The largest climate march in history took place Sept. 21 in countries all over the world, with more than 400,000 protesters marching in New York City alone. I am so proud to say that I was among them, alongside more than 200 students from Princeton and tens of thousands of other passionate students from around the country.

I remember that when I was younger, my mom and dad would often take my brother and me to marches: anti-war marches, immigrants' rights marches and labor rights marches, to name a few. I remember feeling the sense of solidarity and pride in exercising our freedom to speak out on the issues we care about. The People's Climate March really captured this atmosphere and energy that impacted me as a child, and I especially appreciated the march as a concrete response to an issue that oftentimes appears intangible.

The march itself came at an interesting time in the first few weeks of the semester. One of my classes this fall is called "Measuring Climate Change: Methods in Data Analysis and Scientific Writing." Just two days before the march, I had actually turned in a draft for my first paper in the class, and the focus of this first paper was on communicating climate change. Before we start actually analyzing data, which will consume the rest of this semester, the intention of this assignment was to force us to think about the history of the rhetoric on climate change and how we might craft our own argument on the issue.

In the wake of the march, it isn't any easier for me to talk about climate change than it has been for the hundreds of scientists and activist who have struggled to effectively communicate the results and implications of climate science. I could not have asked, however, for a better opportunity to combine a passion for activism on the issue of climate change with an equal passion for understanding it in an academic context.

So I have a few brothers and sisters, three of whom went to college before me. Every time one of my older siblings headed off, my parents would find a stuffed animal that matched the mascot of the new school, then pop it on one of their pillows as some affectionate decoration.

Part 2 of my summer update! See Part 1 here.

While the previous post looked more directly at my project, a great part of my Dale experience lies in my day to day life in New York City. As I'm heading home soon and my time in the city comes to a close, let me share some highlights.

My Home Base

Going into this summer, I was excited not only to be able to work on my project, but also to pretend I'm that archetypal young artist, striking it out in the big city alone.

Thanks to the Dale's help, I've gotten to live my artistic escapades without the struggles of a true starving artist. I've been staying in the Markle Residence, a really sweet building right around the West Village.

Along with my project and class exercises, I've also been able to explore some of the million little art, reading and writing projects I always have fluttering around my head.

It's been really fun and helpful to have time to mess around, figure out my style, and develop in my art and writing. 

The neighborhood around my residence is really beautiful. Some of the best walks in NYC are right down the street.

CMA

When Dana, my super cool boss at the Princeton Cotsen Children's Library, found I was going to be in NYC, she connected me with the Children's Museum of the Arts (CMA). I'm so glad she did—I've ended up at CMA a few times a week this summer and have loved it.

I've been helping with the marketing department, writing some promotional material and CMA blogs (I could write blogs for life), or going around the museum to photograph the kids at work in the various art rooms. I've even been sent along on a few of their outings to photograph and gather writing content, but basically I felt like one of the giddy kids running around on the field trip.

My time at CMA has been the perfect complement to my Dale summer. It's allowed me to share my skills and time with a really cool organization, plus get that extra creative boost from being around totally uninhibited kids doing art.

New York

I've lived my life in a places very unlike NYC, so every day here has been an adventure. I'll share some highlights of my wandering, sometimes done with friends in and around the city, sometimes just on my own. This portion will probably reveal to you New Yorkers (and everyone else) what an absolute tourist I am, but since that's not really a secret, no shame.

Subways

I remember the first time I was navigating the subway myself. I had filled up my Metro card, not fallen onto the tracks and was conducting myself like a person with a cool place to go and a cool mind to get me there.

As I stood there, on my way across New York, learning to let my body sway with the jolting of the car, accidentally on the uptown instead of downtown train but blending in calmly, I just remember feeling inside,

Two months later, I'm still not over subways. They're the best.

Parks

I really like walking and people watching, so I have definitely hit up a lot of parks around the city. Someone once asked me if I was a serial killer because I was sketching people from a distance, but for the most part, I've just been able to float around and soak in the sites.

In Central Park, I was once walking behind someone on the phone and heard him say, "I'm walking by a rock with children climbing on it." 

I think Union Square, which is near my housing, is my favorite. I can go there to read in the lawn or see something cool, since there's always someone dancing, playing music, blowing bubbles, selling poems typed fresh from a robin-egg blue typewriter, something neat like that.

In general, it's just cool to see people hanging out and...

....just...doing their thing.

Pigeons

I know city pigeons have a reputation of being gross, but I really like birds and haven't found New York's to be an exception to my affection.

Other sites

There's just so much to see around the city. While I haven't even scratched the surface this summer, I have seen some pretty cool things.

One time at Grand Central Terminal, I found the most adorable bridal party ever classy-ing up the place.

My roomie Alissa came out for my birthday, and we had all sorts of adventures around tea houses, MoMA, and Times Square.

Also went to see Aladdin on Broadway, which was AMAAAZZIIINNGGGG

Another time, I rode down to the Brooklyn Museum with my buddy Audrey. They have some pretty crazy cool exhibits, including one by Ai Wei Wei now. My favorite was the corner with two bowls, full of pearls.

Checked out the Met and found one of the most overachieving instruments ever.

The Brooklyn Botanic Gardens are also amazing.

Endless green, rose gardens, mini bonsai lemons; what more could you want?

One of the most amazing exhibits I've been to this summer and possibly in my life has been the New York Public Libary's The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter.

I have very strong feelings for Margaret Wise Brown and Clement Hurd's Goodnight Moon, so...

Also met this cool guy there.

Wrapping Up

My time living in NYC has undoubtedly been awesome. The city is not that far from Princeton, so I'm sure I'll be back, but it still seems that after such a great experience here, the ending has come way too quickly.

Goodbye Metro! Goodbye square! Goodbye pigeons everywhere!

 

I'm spending this summer working at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) and staying on Princeton's campus.

This evening, I’m sitting on an overlook in Södermalm, a neighborhood of Stockholm. Across the water sits City Hall, the stately red brick building famous for being the venue of the annual Nobel Prize banquet. The building and the award program it houses, often considered the pinnacle achievement for those working in the life sciences, literature or economics, brings forth images of the upper echelons of academia, of brilliant professors and expensive labs. Though the number of Nobel laureates employed by a university is often touted as the metric for measuring their quality, my preparations for my summer abroad have shown me that what truly makes a learning environment remarkable, such as that found at Princeton, is a faculty and student body that is enthusiastic, open-minded and approachable.

It was back in late March when I received an email from the International Internship Office informing me that I had been awarded a scholarship to spend eight weeks of my summer working for a member of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm. My summer work would include conducting research and facilitating a seminar about macroeconomic policy. I was advised to start thinking about the project, as it was completely up to me to choose the topic. 

Realizing that my knowledge of Scandinavian economic policy consisted of little more than the smattering of information I’d picked up from The Economist, I decided to call in the big guns. I fired off a few emails to Princeton professors with expertise in the area.

I was surprised by the response rate–all the professors emailed me back almost immediately, and by the end of the week, I walked out of my fourth meeting with an accumulated five pages of topic proposals. Each professor was incredibly helpful and took the time to explain the background and significance of suggested topics (who knew that a recent surge in Swedish nationalism might lead to tougher immigration laws that could threaten entrepreneurial growth in the country). I had walked into meetings with these well-established economists and political scientists completely directionless, with nothing but a vague understanding of Sweden’s “middle way.” I walked out with a firm grasp of many of the issues facing the country.

It wasn’t just professors who helped prepare me for a summer abroad. In May, I was introduced to Johanna, a Princeton senior from southern Sweden. I was immediately blown away by how enthusiastic and helpful she was in offering advice. She quickly arranged a dinner for me and a few other Princeton students who would be spending the summer in Sweden. She came to the dinner with cultural information she thought would be important for us to know. She told us to “never, ever wear your shoes inside someone’s house,” and that “you have to try Kalles–fish eggs in a tube–but only once. Then never again.” She then turned over a contact list of her childhood friends who now live in Stockholm and who had already agreed to show us the city.

Finally, she invited all of us–four students who she had only just met–for a weekend trip to her house in Southern Sweden. It was an offer we enthusiastically accepted, and a trip we took during one of our first weeks in Sweden. It was a fantastic time. She took us swimming in the North Sea, rappelling on the Kullaberg peninsula, and even hiking through the forest to visit the illegally constructed, interactive sculpture, Nimis. The trip was an amazing opportunity not only to get to see a different part of Sweden, but also a chance to learn about Swedish social and economic issues from an entirely new angle.

While the Stockholm City Hall is a striking building, and while I’m sure the Nobel banquet is spectacular, I realize that any significant evaluation of a university based on such lofty criteria as the number of noble laureates it employs is almost useless. Being around faculty members who will respond to a cold call email and welcome me into their offices and explaining the ins and outs of industrial conglomeration, or around students willing to spend hours helping me translate Swedish political websites is just so much more important.

Happy summer from New York City!! I hope you all are doing awesome and have been enjoying fast-flying golden months of the year.

Martin A. Dale '53 Summer Award

So at the end of last school year, I applied for one of the summer Dale Awards. It's a scholarship that encourages students to pursue a personal project, something you love or have always wanted to do. Rather than stipulating a certain final required outcome, the award is more about the project experience and the fruit of growth and exploration that blooms from it. Basically, the Dale spurs you to go and live the summer of your dreams. Not bad, not bad.

The Proposal

I have been fortunate enough to be one of the 15 sophomores taking this summer to pursue a project with the help of the Dale Award. My proposal entailed writing and illustrating adventures about growing up as one of six siblings in Hawaii and the Middle East.

Being a huge fan of that famous novel about the Gilbreth family, I entitled my proposal "Cheaper by the Half-Dozen." You don't know how long I had waited to use that title. (Years. For real.)

The proposal was spurred by a few things

• I really, really love my family and could write about them forever.
• My older siblings are scattering around the world, my parents and little sisters are now living in a whole different continent, there are new people living in our old home in Oahu, and I don't know if I'll ever make it back to Bahrain. My childhood was about as awesome as childhoods go, and knowing I can't go back to these places and times is kind of bittersweet

This is the most depressing thing ever, Aliisa! 

But the great thing is, it's not. Memory can be looked at as sweet past melted into nothingness, or as a celebration of an awesome backstory that brings me to who I am today and will forever fuel who I am becoming. And that's something to celebrate.

So what I wanted to do this summer was to write, collect and illustrate stories and memories of growing up. My proposal placed me in New York City, where I could take courses at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) as I illustrated stories this summer and in the days ahead. Plus, what better place for creative inspiration than the Big Apple?

The Project

While I initially set about trying to do longer narratives and involved illustrations, a thousand other details and moments would come pouring in every time I tried. I found myself stifling the little things for the sake of clarity, but pretty soon realized this defeated my purpose. The past come in snapshots, instances and images, scattered pieces of blue and the smell of sun-baked brick.This project was not to shape my life into a comprehensive arc, but rather to gather memories pure and uncontrived. 

I see it like this: My wealth of memory comes not in one giant check, but in a whole lot of bright, winking coins.

And I want to collect them all.

So I've since set up a site to post writing and drawings and make it easy for my family members to submit their own memories ("drop a coin in the bucket"). Just about every day, I've been writing and illustrating my own entries or ones submitted by my family.

Some are stories, some are recollections about a single object, some about the general feel of a place. A few sample topics:

Stories and memories centered around the box turtles who lived in our little backyard (we had nine of them at one point).

Stories and memories about playing in the tide pools, each their own little universe of life for us to explore.

Classic Lee family stories, like that time our neighbor Bobby snuck through the back fence pretending to be a monster and startling my brother Anders so badly, he beat Bobby over the head with a giant Omagle stick. Good times, good times!

The process has been fantastic. I get to draw and write with no pressure to make things perfect, but with a motivation  to capture the feeling remembered. All eight of us have been getting a kick out of reminiscing and recollecting. It's really special to take this pause in my life, somewhere between childhood and full-fledged adulthood, and lovingly record and illustrate some very blessed, very fun days. 

The Classes

Part of my project entailed taking classes at the Cartooning and Illustration department of the School of Visual Arts to supplement my abilities in art. There were some adventures at the start of the summer with course offerings, but the classes I've ended up with have been perfect.

One of the classes is taught by Tristan Elwell, who actually illustrated the cover to some of my favorite books growing up. The course serves as a comprehensive rundown of basically everything art, from perspective to the human form, to color to composition and storytelling. It's designed to be helpful at all levels, from people who are just beginning to dabble in the art, to professionals who want to fill in gaps in their ability or sharpen their knowledge. In the class, I've done a lot of really helpful theory and figure drawing in pencil, while applying our assignments to digital art.

The second class focuses on the art of the graphic novel, taught by cartoonist and illustrator C.M. Butzer. The class focuses on aspects of comics or visual storytelling, a look into the industry and the creation of our own short comics under the instruction and guidance of our instructor and peers. I haven't done much in comic form before, so this was a really nice way to poke my head into that world. My project is a little fiction about a fisherman's daughter who finds herself in a desert kingdom. I wonder where the inspiration for those worlds came from?

Both of these classes have been amazing not only for the skills I've been learning, but for the people I've been able to meet. Since the courses are SVA's summer continuing education program, I've been able to take class with a whole bunch of people whose ages and professions differ from mine in a way that you just don't get in college. I've learned a lot from my "classmates," and I don't know when I'd be able to make these kinds of connections and friendships otherwise.

More to Come

That's been my ongoing Dale summer project! Stay tuned for the second half of this little summer update.

Greetings from London! As Tigers and Tigresses travel all over the world during summer, I’d like to offer my personal tale on connecting with alumni for career advice while abroad.

A one-click search on Alumni Careers Network (ACN) reveals 60 alumni currently working in the UK. I found two working in the Greater London area in the management consulting industry, which is what I’m considering. I carefully crafted two emails asking each of them if we could meet up for a coffee chat to discuss my interest in consulting, and within a day both have replied. Now this might sound astounding to you that busy Princeton alumni would respond to a sophomore’s email so promptly, but know that ACN is an online database on which more than 4,000 alumni around the world voluntarily registered to assist students in their career choice.  Lesson No.1? Alumni on ACN volunteered themselves to help, so don’t be afraid to reach out.

One of the two alumni, Mr. Ulanov ’78 was out of the country, so instead of a coffee chat, we conversed over emails. Mr. Ulanov advised that rather than becoming a management consulting generalist right out of college, I go into industry first and later switch to consulting and consult on that particular industry. He believes that for recent college grads, first-hand experience in industry is much more valuable than knowledge of the overall landscape that consulting offers. I often hear people say that consulting is a good out-of-college option as it exposes young people to a wide variety of industries, so it’s really interesting to hear Mr. Ulanov advise otherwise. This is an ongoing debate that I’ll surely carry on into my further career search.

Ms. Murphree ’04 and I met up for coffee, and her stories confirmed what I learned about consulting from second-hand sources—she enjoys working with driven, smart and interesting colleagues, and seeing the insights they bring to clients. She also commented that when consulting firms recruit undergraduates, they look at their potential, not their existing business knowledge. As much as I love Princeton’s liberal arts education, occasionally I feel like I’m missing out on the “practical” part of my education, so it was really reassuring to hear Ms. Murphree say that an undergrad experience at Princeton should be focused on building critical thinking skills, and not to worry, that “practical” knowledge will come with on job training later on.

This is true for almost all things at Princeton, but seems particularly appropriate when it comes to connecting with alumni: There are so many people willing to help you out there. Sometimes all it takes is a little initiative.

Happy summer!

Wow! Another year down. It is hard to believe that I am already halfway done with my time in Princeton.

As I pack for my first international internship through Princeton (or rather, totally procrastinate from packing … ), I want to reflect a little on when I arrived here.

I remember when I first thought of applying. There were a few seniors from my high school who were super happy here, and I recall being a little concerned that their good words would inflate my expectations.

I then visited and was truly astonished by the warmth of the Jewish community here, and further, the friendliness of the pre-frosh that I hung out with on Princeton Preview. Some of those pre-frosh ended up going to other colleges, as is to be expected, but many of the ones who opted for Princeton have remained close friends of mine.

Fast forward through my gap year (that will be the content of a post soon, I promise!), I was SO excited to get on campus. I arrived the Friday before move-in because of Jewish Sabbath and was able to spend my first night on campus at Shabbat Dinner at Chabad, one of the Jewish outreach groups on campus (the other is the Center for Jewish Life, or, CJL) where I enjoyed home-cooked food and a really vibrant atmosphere.

Then, classes. It was a bit of a crazy transition into my first college classes, actually. Considering that the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (day of atonement) both fell on class days early in the semester, I was faced with a lot of catch-up. Luckily, I easily got notes from people I contacted through my class email (you can send an email to the whole class through the online course system), and one lecturer even had OIT (Office of Information and Technology) film the lectures given on the Jewish high holidays anticipating that many students would be absent. It was really, really nice of him.

Well, since then I have acclimated much more, and gotten very used to the Jewish holiday-class make-up crunch that is the wonder of being a religious Jew on a secular campus. Among many other things, I have

-acted in three shows and directed (and acted in! see my earlier post about that here) another;

-become a student tour guide at the Princeton University Art Museum;

-joined the board of the Princeton Disabilities Awareness and the brand new Autism Awareness group on campus;

-been awarded a stipend to work at the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy this summer (leaving soon!);

- and declared a Psychology major.

And who knows what’s to come next!

For now, bring on summer and its new adventures. See you in the fall, Princeton.

Wow! Another year down. It is hard to believe that I am already halfway done with my time in Princeton.

As I pack for my first international internship through Princeton (or rather, totally procrastinate from packing…), I want to reflect a little on when I arrived here.

I remember when I first thought of applying. There were a few seniors from my high school who were super happy here, and I recall being a little concerned that their good words would inflate my expectations.

I then visited and was truly astonished by the warmth of the Jewish community here, and further, the friendliness of the pre-frosh that I hung out with on Princeton Preview.  Some of those pre-frosh ended up going to other colleges, as is to be expected, but many of the ones who opted for Princeton have remained close friends of mine.

Fast forward through my gap year (that will be the content of a post soon, I promise!), I was SO excited to get on campus.  I arrived the Friday before move in because of Jewish Sabbath and was able to spend my first night on campus at Shabbat Dinner at Chabad, one of the Jewish outreach groups on campus (the other is the Center for Jewish Life, or, CJL) where I enjoyed home-cooked food and a really vibrant atmosphere.

Then, classes. It was a bit of a crazy transition into my first college classes, actually. Considering that the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashana (Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur (day of atonement) both fell out on class days early in the semester, I was faced with a lot of catch-up. Luckily, I easily got  notes from people I contacted through my class email (you can send an email to the whole class through the online course system), and, one lecturer even had OIT (Office of Information and Technology) film the lectures given on the Jewish high holidays anticipating that many students would be absent. It was really, really, nice of him.

Well, since then I have acclimated much more, and gotten very used to the Jewish holiday-class make-up crunch that is the wonder of being a religious Jew on a secular campus.  Among many other things, I have...

• acted in 3 shows and directed (and acted in! see my earlier post about that here) another
• become a student tour guide at the Princeton University Art Museum
• joined the board of the Princeton Disabilities Awareness and the brand new Autism Awareness group on campus
• been awarded a stipend to work at the Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy this summer (leaving soon!)
• declared a Psychology major

…and who knows what’s to come next!

For now, bring on summer and its new adventures. See you in the fall, Princeton :)

If you walk into the Princeton University Art Museum, climb the stairs to the second floor, and look across the gallery, you’ll find yourself standing across from George Washington himself.