For most of my life, I’ve specialized in working really hard without getting paid. This specialty seems inherent to many young people who seek to create social or environmental change; we spend countless hours fighting for the causes we love for little or no compensation and the rest of our time working restaurant-type jobs to [...]
I believe in climate change. I ride my bike everywhere, I work at a solar company, I buy organic and local when I can. I am young, liberal and idealistic. But I’m not an environmentalist. And I’m not alone.
If you won the jackpot today, would you go back to work tomorrow? The question may sound absurd, but there are plenty of lottery winners who have done just that. There’s a waitress in Florida who went back to making $400 per week the day after winning $1 million, a German salesman who was told [...]
I’ve always wanted to be a writer, ever since I was 10 and won a contest with my best friend for writing a story about recycling. We won a huge cash prize for our story, it was less than $100 but it felt like a million dollars for a couple of ten-year-olds. In high school [...]
I just got off the phone with a teary-eyed friend of mine who recently lost her job. Strangely, she wasn’t being sacked for her performance but rather due to frequent arguments with her boss over how her job should be done. As a young woman in a lower-level position at a predominately male tech company, [...]
Despite my dread at no longer being able to classify myself as being “in my early 20s,” my 24th birthday was great! The week started out on a bit of a sour note when I received a generic letter from the Fulbright Committee on my proposed research project to India. Though my ego was a [...]
After researching start-ups for three months in India, I was keen to work on my own start up once I returned back to America. One might say, overly keen, since I ended up being involved with 5 start-ups over the course of the summer. At first it was just Summer of Solutions, an intensive three [...]
In the aftermath of the Japanese disaster, politicians around the globe have been debating the necessity of including nuclear as part of the transition to a clean energy future. Unlike other leaders who have placed moratoriums on the licensing of new plants, American politicians have largely stuck by nuclear–a consensus that perhaps was aided by storm [...]
Despite all of the fireworks, BBQs and parades to the contrary, this weekend I want to celebrate dependence. The America that existed on July 4, 1776 when our founding fathers declared independence from Great Britain is a far cry from the interconnected and interdependent society in which we currently reside. We know from the abundance of [...]
The tops of my thighs, the small of my back and the beginning of my chest are on fire. Somehow the afternoon spent outside next to a beautiful California palm tree in group discussions about race, community organizing and fundraising have burned me in a way nothing else this year has. Strangely, the seven months [...]
