Jonathan Juursema: Wikimedia Commons

A field constantly seeing massive new developments, 3D printing, hasn’t been given much national recognition.

Already this year, 3D printing has allowed for the invention of a microscope that attaches to a smartphone to aid in diagnosing cancer in the field, a method of attaching 3D printed objects to one another has been discovered (previously it was thought impossible to change an object’s shape after printing) and a patent was filed for 3D printed rocket fuel, for use in a spacecraft due to take off in 2019.

So, with all these incredible advancements, will 3D printers one day become a regular staple of everyday life?

The first 3D printer was made in 1984, back when technology was unimaginably different than today. While other inventions such as smartphones and the Internet have massively taken off in this time, becoming essentials for people all over the world, 3D printing remains a specialized field — most people in the world have never used a 3D printer themselves. This may suggest that it will never become as widespread as other tech advancements, but I’m not so sure that’s true.

A 3D printer converts a 3D image file into hundreds of 2D images, which, when stacked layer by layer, give the final shape. Each layer of the image is then created sequentially out of the material of choice, with the layers building on top of the previous structure and exposed to heat or ultraviolet light so that it reacts with the previous layer and forms a continuous structure. In the early days of 3D printing, the only materials used were polymers (plastics), as these readily form very long chains of molecules. However, it is now possible to 3D print using metals, fabrics or even pizza.

Since the capabilities of 3D printing are still being investigated and new scientific inventions are constantly being developed due to these machines, scientists and engineers seem to be focusing on pushing the boundaries of these printers and discovering exactly how much they are capable of. Reducing costs and providing basic, cheap versions for average households hasn’t yet been a priority for manufacturers.

But even if 3D printers were affordable, using them isn’t as easy as just hitting “Print” on a Microsoft Word document. These kinds of printers require special software, which isn’t easy to work without lots of practice and graphic design skills, and most people our generation and older just don’t have the time to learn how to use something so complicated.

However, the same can be said of Facebook for our parents and grandparents, and yet that’s become an intuitive skill, so perhaps future generations will play around on 3D design software the same way we played on Microsoft Paint.

While not everything can or should be 3D printed, I think that once scientists turn their attention to making these machines cheaply and readily available to the public, we’ll see a massive increase in the amount of 3D printing in everyday life. After all, there’s so many tempting possibilities — imagine not having any cute shoes to wear on a date and then just being able to print yourself out a custom designed new pair.

That’s the dream.

Fibonacci Blue: Flickr

The presidential inauguration is just days away and we all know how we all feel about that. Happiness, anger, sadness, whatever the emotion may be, this election has left quite a mark on all of our lives.

Throughout the entire election, college students were very involved. We staged protests, rallied for our candidates and made sure our voices were going to be heard among all of the political chaos throughout the media.

Yet, it seems that our power has been completely underestimated and forgotten about. College students are often typified today as being “too sensitive,” and especially have been since Trump’s victory. Many colleges across the U.S. cancelled classes and even enacted “safe spaces” for students affected negatively by the election results.

Because of this, our voices and opinions are often stifled and we are accused of being too entitled or too emotional.

Meanwhile, I am just proud that we have a voice. We are a highly educated generation of students. We all grew up in an age of rapidly advancing technology, where several social and political barriers have been torn down. More are being torn down at this moment as we await the official inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.

Therefore, I, a college student, am here to offer my voice during this time. Throughout the election I did not support Trump or his politics. I tried to use my voice to advocate against him winning the election, but clearly, he did.

Now, what I and all other students must do is use our voices to create change for the better. We have to be heard at some point; all we have to do is advocate for what will improve our lives and keep social and political progress moving forward.

A great way to begin having your voice heard is through volunteering for or donating to charities and organizations that are important to you. They are important in creating progress in society while promoting giving back to the community. Some may need some extra help from us after Trump’s administration gets comfortable in office.

If all college students dedicated their voices to helping organizations that are in jeopardy under a Trump presidency, such as Planned Parenthood, we could help create positive change in our society. We would also be making it clear to Trump that we, the future leaders of the country, have strong values and high expectations for the man that will lead — or not — for the next four years.

I want nothing more than for Trump to be a fantastic president. Although I might not have thought he would be a suitable president, I also would never wish failure for the country. We need an optimistic leader to create nothing but progress in the U.S. and all around the world, and who will be resilient through any tough times that we may encounter.

As the inauguration approaches Jan. 20, let’s all see this new presidency as an opportunity for our voices to be heard once more. College students have the smarts, the stamina and the strength to make these next four years full of progress.

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Every freshmen who survived their first term at Drexel let out a sigh of relief.

It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve adapted. We’ve made friends. We’ve ran to class late. We’ve experienced dorm life. We’ve even rode a dragon — well, some of us have at least.

But most importantly, we started forming the foundations for our futures.

It’s important to remember that our educations are our chances to follow our dreams, or at least, they should be. This is the time for us as young adults to take charge of our own lives. The only way to do this is to understand what we want in life.

If that’s a question you haven’t asked yourself yet, you have a lot of work to do.

There are Drexel students studying to be biologists, engineers and businesspeople, who haven’t yet come to the realization that this is not what they really want.

Some people are taking classes in subjects they find no personal value in and honestly, living a lie.

They think things like: “I’m doing this because I know I can get a job in this field”; “this was the only thing that I was good at in high school”; “my parents told me that this would be great for me”; “having this job will make a lot of money.”

If any of these statements sound familiar, what you may fail to realize is that there is so much more to your education than the expectations of others or the promise of a great salary after you earn your degree.

What’s more, it’s going to take a lot more than one statement to get you through the next four to five grueling years of college.

You have to study something that you want to do. You should feel passionately about what you’re learning, or at least feel passionate about the work you will do once you graduate, because the fact of the matter is: if you’re pursuing a career and your heart isn’t into it, you’ll only go so far.

Don’t ever base your future on calculations made by others. Logistics are helpful in planning things out, but what’s the point if you don’t actually feel anything from the work you’re doing?

Even if you don’t know what you really love, you have to at least love what you learn. Ask yourself what your major really means to you, and discover what you’re ultimately going to do with the skills you learn here.

It took me a long time before I concluded that I want to major in film production. Although there’s always going to be the doubt that I could have done more if I followed my interest in biology, this has always been the one thing that I have loved doing. I have always had a passion for writing, and through that I want to tell stories through film.

My love for film has made this decision a lot easier. There’s nothing I want to do more and ultimately, everything in life is going to be a risk.

Granted, some things are larger risks than others, but undertaking a career that you love will always have a great reward.

Paul Keller: Flickr

It had been a brutal year-and-a-half of news coverage, filled to the brim with a constant, remorseless 24-hour stream of verbal diarrhea.

The stories were all equally outrageous. Donald Trump declaring his candidacy for president, preaching the building of a wall. Ben Carson insisting that an American president had to “reject the tenets of Islam.” Hillary Clinton swearing that she didn’t know that the “C” in her emails stood for “classified,” Bernie Sanders promising he would “break up the big banks,” but with no specific plan for how he would do it.

Yes, these people were grandstanding in order to get votes, but that is purely understandable. That is, after all, how getting elected works. Always has been and always will be.

What was different, however, was how the media constantly broke these stories. A barrage of shouting, constant uses of catchphrases that meant absolutely nothing (yes, I am looking at you, Kayleigh McEnany), and a sickeningly significant amount of coverage towards a man who, in a normal world, the average person would hardly give the time of day.

It was, to be frank, a purely exhaustive process to observe, especially as a first-time voter and an aspiring journalist.

Election night was very emotional for me. I was just about ready to turn off the television when I saw Van Jones suddenly interrupt. I would not realize until later that these words would have a profound impact on not just me, but the entire world.

“People have talked about a miracle, I’m hearing about a nightmare,” Jones had stated. “It’s hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us. You tell your kids, ‘don’t be a bully.’ You tell your kids, ‘don’t be a bigot.’ You tell your kids, ‘do your homework and be prepared.’ And then you have this outcome and you have people putting children to bed tonight and they’re afraid of breakfast. They’re afraid of how will I explain this to my children. I have Muslim friends who are texting me tonight saying, ‘should I leave the country?’ I have families of immigrants that are terrified tonight.”

I couldn’t fall asleep that night.

There were two factors that had pushed me past my breaking point. First. was the election of a man who had done nothing but terrorize America’s minorities.

The second was thinking about what Jones had said during the election coverage. I didn’t understand why his words had stuck out at me the most of any other words spoken by the media during the election. As the sun came out over a changed nation, I finally understood why Van Jones’ statement made me restless.

For the first time in this election I was witnessing two things I thought I would never see: emotion and honesty. Passion for something that was not evil or unattainable. This was a message of peace. With every word Jones was speaking, you could feel the emotion and pain. This was a breath of fresh air. It was almost like watching Walter Cronkite report that President John F. Kennedy had been killed. You could see the emotion on his face, you could feel that he was tremendously upset.

As I slowly began to realize why this had gripped me, I began to wonder where all the honesty and integrity of the news had gone. Over the course of a few months, I realized that it had slowly begun to disappear, with only a precious few continuing on the legacies of the contemporaries such as Edward R. Murrow, Ernest Hemingway and Carl Bernstein. But why has it disappeared? Who’s to blame?

Well, part of the reason is, of course, the advent of 24-hour news. Networks such as CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC are running news all day, every day for 365 days a year.

A major drawback that makes the news a little bit more unbearable involves the airtime in which there is nothing new to report, where the time gets drawn out. Most networks fill in this time by drawing out news stories from a previous time and continuing an analysis of it.

We are currently living in a world in which news networks are focused more on ratings than reporting the stories that actually matter. For example, when toddler Caylee Anthony was murdered back in 2008, it became the top story.

Yes, the details of her murder were horrific, and bringing her killer to justice was important, but did you know that on the day that Caylee Anthony’s remains were found, there was a story breaking that proved to be even more important in the long-term?

The story was the arrest of former NASDAQ chairman Bernie Madoff, who would later be convicted on multiple counts of fraud, swindling away around $20 billion from thousands of people in the largest case of fraud in American history. This is just one of many examples of ratings coming in front of a story that became more important in the long term.

Despite that drawback, 24-hour news can be a very positive advent. Consider the olden days of broadcast news, let’s say, before 1980, when CNN was founded. You would have four news segments on all the major American networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.), each segment airing at major times of the day (morning, lunchtime, dinnertime, late night).

Stories from each part of the day would make it into the broadcasts and you would know which story were the most important because it would make it into maybe two or more of these broadcasts. If there was a piece of breaking news too urgent to be passed up, the programming would be halted and the news would continue for as long as the story continued.

However, things have changed since then. We live in an interconnected world, one that demands that we know what happens as soon as it happens. A 24-hour news network allows for that to happen. When it’s a story that should be recognized, it’s automatically on the network. No unimportant news, no filters, just what’s important. In the ideal framework of 24-hour news, that is.

Despite this particular drawback, 24-hour news is still an amazing tool if used correctly. However, according to media events of the last 30 years or so, this still hasn’t been the case. Time and time again, we see a story grip the nation that gets over-covered. It gets too much attention when other stories could be much more important.

The trial of OJ Simpson, the controversy surrounding pieces of art such as “The Da Vinci Code”, Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency, all of them were over-covered. This hyper-coverage has created a clear bias within journalism to the point where trust in the media has reached an all-time low, with Gallup reporting that this year 32 percent of Americans trust media sources such as newspapers, television and radio.

This should not be happening.

The news should be the most reliable source of media there is. And yet many Americans do not trust the media. This is a very understandable viewpoint as we are living in America where we are being told by the media what to think. Instead of creating our own opinions based on the information given, the opinion is shoved straight down our gullet until we are completely suffocated by it. In short, the news isn’t being objective.

It would take a lot of effort to fix this issue based on how much journalism has constantly evolved over the last few decades.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but the one thing that newscasters are forgetting are that in order to have a fair and balanced opinion, forcing their views on someone is not the strongest way to go. Instead, it should be allowed for the public to come to their own conclusions, even if they don’t think the same thing as you.

To my colleagues in the field of journalism, let us all make an oath. We will serve as a translator between the governments and our people. Let us not sensationalize, let us not grandstand. Let us do what we were taught to do. Let’s give everyone the truth because at the very least, that’s what the people deserve.

This year, one of the ways I got through an extra long holiday season with a stressful family was by following the Internet feud between Stuart Semple and Anish Kapoor.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is the most entertaining thing to happen in the art world this century. For those of you who haven’t been following, the artist Anish Kapoor recently gained exclusive rights to use a color known as Vantablack, which is scientifically the darkest material ever made by humans, in his art. Upon hearing about this, another artist, Stuart Semple, retaliated by releasing a powdered paint called simply Pink, which he declares is the world’s pinkest pink. He made it available cheaply online to everyone in the world, with the exception of Kapoor.

Despite all purchasers having to agree to a legal disclaimer saying that they are not affiliated with Kapoor, he somehow got his hands on the paint, and posted an Instagram photo of himself using it. Semple, too, managed to somehow find Vantablack and post a picture of himself, with his fingers covered in it. And yet, Semple continued protesting, releasing the world’s most glittery glitter, yellowest yellow and greenest green in quick succession — all of which are legally available to anybody except Kapoor.

As entertaining as this paint war is, I think that the publicity surrounding the argument is overshadowing the fact that these pigments are amazing scientific inventions, not just entertainment fodder. And with the amount of bad news in the world these days, I think it’s important to highlight the good news — and these awesome science advancements are definitely an example of that.

Semple didn’t just come up with these paints overnight because he wanted to annoy Kapoor — in fact, he’s been collaborating with the world’s top paint scientists (yes, that’s a thing) for around a decade now, working incredibly hard to make his colors. And Vantablack wasn’t just created so that Kapoor could paint with it. It was also in development for years before it was released, and designed for use in telescopes to get better images of outer space and possibly lead to new discoveries in astronomy.

Vantablack absorbs 99.96 percent of visible light — far more than any other black pigment in the world — using carbon nanotube technology. Carbon nanotubes are sheets of carbon just one atom thick, rolled up into tiny tubes. When light shines on the pigment, each photon of light bounces around inside a tube — unable to escape from such a small space, it is effectively trapped.

Absorbing so little light means that a three-dimensional object coated in Vantablack will appear almost completely flat, as no reflected light means no shadows to add depth to the object. Currently, it is significantly more expensive than both diamond and gold.

Pink, however, works in almost the exact opposite way. Instead of being especially absorbent, it is especially reflective, using technology similar to night vision strips on a high-visibility jacket. The pigment fluoresces, which means that electrons in the paint are able to absorb light of a specific wavelength that gives them energy. They can then stay in this excited state for a short time. The pigment absorbs a medium green light, meaning that the reflected light appears as the opposite color on the color wheel, which is bright pink.

When these energized electrons relax, they again lose a specific amount of energy, though less than what was absorbed (as some has been used). This is released as light of a specific color, in this case bright pink.

Diamond Dust, the world’s most glittery glitter, is made from minuscule, randomly shaped shards of 99.8 percent clarity glass — so it’s almost perfectly clear. When light hits these tiny pieces of glass, it reflects back at every possible angle, due to the slightly different shape of each individual shard. This causes the glitter to shine just as bright as a diamond, reflecting so much more light than regular glitter (which is made of plastic) that it appears to glow.

I totally understand what Semple is saying about this feud — that he doesn’t think it’s okay for one person to have exclusive rights to a color, and that all artists should be able to experiment with this amazing new color in their work. But I also think that he should be talking more about the impressive science behind all these pigments, especially considering so many people see science and art as entirely unrelated fields, it would be great to see more publicity about how they’re now meeting.

Wikimedia: Zach Evenor

On December 23, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. For the first time in almost eight years, the United States did not veto an anti-Israel resolution.

This is a break from the American policy of almost unilaterally shielding Israel from generally anti-Israel resolutions in the U.N. While many believe that this was because President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry were frustrated with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party, this is only part of the story. There are other reasons that President Obama did not block this veto.

To explain these reasons, Kerry gave a speech about his and President Obama’s position on the matter.

The biggest reason was that President Obama and Kerry genuinely care about Israel and want peace, but believe that more settlements will only further trammel a future two-state solution. They believe that if settlements continue to be built, there will inevitably only be one state — Israel.

Kerry also expressed his belief that this would mean the end of Israel being both Jewish state and a democracy. This is because if there is a one-state solution, Israel will either have to grant citizenship to all the Palestinians, which would mean that Arabs would outnumber Jews and it would no longer be a “Jewish State”, Israel would not give the Palestinians voting rights, which would mean it would no longer be a democracy, or they would have to move all the Palestinians somewhere else.

Now while the argument could and has been made that it would be better and fairer to move the Palestinians to one of the numerous Muslim countries in the region where many of their ancestors came from, this would probably not work despite the fact that 99 percent of the Middle East is Muslim.

Kerry believes that settlements would lead to a one-state solution because he postulates that settlements make it harder to delineate what would be Israel and what would be Palestine in a future two-state solution, both logistically and demographically. As if to simply prove his point, some far-right Israeli politicians openly say that by allowing settlements in primarily Palestinian areas in the West Bank they are trying to make it so that Israel can one day claim that land.

However, these reasons are different from why many Israelis actually choose to live in the West Bank. The reason that many Israelis live there is simply the quality of life. The Israeli settlements in the West Bank are close to Jerusalem, they have a good school system, cheaper land plots and the land is beautiful. There are also many people who feel a connection to the land since Judea and Samaria are where the Jewish people originated. The namesake of the Jewish people is even based on the fact that the Jewish people lived in Judea thousands of years ago before they were exiled by the Romans in 132 C.E.  

Some say that the U.N. is anti-Semitic for only going after Israel when there are so many other nations illegally occupying other nations (ahem, Russia in Ukraine), and while there are many nations in the U.N. that are anti-Semitic, the United States is not and knows that there is a time limit to in its view save Israel from itself so that it may continue to be both a Jewish state and a democracy.

While I have mixed feelings about the settlements, I think it is unfair and frankly anti-Semitic for the world to completely condemn them while virtually ignoring all the violence that Palestinians have perpetrated against innocent Israelis both in the settlements and in Israel. This U.N. resolution, like many others before, ignores these facts and only condemns Israel.

In the entire resolution, which vigorously condemns many aspects of Israel’s conduct in regards to settlements, it only mentions the need for the Palestinian Authority to stop supporting terror three times and with only one reference to a law telling them to stop supporting terror.

But is a two-state solution possible? I think so.

Israel would inevitably have to relocate some of its settlers deep in the West Bank and continue to maintain some of the land separating the West Bank and Jordan for security purposes, such as thwarting the smuggling of weapons.

There would also have to be a rule that while the Palestinians would get the majority of the West Bank, they would allow some Israelis to remain in parts that were not absorbed in Israel on permanent visas.

On the other side, Israel would have to allow some Palestinians, who are in areas which have been settled and absorbed by Israel, to stay on permanent visas as well. As for Jerusalem, it would be controlled by Israel. However, it would have to be open to both Israelis and Palestinians for prayer and once again some Palestinians would have to be allowed to live there with permanent visas.

The reason that Jerusalem cannot be an international city governed cooperatively between Israel and Palestine is that the Palestinian Authority to this day does not allow Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, which is the holiest place in the Jewish religion, while Israel has no restrictions on prayer for Muslims or any other religious group. This is demonstrated by the continued existence of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (The Dome of the Rock). There would also have to be a special set of extra laws governing Jerusalem since it would have many citizens from both Israel and Palestine living there and there would have to have a way to deal with them under both Israeli and Palestinian law. This would mean that a special court district would also have to be established to deal with certain criminal and civil occurrences within Jerusalem.

In order to maintain the security of both states, a Palestinian state would have to be barred from possessing any weapons, and maintaining a military similar to Japan for at least 100 years. Instead, there would be a special legion in the Israel Defense Forces specifically designated to work for the Palestinian state and made up primarily of Palestinians, but led by a joint coalition of Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The Palestinians would have complete control over the military in domestic cases within the borders of Palestine, but if it ever wanted to send its military outside of its own borders even to deliver aid, the Palestinian military leaders would have to work with their Israeli counterparts so as to ensure that the military is not abused against Israel.

This joint military is to prevent the Palestinian State from trying to conquer and destroy Israel as its Arab neighbors tried to do on multiple occasions since Israel’s Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. The Palestinians would also be able to continue to maintain a police force, but once again with Israeli military supervision, to make sure it doesn’t turn into a military. The Gaza Strip would also become part of a the Palestinian nation. However it would be a different province from the West Bank similar to being a state in the United States.

When the Palestinian state is first established, there must be new elections. However, no parties or candidates that are deemed terrorists or a security threat to Israel by Israel and the United States should be allowed to run.

This system should have to continue into perpetuity to ensure that a radical government is not elected to rule the Palestinian state in the same way that Hamas was elected to govern Gaza. After this first government is elected, a new constitution for a Palestinian state should be written and reviewed by the UN to make sure that there is nothing in the Constitution that incites terror against Israel. Then, there will truly be an end to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and both Israel and Palestine should be able to exist in peace and freedom.

In order to make sure that the peace deal has gone as planned, after 100 years, there will be new negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian state regarding their cooperation and the United States should be a mediator.

Flickr: Drexel University

Many people find that the best way to commemorate a new year is by creating resolutions to go along with it.

Resolutions are typically made to create a positive change in life, whether it be getting into shape, travelling to new destinations or learning how to be more confident or how to make new friends.

There’s just one problem with resolutions — they are possibly the least kept promises in the world. People never end up following through with them because of the way that we look at accomplishing our resolutions.

Many people make very large and demanding resolutions that would require lots of time and effort to complete. Resolutions are often thought to be more difficult to accomplish than they really are because people often set unrealistic expectations for themselves.

The best way to tackle a demanding resolution is by determining how much time and effort it will take to achieve a resolution.

If someone’s resolution is to lose weight and go to the gym, it must be understood that it is not something that can be accomplished within a short amount of time. Keep in mind, everybody has the entire year to accomplish their resolutions. Often, people try especially hard to complete their resolutions within the first month of the year and tire themselves out.

The key here is to pace yourself. Keep in mind that you have an entire year to achieve these goals. So, if you want to go to the gym more regularly, start slowly by going maybe two or three times a week at first and gradually increasing the time you spend in the gym based on your schedule and what you are able to physically handle. This will give you sort of a “resolution roadmap” which will help you dedicate more time to your resolutions and hopefully make you realize achieving it is easier than you thought.

Personally, I never used to set resolutions because I knew I would never be able to accomplish them. But this year I set a resolution that I know I will be able to tackle: I am going to journal every day of 2017. By taking it day by day, I realize it is easy to just write a few words a day on what I did and take note of any artistic ideas I may have. It can easily be accomplished if I continue to have the motivation to improve my writing skills and take the time out of my day to let my thoughts flow.

Although I realize resolutions are not always easy to stick with, I do recommend that everyone makes at least one for this year. 2016 was a rough year for everybody, so we should all aspire to make this year better. By simply setting realistic goals to accomplish throughout the year, we can improve ourselves and our way of living.

Rebecca LaQuaglia The Triangle

Philadelphia’s annual Christmas Village opened Nov. 24, and once again Philadelphians can get in the holiday spirit through exploring the German culinary offerings, handcrafted gifts, ice-skating and light displays at City Hall.

One of the most renowned holiday endeavors in Philadelphia is the Christmas Village, located at City Hall this year while Love Park undergoes renovations.

There, Philadelphians can enjoy a traditional German Christmas market in the heart of their beloved city. There are endless gift options such as candles, scarves, pottery and jewelry sold by more than 80 vendors. There is also authentic European food such as bratwurst and schnitzel that hungry shoppers can wash down with mulled wine.

Open until Dec. 24, shoppers can get all of their shopping done in one place.

“Christmas Village is my one-stop shop for my entire Christmas list,” Clayton deGruchy, a sophomore computer engineering student, said.

In the center of Christmas Village lies the Rothman Ice Rink. Whether you are a pro ice-skater or just looking for something new to do with your friends, skaters of all expertise levels can come together to skate until Feb. 26, 2017. Admission is $5 and rental skates cost an additional $10 for adults.

Danielle Calcavecchia, a sophomore design and merchandising student, enjoyed her experience there last year, even though she’s not the most experienced skater.

“The ambience was cool, but we sucked,” she said.

“We didn’t make it around a single time without falling,” her friend Nicole Gelfond added.

Adjacent to the ice rink lies a new seasonal addition: America’s Garden Capital Maze, created in a collaborative effort between Dilworth Park and Greater Philadelphia Gardens.

Visitors walk through a wooden arch into a maze that features shrubbery shaped like seasonal animals, complete with other holiday decorations like tiny trees and gleaming lights.

Just a few minutes away at the Comcast Center on 1701 John F. Kennedy Blvd., the Comcast Holiday Spectacular has become another must-see holiday tradition.

Open until Jan. 1, visitors can gather in the lobby and view the world’s largest resolution LED displays  for a free 15 minute show filled with popular holiday music, joyous sleigh rides and scenes from the Nutcracker. The shows occur at the top of every hour.

Similar to the Holiday Spectacular at Comcast is the Macy’s Christmas Light Show at the Macy’s on 1300 Market St. Shoppers can stop to watch more than 100,000 LED lights cover a four-story curtain that depicts classic holiday scenes with snowmen, ballerinas and reindeer. Shows occur daily 10 a.m., 12 p.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. until Dec. 31 at no cost.

The renowned Wanamaker Grand Court Organ is also played at noon everyday, except for Sundays. Additionally, it is played at 5:30 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and at 7 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays.

There are several other holiday attractions that are equally as special that take place a little further from Center City.

Erin Maguire, a sophomore studying marketing, says Blue Cross RiverRink Winterfest is her favorite holiday attraction in Philly.

“It’s a really nice atmosphere with the lighting and fire pits and there are tons of little stands with food and drinks. There’s also an amazing view for some insta-worthy pics because it’s right on the waterfront,” she said.

The Winterfest at 101 S Christopher Columbus Blvd. is another seasonal display. Open until March 5, it is Philadelphia’s largest outdoor ice-skating rink and winter wonderland.

The landscape features trees lined with sparkling lights, cozy cabins and fire pits to warm visitors. The scene is surrounded by the Delaware River and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, which attracts visitors.

The Franklin Square Holiday festival at 6th and Race streets is another way to celebrate the holiday season.Visitors can enjoy winter treats while watching a free light show with more than 50,000 lights until Dec. 31.

Kate Broski, a sophomore design and merchandising student at Drexel said Philadelphia is an incredible place to prepare for the holidays.

“There’s a lot more to do here than back at home. My town didn’t have Christmas tree lightings, ice rinks or cute little Christmas shops,” she said. “Philly has so much more to offer.”

Photo courtesy Drexel University

Drexel University is a big school with dozens of programs to choose from, fruitful with opportunity and thriving with people trying to do something with their lives.

I’m certain that many people have heard that the “Drexel Experience” was going to be something different than most traditional colleges. We freshman do not know the tricks of the trade yet but, we’re all out here trying to make it work. And sometimes, that’s all you can do.

Nobody really knew what they were in for when they moved their bags in on Sept. 10, and honestly, as that first week went by, it even lowered our defenses. The first two weeks of class were a little bit of a shock to the system compared to the first week of fun and games.

I feel like I adapted pretty quickly to the pacing and the mechanics of the quarter system at the beginning of the term. It was almost as if everything that they tried to force feed us in high school was actually worth something and starting to make sense.

I felt like I was so ready to handle the hustle and bustle that was college, and ready to grab life by the horns. Things took a turn for the worst though, as the pacing tripped into second gear.

From engineering to philosophy, from biology to business, everybody has their own bag of troubles. I myself, live out my days here as a film and video student, and let me tell you, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows at Westphal.

What started off as a simple schedule only having classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, turned into all-out mayhem real quick. Most people gasp when they realize I have a four-day weekend every week, but that free time quickly dwindled as more activities were added to my routine.

The days that I am in class are super busy because most of my classes are two to four hours long, and those days leave me exhausted. And when I’m not in class, I’m balancing a job, volunteering and working on projects.

And the projects I do on a weekly basis are not easy by far. Few people at Drexel understand the struggle of checking out tons and tons of equipment for camera projects.

Also, when it comes to editing, be prepared to spend hours in the lab. Other majors in Westphal have it rough too. It doesn’t really matter what you study.  You’re going to take on a heavy workload either way.

The main problem a freshman at Drexel must deal with is time management. The quarter system is not nearly as hectic as many think, but it still forces people to get things done by deadline, no exceptions.

The first few weeks are alright and it’s easy to swim along just fine. That all changes around week 6, when the waters begin to splash and the waves begin to rush. It’s been a constant struggle of trying to keep my head above water, because one false move, and I drown.

Now are times where you can’t afford to drop everything and take a mental break, because if you zone out for five minutes in class, you basically missed the entire lesson. Trying to stay strong and keep up with everything that comes my way is so taxing, it takes a lot out of me.

There are some students who now feel as if they have already drowned.

“As unconventional as being a philosophy major is, my major has opened my eyes to a world of possibility and has challenged me accordingly. My major isn’t easy, and my grades surely reflect that,” Niayla-Dia Murray, a freshman studying philosophy said.

It’s a cruel world out here, and it’s only fitting that we have one engineering major tell it like it is.

“From an engineering standpoint, the first term has been a very challenging one. It’s not high school anymore, so there’s a lot of adjusting. Often times it’s work on top of work on top of work, and you just wonder how you’re gonna make it through. I wouldn’t have made it through without my family and friends helping me along the way,” Lucas Etim said.

Everyone has their own version of this story, but for some students, they are taking things in stride.

“I feel like a big part of being a business major is meeting people and talking to them. All I do is network with people day in and day out, and while it’s not a part of my grade, it’s a part of my success,” undeclared business major Ada Li said.

So Drexel has definitely been quite a difficult time for most of us. It’s forced us to adjust and adapt, so that we’ll be stronger people when we come out of it. Ten weeks is not really a lot of time to get things done, and while it can be bad news as well as good news, the terms are normally over before they even start.

It hasn’t been easy finding the ins and outs here at Drexel, and it’s only going to to get harder, but there’s a reason why we’re all at this school. Truth be told, it may be a slightly different kind of education, a slightly different experience, but we’re going to survive because we’re a different kind of student.

The Triangle: Armon Owlia

I can remember, in September of this year, running along the streets of Center City Philadelphia for the very first time.

The colors were bright and vibrant, the street art captivating and the general cleanliness of the city phenomenal. I had not visited the city often before moving back to the United States a few months prior, so I was glad to have been able to explore the city that I would be calling home.

At the time, I thought Philadelphia was a low-poverty area, but it would be a great city to live in.

My perspective of the city changed when I began volunteering in Philadelphia’s Promise Zone, located in an area around 34th Street and Powelton Avenue.

A Promise Zone, coined by President Barack Obama in January 2014, is an area home to some of the most financially insecure people within the United States.

Here, the street art was still on the buildings, but the atmosphere felt completely different.

Broken windows made me feel very uneasy, and the streets were quiet and noiseless, contrasting heavily from the hustle and bustle of Central Philadelphia.

When I got hungry, I decided to stop into a grocery store in order to grab a piece of fruit, but when I looked around, there was no fresh produce. I could only find canned fruit and sugary beverages.

I could only locate one library within that area, and even worse, there was no health care center — no hospitals, no clinics.

When I asked someone about where the nearest hospital or clinic was, the response was a non-hesitant, “Go to Drexel.”

I never could have imagined that I was in the same city, but as I later learned, this is unfortunately a very common scenario not only across the entire United States, but also internationally.

At the time the first promise zones were established, the economy had produced a total of 8 million jobs since the economic recession with unemployment at 6.6 percent, a major improvement from the 7.8 percent when Obama first took office in 2009.

However, President Obama noticed that even though the economic adjustments had helped the majority of Americans, there were still those deep within the poverty cycle who remained unaffected.

The Promise Zones were Obama’s call to action. They set goals of assisting those in poverty to gain better access to health care, jobs and education, regardless of age or race.

Part of the reason that the unemployment rate has decreased is because of the economic benefits of the Promise Zones.

Creating new jobs guaranteed to Promise Zone residents in the form of tax incentives, means that businesses can not only benefit from hiring Promise Zone residents, but can also help decrease unemployment.

Even with no hospital, many within the Promise Zone are now insured thanks to the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, a system that makes healthcare more affordable to those who could previously not afford it. In fact, since its inception, the amount of uninsured Americans has decreased by 7.1 percent.

Sadly, even with the insurance, a lack of basic necessities such as fresh fruit and vegetables have caused major health problems like diabetes. The United States’ health care system is highly reactionary rather than preventative.

The public schools have also slowly begun to encourage more students to go to colleges, with federal officials reporting that 1,063 high school students are now preparing for transitions into college and careers outside of the Promise Zone.

The schools, however, are still highly dangerous with massive violence and are forced to make do with what they can, due to insufficient funds by the state government, often resulting in the shutdown of these schools.

In short, even with the federal assistance, the situation hasn’t really gotten much better, so how could it possibly get any worse?

Electing Donald Trump as the 45th President is a good place to start.

Trump’s campaign promises, which included defunding Planned Parenthood, strengthening the military, bringing back jobs from China and allowing the concealed carrying of weapons across America, even in schools, only contributes to the problem.

Without Planned Parenthood, less people will have access to health care and could potentially cause more people to end up dying, rather than receiving the medical attention which is desperately needed.

Strengthening the military could mean potentially diverting funds from the Promise Zones, meaning that those who had more money prior to the introduction of Trump’s administration would now be the ones to suffer.

With the influx of jobs from countries such as China and Mexico, it would make products more expensive, throwing even more people into poverty and potentially driving up the unemployment rate further than the second Bush administration.

Finally, allowing concealed weapons, especially in areas riddled with violence, would increase the chances of a mass shooting on par with Columbine, causing more death and less encouragement to go to school for fear of safety.

Not only would it be unsafe for the students, but it would also be unsafe for the teachers, who would not want to be in an area in which the threat of death is constant, thus creating a poor quality of education.

In the end, all of these campaign promises would not help these people, but would completely and utterly harm them.

In addition, his cabinet is full of people who shouldn’t even be 10 feet near the White House. For example, new Chief Strategist and Senior Counselor Stephen Bannon, who has been long seen as a racist and sexist xenophobe.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos believes in the shutdown of public schools in favor of education vouchers, which would limit the amount of students who would actually enroll in schools.

The icing on the cake, however, is that Trump’s current pick to be the next Secretary of Housing and Urban Development is former Republican candidate Dr. Ben Carson. A neurosurgeon working as a housing developer.

His allowance of open prejudice towards racial minorities has rubbed off on the American people, so much to the point where neo-Nazis have sieg-heiled the new president.

Racial and gender relations in the United States has hit an all-time low, with protests all across America focussing on better relationships and the lessening of bias against minorities being designated as criminals.

Luckily, the power to encourage change, when the government refuses to encourage it, goes to the people. You can go out and help people in the Promise Zones.

For example, at 35th and Spring Garden streets, you will find the Dornsife Center, home to UConnect. I was lucky enough to volunteer there, helping those who walked through the door looking for housing, clothes, food, etc., and in the process, got to learn a thing or two about life here in Philadelphia.

The process was amazingly gratifying and eye-opening. My talks with Adhithi Kesari, who works at UConnect, helped me realize what it is  I want to do: help other people.

At UConnect, the mentoring comes from the people who walk in and are asking for help. Learning skills such as searching for a house and seeing the world through their eyes can provide an awareness for what life is like at the core. You laugh with them, you cry with them.

The process can be nerve-racking, but when you see the smile on someone’s face at the end of the day, it’s all worth it.

In any case, the best thing you can do to help those within the Promise Zone is to talk about it. The more it is talked about, the more people will be able to learn.

The more people are able to learn, the more that action can be taken. When more action is taken, more people can be helped. So what are you waiting for? Go out and help!