Jessi Chartier

People ask from where I got my business prowess and growing leadership skills. I did what anyone in my shoes would do: surrounded myself with people who could help me. A collection of curated friends and colleagues with whom I could feed my learning to fill in the holes. 

I’m so excited that my most influential mentor – who has grown into a good friend – has set up shop, called Leader 180, to help other leaders and businessfolk grow. If you are looking to develop as a leader or get some strategic perspective on your business, you need to reach out to Leader 180. Dr. Cindy Larson has escorted me through every turn in my career, and I know I’m better for it. She’s assembled a powerful team: I know and have worked with most of her team, and they are the best human beings around. They listen to you and get excited about helping you solve problems. 

Take advantage of this team. I cannot recommend them highly enough. 

In 2014, Veronica Arreola began a goal of taking a selfie once a day for a year in an effort to capture herself in real life situations – an attempt to support the idea that selfies could be used as a platform of humanizing women (a goal of feminism, to counteract the objectification of women). She encouraged other women to do the same and created the hashtag #365FeministSelfie. 

Over the course of the year, something happened: the community started to notice women who repeated posted selfies wherein they celebrated things like surviving another rant from their husbands about “how worthless you are.” The community started to ask questions:

Some eagle-eyed selfie-ists noticed a pattern with a few fellow participants: far too many selfies posted with a caption about a husband’s rant. The questions began. Does he do this a lot? Are you happy? What else does he say to you? Do you have friends close by who can support you? 

It soon dawned on a few of the women in our community that their husbands were emotionally abusive and had separated them from nearby friends and family. These were not typical quarrels; this was domestic abuse. The awakenings were devastating.

I wanted to post this because this narrative offers two revelations.

1. A call to engineers and designers to use technology for social change

I’d like to see more makers – those who hold the skills to create – rise to the challenge of becoming heroes for social change. To those I say: you hold the ability to change the world; why aren’t you doing it yet? Said with love.

2. The potential for mobile devices to make positive social change

I believe mobile computing is a powerful tool and we are still trying to figure out how it integrates into our lives. Behavioral sciences are still processing what data they have about the use of mobile devices, but this narrative provides clear evidence of how the integration of these devices might actually provide help to those who otherwise wouldn’t have it: 

People can be physically isolated from their communities, but a simple smartphone can connect us to people across the country who are able to see the forest for the abusive trees. 

The moral of this post is that we are ultimately accountable to each other. How we use our talents and leverage the tools at our disposal impact others. I’m thrilled that Veronica Arreola started her hashtag and saw it through to the end, finding ways to support the social change it stirred up. We should take our cue and join her. 

An oldie, but goodie. I often reread it to remind myself that there are multiple ways to learn and that we are often limited by own our biases. 

http://www.21learn.org/archive/cognitive-apprenticeship-making-thinking-visible/

I am so proud and honored to have been appointed CEO of Mobile Makers Academy. Speechless, humbled, and excited are all words that come to mind. Thankfully, I have a great team to help me articulate my thoughts: 

http://mobilemakers.co/blog/2015/9/30/mobile-makers-is-now-a-hack-reactor-core-school

Super thanks to Aleen Simms for inviting me to her Less Than Or Equal podcast. We had a hoot chatting about education, my transition from a female-dominated field (education) to a male-dominated field (tech), and of course, Doctor Who. Check it out: 

#57 JESSI CHARTIER – LESS THAN OR EQUAL

Penn State recently started offering a course to their faculty on how to teach veterans. I’ve had the pleasure to teach and watch others teach veterans. They bring so much to the classroom, and enrich the community. Yet, teaching them warrants new tools and strategies. Here are a few resources to get you started.

• Working with Military Veterans in the Classrooms
• Preparing Faculty to Better Serve Veterans

Key & Peele, setting the tone and stage for how media should portray the professional teacher. 

” ‘In most sectors board of directors include many industry experts, and in higher education that’s not true. There are often one or two, if any, members of the boards who are higher education experts,’ said Merrill Schwartz, vice president of consulting at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. ‘It’s a lot to ask of members to understand the industry, and trustee education really is a leg up.’ “

New Push for Trustee Training by Kellie Woodhouse

We we cannot forget that education is a profession and a field unto itself. Education is no different than medicine: a field in which thousands spend their life in research, practicing, and review with the goal of improving the quality of life for all.

We must start treating it as a profession. 

Faculty Focus had a quick little blurb on getting students to do their reading assignments, outlining which standard techniques work best. 

However, one technique they’re missing: explaining what the reading will teach them and how the reading will aid them in life and/or work. Students don’t read because the assignments lacks the weight of import. Especially with adult students, something often has to get sacrificed in education or life (there are only 24 hrs in the day) – reading assignments will fall off because students often don’t buy into their importance. Help them understand the import. 

A bonus of this activity, you’ll be forced to evaluate the real importance of the reading. If it’s not full, rich, and thick with weight, pitch it. Find one that is.