Month: September 2010

community service, education, New York City, student

Step 253: Get Involved with Student Sponsor Partners and Change the Life of a New York City High School Student

Christa Avampato

I respect and admire nonprofits that create a huge impact in the world by making it easy for volunteers to make a difference. On Thursday, I went to a presentation by Margaret Minson and Faith Botica of Student Sponsor Partners (SSP), a nonprofit that helps at-risk, high-potential public middle school students get a private high school education in New York City. SSP pays the great majority of the tuition for the students while also providing them with a personal mentor to help them through their 4 years of high school at a private school. The results are impressive – 90% of SSP students go on to college. SSP currently has 1,400 students enrolled and over 4,500 graduates.

Mentors meet with their students about once per month, many times through SSP organized events where all of the SSP mentors and students get together. The content of the mentoring runs the gamut from help with school work, career, and college admissions to personal issues with friends, family, and relationships. Mentors play a critical role in the student’s life as 75% of them come from single parent homes in which those parents are working round-the-clock to provide for their families. The students often go without an adult who can guide them and mentor them through their high school years. That’s where SSP Mentors step in. Without SSP, most of these students would surely fall between the cracks and never even realize, much less achieve their potential.

Being a Mentor is an incredible opportunity to truly make a difference in the life of New York City high school students. Because of the incredible corporate sponsorships that SSP has fostered through the years, it is also a tremendous networking opportunity for professionals of all ages in New York City who want to meet other people who care about community service, education, and helping young people succeed.

A Mentor usually mentors the same student all the way through their high school years, though occasionally mentors have to drop from the program because of personal time commitments, geographic moves, etc. SSP is currently looking for Mentors for sophomore – senior high school students who have lost their SSP Mentors and want to build a relationship with a new SSP Mentor. I just signed up to hop onboard. If you’re interested, please visit the organization’s website. Attached to this post, you will also find the brief Mentor application forms. I hope you’ll join me in making a difference for high school students in New York City.

SSP Sponsor Application FINAL.

SSP LexisNexis Screening Solutions Consent Form

children, education, philanthropy, school

Step 252: Donorschoose.org Finds a Hidden Angel

Christa Avampato

I received the article below in an email from Charles Best today about a hidden angel who showed up on the doorstep of Donorschoose.org. Best is the Founder of Donorschoose.org, an organization that link indvidual donors to specific classroom needs via a well-organized, elegant web interface. The email is a reprint of an article that appeared in the September 1, 2010 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle

The story is a testament to the incredible gift that one person can give the world, and an inspiring act of generosity for a very deserving organization. It’s also a much needed message for nonprofit leaders – if you provide an incredible service, funding is out there.

“Out of the blue, in the middle of a recession, the phone rang.

What would it cost, the caller asked the founder of DonorsChoose.org, to fund every California teacher’s wish list posted on the Web site?

The founder, Charles Best, thought perhaps the female caller would hang up when he tossed out his best guess: “Something over $1 million,” he told her.

Twelve hours later, the woman, Hilda Yao, executive director of the Claire Giannini Fund, sent Best an e-mail.

It said, in short, OK.

A day later, Yao mailed a check of more than $1.3 million to cover the entire California wish list, 2,233 projects in all, with an extra $100,000 tossed in to help pay for other teacher needs across the country.

The projects funded by the donation range from about $100 to cover pencil sharpeners or paper to thousands of dollars for technology, Best said.

“Use of the word ‘miracle’ is not an overstatement,” Best said Tuesday, a day after 1,000 California teachers were notified that their needs were funded. “I think it’s fair to say it’s the best first day of school they’ve ever had.”

With budget cuts hitting schools hard, teachers and parents are often covering the costs of basic material like pencils or even textbooks as well as things now considered optional in public education such as field trips and art supplies.

Help for teachers
DonorsChoose stepped in to help fill those needs 10 years ago to give K-12 teachers an easily accessible site to post what they need. Contributors can pay for part or all of each “project” requested, focusing on a specific school or subject area or even the type of gift.

The $1.3 million donation is among the largest gifts given by the San Francisco fund and one of the largest received by DonorsChoose.

At San Francisco’s Monroe Elementary School, computer teacher Laura Edeen had several projects posted on DonorsChoose.org. There was a digital camera to replace one that still used floppy disks; a computer with wireless access for a portable classrooms that doesn’t have other Internet access; an art cart; new printers; and the big-ticket, $1,000 licensing rights to a software program the teacher knew worked for kids.

It was a pipe-dream list from a teacher who was trying to keep working technology in her classroom using the equivalent of duct tape and chewing gum.

“I’d been busying myself with wishes, just hoping,” Edeen said.

The $3,000 in wishes came true.

“I actually e-mailed my husband thinking he funded it,” she said laughing, adding she couldn’t imagine how else it was all paid for. “It felt like my birthday yesterday.”

Teacher thinks big
Reaching for the stars, one Bay Area teacher requested $10,000 for 25 netbook laptops to create a traveling computer lab for her school. They’ll be shipped to San Francisco’s Sheridan Elementary soon.

Later Monday, the teacher submitted a new request to DonorsChoose: a computer cart for a traveling computer lab.

“She’s got herself a shower of stars,” Yao said of the teacher. “I’m just so pleased to think this grant has brought so much happiness to such deserving people.”

The fund Yao directs was created in 1998 to honor Claire Giannini Hoffman, the daughter of the founder of Bank of America. Donations have focused on education as well as other issues, including a $3 million gift to the nation’s school libraries from 2002 to 2004, Yao said.

Yao’s mother, Dorothy Yao, the fund’s former trustee, and Claire Giannini both believed education was a penetrating and enduring way to transform lives, she said.

“It makes me feel like I’m doing something to remember two remarkable women in the way they would like to be remembered,” she said. “I’m happier than even some of the teachers.”

Make a difference in a child’s life right now. Take a look at the most urgent project requests on DonorsChoose.org, and give another classroom the best return to school they’ve ever had.

books, design

Step 251: We Do Judge Books By Their Covers

Christa Avampato

I love design, but I’m not a traditionally trained designer. I have a good eye for visual art and a great appreciation for it, but I’m not a trained visual artist. (I’m looking to change those two facts in the coming year but for the moment these statements are indisputable truths. More on my future art plans in a forthcoming post…) My brother-in-law, Kyle, is a truly gifted, trained artist. He has an eye and a heart for creating art and design that the world has got to see or it will be our collective loss. I’m doing my part of get his work out of his head and into the world.

At Dan’s suggestion, I talked to Kyle this weekend about designing a different book cover for my e-book Hope in Progress. I love Dan because he gives me criticism in the kindest, most constructive way possible with sparing a shred of honesty. “I love your book, Christa,” he said to me on the train to Philly. “It’s such great content and you deserve a cover that does the content justice. Get a real designer. They’re worth it.” Noted. Thank you, Dan. (If you don’t have a friend like Dan, please get one. Your life and work will be better for having him as a trusted ally.)

Before pushing out Hope in Progress in a variety of formats in a variety of channels, Kyle is going to whip up that cover art for me to replace my current cover. I told him why I chose the photograph that’s currently on the cover of Hope in Progress and in about 5 seconds flat, Kyle took my verbal description and designed a cover in his head that ran circles around my poor several-hour attempt to choose a font and photo to paste into a Word document. (To her credit, my sister, Weez, had the same color scheme idea as Kyle had thought of before he even said it. Apparently being married to an artist can enhance our artistic point-of-view. Check.) This isn’t surprising – I sent him a couple-line email a few months back about designing a logo for Compass Yoga and 30 minutes later he sent me back a logo that I love. Check it out here.

After talking with him about art over the weekend, I also told Kyle I have another project on tap for him – the book I’m working on that uses the principles of yoga to inform personal finance decisions. I have some fun ideas in mind for visuals, which I will sketch out in stick figures and words, then leave it up to Kyle to work his magic. Dan was right – the value of a visual artist as a collaborator cannot be overestimated. Like Dan’s advice, Kyle’s vision is golden, leaving a halo effect on every creative project he touches. I highly recommend him for your next creative venture. A dab of high design goes a long way.

books, change, community, government, politics

Step 250: An Answered Prayer for the City of Philadelphia

Christa Avampato

On vacation I started reading A Prayer for the City by Buzz Bissinger. The book recounts the history of Philadelphia from 1992-1997 while then-Mayor Ed Rendell (now Governor Rendell of Pennsylvania) held office. The book was published in 1997, one year before my graduation from Penn. Though I was largely unaware of Philadelphia politics aside from the fact that Mayor Rendell presided over a city run largely by corruption, I certainly experienced Philadelphia’s rough exterior as described by Bissinger while I was a student.

I distinctly remember the metal bars on my freshman dorm room windows that made it look more like a prison than the start of a bright college career. And of course I will never forget the homeless man just beyond those bars screaming vulgar obscenities as I rolled my suitcases through the doorway. My mother was horrified. The next day a graduate math student was shot and killed right in the middle of campus, just outside The Castle, which ironically served as Penn’s Community Service House where I was part of a pre-matriculation service program. Freshman women took a self-defense class as part of on-campus programming in the dorms. Locust Walk, the main campus thoroughfare, was lit up by an abundance of blue light phones and Penn Escort Service was heavily encouraged and fully utilized when students needed to walk around the perimeters of campus after midnight. Welcome to Philadelphia circa 1994.

My sophomore year I was mugged in the subway station at Walnut and 37th at knife point by a guy who wanted the cash in my wallet and politely handed it back to me completely intact otherwise. Looking back I think he was more frightened than I was. I remember scrambling up the stairs and running smack into a naval officer who helped me to get to a blue light phone to call for help. The Philadelphia police arrived in moments, storming down into the station, and I never rode the subway again until the very end of my senior year, and only then because my boyfriend at the time was with me. I was sadly not a unique case – I knew countless students who had incidents far worse than mine.

Once I moved into the high-rises at the north end of campus, it was routine to hear gunfire and watch the violence unfold out my window at Billy Bob’s Cheesesteaks as I studied in my apartment very late into the night. A solo walk past 40th Street was unheard of and a trip to the only grocery store, a Safeway dubbed “Scaryway”, had to be a group outing to increase our chances of actually making it back to campus with our groceries. Even that grocery store looked like a fortress – they had built a gate around it so the shopping carts could not be taken from the immediate perimeter of the store, forcing us to grab our groceries from the cart and then squeeze between the bars to get out.

So it was especially heartening to get back to Philly last weekend and see the change that has swept the city. Its rebound is nothing short of miraculous. The Saint Albans area, where Dan and I stayed a few weeks ago, would never have been a destination for me as a Penn student. Nearly every house on that block used to be boarded up, full of loitering by people I’d hope to never run into in any alley, whether at night or in broad daylight. Dan’s friend, Jeremy, drove us through neighborhoods that didn’t even exist 10 years ago. I was overwhelmed by the change, and Dan could scarcely believe the stories I told of vacant lots, littered with broken glass and drug dealers, now made over into Barnes & Noble, Sephora, and restaurants of every variety. It’s as if someone took a bulldozer to Philadelphia and started over.

After I left Penn, I moved to D.C. for 6 months and then headed for New York City, which became the center of my world, leaving Philadelphia as a distant memory. I don’t know much about what happened between 1992 and 1997 that laid the groundwork for all of the change that I could see taking shape when I graduated from Penn in 1998 that has now come to fruition over a decade later. I’m looking forward to finding out what Philadelphia did to turn itself around and I’m grateful to Mr. Bissinger for setting it down in print with such elegant description. What I know for certain is that Rendell fulfilled the promise he made during his 1992 inaugural speech, “Change must surely come…this city cannot only survive; it can come alive again…I cannot and will not falter. We cannot and will not fail.” From my vantage point, the people of Philadelphia have passed with flying colors.

celebration, creative process, determination, frustration, work

Step 249: 5 Ways to Bring Great Ideas to Life

Christa Avampato

“Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them.” ~ Joseph Joubert, French essayist

The past week I’ve been blown away by all of the opportunity and possibility around us. From new Linked-In and Twitter connections, to chance meetings, to introductions by colleagues, I’m connecting with potential on a new level. After many of these initial connections, I’m getting follow-up requests and invitations for continued conversations about working together on new and exciting projects. After each connection, I’ve been taking time to consider one very critical question: can the project be driven to completion?

By nature, I get tremendously excited about new opportunities and possibilities. New is invigorating. And there are so many new opportunities out there that it would be very easy to constantly be distracted by the next latest, greatest project. Finishing is tough work. It requires determination and plenty of time and effort. So how do we keep that excitement of something new when we’re halfway through? How do we keep our energy up to complete the job?

Here are some ideas that I’ve found helpful:

1.) Remind yourself why the idea was exciting to start with. Having e a mission-based approach to a project can make any mundane tasks for meaningful. Recognize that every project will have some parts (paperwork, etc.) that are not thrilling but absolutely necessary to making the opportunity a reality.

2.) Share the load. Working on a project with others (both on the creative and mundane tasks) will make them go faster and many times can make them more enjoyable. It’s especially important when halfway through a project to connect with others that can keep our energy up while we drive the project to completion. If we can get others to help us with the mundane pieces, then all the better.

3.) Keep mementos of past successes in sight at all times. When we’re halfway through a project it’s important to remember all of our other accomplishments that were made possible by our hard work. Those past successes help us see our current project as another celebration-in-the-making.

4.) Celebrate small victories. We often think of celebrations as endings. Why not make celebration a regular activity that commemorates milestones along the way? Getting each piece of a project done contributes to the whole so we should take a moment to congratulate ourselves on being one step closer to our achievement.

5.) File the new ideas for the future. I had a conversation many years ago with a would-be writer who said he could never complete a book because he always got distracted by his next book idea. He had a trail of unfinished books that he could never get anyone else interested in. New ideas can be a distraction and a way to procrastinate, even if they’re entirely valid. Don’t ignore them – one of them may very well be your next big thing. So jot it down and keep it tucked away in a file of what to do next once the task at hand is complete.

How do you keep going when you’re in the midst of a project?

change, learning, Life, relationships, values

Step 248: 8 Lessons From My Apartment Building Fire, One Year Later

Christa Avampato

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of my apartment building fire. In some ways, I cannot believe it’s gone by so quickly and in other ways I can’t believe how much change has happened in a year. So net-net, it feels like it has been a productive year with a lot of learning. Sometimes I still shiver at the thought of the circumstances and what could have happened if everything had gone horribly wrong, if I hadn’t followed my instincts. I wrote a series of posts on this blog that recount the difficult days after the fire. They begin with my post on September 5, 2009.

The building has reopened and the walls have been painted over a pristine white. You’d never know that one year ago a fire ripped through the hallways, but every time I walk by it, I still feel the gravity of what happened there one year ago. To commemorate and celebrate the occasion, here are the top 10 things I learned as a result of my fire:

1.) I now trust my gut 99% of the time. Trusting my gut on September 5, 2009 saved my life. I had every reason to discount the feeling of dread that I felt in my kitchen when I heard my heat pipes ticking. Something told me to look a little closer, and that’s when I saw the tiles on the floor heaving. I quickly got to my stairs, without over-thinking what was happening, and despite the thick black smoke, I kept running for my life. Had I delayed even a few minutes or second-guessed my gut, the consequences would have been dire.

2.) It’s okay to ask for help. In the days after my fire, I really tried to pretend that everything was fine, that I was fine, that I was strong and invincible. The truth is that I’m strong, and human. I needed help to sort out the trauma that followed my fire and started to see Brian, my life coach. We started on a journey of self-discovery together and it is one of the most rewarding relationships of my life.

3.) Someone who wants me to move through a traumatic situation at lightning speed for his own sake is not worth having in my life. At the time of my fire, I was dating a guy whom I had really fallen for. He was a prince the day of the fire, though as soon as he saw that this wasn’t just a little blip on the radar screen of my life, he showed the less appealing side of his character. Things quickly unraveled and while we tried to maintain some kind of relationship right after our romance ended, I quickly walked away and have never looked back. That departure started a year-long effort to only have people in my life who believe that love and friendship are a two-way street.

4.) There really is no time like the present. I was sort of floating through life a year ago. I had a job that was okay, but that I honestly felt no passion for. I had been thinking of moving to a more mission-based organization, and now one year later I’m fully on that path. Destination unknown, but I know I’m moving in the right direction now by taking steps toward moving my career toward public education.

5.) Empathy is a must in all of my relationships. At the time of my fire, I worked for a woman who can only be described as wretched. She was not the least bit sympathetic toward my situation, and actually gave me a hard time about taking one day off to work with my insurance company and loaded up my plate with additional work. That moment was a definite breaking point for me, and I decided from then on that I would never work with that type of person again. Empathy is now a non-negotiable in every area of my life. (I got out of the situation with that former boss several months later, and found my way to a better internal position at my company.)

6.) True friends can celebrate with you and cry with you. I’ve had people in my life who are fair weather friends and friends who only show up when the chips are down. Real friends are the ones who show up in both kinds of situations, and everything in between. I’m blessed to have so many people in my life who fit that description.

7.) Your stuff really is just stuff. I lost almost all of my material belongings in the fire. A few things survived, but I essentially had to rebuild my material life. I had gotten to a point where I really valued my material possessions. Now, it’s just not that important to me. I only replaced the essentials – I just didn’t want “things” anymore, and I still don’t. I down-sized in a big way and feel lighter. Even if everything went up in smoke again, so long as my health and the safety of others were preserved, I really would be okay. I am not what I own. (However, PLEASE go get renter’s insurance. The peace of my mind that my Liberty Mutual policy brought me was immense. I had enough emotional fall-out to deal with from the fire itself, so not having to deal with a major financial crisis on top of it was worth every penny of my $200 annual policy.)

8.) This too shall pass. And by “this”, I mean everything. Everything always changes, the good, the bad, and the indifferent. My yoga practice has helped me accept and embrace this fact that my fire so brilliantly illuminated. And it led me to pursue my yoga teacher certification and the founding of Compass Yoga to share these insights.

Not a bad year of learning. And despite the unfortunate circumstances, my fire is the gift that keeps on giving. The lessons I learned as a result have brought tremendous peace and gratitude to my life. It couldn’t have been more unexpected, and looking back I can’t say I’d wish it hadn’t happened. It woke me up, which is exactly what I needed.

The image above is a picture of one of the hallways in my apartment building after the fire.

children, learning

Step 247: Small Moments of Character Taught by Kids

Christa Avampato

“Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones.” ~ Phillips Brooks

For the Labor Day holiday, I’m down in Florida with my family. We’re having lots of small moments – no crazy plans, no additional travel. Mostly hanging out at home, watching movies, and grilling out. Vacations down here feel like real vacations with no schedule, no requirements.

What always amazes me about time with my little nieces is the amount of lessons they teach me. My niece, Lorelei, thinks that calling someone means using Skype, not the phone. She loves everything with a glowing screen. Every greeting card is expected to have its own microchip that plays a song. But what’s wonderful is her fascination with activities that are as old-fashioned as they get. Baking cookies, blowing bubble in the backyard, and twirling while singing her heart out. Adults constantly complain about being overloaded by technology. Lorelei doesn’t. She has incorporated it seamlessly into her life – she uses it only when she feels like it.

It’s small moments of realization like this that remind me how much learning can be packed into every day, with no extra work needed, just a greater sense of awareness and a desire to connect the dots. It’s a big benefit of spending a lot of time with kids – they show us how much wonder the world can hold. I’m excited to see what other great lessons my girls will teach me over the next few days and how they’ll change how I see the world.

change, opportunity

Step 246: Opportunity is Where You Are

Christa Avampato

“The lure of the distant and the difficult is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.” ~ John Burroughs

I’ve spent most of my life looking forward, seeking out new opportunities, professionally and personally. At times, I’ve even toyed with the idea of chucking an ordinary life and going back to my gypsy theatre ways. My former boss, Bob G., once said to me, “You know, if you stick around long enough, everything changes.” It explains why he stayed at the same company for 25 years. The amount of change and growth that happened during his tenure was staggering.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how right Bob is. A city, a job, a relationship – they are all changing in small ways every day and it’s only when we look back along an extended period of time that we see the cumulative effect of continuous change. If we can tap into the direction of change and get ahead of it a bit, we can find opportunity wherever we are. that’s not to say we should never move – I am a big proponent of movement and growth. What I’m reconsidering if whether movement is the only way to experience change.

My friend, Sharni, writes a blog with the tag line “The grass isn’t greener on the other side, it’s greener where you water it.” Brilliant. Opportunity does lie out there in the great beyond and we should absolutely pursue it, but we can actually grow opportunity right under our own two feet, too.

books, children, education, learning, nostalgia, school

Step 245: Back to School and Life Lessons

Christa Avampato

“The difference between school and life? In school, you’re taught a lesson and then given a test. In life, you’re given a test that teaches you a lesson.” ~ Tom Bodett, American author and humorist

I love school. Weez is always kidding me that if I could find a way to be a student for the rest of my life and get paid for it, I’d do it. In truth, I kind of do that now. I’m an information junkie. Lots of data served up with a heaping side of industry reports please. All industries welcome. My education has followed me into the workplace and then follows me home, to the gym, out to dinner. Every experience become an opportunity to learn – and become writing material.

I went to my local CVS yesterday and nostalgically walked through the school supply aisle. Advertisements abound all over the city, in every retail window, saying “stock up for school here.” School is part of why I love the Fall – back to school might just be my favorite holiday. Everything is shiny, new, and full of promise. Sometimes people ask me how I did so well in school and managed so many extracurriculars. Some people even warned me that I was taking on too much, that I couldn’t possibly get it all done. People are funny and they project.

To be sure, I studied a lot. Kid geniuses really fascinate me because I wasn’t someone who just knew everything the moment I read it. I am a really good student, work very hard, and have a dangerously high level of curiosity. Truly, I can ask “why?” until the cows come home and never be satisfied. (Ask my mom.) I had to study and practice all the way through business school. I study and practice now, and love it. I learn the lesson, really learn it, get the test, pass. Simple. Linear. Logical. It’s true of school, and mostly true of work, too, so long as I’m working for someone else.

This whole paradigm changes, as Tom Bodett explains so brilliantly, when we leave behind school and work and just have to live in the world. Or when we start our own business or some kind of personal endeavor. Relationships of every kind fall into this class, too. You can’t study or think your way through them. You really do have to give it a whirl, maybe screw up, maybe succeed, and take note of the outcome so the next time around you can improve. It’s not fair, I know, but that’s life. You take the test, hand it in, and then figure out how it shoulda, coulda, woulda been done if you had known better. But you didn’t, and you can’t, so you just show up and do your best. Welcome to a life of improv.

A lot of my life now is about being tested and then receiving the lesson. Yoga, Innovation Station, my writing. I can study and read about these subjects all I want (and I do!), but eventually I know I’ve got to take off the training wheels, go careening down the road, learn from my mistakes, get up, and try again. I didn’t know anything about social media 3 years ago, so I started this blog. I didn’t know how to write a book, so I wrote Hope in Progress. I didn’t know how to swim so I jumped in the pool (with a lifeguard nearby) and paddled around. That’s life, too – try your luck and see how it goes.

I’ll be thinking about this idea over the next few weeks as I see the school buses become part of our traffic patterns and kids skipping home with backpacks and lunch boxes in tow. We’re all learning – students of school just have the benefit of a better sequence of events than students of life.

goals

Step 244: August Accomplishments and September Goals

Christa Avampato

The summer is slowly fading into the distance, even if the temperatures outside don’t seem to be subsiding. In a month or so, we’ll be digging out some slightly warmer clothing, starting a new school year, and making holiday travel plans. We may even see a leaf of two put on its own colorful wardrobe. So long summer, until next time.

Fall is my favorite time of and always has been. I always feel most alive during these last months of the year, and it’s always been a time of great change and accomplishment for me. I revel in it. I expect this Fall to be no exception to the norm. I will “celebrate” the 1 year anniversary of my apartment building fire that set off a year of change and transformation, and spend as much time reflecting as I do looking forward. Later in September, I’ll head up north to see my family and celebrate my mom’s retirement and her impending move to Florida with my stepfather. Times, they are always a changin’.

So here’s what’s been cooking over at Chez Christa as the summer winds down and what I’ve got on order for the coming month:

August Accomplishments:
1.) Kick off my viral, guerrilla, and social media marketing class at LIM College

My class fell through at the last-minute, which was a disappointing turn of events. I didn’t stay disappointed for long – as a result, space opened up in my life this Fall for some other wonderful activities and people. For more details, check out my post on the class cancellation.

2.) Make a decision on my apartment lease renewal. I’m thinking about a possible move to Brooklyn and doing some research before I notify my current landlord one way or the other.

I decided to renew the lease on my current apartment. The thought of packing and hauling myself to a new neighborhood wasn’t appealing since I couldn’t find better space for less money in a neighborhood as convenient as the Upper West Side.

3.) Make some headway on my out-of-school education project, Innovation Station. I recently made some valuable partner contacts to keep this idea moving as we head into the school year.

Moving right along and having more conversations with potential partners. Now that school will be back in session this month, the conversations should start to translate into actions.

4.) Do some marketing of my e-book, Hope in Progress.

I did some marketing which yielded some good results. As of August 31st, 413 uniques have downloaded the book. The book has been out for about two months so I think 413 downloads is a pretty decent number considering I haven’t done a big marketing push and the summer is a historically slow sales time. Now that my summer travels have passed, I’ll be doing some more work on marketing the book this Fall. (See #1 below in September’s goals.) To download a copy, click here.

September Goals:

1.) E-book marketing and expansion continues for Hope in Progress. My friend, Dan, asked me to get the book into as many formats as possible as fast as possible. He also said that the book may benefit from a new cover. I’m going to talk to my artist brother-in-law about helping me with the new cover. I like the image on the current cover but Dan’s right – it needs more pop. More formats and marketing on the way…

2.) Secure some more sub or regular teaching gigs and private clients for Compass Yoga. I’ve been added to the sub list at the Downtown Community Center, and there’s also a sub possibility brewing at Columbia University. Now that the summer is ending and people are returning to their routine lives, the yoga should pick up, too. I’ll also begin to more marketing on this front to get some additional private clients – so far I’ve stay close to home on drumming up business. Now that I have more time this Fall, I can devote more time to Compass.

3.) Online writing portfolio needed. I have a page on this blog with links to my freelance writing. With all the links, I now need a more formal portfolio. I’ve been in touch with several different services and now I’m weighing the options. More to come when it’s up and running.

4.) My apartment needs a makeover. Now that I’ve decided to stay in my apartment for another year, I’m going to add some color and new touches to my place. I’ll also take some time to de-clutter and reorganize myself after a whirlwind summer.

5.) I need to put some more time into my new book idea around yoga and personal finance. My friends, Dan and Sara, were very encouraging of the idea over the past few days. I think I’ve got something here…

6.) Continue to grease the skids of Innovation Station. As the school year kicks into high gear, I want to make sure that by next Spring I’ve completed a pilot program of some kind to really put some training wheels on this idea and see if I can get it to go.

Happy Fall, y’all! What are you planning?