Throughout the academic year, Melinda Giampietro, Options Founder/President, will share some of her favourite things in her monthly Founder’s Feature. Melinda loves reading, data, research, and following academic and adolescent news around the world.
Melinda’s Cookbook of the Month
If you are new to Founder’s, something important to know about me is I LOVE COOKBOOKS. I take them out of the library regularly and try to make five or six recipes out of each book. Once I have checked the same book out three times, I then invest and buy it for my collection.
I loved all three of Joanna Gaines’s Magnolia Table Cookbooks. Newly released Volume Three, though, is my favourite. I appreciate her simple to make and easy to modify recipes. I made so many recipes from this cook book this summer. Some our family favourites include: Blueberry Overnight Oats, Lemon and Raspberry Muffins, Cast-Iron Spicy Street Corn, Chicken Gyros, Braised Short Ribs, Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake, and perfect for October, Pumpkin Spice Sheet Cake.
Melinda’s Game of the Month
Have you tried the NYTimes’s new game? It’s called Connections. Essentially, the goal is to correctly organize sixteen words into four groups based on their similarities, or connections. These similarities aren’t simply food or animals, but more like ‘torus-shaped food’ or ‘things with stripes.’ My husband and I do it nightly before bed. For two aging literature majors, it’s fun to think about words in a new way. I love finding the categories. But I have realized we are really bad with movies–we only got to Disney and M. Night Shyamalan movies by process of elimination. We have our son doing it daily now, too. It’s a super fun family game.
Melinda’s Podcast of the Month
I really enjoyed the Serial Productions: The Retrievals podcast. I don’t want to give away the details, but I found it absolutely horrifying that over 200 women’s reports to their doctors of pain were ignored. I found it fascinating to unravel the timeline and policies that allowed this to happen, especially at an Ivy League clinic–the story being set at Yale. I also had an interesting conversation with a female obstetrician about how in their practice, pain is a normalized part of their job. I had never thought about this before (Thanks, MH!). If I ever started a podcast discussion group, sort of like a book club for listeners, this would be the podcast I would like to discuss in-depth with a diverse set of people.
Melinda’s Bucket List Concert Song
While some people keep a bucket list of places to travel on their phone, I keep a bucket list of songs I want to see live on my phone. My favourite concert of the summer was Chris Stapleton. There were no fancy light shows, back-up dancers, or personal anecdotes. But it was such a pleasure to watch someone who loves his craft so purely and is so stinking good at it. Please, please, if you have the chance to see him, especially in an intimate venue, please, please do. The bucket list song: “Starting Over.”
Melinda’s Shout Out of the Month
There are so many people that help us do our work at Options. Many of them work in admissions offices at post-secondary institutions. All of them are generous with their time, keeping us informed and answering our nuanced questions, because you can’t read everything on the website!. It was so nice to connect with many of them in September and early October. A special thank you to Lauren C. at UWO, Maria M. at USD (watch for her event at Options on October 25th!), Thomas M at St. Andrew’s, Kristin L at Waterloo, Lisa P at UCSB, and Matthew P at Ivey for keeping us ahead of the curve on admission changes.
Melinda’s Favourite 20th-Anniversary Feature
In honour of our 20th anniversary, every few weeks we will be focusing on a different Options alumni and what they have gone on to do. I am so excited about this! It has been so fun to put together. Some of the features are from our early, early years (our first grade 12’s are now 38!!) and some are more recent graduates. They all have interesting and unique stories. Please follow our Options Alumni series on Instagram, @optionssolutions or on our blog, optionssolutionsed.com/blog. We are always cheering our alumni on!
To read more Founder’s Features, check them out under the Options News category.
