Here is the Mandate

Yesterday I gave a presentation on John Nash. Apparently he was hired at MIT (not his first choice) back when MIT was not considered such a great research institution. The point being.... MIT later WAS considered a great research institution. When did it make the switch? Maybe MIT was already great back when Nash was just being brought into the fold. MIT's lack of a name didn't prevent it from doing great work, or from being better than other places. Public opinion caught up later.

I've been thinking a lot about brand names, specifically of how going to a great school or being affiliated with an accomplished person or being part of a famous organization really doesn't actual signal anything about your own achievements. I know this is a deeply true fact... having worked for a big named place because it was big named and having it fall really really short. I know this to be true, having found great art and people and academics in the strangest of places.

Right now, I am sitting in the Midwest, about to start my research. My advisor, my schools past and present, my professors, my family, my last name have no say here. It's just me and the Math. I hope and fear that I will be judged by my accomplishments.


I must achieve.

I have a PhD committee!!

I am getting my masters is Mathematics on May 4th. I can't believe it. Yet I look forward.... I am here for a PhD after all. I just got an advisor - a total badass - and a PhD committee. After June I'll be done with all my exams and will start REEEESSSEEEEAAAARRRCH!

I'm excited that I will never have to really care about homework or exams for the rest of my life. I'm terrified that from now on I will be expected to produce original Mathematics. Thus will pass the next 4 years of my life.

THIS is what I want to do for the summer

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the summer and this article came out today in the Jamaica Observer (national newspaper).

Even the way the article was written speaks to an innumeracy in the both the writer and the audience.

I'm about to have a Masters in Math. I'm passionate about education. I'm willing to learn. I think I can help.

Fatigue

I always wonder why I'm in grad school, when I've never really liked classes. Honestly, I hate tests, I can't stand class-time and some of the few moments of unhappiness in my life have occurred performing the busy-work that is HOMEWORK.

I was especially feeling the burn this week, when I got really frustrated with a prof docking a ridiculous number of points on an assignment not for doing anything wrong, but for "lack of detail. When asked, the lack of detail he spoke of was me not repeating facts we had fully established in class. This saddens me. I'm even more saddened by the fact that at the ripe old age of the age I am, I still have to fuss about POINTS on HOMEWORK!!!!!

If all goes well, I'll be done with classes forever come June. Does that mean I can't/shouldn't check out now?

In other news, one of my friends from high school just got engaged. Seems I have to save up for another trip to Malaysia. 2013!!!

Yes

That thing I was wishing for... I got it! The person I wanted agreed to take me on as a student. Now, I just have to convince him to take me with him on his travels.

New Business

There is this article about our generation... "Generation sell" they say. That the essence our generation is the essence of the saleman. Our generation thinks about owning our own business more than any other. Maybe that's because that is the only way to really ensure a future... working for someone else is no longer all it's cracked up to be.

So it is that I am returning to Jamaica for Thanksgiving to start a business with my brother. I will be grad student by day; greentech entrepreneur by night. Sounds implausible? So's a Jamaican girl studying math in Nebraska.

Cheerio

Bad decisions for love...

One of my friends, got into school and told me that her boyfriend was planning to move with her when the time came. They do not live together now, but certainly will then, and she seems just too excited about the idea. A couple of months ago, she had made the decision that they would not move in together until he got a job. That situation has not changed, but she has clearly softened her position.

As the heartless pragmatists that I am, I think it's a good idea not to move one's emotionally dependent, oft depressed, unemployed bf into one's home, especially when that would necessitate some financial dependence. But, maybe that's why I'm still single. If it makes her happy, is it a bad idea? I suppose time will tell. But that's the problem with 20/20 hindsight, it accounts for info you couldn't possibly have had at the time. Within reason, are there REALLY any bad decisions when it comes to pursuing love?

And clearly the stakes have changed. Maybe it's "better" for him to move in with her, than for her to move out of his life...

Slacking off and setting priorities

I went on long vacation over Dec/Jan and managed to hit up Minneapolis, NYC, DC and New Orleans. I learned to cross-country ski, had my first white Christmas, partied on New Years Eve with my brother in NYC, visited capitol hill, saw friends from high school, toured a congressman's office and gained some interesting insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and then went to the Joint Math Meetings (huge math conference) in New Orleans.

Now I'm finally partially settled back into classes, and it's time for me to start the writing again.

The break allowed for a whole lot of introspection, the result of some of which I will no doubt write about. And being back in school has afforded me a new job!

I may be one step closer to one of my life dreams... founding a school.

Fill you in later

How to get a Green Card - the paradoxes of immigration

In case you didn't pick up on it, I am in grad school now for a PhD in Math. I'm having a great time of it so far, but I can see that I am at a tremendous disadvantage simply because I am not a US citizen or permanent resident.

The government, rightfully acknowledging the need for American scientists and mathematicians, pours money into these fields. That's why Math PhD's get paid to finish their degree. That's why a couple of my classmates can call someone up and get Uncle Sam to pay for their text books, or why some of them are getting an all expense paid trip to New Orleans in January... for a Math conference of course. Government money flooding all over.

However, government money can only flow to US permanent residents and citizens. This leaves my Jamaican ass out in the cold. I can't even apply for the great majority of fellowships etc. But I figure, I've been in the US for 6 years now. By the end of my degree that 6 will be 12, and as a Math PhD, I would be valuable to the country. There must be a way of getting permanent residency over the next 6 years.

WRONG. There is absolutely no legal way for me to even qualify for an application. I have no immediate family here, I am not married to an American, and I am not famous in any field. So, given the unlikeliness of any of those things happening (I am still holding out for a Field's Medal!), there is no hope. I am cut off from the most promising opportunities in my field. I don't like the statistics either... immigrant graduates tend to be shunted from college to college after they get their PhD's.... never ever to be granted tenure.

Have I doomed myself to third class status by choosing to be an immigrant scholar? No, I actually think that the short-sightedness of current US immigration policy is to blame. There are so many great countries that would welcome a Math PhD with open arms; allowing me at least residency status.

Don't they remember that was how this country was built? And since the home-grown talent ain't that great... no offense

Conclusion:I fully believe the US deserves to lose it's immigrant talent
Observation: The outflow has already begun...


Addendum:why immigrant entrepreneurs are going home