(Today's guest entry comes from Mark Hand, MPI Ecuador's Country Director and all around instigator. He is currently working his way through Wilentz's "The Rise of American Democracy", still hasn't beaten Zak at cuarenta, and 'loves' serving as sous-chef every Friday evening.)
Since I first read Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I've fancied myself to be what Gladwell calls a connector - not necessarily the guy who knows where all the information is (mavens), or the gal that convinces everybody they should buy this product or join that cause (salesmen), but the guy who gets a real kick out of introducing people that really ought to know each other.
I got a chance to do just that kind of introducing this weekend, when I went to DC for a meet-up of internationally-focused student groups hosted by a coalition called UCGH. I did, in fact, get a kick out of finding and creating connections among the folks there, and look forward to some 'output' from this network sometime in the very near future. Just to give you an idea, one of the projects we'll be working on is a one-stop online shop for internationally interested young people. Part of that will be easy-to-use tools, like this one, to help students determine how to get plugged into international opportunities:
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Pretty cool, right?
Mark
Since I first read Malcom Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I've fancied myself to be what Gladwell calls a connector - not necessarily the guy who knows where all the information is (mavens), or the gal that convinces everybody they should buy this product or join that cause (salesmen), but the guy who gets a real kick out of introducing people that really ought to know each other.
I got a chance to do just that kind of introducing this weekend, when I went to DC for a meet-up of internationally-focused student groups hosted by a coalition called UCGH. I did, in fact, get a kick out of finding and creating connections among the folks there, and look forward to some 'output' from this network sometime in the very near future. Just to give you an idea, one of the projects we'll be working on is a one-stop online shop for internationally interested young people. Part of that will be easy-to-use tools, like this one, to help students determine how to get plugged into international opportunities:
View Larger Map
Pretty cool, right?
Mark