Day 3 Job Training

How appropriate to talk about our Job Training Day at FSM after I just finished an initial phone interview for a position. Finding a job is hard. I’m not going to sugar coat it for anyone. And it’s safe to say that educational institutions do not prepare you for what lies ahead of your degree. I come from a blue-collar family of modest means. I am the first person on both sides of my family to earn a college degree. It is probably difficult for those who were raised in more affluent settings to comprehend the magnitude of my accomplishments. When I was growing up, my educational system in conjunction with my family told me that if I get a “4-year degree” than jobs would literally fall into my lap.

So now, 24 years old, finding myself wedged into between highly conservative natives of my community and highly militarized members of our armed forces (Welcome to Hampton Roads!), I was waiting for those employers to come knocking on my door. But guess what? Someone needs to tell these children growing up that getting a job is hard work. Just because you have a B.S. doesn’t mean that it’s any easier to find employment. Thankfully my experience with the Ms. Foundation at FSM in NYC in addition to the advice from friends in the same boat, I have devised resources and advice for ALL job seekers. Perhaps it will help someone avoid the pitfalls that I have experienced…

8 Ways to Stay Motivated While Job Hunting- I have this printed out and handy at all times. Check out the rest of their Job Seekers' Resources. This is a great advice website and it posts job listings!

Suzanne Grossman authors a blog about finding the right job and loving it. Love Your Job, Love Your Life

I am currently perfecting my interviewing skills. Do mock interviews with friends and co-workers. Practice makes perfect!

When writing cover letters-

1. PERSONALIZE. Keep your facts brief and feel free to include personal information about yourself that relates to the job. Your cover letter needs to stand out from the rest.
2. Keep to under 1 page (VERY IMPORTANT) It's difficult. I started out with 2 pages!! Now I'm down to less than a page
3. Don't repeat information that's already on your resume. They can look at your resume and see it. Your cover letter is not your resume in essay form --it's more of a letter of selling yourself to the person hiring you. The key is to highlight your personal and professional achievements in a way that makes you an exceptional candidate.
4. This is going to be annoying people but you MUST repeat MUST write a different cover letter to each job. They want to see that you took the time to research their organization and that you also care enough about the job to explain how YOU fit with that organization. You can have a couple of different templates that you find works well... but you have to tweek them to fit the job your applying for.
5. RESEARCH THE ORGANIZATION'S WEBSITE.
6. DO NOT address the cover letter to "To Whom It May Concern". Always address it to a person if that info is provided or the HR person.. (this may take some time to research). Sometimes I put "Dear blahblah Representative"
7. Sound confident in your cover letter. Don't end it with "I hope I hear from you"... that's not confident. Use "I look forward to hearing from you"

When writing resumes-

1. List the experience that relates to the job towards the top of the page. Things should still be in chronological order however if I am applying to the domestic violence shelter I'm not going to list my YWCA experience last.
2. Also, it's good to have a summary section. Education first. Then the summary section that highlights about 3 points that you REALLY want the employer to remember about you. Mine usually says general things like "holistic knowledge base of non-profits" "extensive administrative and office experience".... make sure these coincide with the qualifications of the position you are applying.
3. I've heard from several sources that employers like the font "garamond".. just a suggestion

The most important thing I've learned from Feminist Summer Camp is networking. Keep in touch with the people you meet. MAKE BUSINESS CARDS. Even if you are unemployed, you should have a contact card that has your name, education, phone number and email. When you exchange business cards with someone, email them. Don't wait around for people to contact you. They are too busy. You must open the lines of communication YOURSELF.

Set goals for yourself. Keep a calender. I have a google calendar that reminds me when to send follow ups. It can be exhausting so remember to get out of the house and take a break. And remember, if you don't get a certain job, it just means there's another one that more suited for you coming along.

Keep your faith in something be it God, yourself, the universe. Job hunting is discouraging but just remember there are A LOT of people in your shoes. You are not alone.

Special thanks to Melissa Gonzalez, Kara Elverson, Suzanne Grossman, Julie Seelfo, Veronica Chambers and Courtney E. Martin for all of your encouragement and great advice.

Listservs for Job Seekers:

AWID
Change.org
Craigslist
Environmental Career.com
Experience.com
Foundation Center Job Corner
Idealist.org
Indeed.com
Mediabistro
National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
Partnership for After School Education
Professionals for Nonprofits
Progressive Exchange
Public Service Law Network
Simply Hired
Social Edge
United Nations
Upwardly Global
Woodhull Institute
Young Nonprofit Professionals Network

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Nikki Bloom's New Huge Hit!

By: Brook
Somehow I happen to stumble across a new show by ABC Family called Huge starring Nikki Bloom (Hairspray), and I was hooked after only about ten minutes. The show is based on the book "Huge" by Sasha Paley, which I have now stacked on the top of my ever growing reading pile. The show centers around a group of overweight teens who are attending 'fat camp' for the summer and explores everything from feminism, body image and media representations, bulimia, thinspiration vs. fatspiration, homosexuality, gender identity, fat phobia, and of course....endless amounts of hormone driven teenage love and angst.

Forget your typical teenage drama that pegs girls against each other with the good v. bad (better known as the virgin v. slut) labels, there seems to be no villain/good guy dichotomy going on here. Which is more than refreshing compared to the rest of the ABC Family prime time lineup. From Pretty Little Liars (whose tag-line is: 'never trust a pretty girl...with an ugly secret') to Secret Life of the American Teenager's blatantly mixed messages about teenage relationships, sexuality and pregnancy played out by 'bad girl' Adrian vs. 'good girl' Amy. Huge does something much more poignant and subversive by not only gaining us over with a loveable and relatable cast but also by taking moments to criticize and mock media representations of fat/fat phobia (as shown when the kids are seen watching a reality tv show called Love Handles, a play on Fox's More to Love).

At the center of the show is rebellious Willamina Rader, an unapologetic feminist gal (as stated sarcastically in episode two as: 'an angry feminist') who is outspoken, calls her fat her b-f-f and has set a goal of being the only person to leave fat camp having gained weight. She insists on being called Will and proudly wears boy's clothes--a blur to gender roles everywhere that becomes a recurring theme addressed through this sharp but lovable character. Her camp bunk, decorated with magazine cut outs of Rubenesque women as her 'fatspiration' and a collage of body parts that spells 'stop body fascism', sits directly under her antitheses' bunk: the shy, cutesy Amber (Hayley Hasselhoff...yes that's right: Hasselhoff) and her collage of 'thinspiration' sprinkled about her own bunk. Amber, an ultra feminine platinum blond pegged as the skinniest of all the campers, is the shy, self sacrificing modest type that can't even tell her crush that he's been calling her by the wrong name for weeks. The two (along with about six other characters that sit at the center of the show) are hard not to love, despite their obvious differences.

Although some of the issues it brings to the screen are sort of introduced without much of a dissection (such as a girl on her way to becoming bulimic getting expelled from camp, a codependent camper with severe separation anxiety from her overweight parents and the camp fitness instructor's outright opinions on not letting her uterus 'control her'), I don't think lingering on them would make the show any more powerful than it already is. The fact that it is getting addressed in this context and that it's being represented in a show in an honest and compelling way is simply ground breaking. The cast is pretty diverse for a situation comedy, and (to me) more accurately exposes the secret life of the American teenager--with honesty, compassion and vulnerability. Coming of age and coming to terms....I can't wait for more!

Here's the trailer from ABC Family:

Video Clip: The girls walk through the pool area and say: It's so different walking around in bathing suits here. It's like no big thing.

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The Story of Cosmetics

Remember the Story of Stuff series that Amy posted a while back? Now there is a "Story of Cosmetics" from the series that works in collaboration with The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Check it out:

They also give some good links for resources:

www.storyofcosmetics.org

www.safecosmetics.org

skindeep.com

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South Africa on my mind

By: Brook
As some of you know last year while in South Africa I had the great fortune of working with a learner at Fezeka High School named Lwando Magwaca. I only had the chance to work with him for about a month but within that short time he completely captivated me with his talent, kindness, and his dedicated nature. What I was touched by most however, was his humble heart and contagious optimism. Despite everything that he had been through -including homelessness, domestic violence, community violence, the death of his brother and countless other tragedies-was his ability to keep his heart in the right place: in peace, towards others, and on his future.

Lwando turned eighteen this February, and is in the 11^th grade at Fezeka Secondary. Fezeka is not your average high school, and you know it the minute you pull up because it is behind a tall, barbed and guarded gate. Beyond the gate, there are more differences…there is no field out back where kids practice basketball and soccer. There is no lunchroom. There is no water fountain. There are no bright yellow buses lining a parking lot to drop or pick up kids. The bathrooms have no toilet paper, soap or towels. There is no heat or a/c, and there aren’t enough desks in any of the classrooms. The desks that are there are broken, and they sit in cold rooms behind jagged, broken panes of glass for windows. The most disturbing thing that is missing, however, are the teachers themselves. It is not your typical high school experience.

When I met Lwando, he was arriving everyday to Fezeka by foot, from about an hour away in another township. He sometimes stayed with friends that lived closer to school, which made his commute shorter, but he made a point to make Fezeka his home school because it is actually one of the better schools around. He thrives there, despite everything, joining the debate club, helping to form the poetry club, participating in local HIV/AIDS awareness groups and he is also a peer educator for Fezeka. He’s well known within his community as a wonderful poet, speaker and friend. I miss him dearly.

Because he has no phone, no internet/email and an undeliverable address (most places in the townships cannot get mail), it has been difficult to hear any word from him. The pieces of information I have gotten over the year have been sparse, with only a ‘he’s okay’ or ‘he says hello’. I could only hope that he was healthy, happy and staying in school. Finally, yesterday I heard from the Education without Borders in house teacher, Alex, at great length as to how he has been doing since I last saw him. It was a tough email to read. She gave me a bit of background into his past, too—and it was all hard. Parental neglect, endless days and nights of hunger, the death of his brother, the unfit living conditions, the perseverance through all of it…he still stands, trying to finish school and do his best with what he has.

Luckily, a bit of good news has finally come into the picture for him! Through tremendous generosity of Alex and some of her friends and contacts, Lwando is receiving medical care and has adequate housing and food. Additionally, through the efforts of his current EwB teacher Laura Egdorf, he was offered a spot on the Vision Youth tour that goes through South Africa to various spots so he can compete in poetry/talent competitions. He needed to match Vision Youth’s 5000 Rand donation, so when I got word, I dropped everything to send some savings towards his big dream. And after only a few days, me and Laura were able to raise all the money to send him on this trip! I’m overwhelmed that he finally has an opportunity to not only share his vision and passion with others around South Africa, but that he is also finally getting something he truly deserves. I am overjoyed to help him realize his dreams and can only hope that someday soon I can be there beside him for one of these opportunities. I’m attaching the flyer that I received about this opportunity that tells you a little more about Lwando, along with a request to send him critique of his work so he can perfect his craft. If you have the time, please read his poetry and send any words of encouragement, constructive criticism or the like to the attention of Laura, as stated on the flyer. If you feel inclined, you can also donate money towards Education Without Borders through their website (http://www.educationwithoutborders.ca/donate), or if you feel like donating any funds towards Lwando’s future educational ventures, you can place them through me or through Laura using the US address she provides in the flyer.

I can only hope this venture leads towards more opportunities to build Lwando’s confidence and educational and life experience while also exposing him to those who might be able to help him reach his goals of one day being a judge. Thanks for listening. I cannot even express how happy I am in this moment. The only thing that would make me happier is being there in person. And who knows? Maybe one day, I will be. Maybe one day very soon….

Here is a video of our time in South Africa from Rachel Hunter's film Strangers In Paradise.

Here is a video of his recital of his poem “the Burden of Woman” that he did while we were in South Africa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq0IjVCeSM8&feature=related

Page 1 (click to enlarge) letter from Fezeka:
Page 2

Page 3

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Help Save Teresa Lewis!

By: Amy

Dear wonderful colleagues nationwide and especially Virginia-wide,

As we fight for gender rights through writing and learning from one another, I am calling all of us to fight with action. The woman pictured here is Teresa Lewis. She has been wrongfully sentenced to death which will be scheduled at the end of August or early September. Her last appeal has been denied. We are the ones who can save this woman's life by getting the attention of Governor McDonnell. Her LIFE is in his hands.

Teresa has a borderline mental retardation IQ of 72 and a child of two poor parents with from Danville, VA. At the tender age of 16, she was married and had two children. Her life has been filled with traumatic events that have resulted in a fragile, mentally incapable woman. Because of this, she was an easy target for Matthew Shallenberger who manipulated her.

Shallenberger admits that he used Teresa to get what he wanted: money to start a drug business. In his twisted world, he said he had a choice: travel to New York City and take the risk of killing many “hits” that he had “lined up” or dupe Teresa into believing he loved her and then killing her husband and stepson in order to cash in on $350,000 in life insurance money. For Shallenberger, the choice was easy. He committed the crimes and escaped a death sentence, only to kill himself while in prison three years later.

Teresa will be the first woman since 1912 in the state of Virginia to be executed. If we don't act now, she will die in a month.

You can get involved in a number of ways:
1. Write a letter to Governor McDonnell pleading him to step in. To email click here. Send letters to this address:

Office of the Governor
Patrick Henry Building, 3rd Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219

Phone: (804) 786-2211
Fax: (804) 371-6351

2. Write to every local newspaper and new station (MEDIA ATTENTION!). Here are links to Hampton Roads News Stations: You can also contact the Virginian Pilot and Daily Press in the Tidewater area.Wavy TV 10 News Channel 3 Channel 13
3. Go to the website SaveTeresaLewis.org and sign the petition.
4. Join the facebook group Friends of Teresa Lewis
5. Pass the word to as many Virginians as you can! McDonnell wants to hear from his VOTERS so refer to yourself as such! Example,"As a Virginia voter, I will remember your lack of action for this case when I'm in the voting booth."

In feminist solidarity, we MUST ACT NOW. TODAY.

- Amy

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Day 2 Reproductive Justice

By: Amy
Overall, this experience has changed my life in a number of ways. After my epiphany with Shelby Knox, I really took the rest of the experience with a more confident mindset. If anything, this FSC has taught me to dream big and stay committed in all that I do, especially when it comes to my career.

Tuesday was dedicated to reproductive justice, which for all the fellow feminists out there that are unaware, is an all-encompassing term used to describe all aspects of the reproductive field. This can include abortion, maternal and child care or adoption. The term is often confused with reproductive rights, which focuses mainly on the right to a safe abortion. This entire field was something a little new to me. I was raised by an extremely "pro-life" mother, so internally, it took me awhile to understand the severity of the situations that would end up needing that procedure. It's funny to me how the people who complain about abortion are always the ones who complain about having to pay for welfare services. Just sayin... so the past couple of years, I have educated myself on the issue and actually lobbied with a friend in Richmond for Planned Parenthood.

My small group visited with Guttmacher Institute. Yes, THE Guttmacher. The one everyone quotes, worldwide, on statistics about reproductive issues. Before we left, we were able to snag some publications from their library! I stocked up on my HIV/AIDS in Africa information. When I left, my bag was about 15 lbs heavier with pamphlets and reports.

After that, we headed to Spence-Chapin Adoption Services in Brooklyn. I was extremely impressed by this organization. They really took a woman-centered approach to the adoption process. When we arrived, they were in the middle of an informational session for prospective African American couples. Right away, this showed me that this agency was noteworthy.

My eyes were also opened by my colleague, Katie O'Connell, to the presence of Crisis Pregnancy Centers that have infested Virginia. Katie will be interning at NARAL Pro-Choice America in combating these psuedo-help centers. They falsely advertise to women and girls who are pregnant and have no resources. Setting up shop next to Planned Parenthoods, they lore these women into this place with no medically qualified individuals. Most of these centers have gotten ahold of advanced ultrasound machines to scare the person out of termination. (These people apparently love scare-tactics considering they're mostly God-fearin'!) Virginians, ever see those Pro-Life license plates? That's their main source of income. However, Katie has informed me that NARAL investigated where the license plate money is going-- some women's house in Norfolk, VA!
So addition to learning about the reproductive justice movement in NYC, I learned about a growing problem in my own backyard. And for the record, Pro-Choice=Pro HEALTHY AND HAPPY Life.

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Prenatal Drug to Prevent Gender Ambiguities & Normalize Behavior?

By: Brook
So I was browsing around and found this article on Time. It talks about Dr. Maria New's advocacy for the drug dexamethasone which she recommends to patients to prevent gender ambiguities and unwanted/masculine behaviors for those diagnosed with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH).

CAH is an inherited disorder of the adrenal glands that causes an overexposure of male hormones in utero that can cause ambiguous genitalia and leads to what New states as a lifetime of taking powerful steroid medications to compensate for...faulty adrenal glands. If dexamethasone is taken prenatally, it can prevent some of the symptoms of CAH-- especially in girls, where the genitalia can appear more male like. Dexamethasone is not FDA approved for prenatal use, and is not proven to curb later implications of CAH in girls, such as eliminate or even reduce their need for hormonal medications. Research did, however, suggest that those women who were treated with dexamethasone in utero showed more 'typical gender behavior' while those who were not treated with the drug tended to "behave more tomboyishly"and expressed "little interest in having children."

On the benefits and intent of giving dexamethasone in utero, New states:

"The challenge here is...to see what could be done to restore this baby to the normal female appearance which would be compatible with her parents presenting her as a girl, with her eventually becoming somebody's wife, and having normal sexual development, and becoming a mother. And she has all the machinery for motherhood, and therefore nothing should stop that, if we can repair her surgically and help her psychologically to continue to grow and develop as a girl."

So we are getting into this technological state where we can begin to say: I want a girl...but only if she looks like a girl and later behaves like a girl and I don't have to worry about her lack of femininity or ambiguity towards motherhood. And New isn't the only one pushing dexamethasone for these same reasons. Her collaborator, Heino F.L. Meyer-Bahlburg recent report "What Causes Low Rates of Child-Bearing in Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia?" states that:

"CAH women as a group have a lower interest than controls in getting married and performing the traditional child-care/housewife role. As children, they show an unusually low interest in engaging in maternal play with baby dolls, and their interest in caring for infants, the frequency of daydreams or fantasies of pregnancy and motherhood, or the expressed wish of experiencing pregnancy and having children of their own appear to be relatively low in all age groups."

The report goes on to state:

"The largest clinic population was studied by Mulaikal et al...Half of the women were not heterosexually active. Those who were heterosexually active nevertheless appeared to have low fertility...The evidence clearly indicates that the reduced fertility of CAH women with classical CAH...has a variety of reasons. The main reason, it seems, is not the dysregulation of ovulation and suppression of conception, but the lower rate of heterosexual involvement combined with the lower rate of interest in having children. The lower rate of heterosexual involvement is probably related to the postoperative status of the genitalia and possibly also to prenatal androgen effects on the brain. The lower interest in having children seems to be part of the overall masculinization of childhood behavior in girls with classical CAH; in adolescent and adult CAH women, the various problems with heterosexuality may further contribute."

There are definite benefits to researching CAH, which can cause great problems in individuals who are born with it, but why this focus on gendered behavior, sexuality and motherhood? The idea of experimenting with a risky and under-tested drug in utero in order to potentially avoid gender ambiguities and behaviors after birth hardly seems worth the effort for those with CAH. I'm not sure why parents are so concerned about engineering their child's sexual orientations and gender roles period. Is stepping outside these roles and appearances the worst thing that could happen to your child? (There are far worse fates that are debilitating and deadly.) Additionally, anything 'abnormal' is going to be hard for the child, and the parents as well. But we all have something. All of us, at some point or another, step outside the norm, live outside the norm, speak outside of the norm.


A drug to normalize gendered behavior and....prevent lesbianism? Did you ever see that movie Gattaca? I'm just saying...

Story by: Brook Buesking | Photo Credit: Bitchmag.org

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The Contagiousness of Ideas

A brief talk on ideas, also known as memes. Very rarely, an idea, compared to the vast number of ideas generated on a daily basis, will become an entity to be reckoned with. The idea develops the ability to continue itself by the means of passing from generation to generation in our brains. The idea will eventually be subject to natural selection, picking out the best parts of it that allow the idea to pass more easily in to the future.

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