Happy 18th Nick!

Today, my son Nicolò Zuane Carrera is turning eighteen. 

Tanti Auguri Nick!
Starting today, Nick will be able to vote (but not drink!) and will begin the process of getting a driver's license as all Italians do when they're 18  -- even though he could have done that when he was 16 in this country...  

As a Venetian Nick does not need a license to drive a boat though!

He has seen me work on the Venice Project center his whole life and he may even have felt a bit resentful at times about how much of my energy was devoted to this program instead of on him.

We spent a lot of time together though.  
My job provided me the luxury of bringing Nick with me everywhere (and I did!).

I am grateful to WPI for supporting the center and my family for all these years.  

And I am grateful to my wife Jacqueline for having brought Nick into the world 18 years ago in a snowy and cold January day.  Thank you Jaq!  

On Children

Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let our bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

WE LOVE YOU NICK!

Cloud of clouds

So, what happens if you recursively take the previous blog entry and make a cloud of that?



It's a meta cloud!

The year in a cloud

Now that the new term has started and the "official" anniversary term is behind us, I think it's time to sum things up. What better way to do that than with a word cloud?

So we took all of the reports produced in term B08 and plopped the words into Wordle.net and voilà!

Not surprisingly, Venice is the most prominent (i.e. most frequent) word in all of the 7 reports produced by the anniversary teams this year.  I like this specific cloud because it's also shaped somewhat like Venice...

Aside from the obvious ones, I think a careful reading of all the other more-or-less-frequent words is intriguing and fascinating...   Like, click on the image and study it.  Like, we'll quiz you later people! Like.

Is Matt a WPI graduate?

Actually, Matt Harding never went to college, but his well-traveled video might be an inspiration for us to create an equivalent round-the-world rhapsody touching all of our global project centers...  Wouldn't it be great?  

Let's invite him to campus, give him an honorary degree and enlist him into an intercontinental dancing project to celebrate together the global perspective program!  I'll be the cameraman...

Drink this killer graphic!

My friend Joe Moreau sent me a link to this really cool dynamic presentation with lots of spiffy moving graphics. It explains a lot about my life and may also give some insight about student behavior in general (and perhaps in Venice in particular)... If you can work through the heavy accent, IT'S FANTASTIC!

Happy Epiphanies on the Befana...

Today is the day of the Epiphany, marking the arrival of the Magi (three kings) to Jesus's birthplace.  In common parlance epiphany refers to the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something...

I always wonder what (if any) epiphanies the intercultural experience in Venice may have generated in the 500+ students who came to the Venice Project Center in its 20 years of existence.  If you read this and you want to share your epiphany with me, please do so.  It would be greatly appreciated...

I have had some major epiphanies this fall myself.  I have realized how difficult it is for me to stay "present" when I interact with people since my mind is always racing ahead and thinking of the next thing that I need to do.  I have resolved to give myself the present of presence this year as the anniversary continues.

On the night prior to January 6, the Befana (basically the Italian version of the wicked witch of the west) comes to visit all children in Italy and fills their stockings with sweets if they have been good or coal if you have been bad (but how bad can children really be?).  We don't do the stockings at Christmas, but only on the Befana and traditionally schools in Italy do not restart until after the Befana.  In Venice, in recent years, the Befana has been celebrated with the regata delle befane, with rowers from various clubs (including the Settemari) dressed in funky witch dresses.  Very colorful.

So Buona Befana a tutti! 

And may this year and the rest of your life be full of epiphanies until you reach satori...

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Bona Zirada!

Well, the official 20th anniversary year is drawing to a close, but we still have another year to celebrate this milestone.  I find this card, created by fellow Settemarian (Carlo Dedy) to be not only beautiful, but also appropriately symbolic, personally as well as professionally.  It represents the "new" bridge on the Grand Canal (nicknamed Ponte di Calatrava after its architect), connecting the Railroad terminus with the car/bus terminal of Piazzale Roma.  Yet, it was planned way back in the 15th century, as documented in this map from the Venice state archives (a rare gem I may add).  Thus, this bridge confirms that "Everything new is old again" and conversely also that "Everything old is new again"...  So, in the grander scheme of things, what's another year?  All we really ever have is this moment, so let's accept its inevitability and enjoy it as it happens!

Bridges are often used as metaphors of positive forward change too (remember the Clintonian "bridge to the 21st century"?).  It would be tempting to use this modern bridge, connecting two symbols of progress (trains and cars), on this day of passing from one year to the next, to make it be a good auspice for the future.  I am choosing instead to avoid attaching lofty meanings to it and stick to its simpler symbolism of connection.  
Let this bridge be a constant reminder for us all to stay connected!  With ourselves, with those we love and with all of humanity!

Finally, the Venetian name for this bridge (on the bottom of the postcard) is Ponte de la Zirada, which translates to "bridge of the turn".  
So, may the end of this year be an authentic turning point for all...

Bona Zirada!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Just a quick entry to wish all of our Venice alumni, advisors, sponsors and friends a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY 2009!!!  

One more year of celebrations for our 20th Anniversary!

Last Day

Today, the students are leaving Venice.  Another year has gone by... 

The students have crossed the metaphorical bridge of sighs and are now flying back to the US to complete their education, with a major milestone behind them. 

Next year, 28 more students will come and continue the work we started in this pivotal year.  They will still be 20 years old, as they have always been, but I will be one year older.  I will also be wiser, I think.  This has been a challenging year for me, both on the personal and on the professional level, but these challenges bring about transformation and insight, which I am confident will translate into even more fulfilling experiences for us all.

The Interactive Qualifying Project instills great confidence in our students, who are thrown into a topic about which they know close to nothing, coached by advisors who typically are equally unfamiliar with the disciplines involved (clueless may be the word used at times).  The students are put in a "sink or swim" situation (bordering on torture as the students probably perceive it).  Yet - magically - they always swim away...  It's an amazing process.  And it works time after time; in Venice it has worked for over 500 students since 1988.  It proves that they are lot more resourceful than they even know.

This great invention, the Interactive Qualifying Project, is what distinguishes WPI from all other institutions of higher learning and once again the intuition of the founding fathers of the "WPI Plan" was confirmed by this 20th anniversary year's teams.

We should be seeing the final reports and deliverables in the next few weeks before the start of term C (Jan. 13, 2009).  

I look forward to that and to a new year full of creativity and success, as we continue to celebrate our anniversary until the fall of 2009!

Last Supper (or Lunch really)

We had planned to have our "last supper" at Pampo's at 8pm today since some students have to leave on Friday (despite clear  instructions to the contrary), but another Acqua Alta was forecasted for 11pm (140cm), so we decided to have a "last lunch" instead, around 2pm, right after the last presentation at UNESCO.  As always, it was a bittersweet occasion. 

We were all elated that the presentations were over and the projects had been a great success, but at the same time, it dawned on all of us that this would likely be the last time we'd all be together as a group.  We raised our glasses and toasted each other many times and Paul and I had our last chance to address the group to remind them how far we had all come from our tentative beginnings in August to the confidence and pride we all shared today.  

I pointed out to them that, as tough as the IQP is, it is also that much more rewarding when we cross the finish line.  It truly mirrors "real life" (unlike many traditional academic programs) by creating a context in which personal growth and transformation can occur, above and beyond the subject matter of the project.  For many students, it's a life-changing experience and for me it has been, and continues to be, the most rewarding aspect of my professional life.

All too soon, we were outside for a group picture and then off to the VPC office for more last minute printing, binding and even meetings.  

"It ain't over until the Marangona tolls" as we say in Venice...

(actually I made this one up, because the "fat lady sings" seems not very politically correct as it disparages weight-challenged singers)