Howard County

A story fron River Hill Immigrant (Frank Hazzard)

1 Comment
The author Frank Hazzard nicely agreed to share this article with me after I contacted him. It is really well written.

A River Hill Immigrant’s Story and Thoughts on the Huddled Masses

By Frank Hazzard

Frank Hazzard, a Columbia native residing in River Hill, has a background in journalism and event promotions. He co-owns Buzzquake Marketing, LLC, and specializes in content marketing that attracts prospects to websites and converts them to customers, buyers, members, sponsors and financial contributors.  You may reach him at frank@buzzquake.com.

Immigration has emerged as one of America’s preeminent issues.  As such, I have been giving it quite a bit of thought lately, and have concluded that as a natural-born American my opinions might lack perspective.  So, I sought a River Hill resident who might be able to help me understand how immigrants view immigration, especially illegal immigration.  I found a willing participant next door in the person of Prashant Shah. I sat spellbound as Shah, a first-generation American who immigrated from India as a young man, shared an inspiring tale.

An American Story

Born in Gujarat, a small village on the west coast of India, Shah moved to Mumbai at a young age.  He then attended a boarding school beginning at age 10.  Ironically, his boarding school was owned by Zoroastrians, or Parsis, who were descendants of Iranians who settled in India to escape persecution.  For the next eight years, he saw his parents only twice a year on vacations.

He was a good student and went to college to continue his education.  At the time, the only viable, professional career paths for young Indians were medicine and engineering.  Shah’s father was a physician, so he decided to branch out and pursue engineering.

After earning a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Manipal University in India, he started working in Mumbai.  Shah found the work and his life to be painfully mundane and longed for something more exciting.  He dreamed of going to America.

“We had political freedom in India but not economic freedom.  The lure of capitalism is what drives Indian engineers.  They want to get a good education and then they want to go to Silicon Valley and make it big,” said Shah.

A student visa was the only practical means by which he could be admitted to the United States, so Shah took the GRE.  His math score, 750, was high enough that he was accepted by two of the three graduate schools where he applied.

“My dad didn’t show me the acceptance letters until it was only a week and half before I needed to show up for school because he didn’t want me to leave India,” recalled Shah.

Despite his father’s reservations, Shah rushed his paperwork through the U.S. consulate and within just a few days he began a graduate engineering program at Louisiana State University.  He picked LSU partly because the weather in Baton Rouge was like Mumbai’s, and because he knew an acquaintance there.

“I left India at 24 with one suitcase and $4,000 that my father gave me.  It was enough for one year of school.  I landed at Kennedy in New York and had to make a collect call to Baton Rouge.  I had no clue how to use an American pay phone.  It was the first of many things I had to learn,” Shah said.

In hindsight, Shah concedes that he was fearless, “but my fearlessness was due to my age more than a lack of opportunities at home.  I planned for only one year at a time, and I had to keep $1,200 in the bank to be sure that I could always afford to buy a plane ticket home.  My visa permitted me to work, but only on campus.  Each semester I needed to earn enough money to stay in school, and I always managed to do it.”

He completed a master’s degree in industrial engineering and then pursued a second master’s degree in computer science at LSU, mostly to keep his student visa alive.

“I went door to door asking professors for a job.  A crawfish researcher hired me as a graduate assistant to model what crawfish population growth would be,” Shah said with a smile.

A friend who lived in York, Penn., offered to put him up for a summer, so Shah rode a Greyhound bus for 34 hours.  He then sent 10 resumes a week to any jobs that he thought might be a good fit.  A few of the companies called him, including one in Fairfax, Va.  “I took a Greyhound to a nearby hotel the night before, and then in the morning took a taxi to the interview.  I didn’t hear back from them for a while, so I went back to Baton Rouge.”

Eventually the company in Fairfax hired him.

Shah then hired an immigration attorney who helped him convert his visa from F1 to H1, which allowed him to work here temporarily as a technical expert.  The next step was to get a labor certification and then a green card.  Five years later, and 18 years after he first set foot in Kennedy Airport, Shah applied for and was granted U.S. citizenship.

He now owns and operates CloudLeap Technologies, a small business focused on federal IT work, primarily identity and access management.

Along the way Shah met and married a fellow Indian immigrant who had been sponsored by her sister, a dentist in New York.

“I was attending a wedding in Edison, N.J., which is quite a Little India town, and met her,” said Shah.  The couple had two sons and moved to River Hill last year.

Pathways to America

“I disagree with people who have come here illegally,” said Shah.  “Hatred directed toward illegals is wrong, but so is cheating the system.  People are flowing in.  The legal process is not easy.  Those of us who did it the right way are not happy that so many may be allowed to take shortcuts.  If you wait in a long line to buy a ticket for a movie and you get to the window and discover that the manager has been allowing people in for free, you’re not happy about it.”

When asked, Shah admitted to having mixed feelings about policy proposals that would automatically allow foreign students who complete advanced degrees in America to stay here indefinitely.

“I think they should be allowed to stay if they want to.  However, even though it might be good for America to keep the best and brightest students from around the world, it’s also good for America to send them back to their home countries where they can make improvements,” Shah said.  He pointed to Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, principal architect of the Constitution of India. Ambedkar was a prolific student who earned doctorates in economics from both Columbia University and the London School of Economics before returning to India where he helped campaign for and negotiate India’s independence.

Shah would also like to see any immigration reform include a streamlining of the pathway to citizenship.  “The legal process is too long and cumbersome.  It needs to be modified.  People give up and drop out because it takes forever.  If you are hoping to get a green card without being sponsored by a family member, applicants often must prove that they are filling a job that no American can fill.  Proving that can be difficult.”

Attended county council meeting tonight

2 Comments

I attended my first county council meeting tonight. Many Asian Americans who read my blog attended tonight’s meeting because of the CB-9 “Sanctuary Howard” bill. Some of them are supporting the bill and most of them are opposing it.

I am really surprised how the county council meeting is running, which is quite different from Columbia Association’s board meeting. Their agenda is extremely simple and there are no supporting document at all.

So my impression is how a bill is generally handled (like “Sanctuary Howard”):

  1. one or several county council members write a bill and introduce it in the first meeting.
  2. In the second meeting ( two weeks later), they allow public testimony.
  3. In the third meeting( two weeks later), they vote.

The first picture is always shown on Baltimore Sun whenever they report the county government affairs.

The second picture is to honor Atholton High School volleyball team who just won the first state title in 23 years. What an achievement.

Common Sense In Policy Making (The Villager, 2016-12)

 Common Sense In Policy Making

(The Villager, 2016-12)

by Dr. Chao Wu

This article is published in The Villager of River Hill Community Association, December 2016 issue.

Finally the presidential election is over and we are back on the normal track. Although there were heated debates over the election, we need come back to discuss local development, education and community issues we are facing right now.

We need common sense during the policy making process. Recently two very relevant local issues caught my eye. One issue is the Merriweather Park Pavillion (MPP) noise and the other is the new Howard County Public School System (HCPSS) school starting time change. At the moment, I do not think common sense has prevailed in either situation

The Columbia Association’s (CA) Board of Directors has been hearing complaints from our residents about the loud noise from Merriweather for more than the 1.5 years I have served. Most complainants are asking MPP to turn down the noise level. One resident said “I can feel my heart jumps faster when I hear that music. I am 75 now and how many more years do I need to endure this in my backyard?” MPP’s operator, Howard Hughes Cooperation, is reacting slowly to this complaint and has said it will take at least another two years to make some modifications and these improvements are dependent of whether funding is available.  The new Columbia Downtown development, which was just approved three weeks ago by the County Council, will build several thousand houses and apartments, 50 meters away from the MPP. I believe MPP cannot operate as it is now after the new buildings are finished in several years. However, since so many senior citizens have been bothered by the noise for such a long time, why not find a workable solution as soon as possible to eliminate the problem?

The second issue is that HCPSS is proposing four models for school starting time at 7:30 a.m. (three proposals) and 7:45 a.m. (the fourth one) for elementary schools. The reasons for this new school starting time is that many high school parents asked for a later high school starting time, which is currently 7:20 a.m.) HCPSS came out with basically switching the starting time for high schools and elementary schools. I wrote a brief introduction on this topic at https://chaowu.org/2016/11/17/four-proposed-new-school-starting-time-for-hcpss/. I am a strong proponent for a later high school starting time; however, the fact that the current proposed solution is coming out, is evidence that HCPSS is lacking common sense on this issue.  These new proposals will have tremendous push-back from elementary school students’ parents which will probably void the hard work done by the Starting School Late committee unfortunately.

The River Hill Board of Directors is consistently engaged with development issues impacting the village, including River Hill Square (the original River Hill Garden Center) and the Simpson Oaks development (on Grace Drive). The Board always tries to bring all stakeholders together and make a common sense decision which can be accepted by a majority of people in our community.

CA is going to work with Horizon Foundation on a Bikeway Concept. This is a 50 miles, networked bicycle and pedestrian route. More than half of county residents, schools and parks are located within 1 mile of the bikeway. 4 MARC stations (Laurel, Savage, Jessup, Dorsey) are within 2.5 miles of the bikeway. The cost is around 3 million dollars.

CA Board approved $200,000 in funding to the Downtown Columbia Partnership (DCP). I voted NO on this decision for a number of reasons. I believe there was not enough discussion on this funding, the administration overhead for DCP is a little high, and they relied too much on CA (around 50% budget) for their operation now and in the future while a majority of their Board is controlled by Howard Hughes Corporation. Yes, CA should play a big role in the new downtown development. How to achieve a better role warrants an ample and better discussion. For example, we probably should put a dedicated person to advocate or work on downtown related issues.

Don’t forget to ask your high school seniors to apply for the 2017 Columbia Association’s Maggie J. Brown Spirit of Columbia Scholarship Award. . Up to six $2,500 awards will be made in recognition of exceptional efforts in providing community service. Check for more information at https://chaowu.org/2016/11/15/2017-ca-scholarship-application-starts/.

I hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving. Enjoy the holidays and Happy New Year in 2017.

Chao Wu, Ph.D.

River Hill Representative to Columbia Council and Columbia Association Board of Directors

Email: chaowu2016@gmail.com  Website: http://chaowu.org

Disclaimer: This letter only represents Dr. Chao Wu’s personal opinion. It does not represent River Hill Board of Directors nor Columbia Association’s Board.

My BOE testimony tonight

1 Comment

My BOE testimony tonight: Please enhance our World Language Program at HCPSS

By Dr. Chao Wu, Columbia, MD

Monday December 5, 2016

(I took my daughter with me for tonight’s  eight o’clock public forum. Unfortunately the meeting was behind the schedule. Fortunately, our newly elected BOE chair Cindy moved us to speak around 8:45, just before I was going to leave my testimony there and drive my daughter home for sleep. I really appreciated her flexibility. I care a lot about the world language program and wish it will be better along the way. .)

First I would like to congratulate the three new board members Christina, Kirsten and Mavis. I had the privilege to exchange ideas with each of you during the election season. Thanks for your willingness to serve our community and best wishes for a new and successful BOE term. Recently Cindy helped me to reach out to the school staff and I really appreciated her help too.

Our school system has been proud of its world language program. However, recently there is dramatic shift that many language classes have been moved to be taught online.  I have been told before it was a budget issue. Then again I was told this change was not because of budget issue, it is a new teaching philosophy; moving courses online, improving registration rate of world language.

However, we are not sure how this change will affect the teaching quality which has the ultimate impact on the world language program. I have been hearing from teachers and students about various problems with this new teaching method.

I still want to emphasize the importance of a high quality world language program. My company has consumer electronics business all around the world, especially in China and Korea. It took us very long time to find some engineers who can speak Chinese or Korean. Without a doubt, more international business opportunities will come to our hand if we are able to have some world language skills.

First, I have strong doubt that languages are taught online with limited interactions with teachers. I am bilingual, English and Chinese. I understand how difficult it is to learn a second language starting from the middle school. I began to learn English when I entered middle school and I am still learning English every day.

Second, I hear students drop from the language class as soon as they hear the class is taught online. If the trend keeps up, eventually more international languages, except Spanish, will be dropped by the students. Then the school system will justify their reasons of reducing/changing the class format: I told you this before. In this case, the school fails our students.

Third, I have not heard how the new method will be effectively evaluated. If we want to change something, a feedback loop should be implemented such that we can adjust the changes accordingly for better outcome.  Change is not always good if it is not clearly and correctly guided.

Last, I am not sure how future discussion on this online teaching will be shared with the parents, students and educators.  What I have experienced is a top-down approach. We have been fed with information from the school system and our concerns have not been addressed and never seemed to be addressed at all.

With the new board shaping, new ideas merging, I believe a strong and diverse world language program is essential to enrich our students and prepare them for a better future. Let me end by partially quoting one River Hill High School graduate:

If our school wants to continue its prestigious legacy, it’s crucial to prepare students for a world that is more globalized, more connected. ….From an economic, cultural, educational, and a person-to-person perspective —  emphasizing world language in modern schools makes sense considering the trajectory of the future.

No place for a Nazi sign in our community at Columbia, Maryland

9 Comments

No place for a Nazi sign in our community at Columbia, Maryland

By Dr. Chao Wu, Clarksville, MD

November 29, 2016

(I sent this article to Columbia Flier and Baltimore Sun and did not get any response. So I am publishing it here first. It was published on 2016-12-08 issue at Columbia Flier and Howard County Times eventually. I really appreciate them effort by sharing my voice.)

I was shocked to see a swastika painted at my neighborhood playground over the Thanksgiving holiday. Many residents, including myself, take our kids there to play, socialize and enjoy this beautiful neighborhood. None of us expected this type of vandalism, with its links to Nazism, fascism, and racism, to happen in the community.

Our city of Columbia prides itself in honoring diversity and being civic-minded. I understand the 2016 presidential election was very divisive. In many other places, campaign signs were destroyed, houses were vandalized, and contentious words were exchanged. However, a swastika sign in the neighborhood is still a huge shock to the many people who live here.

Since its inception in the 1960’s, Columbia has been a driving force for promoting mutual respect and building community harmony. The two most recent speakers in Columbia Association’s Community Building Speakers Series, Rob Breymaier, Executive Director of the Oak Park Regional Housing Center, and Dr. Freeman A. Hrabowski III, UMBC President, discussed Columbia’s founding principles of diversity and inclusiveness. This Saturday, December 3, 2016, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Bain 50+ Center in Columbia, County Executive Allan Kittleman will hold the first forum in his #OneHoward Initiative, which is designed to promote community dialogue and reinforce the county’s shared goals of diversity and inclusiveness.

Our community is now at a turning point with more changes to come. Following the County Council’s passage of the Downtown-related legislation several weeks ago, Columbia’s population is expected to increase by additional 20,000 residents. We can expect the area to become more diverse than ever – culturally, racially, educationally, and economically.

From my perspective, respecting and celebrating diversity needs to be practiced. What really matters is how we view ourselves and others with respect, how others view themselves and others with respect, and whether we can put ourselves in other people’s shoes. We need a common sense solution to create a shared future that is inclusive of everyone. This work needs to occur within our family, within our schools, at the workplace, and in our neighborhoods.

We also need a continuous, open and honest discussion on diversity and inclusion such that all groups should be heard with humility. The conversation should happen not only among people who are likely-minded, already vocal and visible in the community, but also from those who are usually left out by the main media. This requires extra effort to reach out. It also requires a heart with true tolerance especially when other opinions may be quite different, even offensive.

Diverse thoughts, mutual understanding, and truth-seeking are the keys to finding such a solution. There should never be a place for a Nazi swastika in our community. We are not afraid by its occurrence, but we need to be vigilant and continue working to achieve a safe and peaceful community.

nazisign_20161126_161752

Columbia Crescent Development SDP-16-075

Re:         Columbia Crescent Phase 1, Area 3 – Phase 1

SDP-16-075 Grading Plan

Howard County Planning Board Meeting

The detail is on county government website: https://data.howardcountymd.gov/ScannedPDF/WP/WP-16-075.pdf

To Whom It May Concern:

Daft-McCune-Walker, Inc. is writing on behalf of the petitioner and owners of certain parcels of land adjacent to Broken Land Parkway, located south of Merriweather Post Pavilion. These parcels are within Downtown Columbia. They are generally south of Little Patuxent Parkway, east of the intersection of Hickory Ridge Road and Broken Land Parkway and west of Route 29, Columbia Pike.

In accordance with Section 125.0.G  of the Howard County Zoning Regulations, electronic notification is hereby provided for the December 1, 2016 Howard County Planning Board Meeting regarding this proposed site development plan.

The meeting details are as follows:

DATE:                    Thursday, December 1, 2016

TIME:                    7:00 PM

LOCATION:         George Howard Building

3430 Courthouse Drive

Ellicott City, MD 21043

Banneker Room

If you have any questions regarding this meeting, please feel free to contact Ms. Nancy Tucker with the Howard Hughes Corporation at 410-964-5446.

Update meeting on Chinese/World language and synergy teachings

Just want to let you know that there will be an update meeting on the international (Chinese) language and synergy (online) teachings at River Hill High School Media Center tomorrow night, Thursday, Nov. 10 2016 at 7:30PM. There will be four people from HCPSS central office and four people from River Hill High School. 

I am sorry for this really short notice. The original time proposed by RHHS staff was Nov. 15 such that I was thinking I still have time to send out the meeting notice after the heated presidential election.  However, this morning, they told me the difficulty of scheduling and changed it to tomorrow night suddenly without much options for another time.
For you to have some background, RHHS cancelled in-class teaching on the Chinese AP IV classes and switched many other language courses to online teaching starting this semester. We had a meeting with them in Sept. Here is my meeting summary:
https://chaowu.org/2016/09/25/meeting-minutes-on-hcpss-chineseworld-language-teaching/
Thanks for coming.

CA Development Tracker (2016-10)

Correction: the Planning Board meeting for the three development projects listed below will be held Thursday, November 3 at 7pm at the George Howard Building (3430 Court House Drive, Ellicott City, MD 21043).

Downtown Columbia – Alternative Compliance Regarding Merriweather Post Pavilion: HRD and the Downtown Columbia Arts and Culture Commission are seeking an alternative compliance to CEPPA’s 16, 20 and 21

Sieling Industrial Center (FDP-117-A-III) – amendment to the FDP to clearly state that a liquor store is a use that is supportive of a full service grocery store, but cannot be contained within a grocery store and must be a separate use.

Chick-Fil-A Dobbin Commercial Center – Chick-Fil-A is seeking an addition to the current restaurant to add 737 gross square feet and to add an additional drive through lane.

The link is at https://www.columbiaassociation.org/about-us/planning-development/columbia-planning-development-tracker/

 

CA board meeting summary 2016-10-27

Resident speakout:

  1. Bob Anantua talked about Columbia-Haitian Sister.
  2. Frank Rhoad, 7.5 miles away, still bothered by Merriweather Post Noise. He did not hear the noise until a local noise law was adapted several years ago.
  3. Russ Swatek, talked about Merriweather Post noise and he hoped CA board would support HCCA effort and sent a letter to MD legislative to reduce the noise level.

Presentation: Downtown development presentation from Howard Hughes Corporation., by VP Development Gregg Fichett. The metropolitan has been fully rented out. Under Construction buildings are named m.flat and TenM. He presented this to River Hill board some time ago.

Discussion: The Howard County Veterans Foundation was also looking at other locations besides the Lakefront Fountain.

Votes: The board discussed and approved the modified advisory committees.

HCPSS auditing result by OLA

Bill Woodcock wrote a very informative article on “the Office of Legislative Audits which audited the Howard County Public School System”. He was recently appointed into HCPSS Budget Review Committee. The committee page ishttp://cc.howardcountymd.gov/School_System_Budget_Review_Committee_Budget_Documents.

His article is http://53beersontap.typepad.com/53beers/2016/10/practices-make-imperfect.html.

The mistakes made by the HCPSS are unbelievable.  You can read through his findings one by one.

 

Howard County – Central Maryland Transit Development Plan (TDP) Meetings

Dear Transportation Advocate,

The Howard County Office of Transportation is holding several public meetings concerning the Transit Development Plan (TDP) for Central Maryland.

Developed along with Anne Arundel County, Prince George’s County and the City of Laurel, the TDP will serve as a guide for transit services in the Central Maryland region and will provide a roadmap for implementing service and organizational improvements, including potential service expansion, during the next five years.

Howard County meetings will be held on:

Wednesday, Oct. 19, 6 to 8 p.m., George Howard Building, 3430 Court House Drive, Columbia/Ellicott City Room in Ellicott City

Thursday, Oct. 20, 5 to 7 p.m., North Laurel Community Center, 9411 Whiskey Bottom Road, Chesapeake Rooms I & II, Laurel

Thursday, Oct. 27, 6 to 8 p.m., Gateway Building, 6751 Gateway Drive, Charles I. EckerBusiness Training Center, 1st Floor, Room 6, Columbia

Those unable to attend the meetings who have questions or would like to provide comments should contact the project managers with KFH Group: Fred Fravel at 301-951-8550 or emailffravel@kfhgroup.com, or Jill Stober at 301-951-8660 or email jstober@kfhgroup.com; for more information and updates, visit the TDP website at ww.kfhgroup.com/centralmd/transitplan.html.

We urge you to attend and/or give your suggestions and comments, especially about:

– revising intra-Howard County transit
– updating Howard bus routes which haven’t been updated in decades
–  frequency of service improvements

– establishing policies and standards to guide expansion of public transportation and all its components
–  bus shelters including benches, sidewalk connections to bus tops
–  review of the current fare collection system, converting to automated next-generation fare collection
–  need for express buses
– bus rapid transit [BRT]
–  expansion of existing commuter bus networks especially between rush hours and weekends
– finalize site for the downtown Transportation Multimodal Center
Your input is vital to connecting Howard County to the region!  Please share your comments and thoughts on enhancing Howard’s transportation.

Thank you!

Sharonlee J. Vogel
Chair, Transportation Advocates

Howard County, Maryland