Hello from Minnesota!

Okay, I'm not actually "from from" here, but I moved here in March with my family, just outside Minneapolis. And honestly right now with everything going on in my (relative) backyard it's hard to imagine being in a worse mindset to be undertaking this assignment, but I shall do my best. 

I'm Aaron, like the title of my blog says. I'm a Psychology major here at Oregon State, and a returning student going back to school after a few decades of working, most of which I've spent in the nonprofit and social justice world.

A photo of a man in a green sweatshirt and Rhode Island baseball hat seated at a picnic table, with a 12 year-old girl standing next to him with her arm around him
Here I am with my older kid

I live in Minnesota, having moved here from Oakland, CA ... having moved there from New York, NY ... having moved there from Boston, MA ... having moved there from a bunch of other small cities and towns scattered around New England ...  and back to just outside Providence, RI where I was born and raised. This is my first time living in the Central Time Zone, or really anywhere not within an hour of a coast.

I took a Communications course on research methods during my first semester at college, back in the 1990s. Got a D. Hated the class.  

After deciding that college wasn't for me at the time, I went to a trade school for broadcast production. I started working in radio news, and after many years behind the scenes, I became a reporter - and then an anchor - at Sirius XM. From there I went to work at GLAAD (the LGBTQ+ organization) running their news department. Since then I've worked as a Communications professional at four organizations on topics of improving education for students from low-income families, healthcare equity, ending worker exploitation and forced labor, and disability justice. I've been taking classes here and there while working full-time since 2018, but I'm now going back full-time to get my degree. 

I have used online communications professionally, writing blogs and social media posts for most of my organizations. Here's a post I wrote about the climate crisis. Personally I only use my LinkedIn page (which I guess is probably more professional than personal) and I have a private Reddit account that I use to post cat pictures and comment on nerd stuff. I used to use Twitter, back when it was Twitter, but I left when it became what it is now. 

An interesting fact about myself is that when I worked at GLAAD I was a guest on the Dr. Oz show and got banned from any future appearances for blasting him in front of his audience. (That part of the show didn't make it to air, obviously.) I'm also a thoroughly unsuccessful -- though critically-acclaimed -- recording musician and songwriter. You can listen to my band's first four albums on our website. I'm working on mastering our fifth right now. 

Nice to e-meet all of you! 

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