawbacks. You're owning everything from A to Z. For a lot of people that are involved in, say, The Garage or trying to figure out entrepreneurial problems at school or in business, there's a lot of other things that you have to take into account when starting a business that are above and beyond just building the business. So it makes it more complex, but I think there can be a lot of reward on the back end too. Preena: Yeah. Yeah. It's really incredible that you were able to build a platform that addresses all those concerns that you kind of had when you were coming out of college and maybe starting to build your finances as well. Peter: And the reason I did was because when I came out of college, I came out of college with student debt. I know that different schools have different policies around that now, but I came out with student loans. I started working right away because I had to. I didn't come out with a lot of money and I was kind of chasing my tail, especially the first few years out of school. I was working to just have my lifestyle. And it was really at that moment that I was like, "How do I get out of debt?" So I think I had in many ways a typical story. And from that, I found these tools, and that's where one of my first books comes from, Get Rid of Debt Fast, and that was my journey on that. And then getting stability, investing in your career, figuring out how to get promoted, getting to the next level and building that career and side hustles and all these other things. So all of this is really based on my journey of what I found worked. So it's not necessarily just theoretical. I wasn't an ivory tower kind of guy, silver spoon, "Oh, here's what the masses need and I'm blessing you with my knowledge." This is really kind of lessons that I took that helped me get from the bottom rung to the middle rung. Preena: Yeah. So what are some key financial tips that you give to students like us today? Peter: Oh, it really probably depends on where students are, but one of the things that I would say is that it's, I think, really important... In some ways, you're not going to be able to avoid debt. Some students are going to come out with some credit card debt or student loans or a car loan. Some students are going to come out of school and they're not going to have any money. So if you want to get an apartment and put furniture in it and all these other things, you're going to have some debt. What I would say is that tackle the debt relentlessly because it's kind of like wading in the ocean. If you've ever been to the ocean and there's kind of even calm waves, there's always this wave action. And if you've ever been in the water and been okay and then gotten splashed with the water and breathed in at the wrong moment, all of a sudden you're kind of choking on water a little bit, and it's really hard to recover from that, even though it's not like a life-threatening thing. But all you want to do is take a pause, you want to kind of have a timeout. And the problem is if you get behind on that debt, the bills keep coming, the wave action keeps coming, and it's really hard to reset and refocus, and it can easily get away from you. So one of the things that I really work with people right now on is, all right, what do we have, and then what creative strategies can we use to get you out of these a lot faster? And in many ways, many normal debt programs say, "All right, it's going to take five, six years to get rid of this." Well, with some of these new tools, you can get out of that debt in three months or four months or 60 days or a few weeks. And so what can we do to do those things? Because those can make a really meaningful difference and get people into some breathing space so that you can focus on your career, so that you can focus on doing a good job, expanding your skills, getting out there, finding a mentor, and start getting ahead. Preena: Okay. Yeah. So would you say it's about putting money in the right places? So when you have some sort of income, just knowing where to allocate that accordingly? Or is it more of like a spending saving balance? Peter: Yeah, I'd say it's all of the above because you're absolutely right. What it comes down to is, I think for a lot of us in the typical model is I get paid, I take some of this money, I cover my living expenses, I put some of this money in savings, I allocate some of this to debt, and that can be fine. That strategy in its simplicity can work. But there are also ways to say, "Hey, mathematically, what is the best thing for me to do? Is it to allocate this money here or is it better to put a bigger slice of that over here so that I can get rid of my debt faster or slower?" I mean, it depends on interest rates and all these other things, but the idea is what is the most optimal thing I can do with every dollar that I'm bringing in? Like you said, where can I put that? As opposed to just doing things out of habit that are general rules that we've learned. And so those can make a big difference. In some cases, people have average life and kind of the typical rules work just fine, but for a lot of people, there's something unique, there's a certain way we're earning money. Maybe we have a fluctuating income or you're in sales or whatever it might be, and so how do we take what is unique to your life and then use that as an advantage to get you closer to where you want to be? And so usually you have to take a look at that, and that can be through financial coaching, you can find a professional to do that, but a little bit of help there can make a big, big difference. So a big, big difference in either paying off your house or paying off your car or putting money away. A lot of people want to travel. One of the things I've been talking a lot about is how to take a gap year. How do you take a year off from work? Maybe you work a couple years and maybe you want to take a year off, do a little travel, see the sights, have a social life, kind of get away from it all, reset, write your book, whatever it might be, Instagram 365 days of beautiful living. And so how can we practically do those things? And it can be done. But it has to have some intention. It has to have a little bit of a plan to make that happen. You can't just want it to happen and then expect, oh, look, fortunately everything I did the last year is going to make this happen, because that rarely ever works. Preena: Right. Yeah. For sure. Well, it was really great talking with you and learning about your career path and all the advice you have for students who are going through it right now. So thank you so much for joining us today. Peter: Thank you, Preena. It has been a pleasure doing this. And to all of the current students out there like you, keep pushing forward. I am super excited to see what you guys are going to do for the Northwestern community and the world in general. So keep on keeping on. Preena: Yeah. Thank you. Have a great day, everyone. Thank you for tuning into this episode of Weinberg in the World.

In this special student-hosted episode of the “Weinberg in the World” podcast, student host Preena Shroff, a third-year neuroscience and global health major, interviews Carla Karijolich, a 2008 Weinberg College graduate in political science and history. Carla, now a senior manager in customer care training at a medical device and digital health company, shares her undergraduate experiences, including studying abroad in Paris, participating in Peer Health Exchange, and being a DJ at WNUR. She emphasizes the importance of trying new things and how her diverse experiences have shaped her career path and skills, particularly in public speaking and empathy. https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlakarijolich/ Transcript: Preena Shroff: Welcome to Weinberg in the World podcast where we bring stories of interdisciplinary thinking in today's complex world. My name is Preena Shroff, and I'm your student host of this special episode of Weinberg in the World. I'm a third year student majoring in neuroscience and global health, and today I have the pleasure of speaking with Carla Karijolich who graduated from Weinberg College in 2008 with a major in political science and a minor in history. Carla is working as a senior manager in customer care training at a medical device and digital health company. Carla, thank you so much for being here with us today. Carla Karijolich: Thank you for having me. Preena Shroff: We are so excited to learn about your managerial role in learning and development, but of course would love to start out with your time at Northwestern and how that shaped your path. So maybe you could tell us a little bit more about your undergraduate experience. What were some impactful classes, extracurriculars or conversations that you had which impacted your postgraduate career? Carla Karijolich: Thanks for asking that. Like you said, I majored in political science and minored in history, so I'm just very passionate about understanding what's going on in the world and why and what has happened prior to that to create the reality that we live in today. That was something that I just really enjoyed studying and it opened up my world so much. Some of the memorable things that I did in college was studying abroad in Paris, France. That was a really eye-opening and meaningful experience, very humbling to go to another country and learn a new language. That did a lot for me culturally and as a person. I also was involved with Peer Health Exchange, so that's a program where we would go to some local high schools and teach high school freshmen about health. My topic was rape and sexual assault. As you can imagine, getting up early on Fridays to get in front of high school freshmen and talk about a serious topic did a lot for me as a public speaker. I don't think I've ever had such a tough audience and such a difficult topic. I also was a DJ at WNUR and I was on the Rock show specifically, and that was just a tremendous amount of fun discovering new music, artists. Of course, when you're constantly thinking about music and what you want to play on your show, you're going to concerts. So just really great time, really expanded my world. All of those interests, I think still show up in my current life and career. Preena Shroff: Yeah, wow, that's actually so awesome. It's really cool that you're able to try your hand at a lot of different things that are so different from each other and probably building relationships within all those different communities as well. That's awesome. Carla Karijolich: Yeah, I definitely like to try new things. That is something that I encourage students, you can try something, you may not like it, and that's okay. That's giving you information about maybe the things that you want to move away from. Then sometimes you'll try something and you really like it and it can put you on a path. All of these skills absolutely add up and pay off. Preena Shroff: Yeah, for sure. Speaking of path, beyond Northwestern what do you think led you on your career path or what skills were you able to build up specifically that had been critical in your field today? Carla Karijolich: It's really interesting to me how when I look at my career path really starting from freshman year, it's paid off. The summer after my freshman year, I volunteered at a legal clinic for survivors of domestic violence, and I transcribed and translated survivor testimonies from Spanish to English to be used as legal evidence. That was very, very eye-opening, gave me a lot of empathy, a lot of appreciation for what attorneys do and what people go through when they suffer domestic violence. From there, with that experience, I actually was able to then get a work study job as a research assistant at a local hospital. Because I had that transcription experience and experience with sensitive topics, I worked with some researchers who were studying postpartum depression. Another very interesting rich topic, a tremendous amount of empathy that you get. Then eventually when I became a mother, I was able to really understand those experiences even more. That kind of got me on this research mindset. My first job out of college was in public policy research, so I was able to learn a lot. I was working in public finance research at the time of the 2008 recession, so that was a really interesting time to be in that field. I learned a lot about local government, state government, how it works. Totally tapped into my interest with political science and history. The economy was still in rough shape when that program was up, so I was really thinking about, do I want to continue in public policy? Should I go to grad school? Should I continue to work? I knew I wanted to continue my education, I just didn't know exactly when and how. I ended up in my first corporate job as an HR research analyst, and specifically I was working in corporate recruiting. All of those dots eventually connected and put me into the corporate world where I am today. Preena Shroff: I'm sure all those skills you gained through communicating with different types of people coming from all kinds of situations really helped with that too. Carla Karijolich: Yes. Just when you think about the different populations that I've worked with, yeah, I guess I've never shied away from tough topics. Now in the work that I do, I'm a training manager, so I have to be able to interact with people really from all over the world because in my current company, I work with people in different countries, from different cultures. We talk about sensitive topics and also very tactical topics. I absolutely love getting to know new people and new cultures. I'm sure that started even before Northwestern, but all my experiences at Northwestern really teed me up to be successful at that. Preena Shroff: Yeah, for sure. I know you mentioned a little bit about what you're doing now, which is primarily in learning and development. When did this interest in learning and development come up and how has it impacted your path? Carla Karijolich: I got into learning and development over 10 years ago. I was working in sales and customer service, and I wanted to move up into a managerial role. At the time in my mind, that was the next step. You go from an individual contributor to a manager. I thought about how do I do that? My supervisor, who was a really awesome mentor, suggested that I take on opportunities to train other employees because that's a really good way to demonstrate your leadership skills. As I was doing that, I really got to develop my public speaking, my writing skills, solving operational problems, implementing solutions, and change management. It really became my path. Instead of using training as a stepping stone into another career, it became my career. I applied to a master's program at Northwestern in Learning and Organizational Change, and I completed that, and so I have two degrees from Northwestern. I think that that says a lot about the university, that so many people go back. Preena Shroff: They're Wildcats. Carla Karijolich: Exactly. Double. Double Wildcat. I teach here too now, so we can talk about that later. Preena Shroff: Oh, cool. Carla Karijolich: But yes, I've been on that path ever since. Preena Shroff: Wow. Okay. Yeah. So I guess coming back to Northwestern a little bit, just looking in the past and looking towards the future, how did you seek mentorship at Northwestern? What advice do you have for students who are looking for support along their career paths today? Carla Karijolich: That's such a good question. I think that especially for students where they're the first in their family to go to a four-year college or university, it is really important to get mentorship because your family has a lot of love and support for you, but you're going to encounter things that maybe they haven't had to navigate in the same way. It is important to have those mentors. I did have a formal mentor through the Northwestern Public Interest Program. That was a part of the first job that I had out of college, and I was assigned a really awesome mentor who made such a big impact on my life. He teaches in the graduate school at CESB, and I'd say, "Oh yeah, tell me about your program," and we would talk about things that I was doing at work and the things that he teaches about, and he gave me so much insight into some of the things that I was working on. Then however many years later, I ended up applying to that program, and I took his class. I did get an A in his class, but it wasn't because of any inside advantage that I had. The advice and the takeaway from that is that if there's a program that offers formal mentorship, whether it's through school or something in the community, apply and take it. It's just an opportunity to meet someone that you otherwise are not going to meet who wants to help you. This person has signed up to help a student and to help them grow. Take those chances. Also, mentorship isn't really always a formal thing. You don't have to go somewhere and sign up for a mentor. Anyone can be a mentor. In the different jobs and internships that I had, I would really show interest and curiosity in the work my colleagues were doing. For example, when I was in the postpartum depression research program, I didn't know a single thing about postpartum depression, being a mother. I was taking classes on research at Northwestern and social science research, but that's very different from researching in a clinical setting. I would ask my colleagues about what they were doing and how they ended up with the degrees that they had and how they ended up doing this work. It's just enriching. You learn a lot. I also would go to office hours and just keep up with those professors who I really admired and whose work really resonated with me. I think that the professors, they appreciate that. People like to talk about their work, and when someone shows an interest in what you're doing, I think it means a lot to them. I would keep up with them, even if you just visit once a year or a couple of times in a year. They remember you and it gives you someone to talk to. Also, even just other students. The juniors and seniors, I would see them dressed up and, "Oh, did you go on an interview today?" "Yeah, I did." "How'd it go?" They're giving you advice without even knowing it. They're telling you about what they did and how it went and the questions they got. Just by them telling you, you're learning so much. I think it's just all about that curiosity. The last example I'll give is that when I was in my work study job in the postpartum depression program, there was a coworker who was a licensed clinical social worker that I enjoyed talking to. In getting to know her, she told me about how she had had a very successful career in business, and then after that pivoted into this. She was already on a different path doing something else very successfully, and then decided to do something completely different. That was so eye-opening for me. You're not locked into anything. You're always evolving, you're always growing. Your career is going to be decades long, so you have to be open and recognize that you are going to go through some evolutions and some transformation. Preena Shroff: Yeah, for sure. I think what you said about finding mentorship anywhere, there are so many programs at Northwestern, first of all, that give students opportunities to connect with past Wildcats or alumni. At the same time, just I think the students at Northwestern are very open to sharing their experiences and wanting to encourage other people to follow that path as well. Carla Karijolich: Yeah, I mean, that's how I met you. I think what's so funny, I don't know if I told you this, but I applied for some formal mentorship program to be a mentor for students, and they had so much interest in that first year that they didn't have a spot for me. That was a bummer. Then at some point a few weeks later, I got an email saying, "Do you want to attend this event at the Waldron Center?" I said, "Yes, absolutely," and that's how I met you, and that's how we ended up here. So sign up for things. You never know what will come out of it. Preena Shroff: For sure. Yeah. I mean, exactly. It's like the students at Northwestern, even regardless of where they go, where they end up, they're always looking to come back and share their experiences. Carla Karijolich: Isn't that the truth? Preena Shroff: Yeah. It's so amazing. Actually, you had mentioned finding your professors and connecting with them, and that reminded me that you teach at Northwestern School of Professional Studies. What do you teach and how'd you get into it? Carla Karijolich: Oh, thanks for asking. I teach an undergraduate class in organizational behavior, and it's about training and development, so right in my wheelhouse of what I do. At some point after I finished my master's degree, I thought that was so much fun. I don't necessarily want to do homework, but I would love to teach and give homework. Preena Shroff: Assign homework. Carla Karijolich: Right? There's just so much that I would do, and I would think, wow, I wish I could share this with people who are up-and-coming or who are interested in this field, because that's what the professors did in my graduate program. They did this all day, every day, and they would tell us about what they had done and what worked and what didn't work and so forth. I really just wanted to pay it forward. I told my mentor, the one I told you about through Northwestern Public Interest Program, I said, "Oh, you teach, I want to teach too. How do I do that?" He said, "Oh, you got to tell people. You have to make sure people know you're interested so that if it comes up, they have you in mind." One day, I don't know how much time had lapsed, could have been a year or more, but I remember seeing a post in a LinkedIn group for alumni of my graduate program, and they were looking for someone who could teach a class on training and development, who had a master's degree and had hands-on experience in that field. I could not apply fast enough. I was so excited, and it has been everything I wanted and more. I get to share my experiences and build up this just next generation of talent in the field. I have worked with students who are interested in the topic and interested in making a career change of some kind. I've seen students transition into new jobs after taking my class and taking classes at SPS, so not all attributed to me. I'm just so proud of them, to see somebody developing their skills and really making that effort and then succeeding. It's a huge point of pride for me. I'm so honored when people ask me to write them a letter of rec or be a reference, and then I see them in this new role and excelling. For me, ultimately, I would love to work with my former students because I want to work with other talented, hardworking, intelligent people. I feel like I'm helping put that out in the world, and someday they're going to recommend me or be my friends for something. Then my work is truly done. Preena Shroff: Yeah, Carla, your class sounds awesome. How can I sign up? Carla Karijolich: It is. Actually, you can take it as a student-at-large, or if you are an SPS student. It's an elective within organizational behavior, but I'm already thinking that I would love to teach other topics too. I don't know, maybe someone who's looking for a co-teacher... If anyone can make a PowerPoint deck, it's me. Preena Shroff: That's great. You mentioned that you were able to get connected with this role because of LinkedIn. I guess I was kind wondering how has social media shaped your path in other ways, just who you've been able to keep in touch with, or if you've used it to get closer with any other career choice or something like that? Carla Karijolich: Oh my goodness, this is such a good question. Social media, and particularly LinkedIn, have probably changed my life. I was looking for a new position, and I saw a job on LinkedIn and I applied. I was in the process, and I went through so many interviews. I thought I was interviewing to be an executive or something. It was just the scrutiny and the number of interviews. Then I got to the very end, I interviewed with the final boss, as it were, and that person looked at my LinkedIn profile probably while we were talking, and then shot a message over to a mutual connection. It was someone I had done a group project with grad school, and that was our relationship, was having been grad students on a project. He asked this person, "What do you know about Carla?" Basically asking to vet me, and he vouched for me, and I got the job and has worked out. It's been tremendous. Just one person that I connected with, I don't even remember if he requested me, I probably requested him to be honest, but because of that one connection, that person vouched for me. So you never know, but I would say take care of those connections. You never know who will speak up for you or vouch for you. You don't know the kind of impression that you leave on people too. You work with someone on a project and they see that you're organized and you have your little spreadsheet and that you do the things that you say you're going to do, that means a lot. Take care of those relationships. For anyone who is skeptical of group projects, look, a group project got me a job. Preena Shroff: I guess it's really cool how, first of all, you can build that connection and then maintain it online, and then someone else can look at that and just build off of that on their perception of your character. I guess every relationship you form really matters when you're applying. Carla Karijolich: Yes. It's so funny because when you're in class, you're wearing jeans and you're taking notes furiously, but you don't know that in that moment you're working with somebody who eventually could end up influencing you or helping you. That's a wonderful thing. I think as Northwestern alumni, the fact that we can count on each other like that is really special. Preena Shroff: For sure. Kind of taking a pivot here with another question I had for you in terms of obstacles or challenges that you've overcome throughout your career. What obstacles have you had and did your time at Northwestern impact your approach to solving the problem in any way? Carla Karijolich: Everyone has challenges in their career, and the biggest one for me that I can think of is making that transition to becoming a working mom. I had my first child, and when I had to go back to work, it was an uphill climb. There's so much you have to learn as a new mother. You have to learn how to take care of your baby, take care of yourself. If you are nursing that child, you will have to learn about how to do that, pumping. Hopefully, maybe there's a working mother listening to this now, kind of nodding her head. It is so, so challenging to get into a new routine. You have a new human being who depends on you in your life, and after making that transition, you have to go back to work. That was so hard. It is so different to walk into the office with those fresh new responsibilities in your personal life and then go back to work. You're not the same. On top of that, I kind of got shuffled around after having been gone for a few months. That can happen. When you go on leave, you come back into a new role, maybe that new role isn't a good fit for you. That was very challenging for me to have to be shuffled like that. I had to really reflect on that and think about how do I improve this situation? I think that Northwestern was actually a big part of me making that transition, because my experience as an undergrad was all about trying new things, being resilient, and really developing that self-belief. I'm also still close to my friends from undergrad. I still talk to them. Every day we have a group chat. I'm still talking to these people, and they were just so supportive of me. Some of them had been through the same transition, and that just bedrock of support on top of my family and my husband was so, so important. What I was able to really realize is that I had outgrown what I was doing. Even if the situation was difficult, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing because the situation was telling me, "You need to find a new path. You need to have the courage to make that change." So I took that risk of looking for a new job, really looking for something that I would enjoy doing, and that would give me the ability to grow and progress in my career. I was able to find that, and it's worked out really well. This is the job that my former classmate had vouched for me for. I think ultimately I had that foundation of support and confidence to move on into the next chapter, and I'm so glad that I did. Preena Shroff: Yeah. Wow. It's amazing that there's no challenge, and then there's no one pinpoint where you can be like, "Oh, this class, this moment taught me what I needed to know on how to approach this challenge." It's more of like, it's who you built or how you built upon yourself over your time at Northwestern that led you to survive or keep moving forward through the challenge. Carla Karijolich: Yes, absolutely. It's all of the experiences that come together to make you who you are. I had mentioned earlier when I was in the Peer Health Exchange program and I had to get up and talk in front of those high school freshmen about rape and sexual assault, that was tough. I was just trying to make sure that they were paying attention to me and not laughing at me. In one of the interviews that I did, I had to do a presentation. I had to create a presentation from scratch and present to this interview panel and basically do a training to show them how do I create content? How do I train? It went really well. I was able to blow them away because always in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, they're not high school freshmen. I got this right. We're not talking about anything scary. To this day, just so many of these different things that I learned or that I did as an undergrad payoff to give me that confidence that I need. Preena Shroff: Yeah. Wow. Well, thank you so much for sharing your experience and your path, and it was really amazing to hear about your time at Northwestern and how that's helped you find your way today. Thank you for joining us today. Carla Karijolich: Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Preena Shroff: Have a great day, everyone. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Weinberg in the World.

This special episode features the most recent edition of Weinberg College's faculty speaker series “Conversation with the Dean.” This event series is designed to deliver insights into cutting-edge research and teaching from faculty experts around the College. The events are offered live to Weinberg College Leadership Society donors with a real-time Q&A. In this conversation, Professor of English Chris Abani and Dean Adrian Randolph discuss “ubuntu,” a concept that recognizes our interconnectedness, the importance of an English major in today's world, and the Program in African Studies, which holds the largest collection of African and Africana books and artifacts outside of Africa.  Weinberg College Leadership Giving Society: https://giving.northwestern.edu/s/1479/282-giving/21/interior3.aspx?pgid=7407&gid=282   Explore more "Conversations with the Dean": https://weinberg.northwestern.edu/after-graduation/for-alumni/conversations-with-the-dean/

This special episode features the most recent edition of Weinberg College's faculty speaker series “Conversation with the Dean.” This event series is designed to deliver insights into cutting-edge research and teaching from faculty experts around the College. The events are offered live to Weinberg College Leadership Society donors with a real-time Q&A. In this conversation, Professor of Chemistry Shana Kelley and Dean Adrian Randolph discuss creating new tools to diagnose and treat diseases, the importance of interdisciplinary and translational research at Weinberg College, and the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub: a new and cutting edge collaboration between Northwestern, UChicago, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Weinberg College Leadership Giving Society: https://giving.northwestern.edu/s/1479/282-giving/21/interior3.aspx?pgid=7407&gid=282   Explore more "Conversations with the Dean:" https://weinberg.northwestern.edu/after-graduation/for-alumni/conversations-with-the-dean/shana-kelley.html

This special episode features the most recent edition of Weinberg College's faculty speaker series “Conversation with the Dean.” This event series is designed to deliver insights into cutting-edge research and teaching from faculty experts around the College. The events are offered live to Weinberg College Leadership Society donors with a real-time Q&A. In this conversation, Professor of English Susie Phillips and Dean Adrian Randolph discuss why teaching matters, how asking bold questions can open entire worlds of “speculative possibility” in scholarship, and the power of gossip.   Weinberg College Leadership Giving Society:  http://tinyurl.com/ykn89ep6 Explore more “Conversations with the Dean”: http://tinyurl.com/yc2v4afn

It is our great pleasure and deep honor to host Dr. Marsel Mesulam who is a giant in the field of Neurology and one of founders of OHBM. Dr. Mesulam is Chief of Behavioral Neurology and the Ruth Dunbar Davee Professor of Neuroscience at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and Professor of Behavioral Neurology at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.Dr. Mesulam received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1972, and in 1976 completed residencies at Boston City Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. After a 1 year postdoc at Harvard University he began his tenure in Chicago at Northwestern. Dr. Mesulam's work has been both prodigious and impactful over the years, as his almost 1000 papers have been cited over 140 thousand times. He has written the seminal book, Principles of Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology, and has produced many landmark papers - a few of which we'll discuss in the podcast. One paper that we consider a masterpiece was published in Brain in 1998 and titled From Sensation to Cognition. This can be considered as a required reading for everyone in the field of brain mapping as it lays out so concisely and eloquently, a breathtaking perspective of the structure and functional organization of the human brain. Dr. Mesulam's research is extremely broad and diverse, having impacted such areas as neural networks and functional imaging, Dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA), Cholinergic Pathways, Acetylcholinesterase Studies, Cognitive Psychology, Neurology, and Neuropsychiatry. He also developed, early in his career, a neuronal marker, Tetramethyl benzidine, that profoundly impacted research in this area. In this inspiring conversation, Peter and Marsel discuss his early career and what was important for his success, delve into research culture and the value of opportunistic research, and the value of having the freedom and resources to try many things and rapidly change directions that follow interesting leads. They also discuss some of the exciting early days of Neuroimaging and OHBM. Lastly, we go into some of his current research on Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) and the study of temporal pole disease as a window to temporal pole functional significance. We hope that you enjoy this conversation. Episode producers:Alfie WearnOmer Faruk Gulban

About Kaveh Safavi:Kaveh helps organizations harness the promise of technology and human ingenuity to humanize healthcare. He works with providers, health insurers, and public and private health systems in the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. A seasoned executive, Dr. Safavi brings more than three decades of leadership experience to Accenture Health. Prior to joining Accenture in 2011, Dr. Safavi led Cisco's healthcare practice. Before that, he was chief medical officer of Thomson Reuters' health business, vice president of medical affairs at United Healthcare, and had leadership roles at HealthSpring and Humana. Among his many accomplishments was establishing one of the Midwest's first electronic-health-record-enabled primary care practices.Dr. Safavi has published numerous papers and is often interviewed and quoted on his expert healthcare knowledge in various media publications, including The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, The New York Times, Consumer Reports, US News and World Report, Harvard Business Review, and The Economist. He earned an M.D. from Loyola University School of Medicine and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law and completed a residency in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical Center. An adjunct lecturer of Health Enterprise Management at Kellogg School of Management-Northwestern University, Dr. Safavi also serves on the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences' Board of Visitors–at Northwestern University, is a member of the Easterseals National Board of Directors and is a lifelong ChicagoanThings You'll Learn:The power asymmetry between doctors and patients in healthcare needs to be balanced. Empowering patients and harnessing technology can humanize healthcare and create a better care system.Generative AI is a game-changer in healthcare. It can save hours of time by automating language-based tasks like reading, writing, and content creation. This frees up healthcare professionals to focus on higher-value work.Generative AI has tremendous potential to address workforce challenges in healthcare. By augmenting or substituting certain tasks, it can help bridge the gap amidst a scarcity of healthcare professionals. Responsible use of generative AI and clear guidance are crucial to avoid potential risks and ensure patient safety.Resources:Connect with and follow Kaveh Safavi on LinkedIn.Follow Accenture on LinkedIn.Visit the Accenture website here.

This special episode features the most recent edition of Weinberg College's faculty speaker series “Conversation with the Dean.” This event series is designed to deliver insights into cutting-edge research and teaching from faculty experts around the College. The events are offered live to Weinberg College Leadership Society donors with a real-time Q&A. In this conversation, Professor of History and Director of the Latina and Latino Studies Program, Gerry Cadava and Dean Adrian Randolph discuss the meaning of diversity in the United States through the lens of Latino identity, as our nation approaches its 250th anniversary.   Weinberg College Leadership Giving Society: https://giving.northwestern.edu/s/1479/282-giving/21/interior3.aspx?pgid=7407&gid=282   Explore more “Conversations with the Dean”: https://weinberg.northwestern.edu/after-graduation/for-alumni/conversations-with-the-dean/ 

Three members of Northwestern University's delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) reflect on their experiences at the event, which was held November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.Niloufar Sarvian is a PhD candidate in Earth and planetary sciences at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Regan Seckel is a JD candidate in the Pritzker School of Law and Reynaldo Morales, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Northwestern University with a joint faculty appointment with the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and the Buffett institute for Global Affairs.

This episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast features a conversation with Mai Sistla ‘14, who is currently a Deputy Director at the Aspen Tech Policy Hub after Graduating from Northwestern with an Economics Major and a Global Health Studies Minor. Mai shares insights on Important Classes, Extracurriculars, Connections, Grad School, Working in Tech Policy, Good Fellowships, and the Arts & Sciences Background. For more information about the fellowship discussed by Mai during the podcast, click below: http://www.corofellowship.org/ Timestamps: 0:40: Student Experience and Pivoting Majors 4:30: Extracurriculars and Important Connections 8:15: Path to Grad School 14:15: Working in Tech Policy 19:00: Projects in Tech Policy 22:40: Good Opportunities out of Undergrad 24:05: Arts & Sciences Background

This episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast features a conversation with Prashant Bhayani, who is currently the Chief Investment Officer at BNP Paribas after Graduating from Northwestern with an Economics Major. Prashant shares insights on the value of a diverse education, business internships, his first job after a recession, developing a career abroad, his role as a Chief Investment Officer, his small town background, learning to communicate effectively! Timestamps: 1:00: The breadth of options at Weinberg College 4:05: Internships 5:30: First Job 7:10: Transitioning to working overseas 10:30: Working in Asset Management 13:05: Adjusting from a small town and the considerations of a global career 18:10: The Value of Arts & Sciences in Finance 22:50: The Northwestern Network

This episode of the Weinberg in the World Podcast features a conversation with David Ngene '07 who is currently an Innovation Design Director at the NXT Space Kitchen at Nike after Graduating from Northwestern with an Art Theory & Practice Major. David Ngene shares tories about changing majors at Northwestern, the Art Theory & Practice Major, his first job after graduating, heading back to school, working at Nike, the value of an Arts & Sciences Degree, and the experience and memory of being a student athlete! Timestamps: 0:00: Insight Unpacked 2:30: Weinberg College Experience 4:30: Plans Heading into Northwestern 6:25: Changing Majors to Art Theory 11:55: Art Theory and Practice 16:50: After Graduation and First Job 20:20: Deciding to go to Grad School 23:55: Working at Nike 26:45: Learning Design at Weinberg College 30:05: The Impact of being a Student Athlete 33:10: Closing Advice for Students

Alexandra Solomon, PhD, author of Taking Sexy Back, joins us to discuss relational and sexual self-awareness. Solomon is on faculty in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, and is on faculty at The Omega Institute. She is also the author of Loving Bravely. Visit our website at www.newharbinger.com and use coupon code 'Podcast25' to receive 25% off your entire order. Buy the Book: New Harbinger - https://bit.ly/3jyXujl Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1684033462/ Barnes & Noble - https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1130060024 IndieBound - https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781684033461

In this episode, we speak with Professor Regina Schwartz, Law and English professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, respectively. Professor Schwartz speaks about her publications combining the field of law, literature, and religion. We discuss how the three fields are interrelated in broadening the definition of justice, as well as the debate surrounding religion's role in law.

Welcome back to America's leading higher education law podcast, EdUp Legal - part of the EdUp Experience Podcast Network! In this episode, we hear from Dean Hari M. Osofsky, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Hari M. Osofsky is the Dean and Myra James Bradwell Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and Professor of Environmental Policy and Culture at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, positions she has held since summer 2021. Prior to that, she was dean at Penn State Law and Penn State School of International Affairs, serving as a Distinguished Professor of Law, and Professor of International Affairs and of Geography during her four-year tenure at Penn State. Dean Osofsky discusses her reasons for becoming a lawyer and a dean, and for her recent switch to Northwestern during the continuing pandemic. She shares her deep commitment to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social and racial justice, and the numerous roles she has played in advancing collaborative projects across universities and law schools that can address those issues on a systemic level. Dean Osofsky describes her leadership style, the efforts that have aided in keeping a sense of community and gratitude at two different law schools, and her exploration of the intersection of law and technology and how it might address access to justice. She concludes with her expectations for the evolution of legal education in the coming decade. Thank you so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for your EdUp time! Connect with your host - Patty Roberts ● If you want to get involved, leave us a comment or rate us! ● Join the EdUp community at The EdUp Experience! ● Follow EdUp on Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube Thanks for listening!

Welcome back to America's leading higher education law podcast, EdUp Legal - part of the EdUp Experience Podcast Network! In this episode, we hear from Dean Hari M. Osofsky, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. Hari M. Osofsky is the Dean and Myra James Bradwell Professor of Law at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, and Professor of Environmental Policy and Culture at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, positions she has held since summer 2021. Prior to that, she was dean at Penn State Law and Penn State School of International Affairs, serving as a Distinguished Professor of Law, and Professor of International Affairs and of Geography during her four-year tenure at Penn State. Dean Osofsky discusses her reasons for becoming a lawyer and a dean, and for her recent switch to Northwestern during the continuing pandemic. She shares her deep commitment to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and social and racial justice, and the numerous roles she has played in advancing collaborative projects across universities and law schools that can address those issues on a systemic level. Dean Osofsky describes her leadership style, the efforts that have aided in keeping a sense of community and gratitude at two different law schools, and her exploration of the intersection of law and technology and how it might address access to justice. She concludes with her expectations for the evolution of legal education in the coming decade. Thank you so much for tuning in. Join us on the next episode for your EdUp time! Connect with your host - Patty Roberts ● If you want to get involved, leave us a comment or rate us! ● Join the EdUp community at The EdUp Experience! ● Follow EdUp on Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube Thanks for listening!

Returning guest, Dr. Kaveh Safavi, Global Health Lead of Accenture Health, discusses the findings from their 2021 Digital Health Tech Vision report that surveyed 399 healthcare executives across six countries to better understand their view of the impact technology is having on the healthcare industry and what this means for the future. #AccentureHealth #DigitalHealthTechnology Kaveh Safavi, M.D., J.D., is a senior managing director at Accenture where he is responsible for leading, developing, and driving a growth strategy that differentiates Accenture's offerings for providers, health insurers, and public and private health systems across the globe. A seasoned executive, Dr. Safavi brings more than three decades of leadership experience to Accenture Health. Prior to joining Accenture in 2011, Dr. Safavi led Cisco's global healthcare practice. Before that, he was chief medical officer of Thomson Reuters' health business, vice president of medical affairs at United Healthcare, and had leadership roles at HealthSpring and Humana. Among his many accomplishments was establishing one of the Midwest's first electronic-health-record-enabled primary care practices. Dr. Safavi has published numerous papers and is often quoted on healthcare issues in various media publications, including The Wall Street Journal, the BBC, The New York Times, Consumer Reports, US News and World Report, Harvard Business Review and The Economist. Recently, IT Services Report named him the #1 healthcare IT executive for 2020. Dr. Safavi earned an M.D. from Loyola University School of Medicine and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law. He is board-certified in internal medicine and pediatrics and completed his medical residency at the University of Michigan Medical Center. He serves on the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences' Board of Visitors–Northwestern University, is a frequent guest scholar at the Stanford University Clinical Excellence Research Center, and serves on the advisory committee of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. Dr. Safavi is a lifelong Chicagoan.

This sermon is going to educate you on the Spark of Life and How Yahusha was born via Abba Yah without Him committing sin towards Mary. What is the Spark of Life?-Northwestern.edu-2016 All of biology starts at the time of fertilization, yet we know next to nothing about the events that occur in the human. This discovery required a unique partnership between biologists and chemists and non-federal dollars to support the research,” she said. The study was published April 26 in Scientific Reports. As the zinc is released from the egg, it binds to small molecule probes, which emit light in fluorescence microscopy experiments. Thus the rapid zinc release can be followed as a flash of light that appears as a spark. “These fluorescence microscopy studies establish that the zinc spark occurs in human egg biology, and that can be observed outside of the cell,” said Tom O'Halloran, a co-senior author. O'Halloran is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor in Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and director of Northwestern's Chemistry of Life Processes Institute. Eggs compartmentalize and distribute zinc to control the development of a healthy embryo. Why is Zinc Important?-aptaclub.co.uk Zinc, a mineral found in many foods, plays an essential role in the construction of your baby's cells and DNA during pregnancy. It's needed for cell division and tissue growth, supporting normal development as your baby grows When can you hear the babies heart beat?-healthline Your doctor will monitor your baby's heartbeat at each prenatal appointment. You may be able to hear your baby's heartbeat for the first time as early as 6 weeks. Definition of conception- Merriam Webster 1a(1) : the process of becoming pregnant involving fertilization or implantation or both (2) : embryo, fetus b : beginning "Joy had the like conception in our eyes … "— William Shakespeare https://www.thelionstares.com/post/true-word-of-yah-education-the-spark-of-life --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/lions-tares/support

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Paula B. Pretlow. As she describes herself, Paula grew up poor and Black in Oklahoma. Her mom made a huge decision to place Paula and her siblings in a desegregated school with the edict that they will excel. And that is exactly what Paula did. She grew from a poor girl to a very financially successful woman. During the conversation, Paula shares what her relationship with money has been like over the course of her life, including her experience as the breadwinner of the family and ultimately, as a single mom. Among other things, during our conversation, Paula talks about her divorce. This inspired the financial insight at the end of the episode, where we explore an overview of the divorce process. Paula spent her entire career in finance and investment management. She retired from the field in 2011, following 11 years as a senior vice president with The Capital Group.  While at Capital, she led the public fund team and managed her own client base, representing $700B+ in combined assets. Paula began her career at Wells Fargo Bank, before moving to GATX Capital, where she played a pioneering role in the creation of a secondary market in capital equipment leases and lease portfolios. She then transitioned to Wall Street, working on the bond desk at Credit Suisse and later moved into investment management with AXA Rosenberg and subsequently, BlackRock. She holds an MBA in finance and economics from Kellogg School of Management and a BA in political science from Northwestern University, and is a 2017 Fellow of Stanford University's Distinguished Careers Institute. Paula currently serves as a director and trustee on corporate and philanthropic boards, including Bitwise Industries, CION Ares Diversified Credit Fund, Northwestern University, The Kresge Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and her synagogue, Congregation Emanu-El. She co-teaches design thinking at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”). Paula has been recognized with The Women's Legal Defense & Education Fund's Aiming High Award, the National Council of Jewish Women's Outstanding Humanitarian Award and The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools' Wall of Fame Humanitarian Award. Her speaking appearances include Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences convocation and Groundbreakers: Women in Leadership Summit, where she shared the stage with Gloria Steinem and Ali Wentworth. Paula is currently writing stories about her life and has discovered a hidden talent: improv! See all episodes >

In this episode of Money Tales, our guest is Paula B. Pretlow. As she describes herself, Paula grew up poor and Black in Oklahoma. Her mom made a huge decision to place Paula and her siblings in a desegregated school with the edict that they will excel. And that is exactly what Paula did. She grew from a poor girl to a very financially successful woman. During the conversation, Paula shares what her relationship with money has been like over the course of her life, including her experience as the breadwinner of the family and ultimately, as a single mom. Among other things, during our conversation, Paula talks about her divorce. This inspired the financial insight at the end of the episode, where we explore an overview of the divorce process. Paula spent her entire career in finance and investment management. She retired from the field in 2011, following 11 years as a senior vice president with The Capital Group.  While at Capital, she led the public fund team and managed her own client base, representing $700B+ in combined assets. Paula began her career at Wells Fargo Bank, before moving to GATX Capital, where she played a pioneering role in the creation of a secondary market in capital equipment leases and lease portfolios. She then transitioned to Wall Street, working on the bond desk at Credit Suisse and later moved into investment management with AXA Rosenberg and subsequently, BlackRock. She holds an MBA in finance and economics from Kellogg School of Management and a BA in political science from Northwestern University, and is a 2017 Fellow of Stanford University's Distinguished Careers Institute. Paula currently serves as a director and trustee on corporate and philanthropic boards, including Bitwise Industries, CION Ares Diversified Credit Fund, Northwestern University, The Kresge Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and her synagogue, Congregation Emanu-El. She co-teaches design thinking at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the “d.school”). Paula has been recognized with The Women's Legal Defense & Education Fund's Aiming High Award, the National Council of Jewish Women's Outstanding Humanitarian Award and The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools' Wall of Fame Humanitarian Award. Her speaking appearances include Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences convocation and Groundbreakers: Women in Leadership Summit, where she shared the stage with Gloria Steinem and Ali Wentworth. Paula is currently writing stories about her life and has discovered a hidden talent: improv! Learn more about Money Tale$ > Subscribe to the podcast Recent episodes See all episodes > Form CRS Form ADV Terms of Use Privacy Rights and Policies

On the anniversary of Lucille Clifton’s passing, join Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Clifton House in a celebration of her generous spirit and writing. Our esteemed featured speaker is Natasha Trethewey. Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry, Monument (2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award; Thrall (2012); Native Guard (2006), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Bellocq’s Ophelia (2002); and Domestic Work (2000), which was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet and won both the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. She is also the author of the memoir Memorial Drive (2020). Her book of nonfiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, appeared in 2010. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Beinecke Library at Yale, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. At Northwestern University she is a Board of Trustees Professor of English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. In 2012 she was named Poet Laureate of the State of Mississippi and and in 2013 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Recorded On: Saturday, February 13, 2021

January—National Mentoring Month in the United States—brings the launch of a new complement to the Northwestern Network Mentorship Program. The Affinity Leaders and Learners (ALL) Mentorship Program strives to create a unique opportunity for undergraduate students seeking identity-based mentorship. The Northwestern Network is piloting this first run of the program for our Black, Asian and Asian American, and LGBTQ+ students and alumni. The ALL Program has been created in partnership with the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association (NUBAA), Northwestern University Asian and Asian American Alumni (NU-A5), and Northwestern University Pride Alumni Club (NUPAC) with the hope to extend the program to include more underrepresented groups in the future. In this episode, we sit down with the three club liaisons to dive into the details of the program and the impact mentoring has had on their careers and lives. To learn more about the program and how to register please visit mentor.northwestern.edu/programs/affinity. Our liaisons, from left to right: Evan Frost ’17 is an assistant director on the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s annual fundraising team and a graduate of the School of Education and Social Policy (#SESPLove). Before the pandemic you could often find him cheering on the ’Cats at Ryan Field or commuting to and from the holds pickup at your nearest Chicago Public Library branch. Julian Hill ’08 is a community organizer, first, and a clinical teaching fellow with the Georgetown University Law Center’s Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Law Clinic, second. He graduated from the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences where he studied philosophy.  Following Northwestern, he taught high school Spanish with Teach for America in the Los Angeles region before backpacking in Latin America, farming in Uganda, and attending Harvard Law School for his JD. Brad Grams ’17 MA is the principal White House liaison for Environmental Protection Budgeting at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer, where he leads the formulation of the agency’s budget with its senior leaders, as well as The White House and Congress. Outside of his EPA work, Brad is an adjunct lecturer in Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies, where he focuses on research and program evaluation methods in the public sector, and leads their Public Policy and Administration Mentorship Program.

Guest host Eddie Glaude is joined by poet Natasha Trethewey on episode 145 of The Quarantine Tapes. Natasha’s most recent book is her memoir, Memorial Drive. In their conversation, Eddie asks her about the process of writing and releasing that book into this moment of political and social reckoning.Natasha offers a deep look at her process of crafting this book in an emotional and thoughtful episode. She talks about why she found it so important to tell her mother’s story in this book and how she took control of that narrative in her writing process. Eddie and Natasha’s conversation is warm, familiar, and wide-reaching, ranging from comparing gumbo recipes to parsing the role of silence in writing.https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/natasha-trethewey Natasha Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the United States (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry, Monument (2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award; Thrall (2012); Native Guard (2006), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, Bellocq’s Ophelia (2002); and Domestic Work (2000), which was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet and won both the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. She is also the author of the memoir Memorial Drive(2020). Her book of nonfiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, appeared in 2010. She is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Beinecke Library at Yale, and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. At Northwestern University she is a Board of Trustees Professor of English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. In 2012 she was named Poet Laureate of the State of Mississippi and in 2013 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Austin Waldron graduated from Weinberg College in 1978 with a major in psychology. He had originally planned to become a doctor but after a quarter of organic chemistry he sought out other options within the medical field. He had a long and successful career in operations at Health Care Services Corporation before recently retiring. Austin hopes today’s Weinberg College students realize that they too can pursue many paths, regardless of their major or even with a major change part of the way through their Northwestern career. This is one of the reasons why he initially invested and ultimately made a philanthropic gift to name the Waldron Student-Alumni Connections Program. He is thrilled that this is a resource where students can engage with, and hear from, alumni in a wide variety of industries, that were once, where the students stand today. In this episode, we talk about how Austin’s arts and science background helped him move up from where he started in customer service to be a Senior Vice President by the time he retired.

David Leander graduated from Weinberg College in 2010 with a triple major in materials science, economics, and Spanish with a global health minor. He didn’t feel prepared to go to medical school right after Northwestern but after working in the public health industry for a few years he decided to go back to pursue an MD/MBA. He is now a resident physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. We talk about why he wanted to major in three seemingly different fields, how his time after graduation in the public health industry led him to pursue an MD/MBA, and his advice for students interested in medical school, even if through nontraditional means. Learn more at Weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron or email us at waldron@northwestern.edu.

Naomi Joyce Bang graduated from Weinberg College in 1981 with a double major in Political Science and French. Joyce later became a human rights and human trafficking attorney as well as a law school professor. We talk about a Northwestern experience abroad that changed her path forever, some of her most interesting and impactful projects oversees, and her advice for students looking to pursue either law school or something different. Learn more at Weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron or email us at waldron@northwestern.edu.

For years, students at Northwestern have been pushing the University to reckon with its history and complicity in settler colonialism. One of their principal demands? A program in Native American and Indigenous Studies. This program is now set to launch as a minor in Weinberg College. PATTY LOEW: Native Americans are one of the invisible... The post Defining Safe: The Path to a Minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies appeared first on The Daily Northwestern.

Kathryn Haydon graduated from Weinberg College in 1999 with a major in Spanish. After a long career in the education space, Kathryn is now an author and speaker who helps people develop creative thinking and problem-solving skills. We talk about how she picked her major, some of the surprising ways her major helped propel her career, and how we can still be creative during a very stressful time. Learn more at Weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron or email us at waldron@northwestern.edu.

Steve Greenspon graduated from Weinberg College in 1991 with a major in political science. After graduating from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management in 2009, he became the Founder, Owner and Chief Executive Officer of Honey-Can-Do-International, a multi-national manufacturer of consumer products. We talk about his time at Northwestern in the political science department, how the interdisciplinary education helps him build relationships in his work today, and how leaders can prepare for & adapt to crisis situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more at Weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron or email us at waldron@northwestern.edu.

Jeanne Sparrow graduated from Weinberg College in 1991 with a major in psychology. After graduating from Northwestern again in 2015 with a Masters in Communication, she became a member of the MSC faculty in the School of Communication and is currently a speaker, consultant, and 3-time Emmy-winning television and radio personality. We talk about the experiences at Northwestern that started her career in radio, how her arts and science background plays out in her work today, and the similarities & differences between her experience in radio on 9/11 and now during the current global health crisis. Learn more at Weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron or email us at waldron@northwestern.edu.

Rachel Shine graduated from Weinberg College in 2013 with a major in English. She later pursued a Masters in Social Work and she is currently a therapist in her own private practice. We talk about a defining experience at Northwestern that led her to pursue a career in therapy, the various aspects to her work that she enjoys and finds challenging, along with her recommendations for self-care during this particularly challenging time. Learn more at Weinberg.northwestern.edu and search for Waldron or email us at waldron@northwestern.edu.

James Rosenbaum is a professor of human development, social policy, and sociology at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a faculty fellow at the Institute for Policy Research. VEDP President and CEO Stephen Moret spoke with Rosenbaum about how the traditional college model fails some students and what can be done to make it work better.

Happy Tuesday, singles!  We have an incredible guest expert episode for your February blahs.  Whether Valentine's Day has found you getting your groove on or Netflix-and-chillin' solo, renowned clinical psychologist Dr. Alexandra Solomon is here to share her uplifting and profound wisdom on reclaiming your sexuality as a thing of value and cultivating it in a way that feels authentic and aligned to you.   We are honored to have Dr. Solomon join us to talk about her new book Taking Sexy Back (a companion book to her acclaimed Loving Bravely: Twenty Lessons of Self-Discovery to Help You Get the Love You Want) which sets out to dismantle the often conflicting, shame-inducing, and disempowering messages about sex instilled in us from birth in a patriarchal system.  Instead, Dr. Solomon encourages us to connect with our true sexual selves by taking "sexy" as an adjective and turning it into a noun, something you own that is yours.   From incomplete sex educations, why women fake orgasms, sexual shame for men, and non-relationship hookup sex, we cover a ton of ground to investigate how the broken parts of our culture prove a disservice to the beauty that is your gorgeous, sexual self.  Get ready for a deep dive look into your sexual story.     Alexandra H. Solomon, PhD, is on faculty in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. She is a licensed clinical psychologist at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, and is on faculty at The Omega Institute. Her first book, Loving Bravely, was featured on The Today Show. She writes articles and chapters for leading academic journals and books in the field of marriage and family. She maintains a psychotherapy practice for individual adults and couples, teaches and trains marriage and family therapy graduate students, and teaches the internationally renowned undergraduate course, “Building Loving and Lasting Relationships: Marriage 101.” Solomon is a highly sought-after speaker who works with groups like the United States Military Academy at West Point, Microsoft, and the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. She is frequently asked to talk about love, sex, and marriage for media outlets like O, The Oprah Magazine; The Atlantic; Vogue; NPR; and Scientific American. She is an international speaker and teacher whose work has been featured on five continents. She lives in the Greater Chicago Area.   Buy Dr. Solomon's phenomenal book here!

Anastacia Montgomery is a PhD student at Northwestern in the department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She’s also a member of the Climate Change Research group. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/idris-sunmola/support

In this episode of The Italian American Podcast, we talk with Robert Orsi, who is the first holder of the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies at Northwestern University. Robert discusses what inspired him to write his book, The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem. He expands on the experiences of immigration and community formation, Italian-American Catholicism, as well as traditional Italian feasts. In our Stories Segment, Dolores sits around the table with several women in her family to talk about dreams, dream interpretation, and how Southern-Italian women have used both to strengthen, guide, and nourish their lives and the lives of their families. About our guest…Robert Orsi Robert Orsi is the first holder of the Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies. Professor Orsi studies American religious history and contemporary practice; American Catholicism in both historical and ethnographic perspective; and he is widely recognized also for his work on theory and method for the study of religion. In 2002-2003, he was president of the American Academy of Religion. Professor Orsi has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Fulbright Foundation. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010 he received the E. Leroy Hall Award for Teaching Excellence, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University, the highest recognition for teaching offered by WCAS. Episode Sponsors The National Italian American Foundation

John Musker, 1975 Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences graduate and Disney animation legend, discusses his work on Disney's latest movie, "Moana."

This week: Philip von Zweck sits down to talk with artist and educator Kelly Kaczynski. GO CHECK OUT HER SHOW AT THE COLLEGE OF DUPAGE-GAHLBERG GALLERY! I heart the Gahlberg Gallery. Kelly Kaczynski: Study for Convergence Performance (ice)Jan.19 to Feb. 25, 2012Study for Convergence Performance (ice) is the second work in a series that seeks to conflate the artist's studio as a performative site of production, the space of display as the reception of image, and landscape as site for epic but apathetic metaphor. It uses the devices of the theatrical stage and the green screen; both of which operate as a "non-space" that allows the conflation of multiple contexts or sites. She uses imagery from landscapes that shift in time, such as bodies of water including glacier fields. The title of the piece refers to Robert Smithson's idea of "the range of convergence between site and non-site" whereas the land from the originating site is placed in the container of the non-site. In Study for Convergence Performance, the site of origin and the sign of site converge as they transpose in a collapse of time. Kelly Kaczynski is an assistant professor and assistant chair in the Department of Art Theory & Practice at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University.  Kelly is a sculptor and installation artist. Her work, while existing in a temporal-spatial platform, is deeply materials based. She received an MFA from Bard College in 2003 and a BA from The Evergreen State College in 1995. She has exhibited with threewalls, Chicago; Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago; University of Buffalo Art Gallery, NY; Rowland Contemporary, Chicago; Triple Candie, NY; the Islip Art Museum, NY; Cristinerose/Josee Bienvenu Gallery, NY; DeCordova Museum, MA; 123 Watts Gallery, NY; and the Boston Center for the Arts, MA. Kaczynski's work was included in the Boston Drawing Project at Bernard Toale Gallery, Boston. Public installations include projects with the Main Line Art Center, Haverford, Pennsylvania; the Interfaith Center of New York; the Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston and the Boston National Historic Parks; and the Boston Public Library. Kaczynski has taught at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and University of Chicago.