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Tag: Education

Honored Role (part 20): Capt. Jana Fajardo – New Starts

Published on July 23, 2010

This is the 20th installment in the Honored Role Series.

Jana Fajardo grew up wanting to serve in the military, despite the fact that less than two percent of Americans do so.

Both her maternal grandparents served in the Armed Forces. Her grandmother enlisted in the British Navy and her grandfather served 27 years in US Army retiring as a Master Sergeant. Jana’s father enlisted in the Army and served in Vietnam. Her mother enlisted in the Air Force. Although all had completed their terms prior to her birth, Jana says knowing that history of service influenced her desire to join the military—it was in her blood.

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Honored Role Series (Part 9): Beth Carpenter – Bridge to Bridge

Published on January 15, 2010

This is the ninth installment in the weekly Honored Role Series.

Beth Carpenter was never a “typical girl”. As a child growing up in Massachusetts, she loved making paper airplanes and building structures from kitchen utensils. She also questioned her parents and teachers about the physics of bridges, the earth’s orbit around the sun, and the origination of rainbows. Today, she pays her passion forward and helps students learn and understand the physical universe and Newton’s Laws of Motion.

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Character and Composition Matter

Published on September 22, 2009

In the month of August, both Forbes Magazine and US News & World Report ranked West Point as American’s Best College in each of their respective annual rankings.  The rank and follow-on accolades are tribute to a national treasure – the United States Military Academy.  There has been both praise and criticism of the methodology used to calculate this year’s results.  The primary criticism being that students of the federal military academies receive a free education, which allows them to graduate debt free in comparison to the majority of other university students.

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There is only one first day of Kindergarten

Published on August 27, 2009

The first day of kindergarten is a momentous day for both child and parent.   The weeks and days leading up to the first day of school have been filled with anticipation and excitement.  Visits to the school, meetings with teachers, introductions to the principal, shopping for a new outfit, learning bus riding procedures, and packing, unpacking and re-packing of the mandatory accessory — the backpack.

The day before the first day of school, a few parents of the soon-to-be- kindergarteners organized a pizza picnic.   After catching up on summer adventures, one of the excited moms asked me, “Are you going to go to school in the morning and take pictures?”   Puzzled I replied, “I had not thought about it.  Carly is taking the bus.  I am going to the bus-stop and planned on taking a few snapshots there.”  Politely, but firmly, she told me that there is only one first day of kindergarten.

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