Are You With Me Now? A. J. Ryder This was a week of shuttle diplomacy. I flew from San Diego to Newark, back to San Diego, then to Washington, D.C., and finally home again. Along the way, I learned a great deal about the skilled trades and college admissions. My first stop was the Carpenters Training Center in Edison, New Jersey. There are 260 such centers across the U.S., but the one Charlie, Mychal, and I visited stood out: a 100,000-square-foot facility with classrooms con

Are you with me now? A. J. Ryder “How did you go bankrupt?” “Two ways: gradually, then suddenly.” — Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises  This week Andrea, Anthonette, Taylor and I attended the first meeting of the California Secondary School Redesign Conference in Anaheim. There were probably over 200 attendees, many of whom were also connected to an AI conference scheduled for the following days. Although I saw many people I hadn’t seen in a while, there was little time fo

Are you with me now? A. J. Ryder    Crishell with support from Charlie put on a really great conference in Charleston. South Carolina. This time we were at a school – The Cooper River Center for Advanced Studies. Although the conference was specifically about Harbor freight Fellows and the skilled trades, we got a glimpse of other pathways that included cybersecurity, logistics, media, health sciences, megatronics and more. It was great talking with the students, seeing thei