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Steve Martin's avatar

Hi Kyle, and oh shit ... aside from my stint as a mountain fire-fighter, you bringing up the Milken Institute connected a couple of other dots for me.

Shortly after resigning in protest from a tenured position in a Japanese college at age 58, I thought I would jump start another career by enrolling into a Master's Program in public health. Though my grad work was in linguistics, my undergrad was in biology, and I had been to rural Cambodia as a volunteer several times (educational consultant and teacher trainer) and saw the need for medical support. The program was to be mostly on-line (doable from here in Japan) with only a few trips to the states (affordable at the time).

After chatting on the phone with the program's secretary and getting gushes about how I would be "a perfect candidate" because of my work with the Japanese Ministry of Education, former tenure, research and publications, community activism, etc. ... I sent my application fee, sent my transcripts from undergrad and grad school along with a brief resume of what had been an academic career in Japan ... and never heard from them again.

Time went by, and say what? According to the calendar, the new semester had just begun, and I had yet to hear from them. So I dashed off an e-mail asking what's up, and got a short notice from the program director saying that because my undergrad grades some 40 years ago were "not competitive", I had failed to make the cut for their on-line program, and they had simply "forgotten" to inform me.

I can't remember if my somewhat hefty application fee was refunded, but I sure remember the name of the institute ... the Milken School of Public Health, George Washington University.

No room for experienced institutional dissidents among the student body. 😂

Cheers Kyle

ps. Though I haven't heard back from Traci, she did a good job with her most recent YouTube "Brush Junkie" interview of the former Lahaina Chief of Police. Pelletier is a work of art — a cross between Elvis in crushed velvet and King Charles' official portrait in red.

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