Globalization is placing new demands on the skills of the US workforce. With the perspective of a multicultural heritage and a career in international development and humanitarian assistance, Geeta Raj recognizes the necessity in building global awareness in US education. In the belief that education should be fun, Geeta builds excitement for global awareness through storytelling and adventure.
Driving Directions:
www.gleachercenter.com
NOTE ON PARKING
300 East Illinois Street (AMC Theater-River East Self Park Garage)
$6.00 after 3:00 pm on weekdays and all day Saturday and Sunday for a 12-hour period
Garage: Self Park Facility
Payment: Automated; at pay-stations by cash or credit card or upon exit pay by credit card only.
To receive discounted rate: There is a card validator at the first floor security desk of the Gleacher Center. You will only need to insert your parking card in the validator and the new price will be automatically applied. When you leave the lot you will be charged for the lower $6.00 fee.
Detailed Directions:
Garage is located next to PJ Clarks and below the AMC Theater.
a) When traveling east on Illinois cross over Columbus and enter the Garage on the left (north) side of the street
b) If driving west on Grand (north of Theater), you can enter the garage ½ block before Columbus on the left (south) side of the street.
Event Details
Using four fictional characters, Clarity, Juliet, Noah and Clive, The Global Sleepover weaves fascinating tales of international adventure and invites children to join these fictional sleepover stories all over the world. The Global Sleepover offers books, Sleepover GearPacks, and is launching online interactive options and mobile applications.
How is this approach to building global awareness working? What does 'global awareness' actually look like upon graduation from middle school, high school, and the university? Will children today and in the future be graduating as world-ready citizens, able to successfully collaborate with their international peers? Finally, why is this necessary? Plan now to attend and expand your mind as Geeta takes you on a global tour -- passport and pajamas optional.
Registration
Register Online
At times, we need to upgrade the room size to accommodate you so registering in advance helps make things go smoother.
Upcoming Sessions
Mark your calendar for upcoming International Roundtable sessions on the third Thursday of the month in 2012.
Deadline: 5/17/2012
Program
6:00 PM-6:30 PM: Networking
6:30 PM-8:00 PM: Presentation
8:00 PM-9:00 PM: Conversation at The Midway Club
Speaker Profiles
Geeta Raj (Speaker)
Founder, The Global Sleepover
http://www.globalsleepover.com
Geeta founded The Global Sleepover by combining the magic of Sleepovers and the excitement of traveling the world! When Geeta and her friends were 9, they started a Sleepover tradition which Geeta now continues with her god-daughter (who is also on the Sleepover team)! Geeta worked in international development and humanitarian assistance for over 10 years, 8 of these years as a Senior Program Analyst with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Her experiences working and living in Afghanistan, South Sudan, Colombia, the U.K., Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the Balkans greatly influence her work on The Global Sleepover.
Geeta is a graduate of the Presidential Management Fellowship program in Washington, DC and serves as an Innovation Fellow with ConvergeUS. She is a two-time recipient of the Washington, DC Commission on the Arts Folk and Traditional Arts Grant and speaks Hindi, French and basic Spanish and Serbian. Originally from Boston, MA and Houston, TX, Geeta holds a BA in Creative Writing from University of Houston and a MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University in Washington, DC.
She learned about the unequivocal power of education through the example of her biological father. A refugee from the ethnic partition dividing India in 1947, he overcame economic and social adversity by earning 5 international degrees – truly transformative education. Geeta enjoys cooking, traveling, dancing, and anything that involves the imagination of children!
Other Information
NEW OFFERING: LITERATURE TABLE
Networking is a key benefit of attending. To that end, a table will be made available for literature and handouts. Bring your business cards, brochures, handbills, literature, resumes, and publicity for placement on the table.
NEED FOR CO-CHAIR
After many years of service, Sophia Kholodenko is stepping down as Co-chair. Karl Buschmann welcomes inquiries from Booth alumni who would like to get more involved in running the International Roundtable. Responsibilities include:
--Regular attendance
--Programming: identifying interesting topics and securing speakers
--Administration: writing publicity, publicizing events through the University and roundtable email distribution list channels, and coordinating with the Alumni Office
CHICAGOLAND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS EVENTS
The Illinois International Business Calendar is one of the comprehensive lists of events in the Chicago area. For a free PDF copy, send an inquiry to info@itagc.org. The calendar can also be viewed at www.itagc.org.
Questions/Concerns/Suggestions for Speakers?
Karl L. Buschmann
kbuschma@ChicagoBooth.edu
847 310 0412
To subscribe – or unsubscribe – to the International Roundtable Publicity Distribution List:
http://gsblistmail.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/internationalroundtable
Notable & Quotable in The Wall Street Journal, 2 April 2012
Peter Wood on how to ask a good question, in the Chronicle of Higher Education, March 30.
Peter Wood writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education, March 30:
Last Wednesday I attended a debate at St. Francis College in Brooklyn, at which three men engaged in a lively, literate, and deeply-informed exchange. After they finished and the moderator opened the floor for questions, the usual thing happened. The questioners by and large had no questions. Instead they offered up prolix piles of words that led nowhere in particular. Some sought to show off what they mistook as their own superior knowledge. Others scolded. A few got lost in their own labyrinths. The closest we came to a question was the j'accuse rhetorical jab more or less in the form, "Don't you agree that you are an ignorant buffoon?" . . .
Events open to public response these days are swamped with people who don't know how to ask questions. . . . Television and radio producers acknowledge this by filtering questions in advance or asking would-be questioners to submit their interrogatories in writing. We lose something important in this filtering. The questions that get asked are the ones moderators pick out to make their own points. We would be better served if people could ask their own coherent and pertinent questions.
Here's how. . . . You have not been invited to give a speech. Before you stand up, boil your thoughts down to a single point. Then ask yourself if this point is something you want to assert or something you want to find out.
There are exceptions, but if your point falls into the category of assertion, you should probably remain seated. "Mr. Nixon, you are unworthy of being president" is not a question. "Mr. Nixon, what else would you have done as president if Watergate hadn't gotten in the way?" is a question. . . .
Likewise, never offer up a roll call of your own facts or belabor them into a Perry Mason pseudo-question. "Mr. Malthus, are you aware that as economic development proceeds, birth rates decline, and that crop yields can be multiplied by a factor of x with the proper use of fertilizers, genetically-enhanced hybrid species, and market-based incentives?"
Weigh the usual interrogatory words in English: who, what, where, why, when. If you can begin your sentence with one of these you are more than half-way to a good question. "Who gave you that scar, Mr. Potter?" "What is a black hole, Mr. Hawking?" "Where is the Celestial City, Mr. Bunyan?" "Why are you wearing that letter, Ms. Prynne?" "When will our troops come home, Mr. Lincoln?" . . .
Don't engage in meta-speech. "I was wondering, Ms. Steinem, if I might ask you a question that I am really curious about." Go directly to the question. "Ms. Steinem, who is the man you admire the most?"