International job opportunites

The three international websites I chose were United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Save the Children, and Academy for Educational Development.  I chose these because they all have strong work in child advocacy, which is part of my career goal. 

With UNICEF, the position of Manager, Data, and Learning-Foundation Partnership is a job I am interested in.  It requires me to be go around the world and collect data that will be used in creating change for all children.  The qualifications is  a minimum of Bachelor's degree but they prefer an advance degree in international development or advocacy.  I would need a 5 years experience in grant writing and funding. 

With Save the Children, I am interested in a few positions.  One position is Chief of Party "Girls Education Challenge" Programme.  I would need 5 years experience of working in education.  I would need prior senior management level working with fragile or conflict affected states. Another career is Director of YouthSave.  They didn't have any information for qualifications for this position.  I am also interested in Manager of Child Development Grant programme.  This job requires 5 years of overseas experience and grant management.  At least one year experience in the non-profit sector.

Academy for Educational Development has a few interesting positions too.  I would love to be the deputy director of social and behavior change communications.  I would need a masters degree and 15+ years of experience in managing health and communications.       

Federal opportunities

There are many jobs on the national and federal levels that appeal to me and to my cause.  Education.com is a national organization that focuses the needs of young children and their developmental progress.  It must be a great place to work because there are not many jobs available.  They have one job senior director of marketing.  The skills and experience needed is strong business background and 5-7 years minimum in marketing. 

 Another federal job that I appeals to me is National Children's Advocacy Center.  Sadly, they don't have any jobs available to appeal to me.  I want to work as a trainer who would give conferences and train other early childhood advocates.  I think I would need a post-graduate degree in the field and experience of 10+ years.  Also I would need strong communication and auditory skills.

The third job I would love to do is Public Policy Associate with NAEYC, National Association for the Education of Young Children.  The requirements for this position is a B.A. with strong knowledge of database, technologically savvy, and can pay attention to details.  This would be a great place to work.  I wish I could pick up and move to Washington D.C.  

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The three agencies I am interested in is Child Care Resources, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and North Carolina Department of Education.  I chose these agencies because  I think they hold the resources and the authority to bring about the change I am looking for.  Plus these agencies allow me to fight my cause of providing all children with healthier foods and accessibility for their families. They currently don't have any job openings that interest my cause but I would to be an educational nutritionists.  Also I want to be a food program director.  Those positions interest me the most.  In order to possess those jobs I would need at least a four year degree, 3-5 years experience in the educational field.  Also for the Food Program Director I would need some business experience.  Sadly, business isn't one my strengths but I am planning on taking some courses at the community college just to get some more information.    

Profile of a Volunteer

The person I elected to talk about was a volunteer who helped me at afterschool at the boys and girls center I attended.  His name was Thomas and everyday he would help with me my homework, he taught me how to operate a computer, and he helped me with my personal problems that most teenagers encounter.  He wasn't just good to me but he was good to every child and teen he met.  He was helpful to everyone and he showed everyone kindness. 

He positively impacted others by helping and tutoring me and other kids who wasn't even assigned to him. He always was consistent in giving his time and he volunteered to come in and spend time with us. 

The vital message I take away from this is that every little bit counts and makes a huge difference in someone's life.  His hour a day made a major difference in my life. 

Using Social Media to Get Connected

I have a lot of experience with social media.  I have used several social media outlets over the last ten years.  Facebook was created when I was in college so it's exciting to be a part of that phenomenon from the beginning.  I have posted things and pictures that I regret.  Now that I am trying to establish my career and be seen as a true professional I am always worried something I posted will come back to harm my efforts.  However, I do see social media tools are helpful in getting my cause across.  I have created pages and groups that help me gain supporters and gives me the forum to relay vital information.  Even now I still create pages to get my voice heard on certain issues.  I haven't made one yet for education because I am still learning and I want to narrow down my objective. 

What are your suggestions to narrowing down my efforts?  Also what are some other social media outlets can I use, besides Facebook, to get my cause out there?

Advocacy Messages

The first ad campaign is about letting a baby grow to 39 weeks.  This is from The National Child and Maternal Health  which is an educational program.  This is inspiring because it shows me the importance of a child's education and care can be done even before they are born.  It shows that goal for mothers is to keep the child healthy and in their stomachs for as long as possible.  Don't be so quick to try to induce or methods that will bring the child quicker. 

The second ad campaign is the one about starving children and Wal-Mart and other companies coming together to feed starving children.  This is inspiring and causes me to want to want to donate money and spread the word of child hunger to everyone.  The campaign is heart wrenching and makes me want to work harder to eliminate child hunger all over the world.

These messages are effective in creative action because they show the vulnerability of children and how children rely on adults and other for help.   

My own Capacity

An issue that fuels my passion for advocacy is children and families that deal with poverty and poor health issues that can be corrected.  I feel there are ways and policies that can eliminate poverty and other health related issues for children and help families provide essential services to their children.  The special skills I bring to this advocacy effort is my loud and persistent voice.  I can be very tenacious and this a skill that is needed, along with proper communication and knowledge of legislative which are skills I also hold.  I believe these skills will help me gain ground in getting law makers to pass policies and laws that will end child hunger and make services that will help the children have better health coverage and better quality of life.  I hope to grow in becoming a more effective advocate by networking and gaining resources.  I know I need to link with others who have the common goal of eliminate child poverty and poor health in children.       

My Role as an Advocate

The thing that motivated me to start advocating for young children was I saw young children were encountering so many issues that I felt were unfair to them.  For example, obesity.  I feel young children should never have to encounter child obesity and all the health, emotional, physical, and social ramifications that come with it.  I understand child obesity is a nationwide problem but to I take it as we also need to look at the local and micro levels because that will kick start the change that will influence a change on the nationwide level or macro level.   This is way it is important to pay attention and foster efforts at the micro level.  It takes passion, communication skills and strong skills in the ability to collaborate with others.  For state leaders they need resources.  Some resources they need are advocates to keep them in the know, business leaders for financial resources, economics with help with the budget, and other EC professionals so they can have the current trends in early education and care.  Some advice I would give people who want to be in leadership roles are listen to those around you.  They will keep you up to date on current issues. Also have a team a trusted advisors who can help you come up with proper solutions.  Then I would say trust your own instincts and fuel the passion for change.   

Personal Advocacy Reflection

I'll tell my story.  My family and I fell on hard times.  We lost our jobs and was having a hard to getting new jobs.  It was frustrating, tiring, and exhausting.  So one day, when we had nothing to eat, I went to local food bank I had heard about from a friend.  While I was sitting there waiting with my children, one of the family advocates called me into her office.  She took the time to talk to me but the thing that stood out was that she asked me how I was doing.  I had been so wrapped up in my current situation that I didn't have to time to think about how I was feeling and process anything.  All I could do was cry.  She gave me a hug and talked to me about numerous options I could do to better my family's situation.  Long story cut short, her conversation is what fueled me to go back to school and get my master's degree.  It was the best decision I have ever made. 

Becoming a Advocate

Hello everyone.  I am so excited for this course and I am ready to learn from others perspectives on advocacy too.  It is my professional goal to be a child advocate and work closely with children and families in my community.  I really want to make difference and I know that will gain the most knowledge when I learn from others.  Plus it takes to a team to bring about change.  I want to thank you in advance for helping me a better advocate.

Reflection on Professional Learning Growth

3 Consequences of being a part of a collaborative community

·         I was able to learn from the experiences that my colleagues were willing to share.

·         We were able to bounce ideas off of one another about potential options that will strengthen the field. 

·         It was good to be able to talk to others that can relate to my professional goals and be as passionate about them as I am

I plan on using this experience to help me collaborate with other professionals in the field.  I will use the ideas, thoughts, and remember the opinions of my classmates when I am making critical decisions that affect children, families, and other EC professionals. 

 

 

My Hypothetical Family Situation

Hello I will soon be the mother of a child with Asperger’s syndrome.  Asperger’s Syndrome is a form of autistic disorder.  Some of the signs are with social interaction.  Instead of playing with the cars the child will organize it and arrange them by color.  They avoid eye contact, don’t like change in their routine, lack empathy, and socially withdrawn just to name a few.    

 

My husband and I are excited to adopt this three year old boy and we love so much already.  My husband’s occupation is an Athletic Director for a Division II College and I am a professor at community college.  We are a household where our socioeconomic status is upper middle class.  This will be our only child which means we can fully concentrate on the needs of this child.  We are blessed to be able to access the financial resources needed to get this child the best care and access to the best preschools like yours organization.

 

We only have close friends who live around us.  All our family lives out of state.  So we are looking for support from teachers and school administration to gain knowledge on what we can do to control our child’s disorder. We feel that early learning and development will be a huge benefit to our child in the long run.     

http://www.asperger-advice.com/asperger-syndrome-and-children.html  

Have I given a complete picture of my family, or are there details missing that I should include in order to complete the assignment successfully? If so, what are your suggestions?

Is this situation realistic?

Are there any specific websites I should be reviewing with regard to learning about quality services and programs for my child and family in this hypothetical family situation?

Does anyone have any thoughts, based on my specific family situation, that will affect the early childhood system I am creating?

 
Thanks for the feedback!!!

Public Policy

Public policy is a major aspect of early education and have contributed a lot to the field.  In the past advocates and policy has changed the Head Start program from being a 8 week program to a full time full day program.  I have learned that the resources have been a great asset to the program, however, there still isn't enough to service every child who qualifies for the program.  Changing the program to a full time program is has shown how the time increase has had great positive impacts on young children and also bettered their families.  This strategy has proven the importance of preschool and early childhood education. 

The part that bothers me the most is that even though there is research that proves early childhood has great positive impacts there still seems to be resistance with getting proper funding.  Everyone wants to early education to be high quality and be accessible to every young child but politicians and other people who can provide more resources to the field seem not to want to.  This make frustrated and a little sad because the littlest increase in resources can make huge differences in the field, young children, their families, and the community.      

Parent and Family Involvement

Parent and family involvement is very important.  After listening to the Parent and Family stories it has strengthened my opinion on the manner.  Professional I feel that all parents and families are key to strengthening a young child's developmental process and academic success.  I am a teacher of a preschool class and I have seen how parents who are involved have a great influence on their children.  I have troubled children do a complete 180 once the parents and I came together and formulate a plan.  This was also true with what I heard on through the stories.  In my personal life I a mother of four and I have one child who went through the Head Start program.  He was a child who seemed to be developing certain challenges and those challenges were eliminated once he was placed in the program and my husband and I became more involved.  There was consistency for him and was able to learn and grow through the partnership between his teachers and myself. 

 I understand that some parents are not able to involved as much as they would like to be because of outside factors.  Things that work and time are most common factors that hinder parents from being more involved.  However, it is my opinion that even busy parents can find some time to get engage in their children's education.  This is just my opinion.  I think that even participating once or twice a year in person and constantly through emails and electronic devices can make a big difference.   

Public Opinion subject to change

I am currently a lead teacher of young twos (24-30 months old) classroom and there are many things I would like to change in the next five years.  I firmly believe two years old is a great age to introduce children to academic, social, and emotional teachings.  Constantly all I hear from adults is how 2 year olds are too difficult to teach, how they are too young to learn, and they don't sit still long enough to participate in activities like circle time and art projects.  However, I have found this to be untrue.  In my classroom I run circle times and have small group activities.  My motto for teaching the young twos is INTRODUCTION, SENSORY, and REPETITION and so far this has worked.  I have enough activities during the day (4-5 activities) to keep them busy and this limits their free play to only two half-hours a day.  Once in the morning and once in the afternoon.  They don't run around and the morning activities consist of physical, intellectual, and social play that they take naps from being tired out.

 

 

It makes me feel like I am on the right track because when I was studying about Kindergarten and the roles of it I learned that it was just an avenue for children to learn socialization and emotional regulations.  However, Kindergarten transformed into something more in depth as the years progressed as people learned more about the learning capabilities of five years olds.  So public opinion will change as more teachers and professionals speak out about the capabilities young children, even two year olds.       

About Early Childhood Education; Advocacy and Public Policy

I chose this specialization because I want to be a child advocate.  I want to help children and their families with as much support as possible.  I am Lead teacher for income households and I want to be more helpful.  I have always wanted to help children get the best education as possible.  I not only teach low income households but I grew up in one and I saw my parents struggle for me and my siblings to have the best education possible.  I am proud to say 4 out 5 of us have degrees and 2 of us are in graduate school. 

 I think advocates are important to the field because advocates are the voices of people who aren't being heard.  It's not that they can't speak for themselves, it is that they don't know laws and regulations or even programs that there to help them.  Advocates are there to make sure programs are in place, people are getting the resources they need to survive.  Also they assist in developing policies for the field too.

It is my desire to learn how to be an effective advocate for the field.  I want be a part of the policy making process to provide all children with a better education.  I also want to find new ways to gain resources for the field.    

Special Thanks....

Through my graduate program I have encountered many different people.  Each person has helped me grow and learn.  These past 8 weeks have been hard for me in my personal life and I have found it hard to think and gather my thoughts but I have had the best discussion group ever.  Group 2, Adesoye, Amber, Melissa, Steffanie, Shelda, and Carolyn, you all have been the best.  You never judged me and have provided great insights that I know I will take with me.  Thank you all so much!!!!!  I wish you all luck in your future endeavors.      

When it all comes to an end....

For me high-performing groups are the hardest the leave.  This is because it very hard to find a group of people that gel and working together efficiently.  It is found the sad for me to say that I have never that group of people.  I hold on the fact that one day I will.  In mind I imagine the closing rituals to be filled with sadness and somber.  At least I know I would be.  I enjoy working with people where everyone's strengths are able to shine and complement each other.  I think it my master's degree comes to an end and I have to exit the program, I think it will be sad.  I have learned some much from so many people.  It has gotten to the point where I recognize names, writing styles, and remember their personal stories.  So I think it will difficult but the excitement of using my degree and new information I have learned in my career will ease the sadness.       

Conflict Resolution

When I think about my disagreements I wished I had known then what I know now.  This week I learned about principles of nonviolent communication (NVC) and the 3 R's (respectful, reciprocal, and responsive).  In both my professional and personal life I have a tendency to want to be right and make my point at any cost.  I have learned that I have to open to listening and showing respect.  In a debate I usually talk over people and bombard the conversation.  Another strategy I have learned is the main principle of NVC which is the natural state of compassion when no violence is present in the heart (http://www.cnvc.org).  I need to be authentically compassionate during a heated discussion.  This way the conversation will be more productive and less hurtful.      

My view...your view

This week we had an exercise where we evaluated ourselves and then we had others evaluate us as a communicator.  The results were very different.  My evaluation came back as a fair and balanced communicator, however, my husband rated as a poor and unfair communicator and my colleague rated me as a passive communicator.  These separate results surprised me.  It seems I communicate differently at home and at work.  I am happy there was an agreement with me being a good listener and concerned about others.  I have learned that I need to speak up more confidently in the workplace and be willing to share my thoughts, feelings, and ideas.  In my personal life I have to learn how to be less aggressive in my arguments and see others' perspectives more.    

Communicating differenty with different people

I found myself responding differently to different groups and cultures.  I realized that I speak my carefully and take more time to respond to cultural groups that different from me.  For example, I have a friend who is Middle Eastern and we began to speak about religion.  I almost came out and called God, Allah, to her but then I realized it would've been wrong.  She didn't tell me she was Muslim and I didn't want to assume because of her appearance (she wore the head dress most Muslim women wear).  So I kept saying high power but when my Christian friend joined the conversation I began to use the name God. 

I wish I had just said God from the beginning because it cause there to be an awkwardness between my Middle Eastern friend and I.  She noticed the difference and became less responsive with me.  If I could change it would just had use the word, God, from the beginning. 

Watching TV with no sound

The television show I decided to watch was Polygamy, USA, or the National Geographic Channel.  My big aha moment was the fact I was completely off about how the characters were feeling.  When the volume was off I made assumptions based on their facial expressions.  Most of the wives, or sister wives, looked miserable.  I thought they were saying how awful it was to be in a plural marriage.  Then all the men looked happy.  They were ones smiling and laughing.  When I turned the volume back on I was wrong.  The wives were expressing how much they love being a part of a plural marriage and the men were expressing how difficult things are being married to more than one wife.  It makes me wonder how true are the words they were saying.  Then it makes think about how children interpret what I am saying when my face says something different.       

A Great Communicator

The one person who I try to model when it comes to communication is my mother.  She is leader at her church and serves on many different auxiliary boards.  To me, she always shows respect to others by listening to them and addressing any concerns.  Also when situations began to get hot and frustrations begin to show, she speaks so calmly but at the same time she commands the room without yelling or screaming.  I want to be able to do that.  That's why to me she is a great communicator. 

My hope and goal is....

One hope I have when I think about working with children and families from diverse backgrounds is becoming a strong resource and support system for them.  I think about immigrants who are new the country and/or families who move away from their families and the communities they grew up in to new communities. I can understand the fear and anxiety of being different and just wanted to have someone to trust and rely on.  I want to be that for them.

One goal I would like to set for the early children field when it comes to diversity, equity, ad social justice is more professionals being bilingual or even multilingual.  It will open up so many more opportunities and make families, especially immigrants, more comfortable.  I also think it will help the students feel more accepted and embrace their differences instead of trying to assimilate into two different worlds, their family culture and the dominant culture.

Thanks to everyone who read and left comments.  I appreciated it and learned a lot from you all.   

The Burmanese family

My family is from Burma which is also known as Myanmar.   Burma is located between India and Thailand.  Also some of the other neighbors are Bangladesh, Lao PDR, and China.  In order to be culturally responsive towards this family I will make sure I know particular facts about their culture.  I will learn about the primary language. I will learn about the role of the children and gender roles.  I wouldn't want to come across disrespectful if the family role is hierarchy and this the culture and parents mandate particular roles from their children.  Lastly I would learn about holidays and religion because I would want to make sure I was being inclusive when celebrating holidays and make sure I wasn't offensive when celebrating other holidays. 

I hope these preparations will help me show the family I respect them and their culture.  I want to build a relationship of trust and I hope their my efforts of better understanding their culture this will know the family I good intentions.  This way the family will be more open to communicating with me and we will be more efficient in working together to give their child a great education.         

Bias and Prejudices

There has been several times when I have both seen and experienced prejudices.  There was an incident in the seventh grade where my science teacher was failing me.  My mom went in to meet with him and he told her, with me right there, that I should get used to failing grades because Blacks aren't as intelligent as Whites and he won't "dumb down" the class to suit my intelligence.  My mom reported him and he admitted to say those things and he lost his job.  This incident made me sad, angry, and confused.  I was sad that someone would feel this way about me.  I was angry because I saw my mother upset.  I was confused because I was receiving failing marks so I wonder if what he said was true.  In order for this incident to change.  The attitude and views of the science teacher would have to change in order to achieve a greater equity.      

microaggressions

This week I heard some microaggressions and noticed most of them were microinsults.  The one that sticks out to me is when I was picking up my daughter from preschool.  All the parents were outside, like always, waiting outside the door.  I overheard a Hispanic woman talking to another a woman who is Middle Eastern.  They always talk so I assume they are friends.  I overheard the Hispanic woman asking her Middle Eastern friend for recipes that have curry in them.  Then I heard the Middle Eastern woman respond with, "What makes you think I like curry?"  Then the Hispanic woman said, "Well...because you Indian."  Then the Middle Eastern woman said, "I'm not Indian."  I was embarrassed for the Hispanic woman and felt bad for the Middle Eastern woman.  I kept to myself and pretended I didn't hear anything. 

Through this observation, it made me check myself because I have to admit that I thought the Middle Eastern woman was from India too because of her attire and the fact she speaks another language when she is on the phone.  Also it made me think about how both women must have felt.  The feelings of shock, anger, frustration, and embarrassment because I that's how I felt when I was listening.  We as a society, have to do better to minimize these microaggressions.     

Culture and Diversity

The definitions to culture that I received were; someone's background and heritage, one's race and background, and the traditions and backgrounds that a person who they are.  The definitions of diversity were; people's differences, different races and cultures, and the differences that makes us interesting and who we are. 

The definitions I were sort of similar to the definition I have studied in this course by defining culture as someone's background, race, and creed.  The same goes for diversity, in terms of one's differences.  However, these meanings are mainly the surface definitions.  They are the common definitions but I also learned that culture and diversity does deeper.  Culture and diversity also deals with parenting styles, children roles, and daily rituals.  The deeper meanings were omitted and not acknowledged. The definitions I received from my friends made me think about my own preconceived definitions I had about the two terms.  It is easier to defined the words with the simple terms but most people neglect the deeper meanings and I am happier to know the 90% of the iceberg. 

3 items...

The three items I would take are my family photo album, our generational bible, and a quilt.

 

I would take the album because it holds all the pictures of my family.  I have pictures of my great grandparents and all the extended family.  It is important to have this album because it is pictures of my family.  The generational bible it holds the family tree in it.  For generations my family has been putting the marriages, births, and deaths of our family members in this particular bible.  We have had to add paper in order to keep up with it but it is important to have in order to trace our origins and family members.  The quilt is something my grandmother started.  She started a quilt and then she gave it to my mother and she added patches.  Then it was passed on to me and I have began to add patches.  I hope to pass it onto my daughters and they can continue to tradition.

 

If I had to choose one item over the other two items I would feel torn, angry, and very sad.  I would feel torn because I they are all of equal value to me.  I would angry and frustrated with the situation.  Then I would be very sad at having to leave two priceless items behind.  My family culture main focus is togetherness and never forgetting our ancestors so I would feel like I was abandoning my ancestors in some way having to chose between the items.

What I learned...

During these last 8 weeks of engaging in this course, Building Research Competency, I have gained a lot of insight into research and it influence on early childhood education.  I learned about the different structures of research design and differences in quantitative and qualitative studies.  Also about the importance of ethics.  I have found that research is still pretty tedious.  So my thoughts on conducting research hasn't changed much.  Some challenges I have found in research is learning all the different types of research and understanding all of them.  I studied intensely the differences and learned as much as I could about each one.  I still find myself get them confused.  I also find it challenging to formulate hypotheses and narrowing down my research questions to a simple topic.  I have found that research is very important in the early childhood field and it helps the field continue to stay current.  It also helps caregivers and early childhood professionals better understand children and their development. 

international research

Research in early childhood education is prevalent everywhere.  I decided to explore the international website of Africa.  I found it interesting that this organization, Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) of the Sub-Saharan Africa, deals with non-traditional ways to research and educate other about early childhood education.  The main focus is on using the strengths of the region and incorporating those strengths with technology and networking in order to reach people in rural areas as well as the urban communities.  Some of the topics I found was quality care and assessments.  I was a major issue that was being researched throughout the continent.    

One country that I was interested in was Zambia.  I found that there was study done to assess the quality of child services in orphanages. This sparked an interest because I am use to assess quality services in preschools and daycares but sadly I must admit that quality in orphanages never entered my mind.  The article I read,  Pilot Study of the Adaptation of an Established Measure to Assess the Quality of Child Services in a Selected Orphanage in Zambia: The Inclusive Quality Assessment (IQA) Tool, focused on quality assurance tools used in British Columbia in 1998 to see if they  would work in non-Western cultures and also determine if they are appropriate for different cultures.  Happily the conclusion was is that the tools used in British Columbia worked in Zambia, however, as expected some areas didn't work because of cultural differences and relate ability. 

Research Benefits

If I had the means and knowledge to conduct a research study that would edify the early childhood field I would choose brain development.  I am very interested in the topic.  I personally feel brain development is a major entity to early childhood profession and has helped parents and early childhood professionals better understand young children. 

The major positive contributions to the field from the brain development research would be knowing more about cognitive functions and how they develop.  Also how early experiences can have an impact on a person functions as an adult.  Which means the proper development and positive experiences can produce an overall healthy person who can be a major asset to society. 

    

Stress on young children

During this week I was doing a lot research to decide on which subtopic I wanted to chose for the research simulation.  Out of the three subtopics I chose how stress can effect young children's learning and developmental processes. 

I chose this topic because for personal and professional reasons.  As  young child I experienced high levels of anxiety that effected my learning.  However, they didn't have a name for it and just classified me as having a learning disability.  Having this label only brought on more stress and my grades began to suffer even more.  Now that I have four children of my own I want to be able to recognize the signs and help my children if they began to experience anxiety and stress.  Professionally wise; I want to be able to help more children.  More children are finding themselves in stressful situations and experiencing stress at a young age.  Many times their parents and EC professionals aren't aware of the stress and classify it as a behavioral issue.  I want to learn more about stress so I can be a better EC professional. 

 So far, for my simulation, I have just research a lot articles and found a lot of information about different stressors and how theses stressors can effect young children, how their development, and how they learn.  I found one article about how the classroom and its environment can cause stress.  I found that to be really interesting. 

 Does anyone have any advice or insight you would like to share?  I am open to all.  Thanks in advance.