the Sam Jackson College Experience

Hey everyone! I promised this some time ago and am happy that it’s all now finally done: along with the other members of my class, I chose a subject to research using the Yale Manuscripts and Archives collections and then worked to help curate an online exhibit centered around a series of documents that I selected. This was done for my class The Intellectual in Politics, taught by Justin Zaremby.

Here is a link to the online exhibit, and here you can reach my particular section of the exhibit. It was a very short final writing assignment, but it was difficult to write so concisely and to try to capture all the themes and ideas that I wanted to express. I am happy to finally get to check it out with everything in place, and hope you enjoy it too.

Here is the blurb that Prof. Zaremby wrote for the exhibit, reproduced below:

According to the late Edward Shils, professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, intellectuals are those members of society “with an unusual sensitivity to the sacred, an uncommon reflectiveness about the nature of the universe and the rules which govern their society.” In this position, intellectuals occupy a position apart from society, working as scholars, writers, philosophers, and social critics. Given their role studying and criticizing society, intellectuals need to balance the need to maintain a critical distance from politics with their desire to influence political life. Some intellectuals attempt to have an impact on society through their writings. Others work as educators in institutions of higher education. Others choose to enter public service. In addition to the value that intellectual engagement might offer to the political world, the decision to enter politics encourages intellectuals to consider their responsibility to society, scholarship, and the intellectual class itself.

The students who curated this exhibit chose topics that reveal the tensions that confront intellectuals in their engagement with society. Students used the holdings of the Department of Manuscripts and Archives at the Yale University Library to illustrate the forms of engagement that intellectuals have attempted, as well as the responses to such engagement from both the intellectual and political worlds. The richness of the collection allowed students to explore a wide array of topics relating to political expertise, higher education, and the role of science and philosophy in society.In each case, the students reveal what lies at the intersection of intellectual life and political action—conflict, risk, and the potential for creative flourishing.

This exhibit is the final project for “The Intellectual in Politics,” a political science and humanities seminar taught by Justin Zaremby. In the course, students discussed authors ranging from Plato and Martin Heidegger to Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walter Lippmann in an attempt to understand the relationship between intellectual life and political life. Students attempted to define the needs and goals of the intellectual class, whether intellectuals serve as advisors, teachers, or social critics.

It was a fun class and I really enjoyed getting to work with the archival collections. There is just a huge, amazing treasure trove of papers, photographs, and much more available to students.I had a really hard time choosing a final subject, but I just enjoyed getting to explore the personal notes and letters of important and famous people. It’s a very special opportunity that I hope more Yale students take advantage of — I had gone to the Archives before out of curiosity to do some research into Yale’s history just for fun, and you don’t need to go for class. It’s just at the library, so there is no excuse not to go!

Greetings everyone. As I’m sure has already been obvious, I haven’t been posting much recently. Thank you if you’re still checking in and reading; I suggest sticking to RSS or e-mail updates so you don’t get frustrated waiting for irregular updates. I am hopeful that I will be better able to blog about my time with Google this summer, as opposed to last, as there will be fewer confidentiality issues and maybe I can talk more about the fun things that I will be doing or, at the very least, all the fun food I’ll be eating.

Right now I am busy being swamped with finals, as followers of my banal Twitter will be well aware. Feel free to follow me @samjackson if you are looking for more fast-paced updates about my everyday trials and tribulations here at Yale or wherever I may be. I just finished one 20 page paper about Female Bisexuality and Sexual Fluidity for my Chromosomes and Behavior / Sexual Behavior class, I’m currently working on a 20 page paper about Racial Drafting and Cross-Racial Ownership Claims for Mixed Individuals, which is due Monday, and then I also have to complete a ~15 page art-crime paper. I have already had my last Chinese tests and Oral Exam, and will be doing a cute Chinese skit with some classmates on Tuesday.

After that, it’s home free, mostly, and I’ll probably be out of New Haven on May 7 or 8. If you’re in Boston from then until June 5, let me know and I would be happy to meet up and hang out. I will be leaving for California probably around June 6, and will be there until August 15 or thereabouts. After that I am home for a short while before goign away to Peking University for a study abroad semester! You can read more about the Yale-PKU program if you are interested, and I will be posting more about that soon — at last a subject that is fresh and exciting to blog about!

Just wanted to check in, say hello, and again remind everyone that I am happy to take questions and will write back promptly if you comment or send an e-mail. Always happy to have my Yale experience inform the searching / decisions / idle musings of others.

Lots of love,

Sam

It’s that dreadful / wonderful time of year again – finals season, but more importantly, the time when early admissions decisions come out. Last year I borrowed a post from a friend to explain why, whatever happens, there is life after early admissions (and regular admissions, I might add). This year, I’ll take a moment to write my own, though I’ll keep it short. This applies to Yale, but any other school, too.

Dear High School Senior,

I was once where you are right now. Thankfully, the pain of waiting has faded some in the last two years, but I can remember it. More importantly, I have a bit of experience surviving it and know many others who did, too. Parents, teachers, guidance counselors and others might bore you with platitudes, but really, I can’t say enough that the world isn’t over if you don’t get into College-of-your-Choice today. If you do, fantastic! I’m really happy for you, and you should be really proud – but don’t give up on High School just yet, either.

Either way, take a breather and relax a little, but don’t slack off too much – remember that some point down the line you might want to take use of the things you are ostensibly learning in class, even if you think chemistry / english / physical education is pointless. If you didn’t get into First Choice School early, relax — many schools use their early rounds to snap up athletes, legacies, and other students, which is part of the reason admit rates are higher – what’s more, although some schools recruit really heavily early, others try to balance this more (MIT, for example, basically caps their early round). Regular decision is still when most people find out.

So, here’s the deal: make sure you get in all your other applications, and you know, even if you do get in early, it doesn’t hurt to go for a few more — you can use other acceptances to argue for better financial aid (something I wish I was able to do). Most of all, though — and this is true whether you are accepted / rejected / deferred / waitlisted at any point in the process: the dirty secret of college admissions is that people are, in general, extremely happy wherever they end up. It’s true. There is little statistical difference in happiness. If you hear people bemoaning their sad fates, that’s because they’re the token few–most people are too busy being happy to come out and tell you just what a good time they’re having.

So… those are just a few thoughts. If you got in and are excited, got deferred and are worried, or got rejected and are really depressed, comment and join the discussion about it. Talking to others helps. You’re not alone.

At the start of February I announced my desire to organize a scholarship through my site. A little more than a month later, things are really going strong. Here’s where things now stand–still working things out:

The Idea: A contest to propose the best new ideas for using new media, the internet, and technology to improve the college admissions process and/or higher education marketing in general.

The contest will be sponsored (at least in part) by some of those same agents most want to hear about the ideas for reform and who are looking for innovative solutions. They’ll have direct exposure to the ideas so that they could be better implemented! After a winner (winners? still fundraising) is chosen, their proposal / essay and other top ideas will be put online for everyone to see and learn, leading to a great dialogue about ways to make things better for both students and the college / marketing forces who want to engage them.

Participants: Current high school students, but also recent high school grads who are now undergraduates: students who have recent experience with the

The Prize: Cash towards college education! I have been working hard over the last month not just with midterms but also trying to drum up support for this scholarship idea. My original target was to get ~$500 from a wide range of individuals and organizations in higher education and college admissions fields as well as general sponsorship and donation (technology companies, anyone?). We’re getting close to that target! But wait, things get better…

The other day, I was very happy to learn that I had just won a brand new Toshiba x205 laptop in a recent Gizmodo contest! This is a really nice laptop, worth $1400, which would definitely make a great addition to someone’s dorm room. 17″ screen, 4 speakers and subwoofer, 250 GB hard drive, nice Nvidia GeForce 8700M graphics card… I know college laptop costs can be pretty significant, so hopefully this could help blunt that for whoever wins. Hopefully we will be able to find it a happy home soon! I’ll have more details when it arrives at home in a week or two.

Thanks to Toshiba for indirectly sponsoring it… I had been trying to lobby other laptop manufacturers but so far have been unable to get in touch with the right people. The Lenovo VP for USA was supposed to come to Yale this past weekend, but had to cancel–my plan had been to corner him and ask. In any event, I am absolutely still interested in looking for more partners, and if I had more to give out we could offer it to more people and really expand things.

________

So! I now have a laptop and a few hundred dollars cash ready to give away, and I’m pretty psyched. It makes me want to set my sights higher, but to do that I need more help from my readers (and people they know…). So please forward around my request for more help in organizing this scholarship, and let me know if you want to get involved or if you have any leads on people who might want to get involved. Either send me an e-mail at sam [at] samjackson [dot] org or use the contact form (or comment here)! Still hammering out more details and will solicit some prompts and start working on framing the questions for scholarship applicants soon, and things will definitely keep growing as I add participants.

For would-be sponsors: This is a really great opportunity to give something (a very small donation, even!) while getting a lot (of good publicity, exposure, and of course, useful insight and new ideas). It’s all going to a good cause and so I highly recommend getting involved! Alternately, if you feel you don’t want to give money to any random student talking about college admissions, and would rather give that money just to me, I still have open advertising inventory for the new few months, so let me know.

Sorry to have been out of the loop, it’s just midterm season here. I have been doing some other writing, though (and feel a little like I’m cheating on my blog-readers as a result) and thought I would share it to tide you over for a little bit.

My column in the Yale Herald is about ‘things that outrage me’ and is titled ‘Snakes on a What?!’ : )

The first, “Definition of rape eludes Ivy League students” is exactly what it sounds like. Here’s an excerpt:

The Yale College Class of 2011 doesn’t know what rape is. Not all 1,322 of us are completely ignorant, mind you, but a disturbing number seem to be out of the loop. During the orientation program Sex Signals, a scenario played out where the actors indicated to the audience several times that consent was lacking in a sexual encounter. When asked if we thought that a rape had been committed, the barest sprinkling of hands went up. Men and women alike rose to defend the actions of the character accused of rape, arguing that the ambiguity of the situation precipitated the rape. From a legal standpoint, there could be no question in this (admittedly fictional) case—rape had taken place. But every single Sex Signals group failed to recognize a problem with the lack of consent. This graphic failure of the newest inductees into the Yale community to collectively identify a crime is deeply troubling, but it hasn’t provoked in most of us the lingering shock which compels me to write this column now. Why hasn’t it?

The second is more lighthearted, titled “A plateful of grapes makes the long nights go by.” This one is perhaps more topical to the blog and touches back on my thoughts on the esthetic of schools and admissions offices from a few weeks ago. Excerpt below:

A bowl of grapes in the Pierson dining hall convinced me to come to Yale. The admissions office would no doubt like to know the secret of these grapes—their dark magic, and how they might harness it—but truth be told, it’s all very straightforward. My love of fruit compelled me. Visiting a school far from Napa in late fall only to find that, wonder of wonders, grapes were abundant in the dining halls, I was powerless to resist.

So… have a look, let me know what you think! I will be at the College Board forum in New York later this week (I have a little presentation on Saturday) so I am dying as I try to get everything done before I go. Hopefully I’ll see some of you readers there!