future callings
The Future Callings Project @ the Simon's Rock Annex is an an interactive umbrella project designed to address the question of what Simon's Rock students do in this world, and what worlds are awaiting them.
Continuing with THE JAM from fall 2020, where our focus was on callings to politics understood in deep and rich ways through improvising on Denise DaSilva and Valentina Desideri's "political therapy," practice we decided to continue to riff, and place that practice into a larger project about our wider vocations in the world. We want Simon’s Rock (and wider Bard early college network) students to learn from alumni and friends how they have navigated the entwined questions of expertise, skill, commitment, practice, and calling in their post-SR lives, and especially in carving out unique and meaningful career paths. We are going to try to give our own spin to what speaking about meaningful, committed, and sustainable worldmaking work in the world looks like, especially as we confront an upending of most assumptions about “the future” during this pandemic (many we should not have held to begin with!).
Join us at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/95620223260?pwd=OW15cEVGZVB4NFBwa3FYMHkzVHpxQT09
Meeting ID: 956 2022 3260
Passcode: callings
LATEESHA THOMAS is a conference organizer and speaker, occasional web developer, and workplace diversity & inclusion advocate. She left her role managing global partnerships for Google's Women Techmakers initiative to co-found Onramp, a venture-backed startup that helps companies integrate upskilling into the recruiting process to expand their pipeline of engineering talent. Prior to Google, she was the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at Dev Bootcamp, where she developed programs and products aimed at fostering a transparent, inclusive, equitable and empathetic culture in technology.
PATRICK EWING is a college dropout with a found his start as a computer programmer while working at (but never attending) Simon’s Rock. His unusual career path was shaped by a lifelong love of learning, a pretty intense learning disability, and a gradual discovery of what learning styles worked for him. At Simon’s Rock, he got his start as an autodidact by learning from some very generous, brilliant and kind people in the IT department, and after a few years coding for tiny startup companies and learning along the way, he somehow managed to get hired as one of the first 20 software engineers at Twitter. He later moved onto coding and designing video games like Firewatch, and then starting his own company to create the game Neo Cab about the last human gig worker in a cyberpunk dystopia. Lately he’s been working as a product designer at Netflix, making interactive television experiences.
SCOTT SHENKER spent his academic youth studying theoretical physics but soon gave up chaos theory for computer science. Continuing to display a remarkably short attention span, his research over the years has wandered from performance modeling and networking to game theory and economics. Unable to focus on any single topic, his current research projects include software-defined networking, network function virtualization, network algorithms and protocols, cluster programming models, and Internet architecture. Unable to hold a steady job, he currently splits his time between the UC Berkeley Computer Science Division and the International Computer Science Institute.
SHANNA GREGORY (she/her) is the Global Leadership Director at Women Who Code, a global non-profit dedicated to inspiring women to excel in technology careers. She enjoys working at the intersection of volunteering, technology, community, and inclusion. Her previous roles include launching the Grace Hopper Program, a deferred tuition web development bootcamp for women+, and product manager (and unofficial recipe tester) at America’s Test Kitchen. After moving across the country three times in ten years, Shanna is currently based in Massachusetts.
The Jam #8: Migrants to the World of Computer Science
With guest speakers Lateesha Thomas, Patrick Ewing, Prof. Scott Shenker, and Shanna Gregory.
We discussed careers in tech and computer science in an age when technology is developing at every second and how we adapt to the available job market.
The Jam #7: Is Hell Others? The Artist Within and Without Society
With guest speakers Adam Miller, Nay Harris, Pyae Moe Thet War, and Sara Katzoff we talk about the intricacies of creating art in a society as complex as the one we live in, especially in the context of the pandemic.
In response we talked to Aimee Michel and Dien Vo about their role as artists and educators in the Simon's Rock community.
The Jam #6: Finding Place, Making Space
With guest speakers Alex Theran, André Santana, Colin Eubank, and Paul Kramer we discussed issues of how where we are affects what we do and how we feel about how we do it.
The Jam #5: Public Health as a Vocation
With guest speakers James Krellenstein, Sarah Abusaa, Maya Malik, and Shirlee Xie
As we discussed a career in public health during a global pandemic, the panelists explored such topics as healthcare accessibility, the pharmaceutical empire, personal well-being when seeing injustice and pain on a daily basis, and more.
In response...
In response to our Future Callings conversation with our guest speakers, we invite faculty and staff of Simon's Rock to discuss what they believe was most important to salvage from the Jam.
Convocations #2
Talking to Dien Vo and Aimée Michel in response to the
Jam #7
Convocations #1
Talking to Manat Wooten and Sherri Brown in response to the Jam #5
