Dear Students,
What happened to March? I always expect the spring semester to be easier because of the week-long break in the middle, but—once again—I’ve been deceived. As always at this time of year, we’re in the midst of a fast-paced, intense semester. I hope you’re hanging in there and finding excitement, energy, and joy in your learning as well as peaceful, reflective, and restful moments in all parts of your lives.
My family and I celebrated the youngest in our extended family becoming a bat mitzvah last weekend. It was a joyous occasion if also bittersweet because she will be our last to complete this moving milestone. At the service the rabbi recounted her recent trip to the Poland-Ukrainian border, where she traveled with other religious leaders to deliver supplies and aid. Her eye-witness descriptions of the harrowing and horrifying consequences of Russia’s assault on Ukraine were powerful and poignant. In addition to bemoaning the humanitarian crisis the war has inflicted on millions of people, she highlighted similar war-related suffering in Syria and Africa—and condemned the lack of media attention, no doubt due to ethnocentrism and racism, they have been given. Don’t care less about Ukraine, she urged us. Care equally about other crises around the world.
The day of the bat mitzvah, March 18, 2022, marked the 100-year anniversary of the very first Bat Mitzvah, of Judith Kaplan, which was celebrated in New York City. After the rabbi shared this fact with us, my younger son, Mateo, looked at me and whispered, “What? I thought they were doing these for thousands of years?” Before I could respond, I watched his face register understanding as he continued, “Oh, wait, Bat Mitzvah, right…girls…. Oh, wow.” My niece has four grandmothers and was co-celebrating with a bat mitzvah who has two moms. The crowd of women on the bimah during the service was a wondrous and fitting tribute to such a significant anniversary.
The day encapsulated the swirl of emotions I have been feeling lately. I wonder if you might be feeling something similar. I feel angry, sad and frightened by the events in Ukraine and what they mean for our shared world. I felt a sharp prick of recognition at the idea that other humanitarian crises have not gotten my attention in the same way. I felt heartened and joyful by the sight of my niece surrounded by the many women who love her, including her rabbi, and by the other bat mitzvah being embraced by her two moms. I felt hope in all the young people I talked to that day who are forging new ways to be their authentic selves and are passionate about working for justice and saving our Earth. Indeed, I felt heartened and hopeful in the same way I do when I talk with all of you.
With spring comes many holidays – Holi, Ramadan, Passover, Easter – to name a few. Whatever holidays you celebrate—and even if you celebrate none at all—please know that all of us in the S-OP community are wishing you happiness and peace. And to each of you, please know that the faculty, staff colleagues and I recognize that these continue to be exceedingly challenging times. We are very grateful to you—and we are here for you.
Let’s continue to be replenishing reminders of hope for one another.
Warmly,
Sarah J. Brazaitis, Ph.D.
MA Program Director
Current Student Profile
Profile Placeholder Image
Huijie (Jasmine) Shi
Huijie (Jasmine) Shi is a second-year M.A. student in the Social-Organizational Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. After graduating from Queen’s University with a B.A. in Psychology, she worked as a Research Assistant at Beijing Normal University and had two journal articles published as a co-author. Jasmine has keen interests in gaining a deeper understanding of leadership, equity, and stress at work, and she was attracted by the scientist-practitioner model emphasized by the S-OP MA program at TC.
Jasmine’s knowledge of organizational psychology expanded exponentially after entering the program. By immersing herself in the wide range of courses taught by professors with rich practical and research experience, the program has equipped her to apply organizational theory and cutting-edge research to practice and to use practice to improve and inform her research continuously. To expand her knowledge in DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), Jasmine is currently working as a Graduate Research Assistant at the Education Leadership Data Analytics (ELDA) research group with other motivated graduate students who are passionate about advancing equity in educational settings. In addition to gaining research experience, Jasmine’s course project Identifying Patterns of Two Types of Principal Turnover in the USA and Singapore Using Decision Trees was nominated to compete in the annual Best Data Science Student Course Project Finalist Competition hosted by the Data Science Institute at Columbia University as the only solo project.
From a Canadian university and a current graduate student in New York who was born and raised in China, Jasmine is eager to bring her cross-cultural perspectives to conduct research that helps employees thrive in organizations under different cultural contexts.
Alumni Profile
Marina Sideli
Marina Sideli is a 2020 graduate of the M.A. Program in Social-Organizational Psychology. Prior to TC, Marina worked in a variety of industries doing marketing, sales, & events. Regardless of the industry or the position, Marina kept finding herself increasingly curious about employee motivation and the impact of leadership, culture, and processes on employees’ outputs.
While attending TC, Marina interned for Madison Square Garden on their People Development team. Upon graduating in May 2020, Marina accepted a full-time position with them. She focused on performance management, lifecycle & engagement surveys, onboarding, and career development. Marina spent two years creating and implementing a Talent Blueprint for the career architecture of MSG to support employees’ in identifying and focusing on the behaviors and skills that would contribute to their growth, development, and advancement at the company.
During her time at MSG, Marina became interested in the role people processes had on the success of the programs and solutions she was implementing. She decided to make a slight job-shift to focus on this aspect of Organization Development and switched to a new company, Lyft, where her focus is now on process improvement and development of talent programs. She is currently tackling boosting internal mobility through identifying areas for improvement within the company's internal transfer process, which will contribute to a more successful program and lead to greater retention of talent.
Marina believes that behind every successful talent program is someone listening to employees’ and stakeholders, identifying roadblocks or challenges, and thinking critically by asking why. Marina attributes her ability to help organizations improve their people processes and programs to her experience in the SO-P program at TC where she learned that to solve any problem, you have to uncover and understand how it is all connected. Marina lives her life this way outside of work as well where she finds passion in connecting people to one another, so please connect with her over email or LinkedIn.
Recommended Readings
Start planning your summer reading now when we hope you may have a bit more time to read something longer than a brief article in the popular press.
Two recommendations:
The Way Out, written by our very own Professor Peter Coleman, describes concrete strategies, grounded in research, for reducing toxic polarization in our communities, country and world.
Diversity, Inc., written by Teachers College alumna, Patricia Newkirk, discusses how diversity efforts in media, Hollywood and Corporate America have often failed despite billions of dollars invested in such efforts and proposes strategies to ameliorate this trend.
Both are also available as audiobooks too!