Tag: education

  • NY artist says to make your life a masterpiece, listen to yourself

    NY artist says to make your life a masterpiece, listen to yourself


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Artist Carol Crawford (Photo/Carol Crawford)

    Carol Crawford, originally from Buffalo, NY, has been creating art ever since she can remember. She inherited her talent from her father – an artist and calligrapher.

    “I used to watch him work,†she says. “He did gorgeous lines. He handed me a bottle of India ink when I was seven and a sable brush. I never spilled anything.â€

    And that’s how it all began.

    Crawford has had a long art career consisting of documentary photography, filmmaking, printmaking, and theater set design. In 1995, she got a masters in interior design from Pratt Institute in NYC – where she has been teaching since 1999. Slightly before that, she also founded her own design firm, Carol Crawford Environments, which specializes in sustainable interior design. And on October 7, her latest exhibit, “Time Frames: Visual Metaphors for the Passage of Time†opens in New York.

    “All the work was done in 2014,†says Crawford about her latest exhibit which she completed while on medical leave from Pratt. “I had spinal surgery, and it took a long time to heal. I thought I would go out of my mind, so I decided to throw myself into studio work. I plunged in. It was an evolution from designs from my sketchbook.â€

    She says what she loves most about art is the ability to communicate and to invent.

    “What I like about it is telling stories,†says Crawford. “I’m looking always to break new ground. It’s mixed media, because I love to shift. I’ve used a lot of wood and plexiglass, and photography has always played a large part. I used to make a living as a documentary photographer – so the camera is an important tool.â€

    Whatever she has worked on throughout her life, she says, she has loved. And she also made sure to make time for everything that was important to her.

    “I’ve been teaching in universities and colleges from California to Maryland for the past 60 years…I love teaching very, very much, but I didn’t want to give up the idea of becoming a mother,†says the busy woman who now has four grown kids and five grandchildren. “…One of the things I had to fight for was to have children and a family – so it means a great deal.”

    Crawford says she wasn’t always so sure about what she wanted. One day her father asked her why she didn’t go to Pratt?

    “We were not rich,†she remembers. “I was always a scholarship student with a job. I thought, ‘How could I do that?’â€

    And then her mother asked her, “Wouldn’t you like to be a designer? You keep doing it for free?â€

    Crawford says she didn’t know how she could go back to school with four kids, and she recently realized it all happened. She had actually graduated from Pratt and is a designer and teacher.

    “Some of the best ideas I’ve ever had was using my brain with my feelings,†she says. “Some of the best artwork has come from that as well.â€

    If she had one piece of life advice that she would tell her younger self, it would be to be true to yourself, others and stick to your dream – even if you don’t know how you are going to make money.

    “If you haven’t already fallen in love with something…listen to yourself,†says Crawford. “If you are an honest observer to life around you, you’ll come up with something that is true to you. You will have success if you do that.â€

  • Actor Tony Plana says, “Show your kids how important education is”

    Actor Tony Plana says, “Show your kids how important education is”


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Actor Tony Plana (Courtesy Twitter)

    Many might remember Tony Plana from his many acting roles from “Feo†in the film “Born in East L.A.â€Â to playing America Ferrera’s dad in the sitcom “Ugly Betty,†but many might not know his other passion is sharing his wisdom with youth.

    The 62-year-old Cuban-American actor attributes all of his success to his education, and he says he wants to pay it forward.

    For nearly two decades, Plana has been working hard to create educational programming for schools in underserved middle and high schools in the greater Los Angeles area. His East L.A. Classic Theatre program, which integrates acting within school curriculums have proven successful, because it engages students to become avid learners – it connects them emotionally to the school experience. He says young immigrant children, who have trouble speaking because of fear, to troubled runaways, have found a purpose and have learned to thrive because of being exposed to theater.

    “Theater teaches you to collaborate and identify with a group – to create and realize something together,†says Plana. “The wonderful feeling of creating something together and sharing it – it’s very powerful…I started East L.A. Classic Theatre in 1995, because I wanted to become part of the solution…I want to take East L.A. nationally, because [education] is a national problem.â€

    The experienced father of two and educator of many, says it’s all about connections when it comes to educating youth, and it starts in the home.

    “Latino children experience more regression than any other group, because it’s environmental – many are very poor and that’s not conducive to intellectual stimulation,†says Plana, who encourages role-playing with parents in school curriculums. “It’s important to educate the parents about this problem.â€

    He says he’s also created a program through East L.A. called “Creciendo Juntos†to empower parents with information.

    “You have to get involved in finding out who your kids are and what they need,†says Plana, who home-schooled his own children – whether biological, educational, whatever those needs are. “We teach them not to do things for their children, but to make them learn, and parents to become learners themselves. You teach by modeling. Become more educated so you can make more money and raise standard of living. Show your kids how important education is.â€

    Currently living with his wife in NYC, Plana also spends time advocating for other causes when he’s not acting. Most recently, he’s a spokesperson for a non-profit called TECHO, which brings volunteers and low-income families in Latin America together to combat poverty.

  • 70-year-old nurse practitioner, and teacher, remembers her most humbling moment

    70-year-old nurse practitioner, and teacher, remembers her most humbling moment


    A woman with short hair wearing red necklace.
    Beth Farren (Photo/Richard Posey)

    Beth Farren, 70, continues living her life doing what she loves most – nursing, teaching, and fitting in the time to play tennis.

    Originally from Chicago, she has lived in Dallas for the past 33 years, where she volunteers as a nurse practitioner at a nearby clinic, teaches nursing online at Texas Tech, and sits on the board of the North Texas Nurse Practitioners – where she helps raise money for social causes.

    “I have lovely days,†says Farren, in her kind, soft voice. “Some days, I diagnose and treat women’s health – pelvic exams, breast exams, pulmonary exams…I also work in the neurology clinic and dermatology clinic. Both have specialty doctors, and I’m their nurse.â€

    Farren says she started teaching way before she became a nurse practitioner – a career which requires advanced coursework and clinical education beyond that required of a registered nurse.

    After getting her bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Farren says she started to think about getting a masters.

    “The new dean of the nursing program called me and asked me if I wanted to come teach,†she remembers. “I told her I only had a bachelor’s degree, but she told me they didn’t have enough people with master’s degree, so she was asking those with bachelor’s degrees to do clinical teaching.â€

    So Farren made an arrangement with her then husband where he helped with their little boys in the morning.

    “I started, and I loved it,†says Farren about her first teaching experience. “I taught for them for 10 years.â€

    During her time in Tennessee, she also worked with women who didn’t have access to prenatal care.

    “They were just learning about premature births at that time,†says Farren who took a course in working with premature babies. “I learned that some babies would not have been premature if the mom had just had good prenatal care. I began to be passionate about it.”

    So while working on her master’s, she decided she was more interested in prevention and taking care of patients that would benefit from education.

    “I mentally left the hospital and pursued courses,†says Farren. “Nowadays, practitioners have a great variety of roles, but when I became a nurse practitioner, we worked outside of the hospitals trying to prevent people from going to the hospital.â€

    After earning her master’s degree, she moved to Texas for a job opportunity, and there she also earned her doctorate degree.

    “I always volunteered one night a week, when my boys were older, at the free clinic,†says Farren. “I’m nothing special. They were just opportunities I had.â€

    Some of those opportunities included going to Poland and Romania, who were moving away from communism, to teach standards of practice; as well as working at a Cuban refugee camp in Wisconsin one summer.

    “In the early ‘80s, Fidel Castro let a bunch of people from psychiatric facilities in Cuba come to America, and all these people showed up in Miami on boats and rafts, and the Army started taking them to different bases to try and take care of them,” says Farren. “The fort I was in was considered a family camp with a lot of pregnant women and children…a number of my patients told me they had been in prison, and I strongly believe a lot of them were political prisoners.â€

    Perhaps the most impactful moment of her long career, she says, was the moment she thought she might lose her son.

    “About 15 years ago, my son had a very serious emergency, and I wound up taking him down to the county hospital here in Dallas,†recounts Farren about her son’s gastric bleed. “One of my students was in the emergency room. She looked up and saw me, and said, ‘Dr. Farren, I’m going to take care of this.’ I realized in that moment that I was able to tell her how much blood he’d lost, and she was able to believe me, because she knew who I was.”

    The next day, she says another one of her students took care of him.

    “It’s just one of the most humbling things,†says Farren about the whole experience. “I had just done my job to teach these girls, and there they were when I needed them. It wasn’t anything special I did – just the rhythms of life.”

    She says her piece of advice to the younger generation is:

    “Remember to do what you love, and trust that it will all be ok,†says Farren. “We all worry so much, thinking, ‘Can I make a living doing this?’ ‘Is it even doable?’ I got my doctorate as a single mom, while I worked full-time and did part-time jobs on the side, and nobody in their right mind told me it was a doable thing, but it was.â€

  • Bronx Fathers Taking Action member on the importance of fatherhood

    Bronx Fathers Taking Action member on the importance of fatherhood


     

    A man with glasses and a hat smiling.
    Bronx Fathers Taking Action member John Fielder (Courtesy John Fielder)

    John Fielder, a born and raised New Yorker, has always been a savior of sorts for his community.

    Before turning 60, he was an emergency medical technician (EMT) for nearly two decades, and before that, a phlebotimist. Today, at 64, he serves on his district’s community education council as well as one of the 16 active Bronx Fathers Taking Action committee members.

    “I’m appointed by the borough president to oversee construction of schools, issues of building maintenance, curriculum, and parent involvement,†says Fielder about his role on the education council. “I also train parents to do what I do.â€

    Fielder explains the board is made of of 11 members, and there are 116 schools in the district, including elementary and middle schools. And through Bronx Fathers Taking Action, which was founded in March 2012, he provides resources and fosters relationships to reinforce fathers as positive role models for their kids.

    Although his seven children, three girls and four boys – ranging in age from 20 to 27 – are all grown up, playing an active role in the youth of his community is still crucial to him.

    A man with glasses and a hat smiling.
    John Fielder with four or his seven children.

    “My three youngest kids are foster kids, and we adopted them,†says Fielder about the family he shares with his wife, who is a school teacher. “That got me involved in special needs kids.â€

    He explains that two of his adopted children had slight learning disabilities because of the environment they came out of.

    “I was told the only thing they could get out of high school was a certificate, but I wanted them to have a real diploma,†says Fielder. “That’s what got me involved. I became president of the PTA [Parent Teacher Association] for three years. Then I became the president of the district’s education council.â€

    The more you’re involved, he says, the more you learn how the system works and how the system doesn’t work.

    “This is a business of educating our children, and it’s important we understand the system,†says Fielder. “One of my biggest issues now is we don’t have vocational schools left in the Bronx. Now [kids] have to pay to go to other schools and have a school loan bill that’s outrageous.â€

    Although Fielder also commits some of his free time to his church choir, he’s proud to say that Bronx Fathers Taking Action is one of his most important projects to date. In addition to holding monthly meetings, and reaching out to different churches, the group is partnering with a total of five middle schools and high schools in Manhattan and the Bronx to create mentoring programs.

    “Boys at that age, especially, need someone to look up to,†says Fielder. “We need to mentor them on financial aid, health benefits and financial literacy – the importance of budgeting, saving having bank accounts. What they see are guys with fancy rims and jewelry, but they’re living in the projects. What’s the value in that?â€

    Father’s Day weekend, he says, the group is holding a stickball event for older kids, and for the younger kids, a bicycle safety demonstration. In total, a couple of hundred youth and parents are expected to attend.

    “I want to get more fathers involved, because when you get more fathers involved, kids do better, because they have an example to follow,†he says. “Kids are not looking for a father with lots of money, just somebody who’s involved.â€

    To Fielder, fatherhood is one of the most important jobs there is, and it’s a job that never ends.

    “Fatherhood means mentoring, loving, training, becoming a good example, and having expectations for your children to do better than you,†he says.

    His advice for those younger than him:

    “Do what you have to, so you can do what you want to do. Be a leader and not a follower, and have high expectations for yourself.â€

  • Bodybuilder and life coach says, “Spend time with yourself”

    Bodybuilder and life coach says, “Spend time with yourself”


     

     

    A woman with her arms raised in the air.
    Dr. Josefina Monasterio, bodybuilder and life coach (Courtesy Dr. Josefina Monasterio)

    Dr. Josefina Monasterio spent her childhood climbing mango trees in her rural hometown, Punta de Mata, in western Venezuela. She says she was always athletic – competing in track and field and as a gymnast through college. At 68, however, she has far from slowed down. Monasterio is an award-winning bodybuilder and life coach.

    “I started bodybuilding at 59, and now I compete with women in their 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, and I beat them,†says Monasterio laughing in her vivacious manner. “They take pictures with me!â€

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