Film and video
Although her secret passion was teaching, Julie double-majored in Film-Video and Literature at Penn State University, winning several awards for poetry writing and a scholarship for her sound design in her senior film.
Her interest in film and video has recently been revived by working on the independent projects of her partner, Sathya Vijayendran. She has re-discovered the fun of filmmaking by serving as his assistant director and co-planner for his web series.
Transformation and Personal Effectiveness
Julie often gets asked by visitors to her school how she remains calm and centered as a high school principal. Julie regularly attends the Transformational workshops of Ariel and Shya Kane, which she called the “lazy man’s way to enlightenment.” It has led to her becoming clear and direct, yet compassionate, and able to handle challenges with ease. She has found the approach so successful that she has hired the Kanes as her leadership consultants. She is part of a Say Yes to Your Life! Manhattan Meetup team, which organizes Meetups on Transformation in the NYC area.
Writing
Julie Nariman has always loved writing, and has blogged about her experiences as a high school principal on a blog, classroom325.nyc. She also loves writing for children, and partnered with her school’s taekwondo program to write a children’s book that is now used by the organization Korea Taekwondo to teach taekwondo values to New York City children.
Learning Languages
Julie has always had an interest in learning languages, and has studied Spanish, Italian, and Korean. She was probably destined to work in a multicultural school with over 20 languages spoken by the students. Julie is a huge fan of the Pimsleur method of listening to and repeating phrases until they become effortless, as well as always having a little pile of flashcards in her purse to study new words. She continued her study of Korean for several years at the Korea Society, and now practices Spanish at work with parents and students.
Julie’s father is from Zaragoza, Spain and her mother is from Montreal, Canada, so Julie’s interest in learning languages is also practical, and studying Spanish as a teenager and adult has given her a stronger sense of how language-learning works so she can support her students.
Nature and hiking
Julie’s interest in hiking began in South Korea, where she loved travelling around the country both solo and with friends. This passion has continued to hiking locally in the Hudson Highlands, the Catskills, and Bear Mountain. She is a member of the New York Botanical Gardens, walking-distance from her house, and regularly goes there to enjoy nature.
Personal finance
Julie has always been interested in personal finance, managing to save $100 when she started getting an allowance in the second grade. Julie is a huge fan of Dave Ramsay, and used his inspiring podcast and his EveryDollar budget app to become debt-free. EveryDollar is one of her favorite apps, and she loves using it planning out the best ways to spend and invest money.
Cooking and health
Julie loves to cook and developed an interest in paleo-style eating and cooking while doing Crossfit for two years. She regularly pins Paleo recipes, especially those using a slow-cooker, which is her favorite way to cook.
Julie loves the books and podcasts of author Diane Sanfilippo and has done Diane’s 21-Day Sugar Detox three times, and felt better each time, squelching her addiction to sugar.
