Neopets

So I don't know how many of you played Neopets as a young kid, but I definitely DID. 


For those of you who don't know what Neopets is it's a virtual world where you are given a pet and you are in charge.  The majority of the game deals with your shop, obtaining Neopoints, and figuring about cheap ways to feed your pet (if at all).:-)

At this point, your probably asking..."Serena, how does Neopets even remotely resemble engineering?" I'll give you 4 ways:

1. This game is about commerce. The world of ours revolves around commerce and the economy.  You own a shop, and you need to do everything in your power to sell your stuff/ not get it stolen from the ghosts.
2. Finance skills. You set up a bank account and collect interest.  I think it's a great way to show kids how their money grows in the bank.  Also, you build a shop, where you can sell things.  I would often undercut the market price to ensure that my items would sell... That is called business. :-)
3. Programming skills.  I learned how to program HTML for my shop.  I started doing this because was jealous of other kids whose shops would overflow with backgrounds and icons.  All I really remember is <img src= " ">, but it was definitely a start.  What kid site teaches them how to program?!
4. Efficiency.  You name the game, but my goal was to get as much money as possible.  This means that you don't play the games that give you only 50 neopoints per play...You find that game, and you dominate!

I was talking about this with other SWE girls, and we all talked about our slightly coy childhoods of ripping people off and finding the best ways to deal with a "free market." I think it's the closest thing to real life that kids can get involved in....The sad thing now is that they have commercials for the games :-(

Wes Moore

Part of the Leadership Colloquium at NASA GSFC, I had the opportunity to see Wes Moore speak.  His book, The Other Wes Moore finds parallels between Wes Moore (a Rhodes Scholar) and Wes Moore (a man sentenced to life in prison).  The writer, Wes Moore, evaluates what went "wrong," especially since both of them grew up blocks away from each other in Baltimore and were very troublesome in their early youth.  

Wes's goal is to inspire youth throughout the nation to motivate them to do great.  He says the problem with crime and "bad" neighborhoods is education.  Instead of expecting young men to go to jail, we should raise our expectations of the younger generation, inspiring them to do GREAT things.

I, personally, am going to read the book once I get it from Amazon :-)

However, he inspired me to do something greater... reach out to those who are "wandering."  So today I turned in my application to mentor kids and teenagers.  I'm looking forward to my interview call...