Those of you who follow me on social media (and who have chatted with me in person!) know that I just finished up a 5-week run of the musical Nine at The Colonial Players in Annapolis.

Today is my 31st birthday.

For those of you that know me well, you’re probably waiting for a month-long series of events with various activities in different locations.

Happy New Year all!

At UMD I ran into an old friend who reminded me of my previous blog posts where I would encapsulate my hopes for the coming year in one word. I was able to consistently do this practice in 2010 (Achievement), 2011 (Renewal), and 2012 (Destiny). I suppose after that I fulfilled my destiny of spreading myself too thin in my first years as an assistant professor (if you’re confused you can read more about what I mean here) because I haven’t done that practice since.

Today is October 7th.

Three years ago, I was getting ready to teach a social media class at my first “real job” post-graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University when my sister called.

It is now 12:30 a.m. on March 16th.

30 years ago I was born at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philly.

Today is my birthday.

I’ve decided to do something a little different today. After watching the movie Happy (which was recommended to me by one of my students, thanks John!), I realized that it is in the act of giving that we derive much happiness. So, in the spirit of today, I decided to do some giving of my own on a more interesting scale:

Hello everyone. My name is Rowena. I am a junior faculty member. And I am a non-stop workaholic. And an achievement whore. And a people pleaser.

If you were to imagine a dance, a song, a musical, a band, or live performance art to represent community-engaged research, what would it look and sound like?

As a Filipino American, I never really experienced racism. Tucked away in my mostly white NJ suburbia with my mostly white friends, I only really used my minority status if I needed it for a scholarship opportunity, award, etc. I pretty much took for granted the privilege I had by being educated with a steady income.

As we’ve discussed as part of #CuriousCoLab, community takes a variety of different forms. I’ve been very fortunate to consider myself a member of many different communities, including my academic homes of VCU (as faculty), UMD (as grad student), and TCNJ (as undergrad student). However, something I’ve discovered over the years is that non-academic/non-work-related communities are just as important, and can sometimes teach you more about life than you could have possibly imagined, or even find in the more traditional classroom setting.