Last week, I had the honor of being a guest contributor writer for Visible Hands, an email newsletter and budding media platform started by a fellow college alum and her classmate at Stanford Business School. As the Substack tagline goes, they’re about “how business works, the implications of business on society, and how individuals can keep them accountable.” Super legit, I know, right?
My issue (also on Medium) focused on the very real issue of how everyone is grappling with the idea of going back to school during this pandemic time. The TL;DR is that no one has the perfect answer, and I geared my post to highlighting the potential inequities that could be exacerbated this school year (and beyond).
At first, I struggled to think of the right topic as the week I signed up for drew closer and closer. I racked my mind, thinking about my interests, the industries my career has taken me into so far, and what I could possibly know that’s worthy of highlighting to VH’s subscribers. This is partly because of the high caliber of their content thus far, especially from other guest contributors! I ended up hitting upon education after reflecting on my own lucky privilege to have attended good public schools very much pre-pandemic. There have been smaller epidemics of course, from SARS to MERS to ebola to swine flu, but nothing of the scale of the coronavirus and its impact on our former rhythms of life.
Before I end my update, I want to especially point out one of the ways people can help students and families in need right now, listed at the end of last week’s newsletter:
Roughly 30 million students in the U.S. who rely on reduced-price or free school lunch programs will still need a reliable source of nutrition. If you’re able to help, your local food bank will likely be glad for monetary or in-kind donations as they continue to serve vulnerable populations. Chegg donated $250K to Second Harvest Food Bank of Silicon Valley, which serves neighborhoods around their headquarters in Santa Clara, CA.
Visible Hands: From Classrooms to (Home)rooms? 🏠 – week of August 13, 2020
I’m cognizant that everyone is struggling with something right now, so there is no obligation to help; I donated to the same food bank a while ago because I am able to right now. It’s my hope that humanity finds a way through this difficult time, and some innovations for the future to boot.
Also published on Medium.