Hooray for the underdog!
This June, I'll be spending a week at Columbia University part of the Gilder Lehrman History Scholars Program, rubbing elbows with historians like James McPherson and rooming with students from Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Brown, and other hoighty schools. Yes, humble Jason, from Brookdale Community College, took on the big bugs and found a spot in the program, though not the big 6-week research bonanza with the $2,400 stipend, but this is still nice.
I got the letter today, thinking that I wasn't going to get it at all. The deadline for the application was March 2nd, postmarked, but I couldn't get to the post office until the 3rd of March because of a nice snowstorm. I thought that they'd just toss my application, with an article I wrote on Civil War photography and recommendations from my favourite two professors Jess Le Vine and Tom Cioppa, right in the trash. But no! They kept it! And opened it! And read it! And liked it!
I raced to school as soon as I opened the letter and showed Tom. He was freaking out. I walked into his office, knocked on the door, and he said, "Hey, Jay..." rather downtroddenly. I told him the good news, and he lit up! He said this was big. Places like the Gilder Lehrman Institute look down on community colleges, and something like this is unheard of.
Boo-yah!
To celebrate, I'm ripping apart my Sekela frock.
I got the letter today, thinking that I wasn't going to get it at all. The deadline for the application was March 2nd, postmarked, but I couldn't get to the post office until the 3rd of March because of a nice snowstorm. I thought that they'd just toss my application, with an article I wrote on Civil War photography and recommendations from my favourite two professors Jess Le Vine and Tom Cioppa, right in the trash. But no! They kept it! And opened it! And read it! And liked it!
I raced to school as soon as I opened the letter and showed Tom. He was freaking out. I walked into his office, knocked on the door, and he said, "Hey, Jay..." rather downtroddenly. I told him the good news, and he lit up! He said this was big. Places like the Gilder Lehrman Institute look down on community colleges, and something like this is unheard of.
Boo-yah!
To celebrate, I'm ripping apart my Sekela frock.