Today marked the start of my long awaited three-day orientation course at the Gates Foundation, Starting Gates'. My classmates were an interesting mix of Conmunications, Advocacy, U.S. schools Programs and Global folks, with very diverse backgrounds. Solomon is a former flight surgeon who has served on US Airforce One under two Presidents and is now working on Global Delivery in Ethiopia; Ryan works in London advocating with governments around the world to sustain their global aid funding, John used to run education for the state of Vermont and Lourdes is the daughter of Cuban émigrés and is willing to let me borrow her cello on future trips to Seattle!
The day was a good mix of learning opportunities that included panel discussions with senior foundation leaders from operations, Legal, Global Programs and U.S. Programs, as well as group activities, one of which was a game where we experienced what it felt like to be left behind in the US Education system. I don't usually have much day to day interaction with our U.S. schools program, whose goal is by 2025 for 80% of US kids to leave high school 'college ready'. So we have this year's third graders, the class of 2025, in our sights.
The course consolidated much of what I've picked up in two months on the job, although there are some 'Aha!' moments and I picked up some new tips and plugged a few gaps.
In the evening we were treated to a whistle stop tour of the Chuihuly a Glass Museum, full of fantastical Dr. Seuss - like blown glass flowers, creatures and sculptures assembled from thousands of individually created elements.
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