Week O' Fun

I had an awesome week.  Busy, but awesome.  Luma Mufleh, the coach highlighted in Warren St. John's book, "Outcasts United," spoke at Towson to an audience of about 300. Faculty and students from not only the University, but also the the surrounding communities came. And, lots and lots of young and old soccer fans. More about Luma in a sec.

I had a good time with my fifth graders in Cherry Hill and got to attend a regional residency meeting at Rutgers.  Getting together with fellow residents is always such a great time and being able to do that on the Rutgers campus was really neat! They just started a Diversity Research Center at their Dana Library that is the first of its kind in the nation. And it sounds AMAZING. The center will chiefly work on developing and carrying out research in the study of diversity. It was truly exciting and inspiring to hear about. I can't wait to see what they do.

About Luma -she is fantastic! Her stories about growing up in Jordan were beautiful and some of the anecdotes she told about the Fugees during the Q & A had me cackling.  (It's Halloween, I cackle this time of year.) The book, "Outcasts United," leaves out a lot of the humor that Luma seems to encounter with the kids fairly frequently.  One story she told exposed the differences the Fugees feel in contrast to the teams they often play against.  They are sometimes called not the nicest of names by opponents and their parents. They get taunted for being black, muslim or having accents, or for having a woman as their coach, among other differences. The Fugees have adjusted to this, but once after a game where the taunts had been more stinging than usual,  the kids asked Luma, (who is fair-skinned and almost accentless), "What if they knew the truth?" 

Luma asked, "The truth, what do you mean the truth?"

They said, "That you're an Arab AND a Muslim!"

Sarcastically Luma replied, "Oh, God! What would we do then!"

Here's some press about the Fugees.  And, I encourage you to join their Fugees Family Facebook page to keep on top of updates and happenings with the kids. Enjoy and Have a Great Week!

Hope for the Future

This past week a few of us residents met at the University of Delaware for a regional residency meeting. University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown, Rutgers, Towson and UD were all represented. It was so good to meet other residents and hear about some of the challenges that residents face as well as discussing the benefits and issues in the ongoing resident programs. I'll admit that even though I feel a lot of camaraderie with my fellow librarians and I work and rely on their input constantly, it is a lot of pressure to be not only the only resident, but the first at the University and Maryland. There is a ton of pressure to do a lot of things well, and I found that I'm not the only resident that feels this way. I think that by in large we are all a group of overachievers and balancing what one wants to do and what one can do, is something I and the others are probably working on constantly. So, it was nice to be in the same room with people in the same boat.

A couple of the residents were nearing the end of their tenure. And, even though I am only 8 months into my residency, I often think about where I will be in 16 months when my residency ends. So, it was really good to talk about how to incorporate the myriad experiences acquired through various projects, on our CV's/resumes. And, it was great to talk with a resident nearing the end of her residency that has already acquired a great position. In addition to the meeting, the RIG (Residency Interest Group) Blog posted about a former resident that was promoted in 2009 to Associate University Librarian.

But, even though I'm thinking about what opportunities might be out there in a year or so when I'll be looking again, I'm still happily knee deep in the opportunities I'm creating and coming across in my time right now. And, it's really good to know that some of my fellow residents have gotten through all this and it has launched them into successful careers. Phew!