by Dr Terrence Blackman
Letters From America Column
For fifty eight (58 ) years, BBC radio host Alistair Cooke hosted “Letter from America” on the BBC. The show broadcast weekly from 1946 to 2004, became a unique source of information on America and Americans for Britons. Cooke’s program reported on, through the eyes of a British immigrant to America, the American culture, its challenges and triumphs. “Letter from America” also covered major news events in the United States between 1946 and 2004. These included the JFK assassination, the Challenger explosion, the terrorist attacks on 9/11, and many more.
These “letters” are in this tradition albeit with a Guyanese twist. Let me introduce myself to you. My name is Terrence Richard Blackman, my friends from High School fondly call me Amegah. I was born in Georgetown Guyana in 1968. My roots are in the Pomeroon. I grew up in Alexander Village and in North Ruimveldt. Today, I am an Associate Professor of mathematics, former Mathematics Department Chair and founding faculty member of the Department of Mathematics at Medgar Evers College. I am also former Dean of our School of Science Health & Technology at Medgar Evers College, CUNY. I have served as a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) and I am currently visiting Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at MIT and a member of The School of Mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. I have also served as Assistant Professor in The Department of Education Research, Policy & Practice in the Morgridge College of Education at The University of Denver, as a Five College Fellow at Mount Holyoke College and as a member of the Committee on Science Policy for the American Mathematical Society. My weekly letters to you will leverage aspects of the career that has led me to these places.
I have worked at Medgar Evers College for more than a quarter of a century. I came to the United States in January of 1988 to pursue an undergraduate degree in mathematics. I am Queens College of Guyana Alum.
Last Sunday I attended the Queen’s College Alumni Association of New York’s monthly meeting. The meetings are held on the second Sunday of each month. QCAANY has been operational in NYC for more than twenty five (25) years. At this month’s meeting a key agenda item was supporting, in this COVID-19 moment, the young men and women writing CSEC. This item caused me to reflect on my time, in the mid 1980s, writing O-levels and upon the importance of parental, and other types socio-economic and academic support for our young people. As we succeed, we often forget and at times we are a bit ashamed at our humble beginnings. I am reminded, as I pen this note, that in order to pay my exam fees many years ago I pawned my mom’s jewelry at a store called Humphrey’s. Needless to say I did earn some distinctions to justify the investment. This willingness to invest in our children’s education is a very strong characteristic of the Guyanese culture and we ought to be very proud of it.
The challenges however of preparing the schools for exams in a time of COVID-19 should also cause us to reflect on the purpose and function of those exams, those “subjects” that we write. Indeed Covid-19 has forced changes in how we all live, work, and learn– and it is very likely that there will be no full return to our old “normal.” We must therefore seek to use the lessons of this extraordinary moment to imagine and invent a new and more robust future. We must ask ourselves: What has this experience taught us about what we value most? What things have worked better than expected? And, where might we now have the opportunity to make beneficial changes in how we operate? It is trite and true that our greatest resource is our human resource and against the backdrop of the pandemic we must reevaluate the manner in which we are developing and utilizing this resource.
To this end I close this week’s letter by sharing an example of an American Initiative aimed at talent and human resource development. I am an executive member of The National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences (Math Alliance). The Math Alliance is a national community of university faculty mentors in the mathematical sciences who work together to increase the representation of minority students and professionals in quantitative fields at all levels. The rapidly changing landscape in these fields makes it critical that our mentors and their students have the most up-to-date information concerning opportunities for graduate training and future career opportunities. To address this challenge the Math Alliance in partnership with the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) at the University of Minnesota sponsors a yearly workshop on Careers Paths in the Mathematical Sciences. The University of Minnesota is an institution driven by its land-grant history. Its teaching, research, and outreach is changing lives throughout the state of Minnesota and the world. The notion of a land-grant University is one that I will return to in future letters.
The career opportunities workshop brings together sixty (60) participants in the Alliance’s Facilitated Graduate Applications Process, i.e., our F-GAP program, and their mentors with leaders in applied mathematics and statistics, data science, and economics and management. The workshop consists of plenary lectures, panel discussions, active-learning modules and networking opportunities. The sessions are taped and made available to all Alliance students and their mentors as well as to the broader mathematical sciences community.
I close by asking you to reflect on the following Guyanese transitions: from Primary School to High School–the Common Entrance process; and from fifth form to lower sixth; from fifth form to the world of work and the transition from fifth form to university i.e., the CSEC process–what can we do, as parents, as institutions, as a culture to better facilitate the transition of our young people through these critical landmarks?
