Hi! I’m Aileen, a second year Sloan MBA who is coffee & pastry obsessed. In a world where I have oodles of money, I would own a high end bakery, and smell the smell of baking croissants all day. I hum when I feel awkward.
But perhaps more relevantly–
- My Background:
- Education: Majored in Political Science, Minored in Economics. Originally I wanted to be a journalist to pay the bills as I worked my way through the next great American novel. Was fascinated most in my classes by the role of media in political society.
- Work Experience (journalism ended up not working out):
- Advertising: I used analytics and statistics to optimize media placement, brand messaging, and media mix for clients like JetBlue, and Match.com.
- Google: Decided I wanted to understand how businesses worked. I helped launch and grow a new product, and also did operations strategy.
- Entrepreneurship: Creating your own product felt compelling, and still is. I am a co-founder for Armoire, a startup that was in MIT’s summer accelerator this past summer, and still going strong.
- My Personal interests:
- Better media for the average person: After studying mass media in American democracy during my undergrad, I struggled with some of the shortcomings in today’s media: the sensational headlines, dizzyingly short news cycles, parachute journalism, and inaccessibility by the average American. I’m passionate about finding a media structure that is engaging and educational for everyone, not just people who read The Economist.
- Food science: Because, science makes everything tasty!
- Other things I do in my free time: Learning how to photograph & edit, blogging & writing, learning French, baking, and learning how to gracefully lose at chess.
I’m Anne Crosby, and I am a first year student in Harvard Divinity School’s master of theological studies (MTS) program. I am focusing on Chinese politics, ethics, and religion.
I majored in History and East Asian Studies as an undergraduate and went on to earn a masters degree in information science. After teaching at the post-secondary level in California and earning an Ed.M., I decided to combine my interest in technology with my background in East Asian and pursue yet another masters degree.
I’m certainly not a master programmer, but I have basic coding experience, UI, and web design skills. For me the internet is about culture and human interaction—technology is a means but not an end. This course is exciting because it will be an opportunity to collaborate with some amazing classmates. I have no experience in journalism, but I love putting my info. science background to work sifting through tidbits of information and connecting the dots.
I am a consummate traveler and take every opportunity to explore the world outside of the US, spending most of my time in South and East Asia; however, Antarctica is the most incredible place I have visited. Amazing.
Things I think about sometimes:
• What’s the news that’s fit to print?
• Who the heck printed that anyway?
• Also:
o Soft power, propaganda, transnational trolling
o Networks of trust
o The role of local/localized news in civic engagement
o Net neutrality and censorship
o Internet sovereignty vs. a free and open internet