{"id":281,"date":"2015-05-18T13:27:02","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/?p=281"},"modified":"2015-05-18T13:29:33","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T17:29:33","slug":"the-op-ed-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2015\/05\/18\/the-op-ed-project\/","title":{"rendered":"The Op-Ed Project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once, a bazillion years ago, when I worked for Citicorp POS, I had a life changing experience. \u00a0The executives took the entire company down to Florida from Connecticut for a three\u00a0day ropes team building course. \u00a0It was amazing, but not for the reason the executives anticipated.<\/p>\n

I have an enormous fear of heights. \u00a0So while I was climbing telephone poles 40 feet up in the air, harnessed and completely safe, I understood that building trust for my teammates was important. \u00a0But more so, building trust that life was not as risky as I was living it and “jumping” out of one career I didn’t like\u00a0and into one I did was not as risky as I was telling myself.<\/p>\n

So I quit my job in the real world, went for my PhD in Organizational Psychology, and became a professor.<\/p>\n

My experience in\u00a0last week’s Op-Ed Project workshop <\/a>at UNC Charlotte\u00a0feels pretty close to that level of revolution\u00a0about a new future. \u00a0I’m not going to change careers; I love being a professor. But all of a sudden, I feel like a new and very attractive avenue in my career has just opened up.<\/p>\n

So what s the Op-Ed Project? \u00a0It’s a non-profit organization whose goal is to increase the number of women and minority voices contributing to the public discourse in our society. \u00a0((This is obviously my interpretation; the leaders of the Op-Ed Project may have a different perspective)) While writing Op-Eds <\/a>is one way to do this, the real goal is to increase women and minority contributions to all forms of public thought.<\/p>\n

Wow.<\/p>\n

I never thought about doing that<\/strong>. I know things. I have things I’d like to say. And I want to say them.\u00a0I was trained at Claremont Graduate University<\/a> where one of our maxims\u00a0in psychology was “Giving Psychology Away.”\u00a0Again, wow. \u00a0I’ve wanted to “Give Psychology Away” since I started graduate school, but didn’t know how to do it. \u00a0(And free consulting is not really where we are financially)<\/p>\n

So with a bit of confidence building, insight into writing op-eds, a bit o’ training for live discussions, and a lot of peer support, I am ready to see what is next along this path.\u00a0There was some talk among the facilitators of having a public Op-Ed Project workshop in Charlotte. \u00a0I think it would be a great idea!! We have a lot of people in Charlotte\u00a0community who have ideas they should be sharing with others in a public forum.<\/p>\n

Let’s see how we can work this out so that more of us find a new path in our careers that we can start exploring, sharing, and contributing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Once, a bazillion years ago, when I worked for Citicorp POS, I had a life changing experience. \u00a0The executives took the entire company down to Florida from Connecticut for a three\u00a0day ropes team building course. \u00a0It was amazing, but not for the reason the executives anticipated. I have an enormous fear of heights. \u00a0So while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p67nDP-4x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2017\/08\/29\/the-totality\/","url_meta":{"origin":281,"position":0},"title":"The Totality","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"August 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My family and I went to Winnsboro, SC to watch the totality last Monday. \u00a0We had originally planned to stay in Charlotte because at 98%, that seems pretty \"total\" to me. \u00a0But a tweeting conversation with the local weather god, Brad Panovich, convinced me that while it would be \"awesome\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":416,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2020\/07\/15\/how-to-science-who-should-we-trust-as-experts\/","url_meta":{"origin":281,"position":1},"title":"How To Science: Who Should We Trust as Experts?","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"July 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"So, I saved this as an idea to blog about in April. Who should we be able to trust as \"experts\" in whatever field we need information? Here is the conundrum I start with: We should most\u00a0trust the people who are experts in their field.\u00a0 I am not an expert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2013\/02\/22\/time-in-organizations\/","url_meta":{"origin":281,"position":2},"title":"Time in Organizations","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"February 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"When I went back to school after working in the \"real world\" for 4 years, one of the differences that struck me was differences in time in the organization. \u00a0I have not studied time in organizations, which is an important area of research. \u00a0What I want to talk about is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":157,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2012\/01\/23\/dooce-and-divorce\/","url_meta":{"origin":281,"position":3},"title":"Dooce and Divorce","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"January 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week, I was pretty shocked to hear that Dooce (aka Heather Armstrong) and her husband, Jon, have decided to to separate. \u00a0No, I'm not accidentally posting on my professional blog a topic that belongs on my personal blog (or maybe I am, but I'm choosing to do it anyway).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2003\/10\/07\/blogs-a-new-form-of-virtual-community\/","url_meta":{"origin":281,"position":4},"title":"Blogs: A new form of Virtual Community?","author":"clas-web","date":"October 7, 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"Preliminary Analysis Anita Blanchard, Ph.D. October 7, 2003 In July 2003, readers of the Julie\/Julia Project participated in an on-line survey. The purpose of this study was to explore whether blogs, and in particular, The Julie\/Julia Project, are a new form of virtual community. Participants were asked to respond to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Research Reports"","block_context":{"text":"Research Reports","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/research-reports\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2019\/09\/27\/the-next-education-bubble\/","url_meta":{"origin":281,"position":5},"title":"The Next Education Bubble","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"September 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Y'all, I think that we, on campus, who give a flying fig newton about our students see the next big educational bubble: Students who have already graduated with a university degree who know only a little more than when they left high school. Let me share some background and then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}