Several of Drexel University’s Asian-related clubs hosted a night market May 20 in an event called “Passport to Asia: Night Market,” which featured food and activities from different parts of Asia.

The four clubs hosting the event were the Asian Student Association, Japanese Student Association, Korean Student Association and Taiwanese Student Association (of which the author of this article is a member). It was also sponsored by The Good Idea Fund.

“The purpose is to bring awareness to the unique differences of various Asian cultures. We wanted to celebrate our culture with the rest of Drexel University in a fun and welcoming event,” Sharron Chu, Taiwanese Student Association vice president, said.

“That is why we called the event ‘Passport to Asia: Night Market.’ We wanted students to feel as if they have visited all representing countries in one night,” she continued.

Night markets are street markets that operate at night where many vendors sell food, drinks and a variety of other items.

“[The night market] was really amazing. I really got to have a taste of home,” Jason Wong, a freshman product design major, said.

Many students like Wong found the Asian aspect of the night market to be appealing. Wong, who comes from Irvine, California (which has a rich Asian American culture), found it difficult to find authentic Asian food in Philadelphia.

“I felt like there was quite a diverse amount of food and cultures represented at the night market despite it being pretty low scale, which was really great,” Wong said.

The night market held last Saturday featured food from many different Asian restaurants, including Dan Dan Noodles, Koreana, Fuji Mountain and Vietnam Palace. Attendants also participated in many activities such as decorating paper fans and writing Chinese characters.

“It was great that many of the on-campus Asian-interest organizations banded together as a cohesive unit,” Dareus Chen, Asian Student Association vice president, said.

To participate in the event, students were required to show their Dragon Card. They were then given passport vouchers to redeem different items from the tables.

“The best part of the event was meeting the different people around campus that don’t usually participate in Asian-related events,” Chen said.

Because the entire event was free, most of the food that the clubs were supplying quickly ran out, as the organizers did not expect a large attendance.

“It was disappointing because it was advertised as a two-hour event but they only had enough food for half an hour,” freshman architecture major Cynthia Sze said.

Next year, the clubs plan on increasing their budget in order to account for more food and more participation amongst students.

“Now that we have a good handle on the process, we hope to come back next year with even more organizations participating. We want to go bigger and better,” Chu said.

Still, the students who attended early were able to try many different types of Asian food.

“I was really surprised that everything was free as well because I was expecting to have to buy everything, but I was able to get a taste of everything without spending any money,” Wong said.

Montgomery County Planning Commission Flickr

Students at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania have been taking classes at Drexel University as part of a new program that began this year, otherwise known as The Philadelphia Experience.

“The Philadelphia Experience is an opportunity for students at Ursinus to live, study and work in Philadelphia,” Program Director Kelly Sorensen wrote in an email.

The Philadelphia Experience was initially an experiment. According to Sorensen, Rob Wonderling, chair of Ursinus’ board of trustees, and Ursinus President Brock Blomberg wanted to continue that experiment while making the resources of Philadelphia more accessible to Ursinus students.

“Philadelphia offered a menagerie of eclectic cuisines, live music venues, convenient bike paths and many kinds of wonderful people to meet — things that I felt were missing in a small town like Collegeville,” Ursinus student Naseem Syed, who participated in the program during the fall of 2016, said in an email.

Although there are many universities in Philadelphia, Drexel was specifically chosen because of how well it complements Ursinus.

“We explored various partnerships, but Drexel had the best combination of factors: excellent courses, a president who understands liberal arts colleges like Ursinus and a great vice-provost, John DiNardo, who was eager to make the idea work,” Sorensen said.

According to Sorensen, most of the students who participate in The Philadelphia Experience are upperclassmen who have been selected by a committee. The committee chooses students based on how much they will get out of this experience.

However, despite the opportunities that Drexel offered, Sorensen believes that there are some drawbacks to this program.

“Ursinus is on the semester system, so the Drexel quarter beginning and ending dates feel unfamiliar to Ursinus students,” Sorensen said.

“But students in the program have really enjoyed the program so far, from the vibrant University City community to, well, the wonderful weirdness of the Mutter Museum,” he continued.

But not all Ursinus students felt the same way, including Syed, who didn’t find the transition too difficult.

“Although my Ursinus classes started a few weeks earlier, I transitioned seamlessly into Drexel’s quarter system,” Syed said.

“There was less of a traditional workload and more flexibility for me to focus on my Ursinus classes and my internship at Mighty Writers, [which is] a non-profit organization where I helped teach kids writing,” she continued.

During her time as a Drexel student, Syed was able to enroll in many courses that weren’t offered at Ursinus, which she believes contributed to a great experience in this program.

“I appreciated the variety of courses offered at Drexel which were not as readily available at Ursinus. I took Aesthetics with Dr. Jacques Catudal and Intro to Journalism with Dr. Karen Cristiano,” she said.

“Although the class sizes were relatively larger — at 25 students — I appreciated how Drexel professors took genuine interest in the trajectory of my education, even if I was at Drexel for only a short while,” Syed continued.

However, because Drexel is considerably bigger than Ursinus, Syed felt that the size prevented her from cultivating a close relationship with other students.

“A single quarter was not enough time for me to integrate into the Drexel community,” she said.

Despite this, the experience that Ursinus students are able to receive from this opportunity outweighs the drawbacks.

“My hopes are particular to each student. In the case of one student, I hope her internship at the Philadelphia Museum of Art will further her intended career in Museum Studies. For another, I hope shadowing Philly doctors will strengthen her medical school applications,” Sorensen said.

Photo Courtesy Clyde Peeling

The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University opened the exhibition Frogs: A Chorus of Colors on Feb. 4, featuring dozens of unique frogs.

With 15 different species from all around the world, the exhibition features many different  ecosystems, recreated to allow the frogs to live as if they were in their natural habitats.

“We want to engage our visitors in a fun, educational and enlightening experience through this exhibit and through all of our exhibits,” Carolyn Belardo, director of public relations at the Academy, wrote in an email.

“As a leading biodiversity and environmental science research institution, it’s also important to make people aware of the issues facing some species of frogs in different parts of the world, such as habitat loss,” she continued.

To appeal to visitors while also fulfilling its mission statement, the Academy’s management team and exhibits director believed that the exhibition would attract public interest. The frogs were acquired by Clyde Peeling’s Reptiland in Allenwood, Pennsylvania.

“The exhibit has been open for only three days now but from the initial crowds and publicity, our visitors seem to love it. The live frogs are so fun and funny to watch,” Belardo said.

“I think it’s really informative. I’m learning a bunch of new things about frogs, especially the fact of how they are dying out, which I expected because a bunch of animals are dying out,” attendee Malcha Miller said.

Many of the frogs range in size and color. The exhibit hosts an African bullfrog, one of the biggest frogs in the world. There is even a tank full of tadpoles in which visitors are able to see the life cycle of a frog.

“I’m learning a lot about frogs on how pretty they are, the colors of frogs. I didn’t even realize how many cool looking frogs there were,” Steven Schmelz, another attendee, said.

At the exhibit, there are many stations where visitors are able to interact and learn frog facts. They can also participate in a virtual dissection or even create a nighttime frog chorus.

“Personally, I like watching the antics of the frogs, especially how they dive to the bottom of their pools and then float up the top for a breath of air,” Belardo said.

The exhibit is on view from Feb. 4 to May 14. Admission is $3 for Drexel students. The Academy is open from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.

Photo Courtesy: Pradyuman Kodavatiganti

Junior product design major Pradyuman Kodavatiganti spends most of his time working in his studio, creating products for the aerospace industry. When he is not in his studio, he is working as an resident assistant in Millennium Hall, encouraging his residents to explore the opportunities Drexel University has to offer.

The Triangle: Outside of your major, what else have you been doing on Drexel University’s campus?

Pradyuman Kodavatiganti: I am an RA as well. I live in Millennium Hall on the 4th floor. I interact with residents and I help them out with their freshman year as they transition from their high school experience into Drexel, and give them resources so that they’re successful for the rest of their time here. I am also very active in our orchestra. Most people don’t know this but Drexel has a pretty good orchestra. We’re playing a concert this fall, so I do a lot of that outside. I also do photography in my own spare time. But other than that, most of my time is spent in my studio.

TT: How long have you been an RA?

PK: Since my sophomore year, so this is my third year.

TT: What made you want to become an RA in the first place?

PK: My freshman year, I had a really great experience with my RA. I struggled a lot with figuring out who I was and self-identity and a variety of different things that everybody goes through. My RA did a really good job in making my home — like my room, my floor and Millennium — feel like a place where I was happy to come home to, and I genuinely enjoyed being there. I made certain mistakes with my major and pursuing career paths and things like that, and I just wanted to give back. I want to give that experience to other people and have them feel comfortable knowing that you can make changes in your time here at Drexel and still be able to graduate on time while still having that wonderful experience that this school has to offer.

TT: What kind of experience do you want your residences to have at Drexel?

PK: I want them to explore a lot. Drexel gets a bad reputation — like everybody talks about the Drexel Shaft and things like that. That being said, I do think that the school has a lot to offer in terms of just genuine information and course load. Like if you have an interest in something, someone somewhere on this campus does something related to it — whether there’s a professor who teaches a course on it or there are students who have a club. I think it’s important that students go out and explore because that’s the only way you can really find your passion. And you never know, if that leads to a major change, I’d say, go for it. If you really care about it, you’ll be successful in it. I just want them to go out and explore more.

TT: Why did you want to become a product design major?

PK: I started off in chemistry and I did that for a year, but I didn’t like it. I couldn’t see myself pursuing a career in chemistry or medicine because I was pre-med as well. I switched to chemical engineering and again, I couldn’t see myself in a career as an engineer. I liked the school, I liked the program — both the programs were really good — and I met a lot of really great people, but I just couldn’t see myself doing it. I did a lot of artsy stuff in high school, like I was in orchestra. I used to draw. I used to sketch. I used to paint. I kind of missed that element in college, and so I did a lot of research. I looked at all the programs that Drexel had to offer, and I found product design, and I found that there was a really nice balance between engineering, physics and math along with the art and the science and the making. It’s a really great thing where you can do both and make something really cool at the end of the day.

TT: How long have you been designing products?

PK: I started in this program the summer of 2015.

TT: What kind of products have you made so far?

PK: We try and touch upon a lot of different things. The program is pretty generic in its approach. The first product I ever had to make was a whisk that was designed for a very specific user, but I crashed-and-burned and definitely failed there. And then I had a task of making a $7 object so we had to design and manufacture and sell this product which we made into a headphone wrapper. That had mild success if not mostly failure. But, those were kind of the first things I made.

TT: What do you want to use your major to do in the future?

PK: My passion lies in the space industry. The space industry is transitioning into putting more people into space rather than just purely satellite work. I hope to be a part of the process of designing spaceships and products and things that humans have to interact with in the space environment, whether that’s outer space, the moon, Mars or beyond.

TT: Is there any specific company that you want to work for for co-op or long-term jobs?

PK: So co-op is a little tricky but in terms of long term options, SpaceX is a really big company and they do some really great work. They really push the envelope and are really innovative so I would love to work with them. Blue Origin is another company, and there’s a couple of spacesuit companies like Orbital Outfitters which is based in Texas. Another is Final Frontier Design based in New York City.

TT: What is the product you have designed or made that you’re most proud of?

PK: The product I am most proud of is a communication device called IPI and it’s purely theoretical just because I’ve designed it 30-40 years into the future. I was tasked with making a humidifier and I chose to target the product towards astronauts. I did a lot of research and for an entire term, I internally thought over it because astronauts don’t need humidifiers; they need better ways to communicate with people on Earth, and I wanted to design for an astronaut on Mars. I spent over two terms on this project really figuring it out but at the end of the day, it turned out pretty cool. It looks really nice, it’s very approachable, and it’s got characteristics and features that would only enhance an astronaut’s experience communicating with people on Earth. I put a lot of time and energy into it, and I designed it for people that I care about.

TT: What do you hope to achieve in the long run?

PK: I don’t entirely know. I’m just rolling with how things are coming. Hopefully, at the end of the day, I would like to have an impact in whatever industry I do end up in, whether that’s space or something else. I hope to have risen up the ranks high enough that I have a genuine impact, like I’ve made a lot of products or I’ve genuinely changed the trajectory of certain products in a very specific direction that help connect people connect with each other a lot more.

Kodavatiganti’s work can be viewed at http://www.pradyumank.com/.

Drexel Quidditch Team

Drexel University’s Dragons After Dark organization hosted its first ever Potter Palooza event Oct. 27, in which students partook in activities related to the “Harry Potter” series.

“We started brainstorming and things kind of tied together to a unifying theme of Harry Potter,” team leader Maggie Calamari said.

The Harry Potter theme was inspired by Drexel’s own therapy dog, Chai, who reminded Calamari of Hagrid’s dog, Fang.

“We knew it was going to be in the middle of midterms, and we thought of therapy dogs. Because people [love to] pet dogs, we were going to have Chai here,” another team leader Hannah Kercher said.

At the event, the group Drexel Students Promoting Art through Random Acts of Kindness gave peers the opportunity to create do-it-yourself potion bottles as a way to mimic Severus Snape’s potions class. Drexel’s Quidditch team was also at the event, but because of poor weather the team was unable to run students through training activities.

Initially the event was scheduled to take place on Lancaster Walk, but because it rained, the event was moved to Race Hall. Although the event was able to move indoors, Kercher was disappointed that the weather had ruined certain plans.

“We wanted the Quidditch team to be a big part of [the event] and now they are hindered. They wanted to do multiple things; one of them involved running around,” Kercher said.

However, despite the change in location, some students thought the event was successful.

“Everyone’s having fun even on a rainy night. It’s pretty organized, no chaos, no rioting, nothing crazy,” pre-junior biomedical engineering major Shadman Sakib said.

Other students, like pre-junior computer science major Dan Perlman, found the activities to be intriguing.

“[I got] to meet the Quidditch team, which is not an everyday opportunity. I also like the [Harry Potter] music that they got playing, and the hot chocolate is good,” he said.

DAD is an organization that plans late night events on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays to provide students an alternative to going out.

“We try to give a free alternative to people going out on the weekend, especially this weekend since it’s Halloween and people tend to go out as much as they can,” Kercher said.

In previous years, DAD had a pumpkin patch event where attendees were able to pick and decorate pumpkins. However, since Drexel’s Campus Activities Board planned a similar event this year, Kercher and her team came up with Potter Palooza.

“We don’t really have any real goals besides getting students out here and enjoying the event. We plan events that we want students to enjoy,” Calamari said.

Quin Craig The Triangle

The Drexel Humane League has only been on campus for a month, but it’s already participating in a global campaign that betters the health of people and the planet — Meatless Mondays.

Kelsey Omeis is the president and founder of the Drexel Humane League, a campus branch of the national nonprofit association launched to fight animal cruelty on factory farms. She played a large role in introducing a one-day-a-week-without-meat initiative to campus, which 62 students had pledged to join as of Oct. 18.

Meatless Monday is an organized effort to encourage people to cut down on meat consumption and recognize the holistic effects of going meatless for one day a week. It helps save animal lives and raise awareness about animal cruelty.

“A lot of people think that you have to be a vegetarian or vegan to make a difference, but that’s not true. If everyone went meatless [once a week], we would be saving thousands of animals every single week, which makes a huge impact,” she said.

Omeis believes that with more participants, the bigger the opportunity is for people to be aware of the cruelty and killing happening to animals.

“Meatless Monday is just one way to reach a large amount of people. It’s really easy for someone to go meatless one day a week instead of telling them they need to be vegetarian, which is not reachable for some people,” Omeis said.

Quin Craig The Triangle

Next week, Omeis plans to meet with Drexel Campus Dining and encourage the university to provide more vegan and vegetarian options for the student body.

“We’ve heard that a lot of students have stopped becoming vegans or vegetarians here just because they couldn’t eat it here. They had nothing to eat here and that’s really sad,” she said.

Omeis hopes that the termination of Drexel’s student dining contract with SodexoMagic will lead to a new contract with a provider who will be willing to make significant changes to the dining options, which she believes are lacking in variety.

“There are mostly vegans and vegetarians in our organization and they have noticed that there are very limited options — even healthy options — [in the dining halls],” Omeis said.

Although it is called Meatless Mondays, students are not limited to just participating on Mondays. Participants can choose to go meatless any day of the week.

“If you decide to eat [meat], it’s not about being hard on yourself, it’s not about being perfect. It’s about the effort and the awareness,” Omeis said.

Students who wish to participate in Meatless Monday can pledge online at http://drexel.meatlessmondaypledge.com/.

Photo Courtesy Crozer

Beginning in July 2017, Drexel medical students will be able to choose Crozer-Chester Medical Center, located in Chester, Pennsylvania, as their primary campus. The center will serve as the newest regional medical campus for the Drexel University College of Medicine.

“Crozer-Chester Medical Center is an independent medical center that has been part of the Delaware Valley since the late 1800s,” Robin Smith, the director of the Division of Clinical Education, said in an email.

The newly designated campus in Chester, Pennsylvania will be the sixth regional medical campus to join DUCOM. Up to 24 medical students will be able to finish their required core third and fourth year clinical rotations at this location. Also, Crozer will provide students with training in the core clinical areas.

“Regional medical campus is a term used by the Association of American Medical Colleges,” Smith said. “It is used for a campus with a significant portion of the medical education program — in our case, all of the required clinical clerkships — at a site geographically distant from the medical school.”

Currently, DUCOM has five other regional campuses and 17 academic campuses.

Students who choose Crozer will be able to work alongside experienced physicians while gaining clinical education. For more than 30 years, the hospital has hosted hundreds of medical students in the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry, Family Medicine and Neurology, where they were taught by full-time educators in each department.  

“[Crozer] is a freestanding institution that has taken medical students from Drexel and other schools for years,” Smith said.

“We are so pleased that Crozer is joining us as a regional medical campus. Although we’ve had a longstanding academic relationship with the medical center, this new designation will allow our students to interact more extensively with Crozer’s experienced physician faculty in an outstanding clinical environment,” Valerie Weber, the vice dean for educational affairs at the College of Medicine, said in an interview with DrexelNow.

The new medical campus offers specialized care in many fields including burns and severe trauma, cancer, and nephrology. It also has the only surgical care service and Level III intensive care service in the county.