Lisa Niver Rajna: The Chalkboard Champion Who Teaches Her Students That Science and Geography Isn’t Scary Lisa Niver Rajna, an elementary science teacher from Los Angeles, California, is an amazing chalkboard champion. Lisa was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1967, and earned her master’s degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her career … Continued
Fight the Inertia – Building a Personal Travel Writing Brand Thank you to Trover for inviting us for an interview to talk about how to build your own Travel Writing Brand. Lisa Niver Rajna and George Rajna, founders of We Said Go Travel, host travel storytelling contests for emerging travel writers. They shared a few minutes … Continued
Thank you to Tiffany Hawk for including me in her article, “How to Make Dreams Happen. Right Now. Even if You’re Scared,” on the Huffington Post. The article begins: Feel the fear and do it anyway. More than 25 years after Susan Jeffers released a bestselling book by that title, the go-get ’em phrase remains a mantra … Continued
Happy Birthday to my nephew, Zachary! In honor of his 16th birthday, I wanted to share about Jewish Celebrations and inclusion. Thank you to Elyse Glickman for including my thoughts in her article, Room for One More. As we move from Rosh Hashannah, through the ten days to awe to Yom Kippur, I always think about … Continued
There are various reasons why I decided to travel. I once wrote that I decided to travel the world because I wanted to escape a sheltered environment, and discover the rest of the world. I also wanted to prove that one’s race, gender, background, or financial status did not prevent one from obtaining a great … Continued
As the 10 days of awe begin, I wonder about good and evil and what is the moral thing to do. As Breaking Bad comes to an end, I wonder “How Can We Empower All People to Fuel Their Passions and Choose Reality Over Drugs?” Triumphs and Tragedies recounts the life story of Karl B. … Continued
In the first installment of this two-parter, Chih-Yu and I had begun a day-long mini-odyssey across the borough of Queens via the 7 train, armed with only a credit card and an adolescent sense-of-adventure. To catch you up in-a-hurry, Queens is home to the Mets, and also a vast, mysterious patchwork of neighborhoods, home to … Continued
Vermont: 50 Shades of Green Beyond its partially-trussed shoulders, and sensually curved back, beyond its juicy, succulent berries, Vermont is a place that emanates a pheromone that smells more pine than Axe. And yet it somehow manages to excite in ways unexpected. The favored car is not a Porsche, rather a Subaru. The state color … Continued
Question – how do you shoehorn the best Queens has to offer into a single quixotic, mega-hang? Answer – you just do. (I’ll trust that when you read the rest of this article you’ll know the answer to the other obvious question – “why would I want to”.) I write a blog dedicated to … Continued
In his book, Awakened Leadership: Beyond Self-Mastery, Alan Shelton shares stories of his journey of transformation across decades and continents. His self-actualization to become an integrated awakened leader shines as an example of possibility to others. One of his gifts to leadership thinking is the new word: “intellectuality, the ability to be engaged in the shared … Continued