Let's Celebrate This!

[Chris_Wendt]

I am often hypercritical and occasionally negative-sounding about our academic results. I received this update on one of our all-time best alumni, which I want to share by way of a celebratory note of his amazing accomplishments out here, in the real world.

Michael Faye, Valedictorian of the Class of 1998 who earned a BA in Math (2002) and a PhD in Economics (2009), both at Harvard is in the current issue of Foreign Policy magazine as one of the world's best global thinkers of 2013. He was also in the Economist Magazine on Nov 1, 2013 and interviewed on FOX and MSNBC last week, and in the NY Times magazine over the summer. The interest is centered on the charity he established (link to "GiveDirectly")in 2008 Michael worked as a research analyst for the United Nations Millennium Project between earning his BA and PhD. In addition to serving as the Director of GiveDirectly he is currently an associate at McKinsey & Co Financial Services

Michael in FP magazine (I think he is 'Global thinker' #105 out of 134 or so) www.foreignpolicy.com/2013_global_thinkers/public/niehaus

Entire article (takes awhile to download) www.foreignpolicy.com/2013_global_thinkers/public/

Yes, this is a vignette, an anecdotal report, but it concerns one of Wantagh's very best and certainly a young man worth celebrating...with a great deal of pride by and in our school district.

Yours truly,

Chris Wendt

[Chris_Wendt]

It is interesting to watch the ebb-and-flow of viewership or readership of these blogs. The salacious, juicy topics get many more 'hits' than the real "good" stuff.

This thread is about some good stuff for Wantagh. I hope more of our browsers get to read it, and click on some of the links, maybe even come out and add a note of congratulation.

Chris Wendt

[rr]

There really isn't much to discuss on this topic - it's an amazing accomplishment and I don't think anyone can disagree or debate that. Obviously this man is a smart, driven and dedicated to making the world a better place by his work.

While there really is nothing controversial to say about the man and his accomplishments, I do wish the charity focused a bit more on the issues that our own country is having...but I guess that wouldn't really be considered 'global thinking'...

If you want to make it a bit more controversial we could ask this question...

Had this young man been exposed to the Common Core from the early grades and the 'stress' of an additional 'high stakes' test would his career still be this distinguished - I think 'yes'.