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Episode 11 Transcript
Summer Reading Series
NERD Philosophy
Kevin: But the advice I would give myself, I would tell them to break free. For me, it's basically to not be shy, and be confident in the ability that you always had. And I would call him a NERD. Because the word, NERD, for me is an acronym. It's, "Never ever, ever realize defeat."
I'm Dan Baum and you're listening to Redefine U. Join us as we continue to explore what happens when we're challenged to change our thoughts, beliefs or even who we think we are.
How do you go from shy and uncertain to confident speaker and leader?
In this episode, we hear how Kevin Lemus, a student in AACC's Construction Management program, did just that. We also speak to Forrest Caskey, a professor in both Academic Literacy and Interdisciplinary Studies departments, about the importance of community.
First, Kevin's story.
Kevin: Hi. My name is Kevin Lemus and I'm a student here at Anne Arundel Community College, studying construction management.
Dan: Well, welcome, Kevin. Thanks for joining us.
Kevin: Oh, thank you.
Dan: You have an interesting story of how you came here to AACC. Tell me a little bit about that.
Kevin: So, during my time at high school, I was always trying to see what I wanted to do after. During my senior year, I would always think about colleges to apply to. I applied to Embry–Riddle University as well as Capitol Tech here in Maryland, and Tennessee Middle State, I got accepted to all of them. I also got academic scholarships from them ranging from 10,000 to 12,000 each …
Dan: Wow. That's great.
Kevin: ... a semester. But something in me was like, "I'm not good enough to go to college." I struggle with confidence and I never believed in myself, never believed in my ability. Although I had family members always saying that, "You could do it. You can do it." I felt like they were obligated to say that to me. During … Once I graduated, like two days later, I got my first job. And then a month later, I got my second job. And during this time, I would still have that inner battle with if I wanted to go to college or not, "Was I good enough?"
Once I got those calls from Ms. Cassandra Moore telling me, when am I going to apply for classes, I would always give her the same response to be like, "Oh, I'll do it soon." But I would never do it. And then it would be a recurring thing. Almost every week, she would call me up until ... It was sometime in August where she called me. This call was different. She said, "Oh, can you come in for a breakfast?" I was like, "Sure. I'll come in for a breakfast." It was different, but I'll come in for a breakfast, "Hey, free food." Once I came in, I was told that I was going to receive a scholarship.
Dan: Wow.
Kevin: In my head, automatically, the first thing that I said was, "another academic scholarship, no different." But what stood out to me is that when they were explaining the scholarship is they said that someone believed in me. They wanted to invest in my future. Those words stuck out to me because I felt like someone else that is not family actually believed I was worth investing time and money into.
Dan: What did that feel like when you heard that, knowing that someone else who didn't know you believed in you?
Kevin: It felt great. It was a feeling that ... I can't even explain it. It was just so wonderful to feel that. I felt warmth run through my body. It was just an amazing feeling just to know that someone else believed in me.
Dan: What do you think held you back initially, given that your family was being supportive? You were getting some scholarships from other school ... What was it that was holding you back?
Kevin: It was my confidence. I was never confident in anything. Even though I was doing good in school, academically, I never really believed anything I put out was great. I felt I could've done better. I would second guess almost everything. But I guess that had to range from the things that I've had gone through in the past that actually destroyed my confidence such as my father … my mom and my father separating, and then my mom and my stepdad separating as well. And it just destroyed me. It destroyed my confidence.
A lot of people ask, "How did it destroy your confidence? It was basically saying to me that if they left just like that. I wasn't worth anything. It just destroyed me completely, knowing that they left.
Dan: Wow. Once you got here, what challenges did you feel you faced or how'd you overcome those challenges?
Kevin: The challenges I faced was to actually break out of my shell, to actually know that I had a voice, and just project it to people and basically saying that I'm here. I struggled with doing that. But once I actually started taking my first class, the first thing I told myself is that I want to break out of my shell. "Let's put it all forward, no just taking one step at a time. Just put it all on the line right now." Every time I did a presentation, I was loud. I was enthusiastic, and I was proud about my work.
Dan: Some kind of a switch really flipped …
Kevin: Yeah.
Dan: … When you learned that you had somebody backing you.
Dan: That's fantastic. There must've been some risks involved in coming here, if you weren't confident before … What did you feel? Were there some risks?
Kevin: The risks I felt were, "Was I going to actually do as well as I did in high school?" I heard that college was hard. And I also heard that the stigma of community college is just like 13th grade.
Were people going to make fun of me? Were people going to judge me? I had actually a couple friends stop talking to me because I was coming to a community college.
Dan: Really?
Dan: So that sounds pretty risky. So how did you handle that?
Kevin: The one thing I always did was that when people actually stopped talking to me, I would always think it was for the best because what I've heard before is that if people weren't there when you are at your low, they don't deserve to be there when you're at your best.
Dan: That's a great perspective. What about helpers on the journey? Did you find you had some … Obviously, right in the beginning, even the director of admissions, Cassandra, calling you. But then after that, did you have other helpers that have helped you along the way?
Kevin: I would always have to say ... Not regarding school, but my mom, my sister, they were always supportive. They were always supportive of my decision on what I want to do. Of course, they always wanted me to come to college, but they always there to say, "Look, if college is not for you, don't go." So, I had that support.
And once I actually came here, I had a lot of support. I just met … I met Miss Cassandra, Ms. Janice Whatley, Professor Forrest, Pablo, Sam. Oh, the list goes on and on. I just had a long line of support that literally, if I needed anything and one person wasn't available, I had like a line of people that I could just go and just talk to if I ever needed anything.
Dan: You have a lot of interaction with other students. What obstacles do you find that they're facing? Do they echo some of the things that you experienced?
Kevin: So what I've …. What I've seen is that every student is different. But I get to see a little bit of me in them. A lot of people that I see are shy. They are shy presenters. They are shy to do this. Basically, I see myself in some of those people that are shy to present. It's basically like seeing a mirror. I just talk to them. At one point, I talked to this person. They said that, "I was so shy to present." I was like, "what you feel inside is not projected on the outside." And I told them that. And then like two weeks later, I saw the student again. They were like, "You know that advice gave me? I kept onto it and it actually made a big difference. I got a B on my presentation. It was the highest grade I've ever received on a presentation."
Dan: That's excellent. And clearly, you're in such a great position to share that with other students. It's very authentic because you've experienced it yourself. They must really relate to that.
Kevin: Recently … Actually, it was around Christmastime, I went to my high school. I was sharing my story. I was sharing how it is to be in community college. The one thing I've always gotten was that, "community college, my parents don't accept it." And I said … And the one thing I always told them was, "who's going to the college? Is it your parents or you?"
Dan: Right. Good question.
Kevin: That's the philosophy my mom always gave me. She said, "I'm not doing it. You're doing it. It's for your benefit, not mine." When I was sharing my story a lot of people would just sit and look at me. It would be quiet. And then I would get a few students to be like, "How'd you do it?" I said, "I just one day woke up and took a leap of faith." They said, "Really?" And I was like, "Yeah, that's all you need. You just need to believe in yourself and just jump."
Someone believed in Kevin and a switch flipped in his mind. Warmth and confidence replaced doubt and uncertainty. In an incredible transformation, he broke through his shell, found his voice and unleashed his enthusiasm — he took a leap of faith.
One of Kevin's helpers was Professor Forrest Caskey. In addition to teaching, Forrest is involved in many activities around campus — all with the common theme of building connection and community. Let's talk to Forrest about why he feels those themes are so important to his students, himself and the community at large.
Dan: How long have you been at AACC and tell us about your role here.
Forrest: This is my fourth year, so three and a half years, and I am the … an academic literacies professor, which is developmental reading and writing, but I also am in the Gender and Sexuality Studies department. So, I teach American studies, LGBT studies, and pop culture.
Dan: So let's talk a little bit about developmental courses. What exactly are developmental courses?
Forrest: Typically developmental students are kind of, sometimes considered to have some sort of learning disability, but I've found that most of them actually do not have a learning disability. A lot of them have just had something happen in their life to where they've missed out on a little chunk of their education, which makes them a successful reader or successful writer. So, we get them to that level.
I meet with them five hours a week and the first two to three weeks of the course, it's team building, getting to know each other, I'm establishing trust with them and then we read personal essays by Malcolm X and Gary Soto and other people who just really write from the heart to talk about their struggles and how they learned how to read or write or got into school later in life.
So, they're connecting academically and they're connecting metacognitively and they're connecting with me and with each other. They start writing these personal essays and they start pouring their hearts out into them. This one student, she's brilliant, but she's like, "My brother was killed in a drive-by shooting when I was a sophomore and I couldn't focus on school." And she says that when she reads, she starts to drift off and think about that and that she just couldn't pay attention in school but she wants to. When that happens then I start directing them into counseling and getting students enrolled into SASP, Student Achievement and Success Program here on campus. They are a conduit for students to go into all kinds of service programs. So, that was just one example, was that student, but it's not unique.
Dan: Yeah. I'm curious how you help them overcome these different challenges. When it's a major life event like that, you might direct them to other resources and services. Are there other ways that you help them overcome some of these challenges?
Forrest: Let's see. Because we're together five hours a week and a lot of these students have major trust issues with school, they haven't either bonded with a teacher or they're poor testers. So a lot of them have test anxiety. They've always just been, feel, I guess, victimized by the system, but they start to establish relationships with me, with other people on campus, like with their SASP advisor or tutoring center, but also with each other.
They're making these friendships and I always, I actually have a little PowerPoint of myself and my friends because when I was a freshman college, I still have the same core group of friends from my freshman year of college. So I'm like, "The people you meet in this classroom might stay with you for life." Right before I came here, I checked the roster for my, one of my classes and it's two girls who became best friends in my 040 class and now they're in my 101 class coming up in the spring. They become accountability partners and they start to get on each other to come to class and do the work and focus. So that really helps them as well.
Dan: This is not all that you do here though. You are a faculty advisor, you're involved in clubs and things like that. Tell us a little bit about the other areas that you're involved in.
Forrest: Sure. So I'm one of the faculty advisors for the GSA, which is the Gay Straight Alliance. It's a club that's growing, actually. Usually about 30 to 40 people come to the meetings and they're held for two hours once a week and they do events about once or twice a month. They're very active. And then I'm also the faculty advisor for Sigma Chi Epsilon, which is a honor society for developmental students. Once they leave the developmental program, they go, and if they reach a certain grade point average, then they're part of this honor society and it stays with them for life.
Dan: What drew you to get involved in these different groups?
Forrest: Well, the GSA is very personal, you know, as a queer faculty member. I remember being in college in the '90s right after, during, towards the tail end of the AIDS crisis. When I was coming out in the early to mid '90s in New Orleans, all the people that I met were dying, basically. So it was a very weird time to be coming into gay life.
Dan: It's kind of scary I would think.
Forrest: Yeah, it was very scary. Yeah. So when I went into college, we were fighting for visibility. We were fighting for attention from the government for money to go to this crisis. And also just to being treated like a basic human being. So when I became just a faculty member, I wanted to give back and put myself back into that club, into that environment.
Dan: And what challenges do you find that students face that you interact with in that environment as opposed to in the development of classes?
Forrest: Well, in that environment, they seem pretty secure in their education. They're mostly struggling with space. So one thing about AACC is we're not in a city. We're more or less in small town suburbs of Annapolis. There's no gay clubs, no gay bars, no queer community centers, which is where those of us who are from cities, where we go to for safety.
So for these students, AACC is their place to feel safe. That's why the club has a large amount of people, large amount of members. Also they hold a lot of events because they hold dances and they do a drag show and they have parties and fundraisers. This is a way for them to have their community, which is this campus. So when they go into the community, because it's not a city, they don't always feel so safe expressing themselves and being who they are, but this campus is more or less a safe space for them.
Sometimes students will ... in their cars, change from one gender to the next and then come onto campus and then go back to their car and change into the gender that their parents or community thinks that they are and then go home.
Being part of community is safety. You have people to watch out for you. You have people who really do genuinely care about you. And that is why I'm here. I really enjoy being a part of that matrix.
Dan: Clearly you're placing safety as a priority, putting that first. How did you arrive at that as so paramount?
Forrest: I think just from hearing my students' experiences. I know that at least one or two of my students each semester is either homeless or becomes homeless at some point in the semester. That was a big shock to me.
Dan: I would think so.
Forrest: Yeah. And for various reasons, a lot of students get kicked out for their sexuality or gender identity. That's a huge thing.
Dan: Of housing?
Forrest: Of housing.
Dan: Where they're living?
Forrest: From their parents. Their parents either kicked them out if they come out or if they discover that they're not who they want them to be. Sometimes a family member might lose a job.
So, when I started noticing this happen, it was because students would disappear. I know that happens to everyone, all of us, our students disappear throughout the semester for whatever reason. But I would call them on the phone and try to reach out to them. And if I was able to make that connection with the student, then they would pick up the phone and maybe explain to me what was going on. And so then after being here with time at the college, with time, I started to … I sat down with Tiffany Boykin one day. She oversees a lot of the student support services and things. And I was like, "What do we have for these students? I really want to give this message to them because I keep noticing that this happens. I feel like it's an epidemic." She started telling me all the resources that are in the community, that we have here on campus. I just feel like it's my job to communicate to the students these things.
Dan: When you talk about community and safety, were there certain people that helped you to create safety for yourself or a community that you found?
Forrest: Yeah. Growing up I had a single mom who worked two jobs and a sister and a grandmother who also worked. So, I was the typical latchkey kid. You get off the bus and you had a key and you go home and you have to make dinner for the family and started working when I was 14 and then worked full time all through college. I didn't have the traditional go to college, not work and live in the dorm situation. I had to work full time throughout the whole thing. I went to community college in between all that as well to figure out where I was going. I was a film writing major, and I met a biology professor at community college because I was trying to take my biology prerequisites and he just, I don't know, took me under his wing. I don't know what it was he saw in me, but he really sort of opened my mind to other avenues in college. So, I was always afraid of science, but I started to love it because of him.
I got back into school full time, working full time. He was one example of what happened to me, but it was college professors, college staff, and then people in the community at the jobs that I was working who really helped me out and transformed me from this New Orleans kid from a lower middle class environment to going up to New York to college and then to where I am now.
Dan: We've heard this theme of asking for help a lot in the people that I've been speaking to. Do you find that to be a challenge for the students that you work with, is they're not willing to ask for help or they don't know how to ask for help?
Forrest: Oh, exactly. Yeah, completely. They either don't … I don't think they know that they can't ask for help and I don't think a lot of times that they think that they can trust the person is actually really going to help them. There's, I mean, countless times when I try to send students to writing centers or to the literacy lab, they say, "I don't want anyone reading my paper. I don't trust them." I hear that all the time. All the time. But once they start interacting with more and more people on campus, they start to realize that they can start to trust people. It's a slow process for some of them, but they can start to trust them.
Dan: With all that you do, I feel like saying, "Wait, there's more," because you're also involved in other activities too, like the Intergroup Dialogue. What exactly is the Intergroup Dialogue?
Forrest: Sure. The Intergroup Dialogue is, it's a group of faculty and staff members. We get together about once a month and we just have very frank, honest discussions about privilege, but not necessarily always explicitly about privilege. Just sometimes we'll focus on race. So, it gives people a chance to talk about their experience as a white person or as a person of color. A lot of times students come and it just gives people a chance to speak and be heard and to listen and to just learn about each other's experiences.
Dan: We seem to be in a very polarized period right now. What happens when you have those dialogues?
Forrest: It's, a lot of times, very emotional. The dialogue sort of conjures out a lot of emotions from people and it doesn't necessarily get political, it's more just personal. It's people saying, "This was my experience, for example, as a black woman," and talking about what their experience with racism is and the day-to-day life. And sometimes these experiences cause a lot of anger, sometimes a lot of sadness. I rarely leave one of these conversations without crying in public or in my car on the way home to Baltimore.
Dan: You mentioned students participate sometimes. What do they get out of being part of those dialogues?
Forrest: I think a lot of times they've never explicitly talked about these issues. A lot of times people don't explicitly talk about race. We're not supposed to talk about race. I think a lot of people are afraid to talk about race because they're afraid of saying something offensive and there was also sort of a mentality that, an "I don't see color" mentality, that existed for a while, so people just didn't talk about race. And it's also very painful to talk about race. And I'm just saying race right now, but we talk about social class, other things. I don't think people really talk about these issues with people who might have a different opinion than them and people from a different background than them.
I think it's really easy for a lot of like-minded white people to sit there and talk about the struggle that black people go through because we can talk about it. But when you're actually presented with someone who's just, you can sense them, smell them, see them, hear them, who's right next to you actually telling you about their experience, then it's way more visceral. And students usually leave feeling pretty emotional and usually wanting to do something. They want to act.
Dan: Well, you're obviously a very busy person. What keeps you going? What motivates you to do all these different things?
Forrest: Coffee? Yeah, coffee and I just, I don't know. I love the work. I'm really good at managing my time. Always worked two jobs most of my life so I'm used to working really hard. But also just love the work. I love teaching. I love working and interacting with students, especially the students that we serve. Students who sometimes need a little extra love and someone to understand them. I just feel like, in a way, that it's my calling to do this and I really love it. I wake up, still four years into it, excited to go to work.
Dan: And what does all of this work teach us about transformation or about redefining ourselves?
Forrest: I think … Yeah, so from the student perspective, for example, students that's coming out of high school, maybe they're in a high school that's near their neighborhood and maybe they've only lived in that neighborhood most of their life and interacted with the same students, the same demographic, same people and then they come here and they've got classmates from Severna Park, Baltimore, DC, Prince George County, Annapolis, Glen Bernie, like from all kinds of different areas. And it can be, I think, maybe a little overwhelming and sometimes students just might stay in their shell because it can be overwhelming. And stay just with their comfort zone.
I love my classes that I teach because there's students in the developmental program from every, from all different demographics. They interact with each other and they start making friends with people and having conversations with people and caring about people who they might not have ever crossed those boundaries just because they didn't know how to.
I actually see them transform not only as individuals but in their writing because I'm privileged to read their writing. I'm able to see them just transform their, not just train of thoughts but their identities.
I had a student who, she's transferring away next semester, and where she started from and all the things that happened to her at the beginning. And just to see the fact that she came from this scared inner city DC student whose father got arrested and incarcerated, moved in with her grandmother and her grandmother passed away and then she was homeless. We were able to find her a place to live. She stayed in school. She's an A student. She made best friends on this campus and these classes through the bridge program, through SASP, and through her courses and now she's transferring back to DC as a criminal justice transfer study major. And you could just see her confidence and her re-affiliation with life just transform.
When we talk to and get to know people who are different from us, Forrest says we learn from each other's experiences. We make lasting connections. We build trust and community. We can redefine who we are.
Which brings us back to Kevin. Let's return to his story and hear how his new-found confidence and NERD — never ever realize defeat — philosophy has served him.
Dan: Talk to me a little more about some of the challenges you faced. So many students, it's not even the academic, it's things are happening outside of school. You've faced a few of those yourself.
Kevin: Another struggle that I faced was actually transporting to Anne Arundel Community College. I live all the way in Laurel.
Dan: That's a good distance from here.
Kevin: Yeah. Depending on traffic, it could be 30 minutes to an hour. It killed my wallet for certainty. I would take classes Monday, Wednesday and Friday and I would Uber. My Uber is … Depending on the time of day it was, it would be from $35 to $45 to go and to come back.
Dan: Wow. Three days a week.
Dan: That's a lot.
Kevin: But the biggest one that I got hit with this year, it was around April where my mom just went outside and lifted her arm to raise the trunk of her car. She said that she could not put her arm back down. At that time, I didn't register. I was just like, "Oh, it just froze for a second." And then she forced it down. And then she said she went to the bathroom, and she could not pick up her arm. It was hurting. She was crying. She didn't know what to do. She was just like, "It's probably just dislocated. But later, my mom kept on, over the course of a month, still working two jobs …
Kevin: And then she said, "I can't take the pain. I need to go see someone." She scheduled an appointment. And the doctor said that, "You tore your rotator cuff."
Dan: Ouch.
Kevin: And so my mom, she went two weeks without working. And then she had her surgery on June 12. Everything went great. We thought it was going to be uphill from there. She just had to heal.
But the issue was … She had anesthesia. Not only that, she had a nerve block. The doctor said once that block ends and everything starts wearing down, she was going to be in excruciating pain. But I was like, "My mom can take pain. Don't worry about that. She worked on that rotator cuff for a month. She can handle pain."
She got her surgery on Wednesday. Thursday night, she was crying. She literally could not take the pain. She was crying. She was like, "Why did I do this?" Questioning why she got the surgery. I started crying right next to her. I was like, "I don't know what to do."
Dan: It's hard seeing someone you love so much ... Particularly someone who, sounds like, is so strong, who really modeled for strength and perseverance, hard to see them in pain.
Kevin: When people ask who's my hero, I say my mom. The reason I say my mom is not because it's a cliché. It's because I actually think my hero is my mom. My mom was my mom and my dad for years. She still is up to this day. She has modeled for me how strong a woman can actually be.
And I was like, "This is terrible, seeing my hero ... " Basically, seeing her with kryptonite right next to her. It destroyed me fall semester. I tried to show pure happiness to everyone, tried to be normal.
Dan: So often, experiences that you're describing, we then internalize, and they become voices in our head. But you've continued to go forward and grow, and build confidence. Do you find you have those voices in your head talking to you negatively? If so, how do you keep them at bay? How do you handle that?
Kevin: Someone told me to give the voices in my head a person, "Give them literally, how you would picture them." I said that it's me. I said, "It's me. It's my own person telling me all these things."
Dan: Not like some evil dragon or something.
Kevin: No. How I picture him is basically my whole person just with red eyes and basically gray, just telling me that I can't do things.
Dan: It's your evil twin.
Kevin: Yeah. Basically, I can't do things and that, "Look at your mom. You're doing this. You're studying. You're doing this. You should be working, helping her more." "Your mom is like this, and you're over here laughing. You're over here supporting them when you should be supporting her." I would have this constantly beating at me, and beating at me. I was just like, "I can't have this no more."
Even though it tried to hold me back, I would always try to move forward and move forward because I get it ... I call it stubbornness, that when someone tells me that I can't do things, I try to do it. Because I used to back down. When someone said I can't do things, I would be like, "You're absolutely right." But now, if someone says I can't do this, I'm like, "Watch me."
Dan: You've really developed some new perspectives and philosophies. What skills have you gained most?
Kevin: The biggest one's confidence. That's probably not a skill, but I would say, for me, that is. Technically for me, it is a skill. But I would say communication skills, leadership skills. Biggest one of all is organization skills. It just helped me develop who I am today.
Dan: It sounds like with your NERD philosophy, you have adopted a yes mentality. You don't say no to anything. So, you're really stretching yourself.
The college holds what they call a convocation where it brings all the faculty and staff together before the start of the term. At the fall term, you said yes to an invitation to speak in front of approximately what? Eight hundred or more people?
Kevin: Yes.
Dan: What was that like?
Kevin: So, that was rigorous. It was just an amazing experience, being able to speak in front of the college that you love so much and all the faculty and staff, everyone that basically helped you grow. Not was it only to basically show who I was, but it was basically showing that everyone that has helped me this way ... As well as my mom and my sister were in attendance, is basically showing everyone that, "Look who I've become." It was just an amazing experience.
[Excerpt from Convocation speech]
Kevin: I now come from a college that helped me know that community college is the start of brand new beginnings. I now come from a community college that has shown me that no matter … matter the past a brighter future will emerge. I now come from a community that not only believes in me but has made me believe in myself as well.
Dan: As I recall, you got a standing O for that. How'd that feel?
Kevin: I had to hold back tears. It was amazing.
Dan: What about Mom? She was there. Right?
Dan: Did she hold back tears?
Kevin: My mom was crying. My mom, my sister, everyone that I knew was crying. I had a message … an email from my professor saying, "I'm so proud of you." It was just an amazing experience.
Dan: Fantastic. It was powerful. You did a fantastic job. Really great
Kevin: Thank you.
Dan: For convocation, you got some good coaching and support beforehand from one of your faculty.
Kevin: Yeah. Professor Forest Caskey, amazing professor, just absolutely love him. He helped me improve my reading. He was the reason a lot of the things I'm involved in now actually ... Because of him, I joined the Student Achievement Success program. He was just like, "You should join this program."
Everything, basically, he just pitches my name in, and I just say yes because I trust him, because anything that he gives me or wants me to do is basically to get my name out there, or just to improve my communication skills. With him … He's just an incredible person. I wrote a story, like basically my whole life story. The first person that I wanted ... someone to read it, it was him.
Dan: That's powerful.
Kevin: I wanted him to read it. He told me it was amazing. That's where I think he got the idea to make me talk at convocation.
Dan: So, obviously, you've changed quite a bit. How would you describe that you have redefined yourself?
Kevin: From going from a very quiet person, a shy person and someone that didn't believe in themselves at all to someone that literally has said yes to almost everything thrown at him, taking every opportunity possible and taking roles in leadership in different programs is just how I found is that I redefined myself. Just being able to be confident ability to speak, to lead is just ... I look back at it, and it still warms my heart every time I think about it.
Dan: That's great. You said every student's different. So obviously, you give different advice to different students. But do you find that you have some general advice that you offer your fellow students?
Kevin: The one piece of advice that I would always give students is that being able to find your voice takes you a long way, and sharing your story is worth it. That you never know where you might be heard or who might be listening.
Share a conversation, and you will see different perspectives. You will see that maybe what you feel is a hard time. It might be an easy time for someone else, and it makes you value what you're going through a little bit more. What I've noticed, that a simple hello can even change someone.
Never ever realize defeat.
There's a difference between failure and defeat. It's an important distinction, because sometimes we do fail. We miss the goal. We burn our toast. We bomb an exam. Failure doesn't feel good, but it happens and as we've heard in past episodes, we often learn the greatest lessons from our losses.
Defeat is different. When we feel defeated, we've been beaten or overcome. We despair. It's sometimes when we give up. So, when Kevin says NERD, you might hear don't lose hope. Keep going. Persist with confidence.
That's not always easy to do. Life can be hard. But it's easier if we're part of a supportive community — when we have people who believe in us. We can build that safe place, even in an angry world, by nurturing our connections, listening to the experiences of others and expanding the boundaries of who and what we know.
A simple hello can be the start.
[Credits]
Redefine U is a production of Anne Arundel Community College.
Our executive producer and creative director is Allison Baumbusch.
Our producer is Jeremiah Prevatte and our writer, Amy Carr Willard.
Others who helped with this podcast include Angie Hamlet, Alicia Renehan, and Ben Pierce.
Special thanks to Kevin Lemus and Forrest Caskey.
Find show notes, how to subscribe and other extras on our website: aacc.edu/podcast.
I'm your host and creator of this podcast, Dan Baum. Thanks for listening.
Listen & Subscribe!
You can also find (and subscribe to) Redefine U on:
Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or send us your thoughts at redefineu@aacc.edu.

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Poland to select internally for Eurovision 2016!
The Polish national broadcaster TVP has officially confirmed their participation in Eurovision 2016, and they have also announced that they will go for an internal selection once again.
After a series of entries selected through a national final which then failed to qualify for the Grand Final in the period of 2009-2011, and their two-year break, Poland returned to the contest and had two internal selections – Donatan & Cleo in 2014 and Monika Kuszynska in 2015 – both of which have qualified for the Grand Final.
The name of the artist(s), as well as the song that will be representing Poland in Eurovision 2016 in Stockholm will be revealed in February next year.
Who would you like to see as the next Polish Eurovision entrant?


Broadkill Beach Delaware Real Estate for sale - Delaware Beach Real Estate.
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Nature lover's dream on Broadkill Beach! This house features simply stunning views of the Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge from virtually every room. Open floorplan with exposed wood beams, woodburning fireplace. Breath into those nightly amazing sunsets from your living room, screened porch or rear deck. Or use your private dock to kayak along Deep Hole Creek and the Broadkill River. Make this private retreat your own with upgrades to your desires. Crab, fish, and enjoy life in nature. Just 7 minutes from Milton, 15 minutes from Lewes.
Enjoy sunset views of the Prime Hook Wildlife area and peak-a-boo views of the Delaware Bay from this 3-bedroom, 3 bath single family home with extra finished space that can be used as a 4th and 5th bedroom or office and family room. Features are not lacking in this recently renovated beach home in Broadkill Beach including hardwood floors and tile throughout, upgraded kitchen that includes granite counter tops and stainless-steel appliances, and upgraded Trex decking makes for easy maintenance. Large screened porch can be used to enjoy those summer beach days. This private large lot offers great entertainment space outside including covered Patio area, and side yard space for summer time activities. After a day on the beach enjoy the convenience of the large outside shower. Turn key and being sold with all furnishings! Parking is not limited and offers plenty of space for your beach guests. Seller just recently installed new septic system. If you are looking to move in and have instant rental income for 2019 this is a great opportunity for you. Contact us for your appointment today.


text:
In Anniversary Post For Raj Kundra, Shilpa Shetty Writes Of "Bearing Hard Times"
"Here's to many more rainbows, laughter, milestones, and our prized possessions... our children," wrote the actress in her anniversary post
Vanshika Thakur
Happy anniversary, Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra. The couple, who got married on 22 November 2009, celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary today. On their special day, Shilpa Shetty shared some extremely valuable pictures from their wedding and wrote about "promises, commitment" and "faith" in a note dedicated to Raj Kundra. "This moment and day 12 years ago, we made and continue to fulfill a promise; of sharing the good times & bearing the hard times, of trusting in love & God to show us the way… side by side, day by day. 12 years and not counting… Happy Anniversary, Cookie!" wrote the actress and added: "Here's to many more rainbows, laughter, milestones, and our prized possessions… our children."
Shilpa Shetty also expressed her thanks to the people who support her and her husband through their tough situations. Raj Kundra was captured by the Mumbai Police in July for a case involving the production and distribution of pornographic clips on mobile apps. He was granted bail on a surety of ₹ 50,000 by a magistrate court on September 20. In her caption, Shilpa Shetty added: "Heartfelt gratitude to all our well-wishers, who have been with us through thick and thin. #12Years #promises #commitment #marriage #faith #family #gratitude #blessed."
A post shared by Shilpa Shetty Kundra (@theshilpashetty)
Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra have been under media scrutiny since the businessman Raj Kundra was arrested in a pornography case earlier this year. He walked out from the Arthur Road jail on September 20, after getting bail by a Mumbai Court.
Recently, a cheating case was filed against the couple by a Mumbai-based businessman lodged for allegedly duping him of ₹ 1.51 crore. However, Shilpa Shetty issued a statement denying any sort of involvement in the case. An excerpt from her statement read: "I have worked very hard over the last 28 years and it pains me to see that my name and reputation is getting damaged and dragged so loosely to get eyeballs. My rights as a law-abiding proud citizen in India should be protected."
Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra are parents to a child named Viaan and little girl Samisha, who they invited through surrogacy last year.
Raj Kundra
Viaan
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text:
Q: How can I copy every unread message from default inbox to a shared folder? I'm trying to organize 10+ different mailboxes.
The problem is with UnreadMove. I want every time Outlook opens to look for unread mails in the default inbox, copy it and move one of the copies to a shared inbox.
It works if there is one mail to move, but when there are more I get an error

"-2147221241 - Failed Client Action"

or something similar. My Windows is not in English.
When I press ok on the failure window the mails are still copied and moved to the correct folder, so I don't know what the error means. Some mails are copying twice, so might be what the error stands for.
MoveAndCopy: incoming mail is copied and sent to the shared inbox and is marked as read in the original folder (this works).
UnreadMove: should be used when Outlook has not been open for a while and the original inboxes got new mails. Then I want the unread e-mails to be copied, marked as read and then a copy sent to the shared inbox, which should not be marked as read.
ThisOutlookSession
Private Sub Application_Startup()

Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
Dim objNS As Outlook.NameSpace

Set olApp = Outlook.Application
Set objNS = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")

Set Items = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Items

End Sub

Private Sub Items_UnreadMove(ByVal Item As Object)

Dim msg As Outlook.MailItem

    If Item.Exists = True Then
        Set msg = Item
        Call UnreadMove(Item)
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub Items_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)

On Error GoTo ErrorHandler
Dim msg As Outlook.MailItem

    If TypeName(Item) = "MailItem" Then
        Set msg = Item
        Call MoveAndCopy(Item)
    End If

ProgramExit:
Exit Sub

ErrorHandler:
MsgBox Err.Number & " - " & Err.Description

Resume ProgramExit
End Sub

And for the two modules:
Sub UnreadMove(Item As Outlook.MailItem)

Dim Inbox As Outlook.Folder
Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim MailDest As Outlook.Folder
Dim CopiedItem As Outlook.MailItem

Set Inbox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

For Each Item In Inbox
    If Item.UnRead = True Then
        Set CopiedItem = Item.Copy
        Item.UnRead = False
        Item.Save
        Set ns = Outlook.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
        Set MailDest = ns.Folders("myemail@test.com").Folders("MyInbox")
        CopiedItem.Move MailDest
    End If
Next Item

End Sub
Sub MoveAndCopy(Item As Outlook.MailItem)

Dim ns As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim MailDest As Outlook.Folder
Dim CopiedItem As Outlook.MailItem

    If Item.Class = olMail Then
        Set CopiedItem = Item.Copy
        Item.UnRead = False
        Item.Save
        Set ns = Outlook.Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
        Set MailDest = ns.Folders("myemail@test.com").Folders("MyInbox")
        CopiedItem.Move MailDest
    End If

End Sub

A: UnreadMove makes a copy in the monitored folder. It would invoke Items_ItemAdd. The same for MoveAndCopy.
Whether this is the cause of the error you see now, this should do what you want.
Option Explicit ' Consider this mandatory
' Tools | Options | Editor tab
' Require Variable Declaration
' If desperate declare as Variant

Private WithEvents monitoredItems As Items

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    UnreadMove
    Set monitoredItems = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Items
End Sub

Sub UnreadMove()

    Dim Inbox As folder
    Dim MailDest As folder
    Dim CopiedItem As MailItem

    Dim objItem As Object

    Set Inbox = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox)

    Set MailDest = Session.folders("myemail@test.com").folders("MyInbox")

    ' Copying invokes itemAdd
    ' If you run this manually,
    '   after setting up monitoredItems in startup
    '  - a trick to turn itemAdd off
    Set monitoredItems = Nothing

    '
    'For Each objItem In Inbox.Items

    '    If objItem.Class = olMail Then

    '        If objItem.UnRead = True Then
    '            Debug.Print objItem.subject
    '
    '            Set CopiedItem = objItem.copy
    '            objItem.UnRead = False
    '            objItem.Save

    '            CopiedItem.Move MailDest

    '        End If

    '    End If

    'Next objItem

    ' If the For Each index is confused by copying and moving
    '  Then a reverse For Next is needed.
    '  A reverse loop works in all situations.
    Dim i As Long
    For i = Inbox.Items.count To 1 Step -1

        Set objItem = Inbox.Items(i)

        If objItem.Class = olMail Then

            If objItem.UnRead = True Then
                Debug.Print objItem.subject

                Set CopiedItem = objItem.copy
                objItem.UnRead = False
                objItem.Save

                CopiedItem.Move MailDest

            End If

        End If

    Next

    ' reset items to be monitored with itemAdd
    Set monitoredItems = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Items

End Sub

To temporarily stop monitoring, when you make a copy in the monitored folder.
Private Sub monitoredItems_ItemAdd(ByVal Item As Object)

    Dim msg As MailItem

    If TypeName(Item) = "MailItem" Then
        Set msg = Item
        Set monitoredItems = Nothing

        'Call MoveAndCopy(Item)

        Call MoveAndCopy(msg)
        ' or
        ' MoveAndCopy msg
        Set monitoredItems = Session.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Items

    End If

End Sub

You could stop monitoring in MoveAndCopy instead, if you wish to be more specific.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Why am I getting internal server error with my python code? I'm experimenting and working on a Flask webpage what's gonna use some data from MySQL database and after a little coding I got internal server error and I don't know why.
After several days I cant work out the problem what can I do for it to work?
I'm using Python3, the server where is hosted is Ubuntu system and I can reach the site via LAN right now with the servers LAN domain (server's name) name that I host via Hyper-V cause I don't have a spare PC for that with Ubuntu on it.
The weird part abut it that when I test it locally on my laptop I wont get the 500 Error only if I want to connect the page what's hosted on the server virtual machine.
Because I don't know where is the problem I uploaded most of the files to GitHub, this gonna be changed of course and later deleted for security reasons but now its easier.
Link: https://github.com/Csabatron99/Webpage
Here is the apache2 error log
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597500 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170] mod_wsgi (pid=10179): Failed to exec Python script file '/var/www/FlaskApp/flaskapp.wsgi'.
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597550 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170] mod_wsgi (pid=10179): Exception occurred processing WSGI script '/var/www/FlaskApp/flaskapp.wsgi'.
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597762 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170] Traceback (most recent call last):
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597784 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170]   File "/var/www/FlaskApp/flaskapp.wsgi", line 7, in <module>
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597788 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170]     from FlaskApp import app as application
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597793 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170]   File "/var/www/FlaskApp/FlaskApp/__init__.py", line 11, in <module>
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597795 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170]     from .dbconnect import connection_db
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597799 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170]   File "/var/www/FlaskApp/FlaskApp/dbconnect.py", line 3, in <module>
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597802 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170]     import mysql.connector
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.597811 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10179] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1170] ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mysql'
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816124 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171] mod_wsgi (pid=10178): Failed to exec Python script file '/var/www/FlaskApp/flaskapp.wsgi'., referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816173 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171] mod_wsgi (pid=10178): Exception occurred processing WSGI script '/var/www/FlaskApp/flaskapp.wsgi'., referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816386 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171] Traceback (most recent call last):, referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816409 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171]   File "/var/www/FlaskApp/flaskapp.wsgi", line 7, in <module>, referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816413 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171]     from FlaskApp import app as application, referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816418 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171]   File "/var/www/FlaskApp/FlaskApp/__init__.py", line 11, in <module>, referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816426 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171]     from .dbconnect import connection_db, referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816431 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171]   File "/var/www/FlaskApp/FlaskApp/dbconnect.py", line 3, in <module>, referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816433 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171]     import mysql.connector, referer: http://tikva-server-hv/
[Wed Jul 07 12:42:08.816443 2021] [wsgi:error] [pid 10178] [client fe80::1047:5664:1d7b:6d86:1171] ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'mysql', referer: http://tikva-server-hv/

and this is the code from the dbconnect.py
import mysql.connector

def connection_db():
    conn1 = connector.connect(host="localhost",
                                    user = "root",
                                    passwd = "pass",
                                    db = "db")
    c1 = conn1.cursor()
    return c1, conn1

A: Do not download the module I mistook content_management as pip module. you can uninstall the module pip uninstall contentful_management
The error comes because you are importing module in init.py.
try this:
from name_of_the_parent_directory import content_management

You  an try using
from . import content_management

name_of_the_parent_directory - means the parent directory, in your github it will be webpage.


text:
How Zeynep Tufekci Keeps Getting the Big Things Right
By mujair 1 year ago
And when it came to the pandemic, she sounded the alarm early while also fighting to keep parks and beaches open.
"I've just been struck by how right she has been," said Julia Marcus, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School.
I was curious to know how Ms. Tufekci had gotten so many things right in a confusing time, so we spoke last week over FaceTime. She told me she chalks up her habits of mind in part to a childhood she wouldn't wish on anyone.
"A bunch of things came together, which I'm happy I survived," she said, sitting outside a brick house she rents for $2,300 a month in Chapel Hill, N.C., where she is raising her 11-year-old son as a single parent. "But the way they came together was not super happy, when it was happening."
These are, by her lights, the ingredients in seeing clearly:
Knowledge that spans subject areas and academic disciplines, which she happened onto as a computer programmer who got into sociology.
A habit of complex, systems-based thinking, which led her to a tough critique in The Atlantic of America's news media in the run-up to the pandemic.
Add those things to a skill at moving journalism and policy through a kind of inside game, and Ms. Tufekci has had a remarkable impact. But it began, she says, with growing up in an unhappy home in Istanbul. She said her alcoholic mother was liable to toss her into the street in the early hours of the morning. She found some solace in science fiction — Ursula K. Le Guin was a favorite — and in the optimistic, early internet.
In the mid-1990s, still a teenager, she moved out. Soon she found a job nearby as a programmer for IBM. She was an office misfit, a casually dressed young woman among the suits, but she fell in love with the company's internal bulletin board. She liked it that a colleague in Japan wouldn't know her age or gender when she asked a technical question.
She stumbled onto the wellspring of her career when she discovered an email list, the Zapatista Solidarity Network, centered on Indigenous activists in southern Mexico who had taken up arms against neoliberalism in general and land privatization imposed by the North American Free Trade Agreement in particular. For Ms. Tufekci, the network provided a community of digital friends and intellectual sparring partners.
Tags: Big, Tufekci, Zeynep
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NIW, the National Interest Waiver, is a shortcut through the immigration laws, which gets you a green card without the hassle of employment sponsorship.
NIW is a second preference visa, or an EB-2 visa. EB-2 visas are issued to members of professions that hold an advanced degree or its equivalent or to foreign nationals who have exceptional ability. Normally, to obtain an EB-2 visa you must have a permanent job offer and an approved labor certification. But NIW allows you to waive the requirement of a labor certification and offer of employment if you can establish that your admission to become a permanent U.S. resident will be in the national interest.
Who is Eligible for a National Interest Waiver?
To be eligible for a National Interest Waiver, you must demonstrate that you've made an extraordinary contribution to your field. This makes the NIW a great option for advanced degree professionals, post-doctoral research fellows, scholars, researchers, and Ph.D. students. You may be residing outside or within the United States when you file your NIW petition.
What is an "Advanced Degree Professional"?
An advanced degree professional is one who has received an advanced degree or its foreign equivalent and is working in a field where at least a Bachelor's degree is required. If you have a Bachelor's degree and five years of experience in the field, you may also be considered an advanced degree professional.
Substantial Intrinsic Merit: You must show that you seek employment in an area of substantial intrinsic merit to the United States. You will need to submit documents demonstrating the importance of your proposed work in the U.S., such as a letter from your employer describing your work, published media discussing the company's important work, or letters from experts in your field confirming the importance of your work.
National Scope: The benefit from your proposed occupation must be national in scope, even if your employment is limited to a specific geographical area. Evidence to prove the national scope of your employment can include published media, copies of any agreements or contracts stating the scope and impact of your employment, letter from experts or employers station the national importance and scope of your work.
National Benefit: You will also need to show that the requirement of a labor certification in your case would adversely affect the national interest. The labor certification process is in place to ensure that the working conditions and wages of U.S. employees in the same field are not adversely affected. To show that waiving the labor certification requirement would benefit the national interests of the U.S., the evidence you submit will be reviewed to determine if the national benefits that you offer outweigh the national interest of the labor certification process to a substantially greater extent.
Whether your business will benefit the economy, including whether it will create jobs for U.S. workers.
Whether your admission will improve the wages and working conditions of workers in the U.S.
Whether your admission will improve the environment and usage of national resources.
Whether your admission would improve the national health care system.
Whether your admission will improve educational programs.
Whether your admission would assist in creating affordable housing.
Whether an interested U.S. government agency has requested your admission.
You will need to demonstrate that you have a past record of specific achievements that prove future benefits to our national interest. Evidence that you may submit to show the national interest benefits include published media recognizing your achievements, copies of grants or other funding received, and documents proving how your work is implemented by others.
Obtaining letters of recommendation from experts in your field is a major part of the National Interest Waiver petition process. Experts may include researchers who have cited or used your work, government researchers, editors of journals where your work has been published, or advisors of your research. You should include background evidence of your recommenders, including a copy of their CV. You should also describe in detail how the recommender knows you and your work, including the national significance of your work.
How is a National Interest Waiver Petition Filed and How Long Will It Take?
A National Interest Waiver petition, and the related EB-2 visa application, is filed with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The petition for an NIW may be filed by the applicant or can be sponsored through an employer. It normally takes about six months to a year to process a NIW petition. However, this time can vary considerably with each individual case. You are allowed to file other immigration petitions while your National Interest Waiver petition is pending.
Current U.S. immigration policy and an economic downturn have made obtaining a National Interest Waiver approval more difficult than ever before. Also, the different USCIS servicing centers have different standards for deciding the approval of NIW petitions. You have the burden of proof to establish that you have the required unique and exceptional experience, skills, or knowledge for a NIW, and this can be very difficult to do.
If you are filing an EB-2 petition and believe that you qualify for a National Interest Waiver, we can help. At the Law Offices of Joshua Goldstein, our immigration lawyers are highly experienced and have successfully prepared and obtained approval for numerous NIW petitions. We will guide you through this complex immigration process and help find and resolve any issues that may only be apparent to an experienced immigration lawyer.
Call us today at (617) 722-0005. We're located in Boston. Schedule a consultation to learn more about the National Interest Waiver and how our immigration lawyers can help you.


text:
Home > People > Armed Forces Veterans > Roll of Honour -WW1 > Harvey Bryant M.C. >
HARVEY BRYANT MC
Bedfordshire Regiment (Expeditionary Force)
Hampshire Regiment 2/4th (Territorial) Battalion
2nd Lieutenant
Hermies Hill British Cemetery, France
St Mary's Church Ashwell Roll of Honour
Ashwell Village War Memorial
Harvey enlisted in the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1914 and served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders until 1917. He then returned to England and after a period of training at Trinity College, Oxford was gazetted 2nd Lieutenant with the Hampshire Regiment. He served with the Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Egypt and Palestine from January 1918. In May of 1918 he proceeded to France where he died in action at Havrincourt, France on 12th September 1918.
Harvey was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry in action on 26 August 1918. He was also awarded the 1915 Star, the Victory Medal and the British War Medal.
Harvey is buried in Havrincourt, France. Harvey is commemorated on the Hermies Hill British Cemetery, France, on the St Mary's Church Honours Roll and on the Ashwell Village War Memorial.
Harvey was the only son of Wilfred and Martha Jane (nee Eversden) Bryant of Vina Villa, and The Elms, Ashwell. On the 1911 census he is living with his grandfather, Joseph William Eversden.
Harvey was educated at the Merchant Taylors' School in Ashwell. Before joining the army he was a farmer in Ashwell.
Military Cross
Instituted on 28th December 1914 the Military Cross (M.C.) is the third level military decoration awarded to Officers.
This decoration was awarded to Harvey Bryant for an act or acts of exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy.
The Military Cross (M.C.) is awarded for gallantry during active operations against the enemy.
Harvey Bryant,as an owner of the Military Cross, is entitled to use the letters M.C. after his name.
Citations for the M.C. were published in the London Gazette during the Great War. However if the M.C. was a King's Birthday or New Year award, details were not published and in most cases will not be available.
Harvey Bryant
Bedfordshire Regiment, Hampshire Regiment
2/44th Battalion
Killed in Action
Western European, North African, Middle Eastern
Raymond Brown
Arthur Bryant
George Bryant


I was having a conversation with a friend recently, and she asked me about my method for creating a character; what motivations would drive them and what life lessons would shape their personal values? I realized I might very well approach this differently from many, and considering the question made me evaluate my own creative process.
When I was a young boy, just beginning to demonstrate an interest in writing, my mother would encourage me and throw snippets of advice at me about being a better writer. One of the things she talked to me about was a "character outline"; which is the story of the character and their lives before they find themselves enveloped in your story. She gave me a piece of paper with the key information you'd need: where they were born, who their parents were, where they went to school, etc. I found a lot of it a little stilted and forced, but I did see the merits in knowing the people you were going to be writing about; not as literary constructs but real people. After all, if you don't believe them to be people, why should anyone else?
You must believe your charactors are real.
In a lot of ways I was very, very lucky to come from the family I did. The role models I grew up with were in many ways larger-than-life characters in their own right; from my father, who had grown up two-fisted in Prohibition-era Chicago only to go on and become a Navy fighter pilot whose career would encompass World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and a hundred colorful events in between; to my mother's father, a Southwestern lawman who had survived gunfights against desperadoes and spent four decades in service. Even my mother, a strong-willed woman with red hair and a fiery Scottish temper to match, grew up independent, tough, and capable even in a culture that treated women more like objects and property than people.
When I really think about it I find myself realizing that nearly every character I've created to be the protagonist in my stories possesses at least one of the qualities or viewpoints I found so compelling in my own familial heroes. All are independent, self-reliant people not interested in conflict but not afraid of it either; tough and taciturn individuals who will stand their ground against any and all comers when they believe themselves justified. All believe in honor and integrity and refuse to be bullied.
As a writer, I think the art is more than just being about telling a story; there are important and valuable life lessons that can be imparted to the reader, exposing them to concepts and ideas they themselves might not have seriously thought about before. In today's society especially, the concepts of self-reliance and self-responsibility seem almost to be dying concepts. There are going to be challenges and trials in every person's life, and there are going to be failures and disappointments as well. How we rise to those challenges and endure them is the mark of our own character.
I suppose this is why the idea of an independent, self-reliant individual having to stand alone against a crisis is so compelling to me… but having friends you can trust to help you when you need it can be life-saving as well; provided they have the character to stand beside you when it would be easier to run away.
That's another thing I like to incorporate into my stories: the idea of people used to being able to rely only upon themselves discovering they have friends willing to put themselves on the line, for no other reason that they respect them enough to want to see them prevail. It is possible to celebrate individuality and self-reliance while recognizing that a person strong enough to stand alone is the perfect person to support other independent people to create a society that is stronger overall.


I've basically just started to become interested in parkour, and I'm living in central WV (Summersville).
Was wondering if there's anybody even remotely close (Beckley, etc.) to me that I might be able to run/parkour with eventually, once I get used to things.


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Brad Shenfeld (Shenfeld Law): Mentor
5:00pm – 6:15pm CT
Austin Convention Center
Room 8AB
This session requires RSVP, and access will only be available to badge types listed under "Primary Access." The RSVP for this mentor session is now closed.
Signing up to speak with Brad Shenfeld is highly recommended if you're interested in composer agreements for film/TV scoring, producer, recording or music publishing agreements, and strategies for picking a team (mgmt., lawyer, agent).
Prior to establishing his own law firm in 2011, Brad practiced law for over 7 years in the entertainment department at Loeb & Loeb, LLP. Prior to joining Loeb & Loeb, LLP, Brad was an in-house Business Affairs executive at Universal Music from 1999 to 2004. Brad began his legal career in 1997 in the business affairs department at PolyGram.
Brad's current practice focuses on the representation of creative entrepreneurs in the entertainment, music and media industries. Such clients include established and developing film and television composers, songwriters, recording artists, writers, directors, graphic artists, authors, record labels and music publishing companies.
You can see Brad's full bio on his speaker page.
Bradley Shenfeld
Shenfeld Law PC
Artist Wristband