This month’s newsletter is available for download in PDF format.
Events Calendar
- Jan 9 • Washington DC Book Club Discussion
- Jan 10 • Baltimore Book Club Discussion
WDCSA Special Elections
WDCSA, it’s time to cast your ballots! We will email members towards the latter part of December with information and a registration link to vote for the two open positions: President and Co-Vice President. Any questions, please reach out to Stephanie Tan at stephanie.tan@stanfordalumni.org.
Stanford Oval
The Stanford OVAL team is currently looking for volunteers for the regular cycle of interviewing in January 2022. Alumni interested in being OVAL Interviewers are encouraged to register and watch the training webinar here: https://oval.stanford.edu/.
Stanford in the News
- Stanford University Stanford has two student societies engaged in the blockchain space, the Stanford Blockchain Club and the Stanford Blockchain Collective. The former was founded as long ago as 2014, when bitcoin only cost a few hundred dollars. The latter counts software developers and blockchain entrepreneurs active from Berlin to Hong Kong among its alumni. The institution operates its own academic publication focused on the relation of blockchain to society and the state: “The Stanford Journal of Blockchain Law and Policy.” It describes itself as the first law journal to address blockchain in particular and features peer-reviewed work by academics from all over the world. It aims to fill “a critical need in the field for a neutral, disinterested and reputable platform to publish high-quality content and to advance discourse.” The academics editing the publication are drawn partly from the Stanford Center for Blockchain Research within the university. Stanford also held its fourth annual blockchain conference last year. It featured speakers from household names like the Ethereum Foundation and Facebook as well as from universities as far afield as London, Warsaw and Tel Aviv.
WDCSA Book Club Corner
Washington DC Book Club Discussion
Sunday, January 9, 5 pm
Silver Spring, MD
Exact location information will be sent one week prior to the event.
The January book is The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature, by Viv Groskop.
In this book, Groskop narrates her life as a student of Russian language and literature in Moscow. She describes the lives of celebrated Russian writers and the characters they created (as well as her own experiences). She believes that many of life’s questions can be answered in a Russian classic. It’s a short course on Russian literature, written in a personal style by a comedian. The real-life examples of the themes in Russian literature are witty, comical, and beautifully told.
This in-person meeting has a requirement for full COVID vaccination. Attendees are also asked to bring a pot-luck food contribution.
For further information, contact Don Bieniewicz, MS ’75, at donbien@erols.com.
Baltimore Book Club Discussion
Monday, January 10, 7:30 pm
Google Meet: Registrants will be emailed a link to join the meeting a few minutes before.
Our January selection is The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.
“Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins.” (Amazon)
The March 14th selection is You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters by Kate Murphy.
Questions/RSVP: Helene Myers, Ph.D., P’14, at cedarhouse@comcast.net