It is with great pleasure that SoCalGas announces the SoCalGas Environmental Champions Fund! SoCalGas is looking to fund innovative projects or programs that address clean air, clean energy and/or water conservation with a particular emphasis on supporting underserved communities.

Application Availability: August 31–September 30, 2015. Deadline for Submission: September 30, 2015.

Grant Amounts: $10,000 or $25,000

For information, guidelines and application, visit: http://www.socalgas.com/about-us/community/

Details and links below:

http://www.womensfoundca.org/wpi

We’re accepting applications for the 2015–2016 Women’s Policy Institute (WPI) fellowship. Applications are due no later than Thursday, July 23, 2015 by 5:00 PM Pacific Time. Learn more >>

More effective than a single lobby group, the Women’s Policy Institute amplifies the voices of women who are leading grassroots social justice work, training them on how legislation is made and connecting them to those in power.

Through the Women’s Policy Institute, a yearlong program of training retreats in Sacramento, we teach women activists and grassroots organizations how to successfully navigate the labyrinth of Sacramento.

During the program, women work in teams to develop and implement specific policy advocacy projects of their choosing with a mentor who is experienced in public policy work. The Women’s Policy Institute has yielded tremendous success. In the first nine years, fellows have contributed significantly to the passage of twenty new laws in the areas of women’s health, safety and economic prosperity. And we’ve only just begun.

- See more at: http://www.womensfoundca.org/wpi#sthash.11TyxPZZ.dpuf

TheGAPA Foundation Scholarship provides financial assistance to API LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer) students who are in the process of applying to, or are currently attending, a post-secondary institution. The purpose of the GAPA Foundation Scholarship is to provide financial assistance to Asian and Pacific Islander (API) students in high school; undergraduate, graduate or professional school; or trade or vocational school who are interested in activism in the API and LGBTQ communities.

For more information about applying for a GAPA Foundation Scholarship, please see our Scholarship Guidelines page. To learn more about past winners, please see our posts on our scholarship recipients from 2013 and 2014.

To apply electronically, please submit your application HERE. A paper copy of the application, which may be printed out and emailed to us, is availablehere.

APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR SCHOLARSHIPS IS JUNE 15, 2015.

SUMMER INTERNSHIP
The Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA) is a national non-profit, non-partisan and grassroots organization founded in 2001. APAPA was established with the primary mission of empowering Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Americans in civic and public affairs through education, active participation, and leadership development. APAPA developed voter registration events, internships, scholarships, voter education forums, leadership, and networking programs designed specifically for the education, betterment, and advancement of the API community.
The APAPA-Southern California Region (APAPA-SCR) was established eight years ago to serve the SoCal community. The SCR currently has five chapters (Los Angeles, San Diego, San Gabriel, Youth, and Orange County). APAPA-SCR along with the Los Angeles Chapter, San Gabriel Chapter, and Orange County Chapter are awarding a number of leadership and summer internship positions for current Asian and Pacific Islander college and graduate school students.
The purpose of the internship is to help students better understand California state and local government and to develop future leaders in the API community. Each intern must spend a minimum of 50 hours in the assigned office between July 6 – August 14, 2015, working for a local/state legislator, congress member, or constitutional officer in Southern California. Upon completion of the internship, each intern will be awarded a $500 scholarship. There is also a week-long, all-expense-paid study-tour to Northern California to work and play together national and international student leaders from many other partner organizations.
We would like to invite your students to apply for this comprehensive leadership program. With our positive experience working with your students in the past, we are going to give favorable considerations for your student leaders. We appreciate your help dispersing the application information.
The internship application form can be found at APAPA website: http://apapa.org/scc/tp-apapa-scc.aspx
or download directly from:
http://apapa.org/scc/pdf/APAPA-SCR_internship_appl_2015.pdf

“To Forsake or Not to Forsake the Assembly | Fellowship”

Perhaps one of the greatest things this virus has robbed us of:

Time

The time to spend cuddling the little ones growing up too fast

The time to spend with our loved ones that left us too soon

The time to breathe between crushing shifts at the bedside

The time to properly mourn all these lost moments

The time to give ourselves the grace to let ourselves fall

And the time to pick ourselves back up, skinned knees and all

We have been broken by this virus that drowned us in the undertow

Choking every last scrap of faith we may have held;

Suffocating the little bit of hope left in the recesses of our souls;

Fracturing an already sick system at every fault line that went ignored far too long,

And ensuring that we lacked the

Time

We need to heal.

On my last shift, I had a pair of chonky 3-month-old twins come back to our department because one of them had suddenly developed rapidly worsening stridor; when they were seen initially, they both had fever, cough, and nasal congestion. Unsurprisingly, they were COVID+; unfortunately, this quickly evolved into croup for one of the chubby beans. He was crying and barking away while his twin slept completely unawares; he struggled to breathe and was so upset, making it harder for himself to breathe because of how upset he was… the classic moderate croup-er that was just too young to be soothed with words and distraction alone.

Of course, when the beans are this mad/anxious and working this hard to breathe, there’s no way you can get them to take any oral medications. My nursing colleague and I attempted to decrease his stridor in whatever ways did not require him to swallow–I put him face-down in my arms with his chubby little cheek smooshed against the lateral condyle of my elbow, rocking him and patting his little diapered butt. Eventually that calmed him enough to stop crying, and his stridor improved enough for my nursing colleague to get him to take a few puffs from an epinephrine MDI. His stridor got a bit better still and now could be heard faintly as the chunker dropped off to sleep, probably exhausted from crying and breathing so hard.

Unfortunately… we already knew this little guy would start screaming again if we moved him, and he was now too sleepy to actually swallow any oral meds… so we weighed the options with his caregiver and opted to give his steroid medication as an intramuscular injection, since then we could at least ensure he received the whole dose. Predictably, the little guy was NOT happy to be poked while he had finally nodded off, so I resumed rocking him and patting his little butt.

Maybe twenty minutes later, after all his medications were in, I arranged the little bean in his mother’s arms in the same prone position as he had been in mine; he protested stridorously for a few minutes before settling back to sleep. (During this transfer over to mom, we all became acutely aware of the string of drool from the beany bean’s face down my elbow and reaching literally all the way to the floor… I was honestly kind of impressed.)

Thankfully, the steroids kicked in as expected and when I checked back in the next few times our little chonk was fast asleep in his carseat with no stridor and no work of breathing. Eventually he and his brother were discharged with an anticipatory dose of oral steroids in case his brother developed similar symptoms, and instructions to come back if those symptoms returned or worsened. The babies’ poor caregiver looked so exhausted (but relieved).

Unsurprisingly, I woke up the next morning after this shift with very sore arms… I guess soothing chunky chunkers is actually good weight training…?

If there aren’t any kiddos in your life, you may not have realized this, but kiddos love pressing buttons. You know that visceral satisfaction you feel when you get to pop some good bubble wrap? For the little beans, every button, no matter how mundane it may seem to us, is like bubble wrap.

The other day I got on the elevator and a mom rushed on behind me, pushing her stroller with one hand and carrying her little bean in the other. I had my finger on the “door open” button to ensure they could get on, and I saw the kiddo’s wide, curious eyes trained on my hand at the button pad.

“Could you press the button for me?” I asked her, indicating with my finger which button I needed her to press. She nodded and squirmed excitedly in her mom’s arms until her mom brought her over. I stepped out of the way so she could press my floor button. She squealed with delight, giggling and beaming at me behind her tiny teddy-bear print mask. Her mother chuckled and showed her which button to press next for their destination, and she very excitedly mashed that button too.

The little peanut was just so happy by her opportunity to press buttons (and come to think of it, a lot of kiddos also just enjoy elevators for some reason) that she couldn’t stop grinning and wiggling in her mom’s arms. When we arrived at my floor I waved at her as I stepped out of the elevator, and she chirped, “Byeee!!!” and continued to wave at me until the elevator doors closed.

Children experience life and joy in a different way than adults; we are simply privileged that their experience is so willingly and enthusiastically shared.

growingingreenwood:

Legolas makes everyone uncomfortable with nihilistic jokes episode 10:

Pippin: Legolas do you ever get tired?

Legolas: Of existing, mostly.

Boromir, covering Pippins ears with a scandalized expression: Not in front of the baby.

Sam, covering Frodos ears: Yeah, Mister Legolas Sir, not in front of the baby.

Announcement!

So I haven’t posted on here in ages though I do occasionally page through others posts. Anyway - just wanted to let you all know I’ve accepted a fellowship position!

I can’t say what in because- well it’s a small world and there aren’t too many Polish FMG docs but I wanted to tell you. I’m still getting over the shock of getting a residency and specializing is more than I could have ever hoped for!

Thank you all for being there for me through med school, residency, and now fellowship. It’s been quite the journey!