Food for Thought: Financial Literacy in the US

How do you measure financial literacy? Who gets to be financially literate in the US, and who is left out? What are the gaps in popular understandings of personal finance?

Join us at Friday, March 26 at 12:30 PM ET to hear Professor Annamaria Lusardi (University Professor in Economics and Accountancy) discuss some answers to the above questions and more! Specifically, she will be discussing the P-Fin Index, a way of measuring personal finance knowledge across the country, and analyzing some of the data that scholars have been able to obtain from it. Join us at 12:30 PM ET on Friday, March 26 to hear more! You can join us all here: gwu.webex.com/gwu/j.php?MTID=mde813237df9a3b479fc7c64636f04f50

Alumni Panel – Feb 24, 2021

Don’t miss our upcoming alumni panel, UHPers! On Wednesday February 24 at 5:30 PM ET, we’ll be hosting UHP alumni from a variety of different fields to discuss how they navigated transitioning from college into the workplace, and giving their advice to you on successfully navigating that process yourself. Seniors are especially encouraged to attend, but we think this will be helpful for all of you, no matter which year!

Meeting info:

https://gwu.webex.com/gwu/j.php?MTID=m6af79689c6130cf3e3afd8ee29773c7e
Wednesday, Feb 24, 2021 5:30 pm | (UTC-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Meeting number: 120 296 5112
Password: uhpalumni

Join by video system
Dial 1202965112@gwu.webex.com
You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.

Join by phone
+1-202-860-2110 United States Toll (Washington D.C.)
Access code: 120 296 5112

Alumni Attendees:

Emilia Totzeva – I am currently living in Washington, DC (with two UHPers!) and working as a User Experience Designer at Centene Corporation. I work on researching, designing, and testing digital products that help people manage their health insurance. In my spare time pre-COVID, I enjoyed traveling, trying new restaurants in DC, and running.

Alec Nadeau – Alec lives in Brooklyn, New York where he has worked as a policy advisor to the Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey since 2017. At the Port Authority – which designs, builds, operates and maintains critical transportation infrastructure throughout the region – Alec oversees priority initiatives, advises on matters of security, technology, and sustainability, and prepares speeches and public presentations for agency leadership. After graduating with a BA from GW in 2015, Alec went on to earn his MPA from GW’s Trachtenberg School while working as a Presidential Fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security.

Calder Stembel: Calder Stembel graduated from GW in 2011 with a degree in Dramatic Literature. He stayed in DC and started working for EAB, just a few blocks from GW next to the Trader Joe’s. At EAB, Calder manages a software development team that builds the Navigate student success platform. Other hobbies since graduating have included acting in community theater shows and going to fun food events in DC.

Ryan Holeywell: Ryan Holeywell has spent the last 15 years working in communications in Washington, D.C. and in Texas. As Senior Director of Communications at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Holeywell manages communications for the organization’s public policy and advocacy portfolio. He previously was the Communications Director for the Texas Medical Center in Houston. Before switching to PR, Holeywell was a journalist at several outlets including GOVERNING magazine and the Houston Chronicle.

Hoang-Kim Vu: Kim is a global health and international development professional, currently working as the Finance and Operations Director for a global malaria research program at PATH. With specific expertise in malaria and behavior change communication, he has led multiple field programs to improve activity implementation and operations, including serving as Acting Chief of Party on the $25m USAID Mozambique Integrated Malaria Program, and Acting Deputy Chief of Party on the $57m USAID Rwanda Family Health Program with Chemonics International. He has also served previously as a director of business development with wide-ranging skills in proposal development, including as a winning proposal lead and technical proposal writer across a variety of development technical areas, including health, education, and climate change mitigation.

 

Student-Faculty Dinner – But Virtual

UHPers, despite the virtual semester, we’ve still got a student-faculty dinner for you! We won’t be able to give you a discounted Chalin’s buffet this time around, but we encourage everyone to purchase some takeout from a local Chinese restaurant and join us on Tuesday, December 8, at 6PM ET for an end-of-semester celebration. (The Chinese takeout is not at all required— please feel free to come along with whatever food you like, or none at all!). You can join us at this link here. If you need any other login info, please let us know at uhp@gwu.edu. RSVPs are always helpful and welcome, though you’re also welcome to just drop in! PLEASE make sure your Zoom is up to date before joining! This will make our lives a great deal easier.

Also, if you don’t know much about the local cuisine in your area, our peer advisors have some recommendations for local Chinese restaurants in their cities and towns! You can find them after the sign-up form below.

Peer Advisor Recommendations

DC Recommendations:

St. Louis, MO:

Marlboro, NJ:

Cherry Hill, NJ:

Houston, TX:

Cincinatti, OH:

  • Oriental Wok – Meilian Kurlas (who also works there, as it happens!)

Needham, MA:

  • Dragon Chef – Hailey Scatchard
  • Mandarin Cuisine – Hailey Scatchard
  • New Garden in – Hailey Scatchard

Wellesley, MA:

  • Jin Fine Asian – Hailey Scatchard

UHP Trivia Night, The Second. (with PA Nicky!)

That’s right folks, we’ve got another trivia night coming up! Come around the Digital Townhouse (ha, ha) and join Peer Advisor Nicky and Program Coordinator Josh for an evening of trivial fun! We’ll have teams, we’ll have questions, we’ll have a grand ol’ time. Join us on Monday, November 23, at 7PM ET at a Zoom link to be sent out as the day approaches. Sign up below!

Come Around to Trullinger’s Salon!

We’ve got a new recurring event for you UHPers: Trullinger’s Salon! “Where essence and appearance matter.” Join Professor Joseph Trullinger every week on Wednesday evenings (starting 2/3) at 7PM ET to discuss life and philosophy in a relaxed, casual setting. He will be doing his nails (hence salon), and you’re welcome to do so as well (though this is by no means a requirement)!

Also, bring the questions and concerns that strike your fancy, but every week will also have a central topic to be discussed. It’ll be a grand ol’ time! You can suggest potential topics below, and you can access the meeting here.

(For those who don’t know him, Professor Trullinger is one of our core faculty, though he isn’t teaching classes this semester due to being on sabbatical).

Food for Thought with Professor Carolyn Arena

Do you miss our Food for Thought lectures, UHPers? I certainly do. Well we’re doing a virtual one! We won’t be serving lunch (it would be quite difficult), but nonetheless we’ll be hosting Professor Carolyn Arena for a talk titled “”From Smallpox to Covid-19: Histories of Native Americans and Epidemics” on October 30 at 12pm. Feel free to sign up below, but drop-ins are also welcome!

You can join the talk here, or call in with meeting ID 923 9770 1202 and password 316939.

Talk description:

Epidemic diseases have ravaged Indigenous communities since Columbus’s arrival to the Americas. In the 1760s, at least one British military officer suggested weaponizing smallpox against Native Americans. Indigenous communities have survived intentional and unintentional plagues in the past to face common diseases among all Americans today: diabetes, heart disease, and now, coronavirus. As with Black and Latinx populations, racial and economic disparities have made this present epidemic more lethal for Indigenous communities. What can history teach us about susceptibilities, inequalities, and resilience of Native peoples in the face of epidemics?

UHP & WLP: Cartoonists Liz Montague and Ann Telnaes

Liz Montague, the first Black woman to have a cartoon featured in the New Yorker.

Ann Telnaes, Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist working for the Washington Post

A good cartoon can turn your day around, and the Women’s Leadership Program at GWU has invited two of the most talented cartoonists in the landscape today to come and talk with us. And all UHPers are invited!

On October 1, from 6-7:30 PM EST, we will be joined by Liz Montague, the first Black woman to have a cartoon featured in the New Yorker, and Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer Prize winner political cartoonist working for the Washington Post to discuss their work.

You can find more information on Liz Montague here, watch a video about her here, or read a recent interview with her about a Google Doodle she published here.

A short video of Ann Telnaes can be found here, and her website can be found here.

Zoom information:

https://gwu-edu.zoom.us/j/91976446159?pwd=NHk4STgzM25RTEw0TzZTaHhUeUUyZz09

Meeting ID: 919 7644 6159
Passcode: leadership

Contact us at uhp@gwu.edu if you require additional information to access the Zoom call.

Democracy, Equality, and Tocqueville: a Colloquium with Professor Christov

Are you passionate about discussing politics and want to learn more about issues like US democracy, individualism, and equality?

Join a selective group of 15 GW students in a day-long online discussion colloquium over Zoom on Saturday, October 17. The colloquium is being organized by the Institute for Humane Studies and will be facilitated by Professor Theo Christov. You will read Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America in a Socratic-style seminar over the course of the day.
As compensation for your participation, you will receive a $100 stipend. You must apply to join us: submit a single-paragraph letter of interest to Prof. Theo Christov at christov@gwu.edu by Wednesday, September 30.