Explore Sean’s Essays:
My First Change.org Petition
Several weeks ago I started a Change.org petition to try and convince Citi Bank to defer my student loans. As it turns out, if you annoy a bank enough they'll just sell your loan to get rid of you. After about three weeks of running the petition I received a phone call from the...
What’s a Fulbright?
When I tell people I've received a Fulbright there has been two common responses: Congratulations! That's awesome, where are you going? What's a Fulbright? The latter is more common than the former, which is quite surprising to me. So here is my attempt to answer what the...
A Fulbrighter Goes to Trinco
I just found out that my placement in Trincomalle has been approved by the Sarvodaya district coordinator! During my first month in Sri Lanka I will be in Colombo for language training and program orientation. During this time the Sri Lanka Fulbright Commission has arranged for...
Entry Visa
I received my Sri Lankan entry Visa this week, once I'm there I will have to apply for my residence permit. It's an exciting step, but getting that Visa made this whole experience feel so much more real. I've known for many months now that I'll be headed overseas to teach on a...
Why is [state] so (X)?
I just read a phenomenal blog post by Renee DiResta about an interesting (albeit qualitative) study powered by Google's auto-complete feature. She went State by state and saw what the Google search results indicated people thought of a particular state. She then compiled the...
Economics of Happiness
"Textbooks describe economics as the study of the allocation of scarce resources. That definition may indeed be the "what," but it certainly is not the 'why.'" -Ben Bernanke On Monday Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, gave a speech about economic measurements....
The Sword (කඩුව)
Sri Lanka has free tertiary education, but only two percent of students are accepted to university. As a generalization, those accepted to University have excellent English skills; those lacking proficiency in English can be held back and prevented from going abroad on...
Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields
A government shelling civilian hospitals, providing the false hope of 'No Fire Zones', and corralling 130,000 people in one square mile. I've just finished watching Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, and am in a state of shock. This documentary sheds light on the final weeks of Sri...
Kindle Previews
When I search for a new book to buy for my Kindle I always download a few books to preview. It really frustrates me when an author or publisher only let's you see the table of contents and the introduction. Barnes and Noble lets customers sit all day and browse books, Seth...