Dear Ms. Jourdain,
My name is Natasha Bellingy and I am writing this letter to introduce myself to you. Now I’m not sure I would consider myself a social scientist, as by definition a social scientist is someone who studies aspects of human society. History (past and present), relationships, behaviors, how people interact with each other in society, economic etc. I have not studied human society but have observed that people interact differently with each other based on what’s considered their station in life, race, culture and economic situation.
As a parent, a minority and female in the work environment there are several issues I care about. Some of these issues span generations. Education, Racism, Food and Water security, Gender Workplace Diversity, Income Inequality and the list could go on and on.
Education in our public school system differs from district to district. My family recently moved within New York City and had to change schools to accommodate travel time, work schedules as well as college schedules has been very hard on us. My boys have spent the better half of their young lives in the public school system in Bayside, NY. District 26 in Queens is considered one of the best. Students are provided many things that their counterparts are not given in other parts of the city. For example, music is a class in every stage of the school year. From 1st grade to 8th grade. My youngest son learned to play the Ocarian musical instrument and my older sons play the drums. Unfortunately, when we moved to a different school district, we found out that music is not offered in the schools.
Gender Workplace Diversity is a personal issue for me. I have worked for over 10 years with the same company and during this time I have seen firsthand how this affects people. For the first few year this company was ran only by older men and to move up the “corporate ladder” you had to be a man of a particular age. This is slow in changing, this company has hired a few women in upper management and to sit on the board of directors. Hopefully with this step this company will continue to evolve and grow in this direction.
It is very interesting how people act, communicate and live in this age. I’m curious as to why younger people chose to use social media to communicate. I’m also curious as to why people choose to live in the cities instead of the suburbs and vice versa. What I don’t understand is why anyone would pay thousands of dollars to live in a tiny box. People struggle to pay ridiculous amounts of money to live in NYC. On the other hand, I don’t understand how people can spend hours commuting to and from work. Some folks live in other states or hours away from NYC yet they spend the time coming back to work here.
Some of my hobbies are reading and baking. I love a good book and a good slice of cake or warm chocolate chip cookies and milk. From reading, I can learn about our history. How people interacted, lived etc. I can learn about the issues they faced and how they dealt with them. I can also learn about how people are treated because of the way they dress and the color of their skin, their culture etc. From baking I can learn how people relate to food and different types of occasions. For example, in the Caribbean baking is associated with Christmas. During my childhood I recall my parents baking different types of goodies for Christmas so that there is always something to offer guests when they visit during the holiday season. People are more open to sharing their thoughts, stories and experiences over food and drinks. People get together to pass down tales and history from generation to generation on these occasions. Therefore, I feel like this will help me to better understand others.
I hope I was able to answer your most important questions and give you a small insight to my world.
Sincerely,
Natasha Bellingy
