CALIFORNIA—The generational story of My Mother’s Mirror reconciles roots with personal experience to shape identity and aspirations. The writing of it in two perspectives—mine and my mom’s—was an experience of a lifetime. It was as if I could see myself clearly in her reflection, feel her feelings, and connect to the amazing woman who I call my best friend; the woman who brought me into this world, the person who has molded me, the person who has made me both her master and masterpiece.
“SELF-Ex: An Interactive Guide to Address Adversity Responsibly” received a top award in a global competition. “In response to the COVID-19 challenges facing students the USC Center EDGE, Andrew Nikou Foundation, and IDEO formed The Education (Re)Open challenge, aimed to develop the Education Solutions Exchange, a public repository of high-quality, accessible solutions to help schools navigate the obstacles they face returning this fall. The Education Solutions Exchange is an exciting outgrowth of what we learned early in the pandemic—that creative, relevant and relatively simple solutions can bring a quantifiable voice to those on the front lines of education, and can have impact in timely, effective and efficient ways,” says Alan Arkatov, director and founder of Center EDGE.
USC Center EDGE Awardees of the Education Solutions Exchange. Winning entries, chosen in part for their simplicity and ability to immediately impact students’ needs, include:
Mental Health Check In: A simple, low-cost, easily implementable system for students to communicate their emotional wellbeing and give teachers insight into how the class is feeling overall, and in particular to students who may need extra support.
The 3 M’s: Media, Middle School, Mindfulness: A curriculum that teaches students to become more discerning with information seen on the internet, and to determine if it’s coming from a trustworthy source, which is especially critical in light of the disinformation surrounding the pandemic and vaccines.
Core Values in the Community: A program designed to reward students who demonstrate the values of Gratitude, Responsibility, Integrity, and Tenacity, and are given “GRITcoin” that can later be spent on things like raffles and pop-up shops at their schools. The program recognizes that students are anxious about returning to school, and yet they can be inspired to turn those feelings into something positive.
A Trusted Space: a free, cutting-edge, research-based film and curriculum for educators on how to help mitigate the effects of the grief, trauma, anxiety, and other emotional stressors that so many students are facing.
Along my journey, I sought an OB/GYN specialist’s guidance to understand the link between female hormones and IBS among other complications. I waited six months for a visit with the “best OB/GYN” in our county, having consulted with two others in the past who weren’t of much help.
