Episode 153. Rana Dershowitz, A Career Driven by Passion from Sports Law and Public Policy
The 92 Report
Rana Dershowitz went straight to Harvard Law School after graduating in 1992, partly due to the economy and her love for learning. She describes her experience at Harvard Law School, including her role as a law school "old timer" in Cambridge. After law school, Rana moved back to New York and started working on Wall Street, initially hating the big law environment but appreciating the people she worked with. Entertainment Law at Madison Square Garden and onto Sports Law Rana discusses her career counselor's advice to explore sports law, which she had overlooked despite her involvement in...
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152. Eugene Kim, Pediatric Surgeon and Wine Connoisseur
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Eugene Kim shares his post-graduation journey staying in Boston to finish research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute which was part of his thesis and also laid down the groundwork for his own cancer research which he has conducted over the years. He credits his understanding of science to his time at Harvard. He also worked at the now-closed Love the Border Cafe. Eugene reflects on the valuable lessons learned from working at the cafe and describes the unique subculture of the cafe's staff, including the Brazilian kitchen staff and the diverse backgrounds of the waiters and...
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151. Jonathan Hughes, Consulting at the Intersection of Strategy & Conflict Management
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Jonathan Hughes talks about his career in consulting, starting with an economic consulting firm, Putnam Hayes and Bartlett, in Los Angeles. He mentions his connection back to Harvard through CMI (Conflict Management Inc.) founded by Roger Fisher and Bruce Patton, and his subsequent roles at Vantage Partners and BDO. The Career Path As a Consultant Jonathan describes his role at CMI, focusing on complex negotiations and business partnerships, and his role in helping to start the boutique firm, Vantage Partners where he spent around 25 years as a partner. He later moved over to BDO,...
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150. Steve Petersen, From Improv to Philosophy of AI
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Steve recounts his senior year at Harvard, and how he was torn between pursuing acting and philosophy. He graduated with a dual degree in philosophy and math but also found time to act in theater and participated in 20 shows. A Love of Theater and a Move to London Steve explains why the lack of a theater major at Harvard allowed him to explore acting more than a university with a theater major. He touches on his parents' concerns about his career prospects if he pursued acting, and his decision to apply to both acting and philosophy graduate schools. Steve discusses his...
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149. P.J. Karafiol, Chicago Public High School Principal
The 92 Report
Show Notes: P.J. shares the backstory of his name and how he became a high school principal. He studied simultaneously in law school for a JD and in the Philosophy department for a PhD at the University of Chicago. After realizing he didn't enjoy law or philosophy, he taught math at Phillips Andover and later in Chicago. He helped start a new public school, Walter Payton College Prep, and has been a principal at Lake View High School for the past 10 years. Teaching Chaos Theory and Math P.J. describes his experience teaching at Phillips Andover, including teaching chaos theory. He found the...
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148. Scott Cole, 50+ Jobs Worked Since Harvard
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Scott Cole describes his initial struggles at Harvard, dropping out after freshman year, and returning multiple times before finally graduating in 2012. He shares his first dropout experience, including a brief stint in California and a return to Harvard for sophomore year. He details his various jobs and adventures, including working at a car wash, landscaping, and a research assistant position at Harvard Forest. Working on a Ranch in Wyoming Scott thinks back to his days working at a ranch in Wyoming, where he learned cowboy skills and participated in cattle drives. He...
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147. Anca Miruna Achim, Teaching about the Past to Speculate about the Future in Mexico City
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Miruna studied art history at Harvard, focusing on Renaissance art. After taking a year off to travel and visit Romania, she decided to study Latin American Studies and Spanish and Portuguese at Yale. She found the graduate experience at Yale challenging, especially the sense of isolation that can come with graduate work when it is not socially or politically involved. Miruna began traveling to Mexico for her research on colonial Latin America, focusing on the intersection of history of science, literature, and ritual. Teaching History of Science Miruna moved to Mexico City, where...
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146. Franklin Habit, A Long and Winding Yarn
The 92 Report
Show Notes:Franklin Habit talks about working in higher education administration (and elsehwere) before eventually finding happiness in his current profession within the fiber arts. He discusses some of the blind alleys he explored, including museum work, opera stage directing, web design, and online marketing. Building a Career in KnittingFranklin shares how he learned to knit from a veteran knitter and classmate, Eliza Lake. He describes how his blog about knitting took off, leading to a book deal and a career in teaching and writing. Franklin recounts the early days of his blog,...
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145. Diego Fonstad, Educational Toys and Ed Tech Tinkerer
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Diego kicks off the conversation with a quick review of his career path, which included working at a business school in Barcelona, consulting in biotech and healthcare, and working as product manager and product running product groups. He then went back to business school. He talks about his job at the business school in Barcelona and what prompted him to take it. He explains that the opportunity arose through a professor he knew, and the timing of the 1992 Olympics made it hard to resist. He shares his insights on Catalonia's cultural differences and the importance of knowing...
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144. Kellie Doucette, Unexpected Journey: Pink Sand Beaches to New Jersey Politics
The 92 Report
Show Notes: Kellie Doucette describes her journey as zigs and zags, with three distinct chunks defined by her location: Northern Virginia, Bermuda, and New Jersey. She worked for a small health policy consulting firm called the Lewin Group in Northern Virginia, DC, where she met her future husband, John Doucette. A 13-Year Stint in Bermuda Kellie, an actuary, began her career in the Bermuda market after taking the actuarial exams. She and her husband moved to Bermuda in 1996, and they enjoyed the adventure of visiting family on the East Coast and raising their children there. The reinsurance...
info_outlineAndrew Ott left college to work at a nonprofit, then moved into technology research and small internet startups before returning to nonprofits and working in social entrepreneurship in Brazil and Rwanda. Now, he runs his own nonprofit, training people from low-income backgrounds, particularly people of color and women, how to code, program websites, and launch new careers.
College Friendships
One of the elements of Harvard that have continued to influence his life is his long-term relationship with his Harvard roommates. They regularly get together once or twice a year, getting their families together and doing fun things together. This group of friends has evolved over time, with some being good planners and others not. The tradition started in college, where they would go to one person's house on Memorial Day weekend and bring friends. After college, they spread out to different cities and eventually started renting houses when they had more income. Andrew reflects on the gift of having friends from high school and college.
Travel and Working in Tech
Andrew talks about the early days of his career. Initially, he needed some time off from college and decided to go to Spain with his roommate. This experience provided him with a new adventure, fluency in Spanish, and a change in worldview. After his father's death, Andrew considered joining the Peace Corps, but he explains how serendipity stepped into his life and helped him secure a position as webmaster at Forrester Research.
From Spain to Brazil
After Forrester, Andrew planned to go to Argentina, but changed plans due to the country's economic difficulties. He spent several months researching and interviewing people connected to Argentina, which led to a job offer at an International publishing house which was offering a salary of $8,000 or $9,000 per year. Despite his interest in the job, the pay was too low to accept, and he returned to the U.S., with a stop-over to Brazil en route. He met up with old friends who live in Sao Paulo. While there, he noticed the abundance of international brands and helipads in Sao Paulo, and decided to pursue work there where his experience working with Forrester and his knowledge as a webmaster was in high demand. Andrew recounts his experience working for startups in Brazil, where he initially worked for four years building websites. He eventually decided to return to nonprofits, starting with CDI, a Brazilian nonprofit that builds computer and citizenship schools in poor neighborhoods across Brazil. He studied nonprofit management and international relations at the Kennedy School.
Social Entrepreneurship in Rwanda
The conversation turns to his work in Rwanda where he explored the concept of social entrepreneurship, which is a startup approach with a social goal. He joined TechnoServe, an organization that was involved in the coffee project funded by the Gates Foundation. The goal was to draw together smallholder coffee farmers into collectives and sell their products to major coffee roasters like Starbucks. TechnoServe intentionally cut out middlemen, ensuring that more of the profit goes back to the farmer. This approach has a positive socio-economic effect on agricultural communities, improving their standard of living, school rates, education rates, and health. Andrew worked with a small entrepreneur to improve his coffee cooperative's business operation. He shares how they discovered fraud in the coffee cooperatives and how they dealt with it.
How CodeSquad Works
Andrew talks about CodeSquad, a nonprofit organization, which trains individuals from low-income backgrounds, focusing on people of color, women, and marginalized communities, without any computer or software background, in entry areas or full stack website development. The organization works with these individuals to find jobs in software, which can significantly impact their livelihoods. The average reported salary for a job in software is over $100,000 a year. Some participants have been homeless or couchsurfing during the program, but the program has had some amazing outcomes, including the range of jobs the participants can apply for after going through the program. The program is now entirely online. This decision-making process is more efficient and effective than traditional interviews. The program has seen a significant increase in interest, with over 1000 people interested in the program this year. Andrew shares information on cost per graduate and funding for the program.
Challenges Faced by People in the Tech Industry
Andrew discusses the challenges faced by people in the tech industry, including the need for education and the educational requirements. He mentions that the minimum requirements for a software developer job are a high school diploma or GED, authorization to work in the United States, and passing through the admissions process. Success in the industry is determined by perseverance and code switching, which can be difficult for those without corporate work experience.
Influential Harvard Professors and Courses
Andrew mentions Professor Joseph Nye, Jr., and his Historical Studies course on International Relations. He was fascinated by geopolitics and power dynamics between countries in other groups.
Links:
Timestamps:
02:24 Maintaining long-term friendships through regular get-togethers with families and friends.
05:35 Maintaining friendships over time and across distances, with personal anecdotes and experiences
12:17 Career trajectory shift from tech support to web development
15:35 Career path and experience in Brazil
21:16 Social entrepreneurship in Rwanda with a focus on coffee farmers
23:48 Coffee fraud in Rwanda, with a focus on a middleman's inflated expenses
29:45 Nonprofit training low-income individuals in software development, with successful job placement outcomes
31:40 Predicting success in a coding boot camp program
37:43 Non-profit organization CodeSquad's mission to help low-income individuals gain coding skills and find jobs in tech industry
Featured Non-profit:
The featured non-profit of this episode is The Baby Jesus Community of Petropolis, recommended by Roger Landry who reports: Hi, this is Roger Landry class of 1992, who had the privilege to be interviewed by Will in Episode 42. The featured nonprofit in this episode of the 92 report is The Baby Jesus Community of Petropolis, Brazil. Founded in 1990 by Tonio Tavares, a teacher for Special Needs teens, who, when the Brazilian government pulled its funding, ended up adopting all 45 Special Needs teens and adults and caring for them ever since. I first found out about this extraordinary organization, when I was working as a diplomat at the United Nations. And since then I've helped them get established as a US 501 C-three, contributed to their many needs, and tried to help them find others in the United States who might be able to assist in their beautiful and literally life saving work. You can learn more about their work at their website. communidade.jesusmenino.org.br for Brazil. I'll spell it that is: C OMUNIDADEJESUSME N I N O dot org.br for Brazil, or if that's too complicated, just email me at Catholic priest@columbia.edu Thanks so much for your consideration. And now here's Will Bachman with this week's episode.
To learn more about their work visit: https://comunidadejesusmenino.org.br/