Lee's Blog

Off to Denmark tomorrow

Spending my last few hours here in Maryland before heading to DC to meet the rest of the folks I'll be going to Denmark with.  It's been a good and also sad week with family and friends here.  One of my good friends lost his brother last week, but I'm glad I was here to spend time with him and my other friends who came in from out of town.  One friend, Alex, took a 6-hour train ride from CT to pay his respects and then he went back home the following day.  My group of friends here is much more homogeneous (they're all white Jewish males) than my friends in Boulder, but they are good friends and we know we will always be able to count on each other. 

Yesterday I went to a little beach for a couple of hours with my buddy Mike, and the day before my friend Noah from college came up from Norfolk with his wife.  Thursday I spent in Baltimore with my friend Josh and I participated in the yoga class he teaches at the women's jail.  Earlier in the week I gave a financial skills workshop to a group of teenage moms, and I really enjoyed sharing that practical info and other info from the guide I wrote recently for non-immigrants. 

I spent some time with my aunt who recently broke bones in both of her legs and is in a rehab center for another 4 weeks.  She's in good spirits though.  My grandma's Alzheimers has gotten worse and she can hardly communicate which is really sad.  On Tuesday I made a huge meal to celebrate my mom and Steve's 25th anniversary.  It was very nice. 

Now I'm getting ready to leave the country for 3 weeks, which I haven't done in a couple of years.  The first two weeks is all planned for me, and we'll be busy the whole time meeting with people there who work with marginalized populations.  Then I have a week to travel or stay in Denmark, and I'm excited to see where I end up.  

Thanks for reading.  I hope to write a couple of entries about my trip while I'm gone.  Love to all!!!

New Life Skills Guide

I finally finished writing the guidebook Practical Information for the Real World.  When I graduated from the University of Michigan Business School in 1999, I had no idea how unprepared I was for life after school.  I received a wonderful education, I have amazing parents, and since graduating I achieved my dream of starting a successful nonprofit organization. 

However, I have felt uninformed about many of life's essentials until recently when I truly learned the objective information included this guide about finances, health, the workplace, housing, and insurance.  I didn't learn about credit cards until I was 26, and about credit ratings when I was 31.  I felt nervous when signing leases, I didn't know what to do about buying a house, one year I accidentally paid my staff semi-monthly wages when they should have been paid bi-weekly wages, I didn't know how to file an insurance claim until it was too late, and I didn't know how to identify symptoms of depression or substance abuse in order to better support and understand my friends who were dealing with those. 

Many college graduates can relate to my general feelings of uncertainty and doubt with real world life skills.  There are simply a lot of practical basics to learn about life, and schools and parents usually don’t cover them all adequately. It usually takes a long time before we start navigating life with confidence. 

Before working on the guide I researched existing publications and I found a lot of decent books about surviving as an adult, but I didn't find one with comprehensive and objective information that has been consolidated into one easy-to-read, brief and extremely affordable guide. So I created one using the framework from another guide I wrote in 2008 What Every Immigrant Needs to Know.   As this guide begins to circulate throughout the country, society will eventually consist of two categories:

1. Young adults who quickly learn this information and avoid unnecessary problems having to do with finances, health, jobs, housing and more. 
2. Those who over the years will figure out some, but not all of this critical information, before it’s too late. 

I want to share the guide with high school counselors, leadership groups, and parent organizations.  High Schools can use the guide to raise money for their schools by buying copies of the guide for $2 apiece (the reduced cost for buying quantities of 1,000+) and then sell them individually for $5 apiece (the cost for purchasing quantities of 100 or less).  Selling 1,000 copies could net $3,000 for schools while providing students with critical information to help them make informed decisions as an adult.  The guide also equips parents with ideas for important conversations to initiate with their children.  Without a tool like this it can be difficult for parents to initiate factual and productive discussions about all of the practical issues and life skills young adults don’t often learn about in school.    

Universities are the other primary target market because they should provide this resource to incoming students so that the students can focus on academics and minimize their stresses and uncertainty about living on their own for the first time.  I wish I had received this resource before entering college.  

I am very excited to start getting this resource into society and helping to provide millions of people with essential information.  As evidenced by our current economy, when people don't effectively manage their finances, understand housing systems or take care of their health it affects us all. 

You will be able to buy the guide within a week via the website www.lifeskillsguide.com.  Please spread the word about this new source of information.  Thanks!!

 

What's going on

It's been a while and I need to do a little catching up and updating for friends and family to see but also for me to help digest life a little bit.  So what has been going on?  Presidential election has me hopeful but a little nervous. I'll never forget that "oh my gosh, this is impossible, how the hell?" feeling from the last two elections, and I don't want to experience that again.  Especially with a candidate that seems so sharp, open and grounded...and doing well fundraising which is important. 

Intercambio is great, and I'm happy with all the new people on board - new Program Coordinator Maria, temporary replacement for development Dawn, and a new part-time office manager Kathy to help me and allow me to focus on expansion and management issues.  Jenna, our development director, will have her baby soon and I'm really excited for her. 

The funding for replication is at a stand still for now following a disappointing rejection from the Knight Foundation, but we will get the support we need soon.  Two amazing ex-volunteers are starting needs assessments in Boise Idaho and Fort Collins, CO as possible replication sites, and Denver is going well despite challenges receiving funding. 
We had a great strategy session with the Entrepreneurs Foundation of Colorado, which is a wonderful

group of people with a mission that could really create some positive change.  Here's an article that was in the Boulder County Business Report about our expansion and partnership with EFCO. 

I'm finishing up the immigrant guide (170 essentials to know as an immigrant in the US) and waiting now for the Spanish translation to be complete.  I'm anxious to get out the first round and see what kind of feedback we get.  My vision is for this guide to be the "bible" for immigrants, and that it becomes recognized by governments as information that must be supported and spread.  I'd like to sell 2 million copies in the next 3 years and use the revenue to support Intercambio National.  Let me know if you're interested in seeing a draft or printed copy when they're done in a few weeks.  

Here's another article I was quoted in a few weeks ago, but see if you notice anything funny about the quote :)

 
Other stuff going on, weekly dance aerobics class Shawn and I are teaching is still incredibly fun and tiring.  Playing soccer again and loving it.  Summer has been full of fun events (welcome parties, runs in the rain, hikes, bodas, and bailes).  Still haven't found a house/condo to buy but am in no rush.  Next weekend I go home to MD and visit Grandma in PA. 
That's enough for now.  Life is intense as always, but I love it and the people in it.