Checking in on the goals I set for myself last February, here’s how I did:

• Eat Local, if possible: Yes, I did this to about 60-70% success. Middlebury in the spring/summer/fall is a great place to eat locally from farmers markets and co-op. This is something that I’ll continue to work on but perhaps less explicitly.
• Cook: Yes, the Frugal Foodie cook book helped a bunch to achieve this. So I have a minimal cooking repertoire and am still looking to expand.
• Investing/Money Management: Yes, I am now set up with much higher credit limits, divided checking/savings accounts, a Roth IRA, and some stock/bond investing. It’s easier to keep the system going once you’ve set it up.
• Blog Every Day: Nope, this sorta failed. I certainly did not write on this blog every day. I did blog almost daily for MiddBlog over the summer and even started liberalart.us, though.
• Find an adventure for post-May, preferably without a resume: Yes, I got a job and I got it without submitting a resume online.
• Read like a champion: Nope. I got a Kindle and it helped get me reading, but I have not lived up to this goal.

So what do you think my new goals should be? (post forthcoming)

I want to point you to my announcement that I have taken a job a the Washington Post in Washington D.C. starting in November. I will be interactivity producer there, which means I’ll be working on crafting online projects that involve user generated content (UGC). I could go on and on about what I think my job means, but I really would love to start work before I start painting entirely inaccurate pictures of what it’s like.

I want to say — wow, thanks to Middlebury. I have been working at Middlebury for the last several months since February, and I’ve enjoyed it. Better yet, I’ve learned a lot and have a continuing interest in higher education and business. Many thanks to my mentors at Middlebury too — shrewd and creative, these are the people I looked up and tried to glean lessons that extended beyond the confines of the campus. Big things happening at Middlebury… stay tuned.

This summer, I have been lucky enough to have a little free time (and leeway) to produce a set of “video postcards” from the Middlebury Summer Language Schools. I got deemed “executive producer,” and I got to work with students who could craft videos that helped audiences get an idea of each language school using only that language (we’d hate to disturb the trademarked language pledge). So subtitles it is… take a look at what I put together:

Chinese School

Russian School

Hebrew School

French School

Portuguese School

A photo of mine from Ecuador made it in the GOOD magazine photo show competition. Go vote for it by commenting on their post; it’s number 10. If I win, it gets printed and maybe I get a t-shirt?

I am quoted in a Campus Progress article on Code for America by Andrew Bluebond (read the full article for a better idea of CFA’s purpose):

Ryan Kellett applied to be a CFA fellow next year after hearing about the program via Twitter. Kellett, who graduated from Middlebury College in January 2010, says  “some sort of one or two-year service work post-college is important for freshly minted graduates,” adding that Teach for America (TFA) has done well to promote the model. But TFA wasn’t for Kellett, who cited recent criticism of the organization due to “too many graduates applying for prestige rather than genuine interest.”

In contrast, Kellett says CFA is “a bit more pure in talent and mission, attracting only who really are invested in local government and technology.”

…

CFA’s service experience might simply be better suited to Kellett’s skills and experience than TFA, as he is no stranger to web 2.0. In 2006, he founded Midd-Blog.com a community website for his college that has grown to be a hub for community discussion. He was also National Public Radio’s first-ever Social Media Desk intern last summer.

Kellett was drawn to what he called the program’s “web-first outlook” after being discouraged by other organizations’ reluctance to embrace web 2.0 as an essential tool for community problems.