Author Archives | Maggie Fedorocsko

Baby skunks join Academy of Natural Sciences as animal ambassadors

Photograph Courtesy of Maggie Fedorocsko

What’s black and white and cute all over? Baby skunks!

Hamilton and Lavender – brother and sister striped skunks — have recently joined the animal ambassador program at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University and will be available for public viewing sometime in October or November, according to Lisa McGonigle, the Lead Keeper of the Live Animal Center at the academy.

McGonigle raised the three-month-old babies by hand, feeding them from bottles and commuting with them back and forth from her house to the academy every day.

“Excuse the pun, but they are stinking cute — and that’s what has attracted people to them,” she said.

But these skunks are offering more than just mere cuteness to the academy.

“Their purpose is strictly educational,” she said.

The skunks will start out being showcased in intimate naturalist programs at the academy, and later work up to larger auditorium programs. Eventually, they will take part in other outreach rotations, including events at schools, libraries, hospitals and other community gatherings like festivals.

“The skunks are integral in our education program,” she said. “They are heavily sought after because they are so adaptable to so many of our education programs.”

Since the animals are so versatile, they can be used for a variety of purposes, she explained.

“Any direction we want to take, we can use these animals for that purpose,” McGonigle said. “They can be used for very simple concepts like what makes a mammal a mammal all the way up to more complex things like behaviors and defenses.”

Right now, the skunks are still preparing to be introduced to visitors of the academy. McGonigle said it takes several months for the animals to complete this training period. They just came out of quarantine, where they received tests to get them as healthy as possible before introducing them to the general population, and they are now getting acclimated to the sights, sounds and smells of the other live animals. Most importantly, the animals must be properly socialized, she said.

“They are very socialized already — it’s just getting them used to the crowds and the people,” she said. She added, “it was surprising how socialized they got so quickly.”

McGonigle said that skunks are like a mix between a cat and a ferret. While they have the activity level of a ferret, they have the personality of a cat.

When the animals grow up, they will be the size of a housecat at around seven pounds, but for now, the babies are only a little over one pound. McGonigle said when they first arrived, Hamilton was only 0.33 pounds, and Lavender was only 0.26 pounds.

While very tiny, their offerings to the academy are tremendous.

The animals are ideal because they are very recognized animals, she said, also mentioning how being indigenous animals makes them even more significant.

“People right here in the city have them living around their house and they don’t even realize it,” she said.

People may take the species for granted, but seeing them up close and personal can be a transformative moment, McGonigle said, while again emphasizing their significance to the education process.

But baby Hamilton and Lavender aren’t the only animals featured at the academy that offer valuable learning experiences to the community. In fact, there are over 100 animals currently housed at the academy that are also a part of the animal ambassador program. These animals include hawks, owls, parrots, ducks, crows, rats, guinea pigs, hedgehogs, opossums, armadillos, alligators, snakes, tortoises, turtles, lizards, a large number of invertebrates and more, she explained.

She said that people really get excited when they can see an animal up close. The experience can make them more connected and appreciative of the animal, while allowing them to perceive the animal beyond the common stereotypes.

“People don’t like [skunks] because they spray and because they get into their garbage cans, so it’s nice to have people understand how really interesting these animals are, how amazing they are, and that they’re not out to get us — they’re not looking to spray us. It’s their last resort — they’d rather you just go in the other direction.”

Hamilton and Lavender have been descented, so visitors will not have to worry about any accidents.

And the skunks will not have to worry about being overworked, as the academy operates on a specified teaching schedule, so that animals will only have to work once or twice a week.

“These animals get used, but we regulate their use,” she said, highlighting how important it is to control the stress levels of the animals.

The academy is very cognizant of the feelings of the animals, she said. When an animal ages, it undergoes a retirement process, and is continued to be housed at the academy, even when it is no longer working. This makes the academy different from many other institutions that display live animals.

The academy was the first and oldest natural history museum in the western hemisphere, officially opening its doors in 1828, she said.

“It’s a wonderful resource for the scientific community,” she said, explaining how the academy has a large resource selection that many other scientific institutions look to.

The academy has taken in live animals since the 1930s and Hamilton and Lavender represent the continuation of educating people through the use of live animals.

Stay tuned to the academy’s Twitter and Facebook pages to find out when Hamilton and Lavender will be officially available for the public to see. You can also call the academy to see if the animals will be shown on a specific day.

McGonigle is excited for their official debut, but she is also extremely pleased about the process thus far.

“In years to come, it’ll be nice to know that I played a part in helping create what they are,” she said. “Hopefully they will help educate numerous amount of people.”

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The potential impact of fire and fury

On Aug. 11, President Donald Trump issued a stern warning to the North Koreans via Twitter: “Military solutions are now fully in place,locked and loaded,should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!”.

These words send a harsh message that a preemptive strike is now being considered as an option alongside diplomacy, and not just as a last resort. The reaction to this has been mixed: warhawks are enthusiastic about the show of strength and the assertive approach to Kim Jong Un’s actions, while the doves are wary of provocative words that are raising the stakes in a high tension situation.

Those who advocate for a preemptive strike are correct that any conflict with North Korea is going to vastly favor the U.S. and it’s allies, which includes South Korea and possibly Japan. In general, the NATO supplied equipment of the U.S. alliance is superior to that of the North Koreans, who mainly use aged Soviet era technology. There is no doubt that in the conventional warfare stage, the Korean People’s Army would rapidly capitulate to a U.S./SK force within a few months.

In a similar fashion to that of the 2003 Iraq invasion, this alliance would rapidly advance through North Korea, inflicting disproportionate casualties on opposing forces due to the use of vastly superior equipment and strategies. Most of this is due to the superior support capabilities from modern armor and airpower, which provides mobility and positioning advantages while denying the capabilities of the enemy.

However, that does not mean that the KPA is incapable of inflicting massive casualties on non-military targets. Seoul is a city with a population of just under 10 million, 20 percent of the South Korean population, and accounts for about a quarter of South Korea’s gross domestic product. Needless to say, it is of immense strategic importance for South Korea because of its economic value and population size. Unfortunately, it is only 35 miles away from the North Korean border, which makes it extremely vulnerable to artillery and airstrikes from Northern forces. Analysts from skeptoid.com claim that on the opening stages of an attack on Seoul, around 64,000 people will die. Additionally, these artillery pieces can be adapted to fire munitions loaded with chemical or biological agents instead of explosives or metals, which could drastically increase civilian casualties.

Moreover, the KPA possess nuclear weapons and has several missiles that are capable of striking South Korea, Japan and Guam. The U.S. has several defensive countermeasures that are supposedly capable of destroying all missiles, including the experimental North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile that could strike the continental U.S. However, these defensive systems have a less than reliable performance when tested under ideal conditions, so it is very likely that a realistic scenario in which North Korea launches multiple missiles would result in at least one successful strike. Needless to say, a single strike from a nuclear warhead would result in unforeseeable destruction, especially since the densely populated cities of Tokyo and Seoul are prime targets. A strike on Guam would not be crippling to the U.S. military, but would still result in a loss of 160,000 natives, as well as a strategic location for Pacific based operations.

In the end, any world leader or military official needs to contemplate whether the benefits of a conflict outweigh the risks. Kim Jong Un is not the madman hell bent on global domination or nuclear war, as some would suggest. Rather, his goal is to maintain his own power and wealth while securing the bare minimum of a military needed to prevent a regime change. As a secondary goal, his military is sometimes used to harass and annoy the U.S. and South Koreans just enough so that he can extort foreign from the U.S. or it’s allies, who have calculated that ignoring him or readying their forces to make such harassment ineffective would cost more money and effort than simply paying him off. A nation that’s preparing for war probably wouldn’t waste money on Hennessy cognac and Omega watches while using outdated equipment from the Soviet-era.

On the other side, neither the U.S. nor its allies have anything significant to gain from North Korea; they have much more to lose. In the very likely scenario where the U.S. missile defenses partly fail, one or more of North Korea’s nukes strikes Seoul or Tokyo, millions are dead and East Asia is on the verge of another depression. Risking the jewels of East Asia to deal with a nuisance, is, in Trumpian terms, a bad deal.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is forced to explain to the American public, weary from fighting two protracted wars in the Mid-east, as to why we suddenly need to fight North Korea when the cost is higher than ever before. A few days later at the White House, TVs blazoned the newest headline: a USA TODAY poll indicates that his approval ratings are dipping to 25 percent. This sent him into a fit of rage where he furiously sent out an order to aides to “turn off the fake news.”

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An act of kindness a day keeps the madness of the world away

Photograph courtesy of reneebigelow at Pixabay

A few weeks ago, I participated in the last ever GISHWHES — the “Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen” — run by the charity Random Acts and its founder Misha Collins. It’s a week-long extravaganza where teams of 15 people hurry to complete as many tasks as possible from a list of over 200. These tasks can be anything from donating feminine hygiene products to a women’s shelter, playing a video game with a child in the hospital while dressed as a character from that game, to creating a stop motion video using only socks.

This hunt may only happen one week out of every year, but the principles can and should be applied year-round. GISHWHES is all about making the world a better (and weirder) place — put another way, it’s about performing random acts of kindness.

I definitely think it’s human nature to do kind things for one another, even for strangers. Every time we offer a friend a bite of our food, let someone in front of us in line or compliment a passerby on their outfit, we’re committing a random act of kindness. Or, if you’ve ever heard a story on social media and commented something like “this restores my faith in humanity!,” chances are that was a random act of kindness too. And the reason that we want to do things for each other is that both people come away from it feeling good. Either giving or receiving a kind act is enough to put a smile on someone’s face and brighten someone’s day, and in an ideal world, I’m sure we’d all constantly be doing kind things.

But, sadly, we don’t live in an ideal world.

We live among political unrest, in a world full of white supremacist rallies and presidents who don’t see a problem with staring directly into the sun without eye protection. No matter our political views, a lot of us find ourselves clashing and arguing with people every day over our opinions. We’re so often confronted with unkindness, that being kind — especially to someone we don’t know, and therefore don’t know the views of or how they would treat us — can seem like a foreign concept. I know that I’ve been tempted in the past, when a homeless person has asked me for money, to ask them “What’s your opinion on gay marriage?” before making a decision.

Of course, I’ve never actually done that. But even though I think it’s human nature to be kind, I also think it’s understandable that we might only want to be kind to people who share our fundamental values and beliefs.

And that’s what I think makes random acts of kindness even more important right now. Partly because we’re all so used to hate and conflict that most people are starved for kindness, but also because a true random act has no strings attached. It’s not based on the fact that you think the recipient is a good person who deserves it, it’s based on the idea that the act itself increases the amount of good in the world, even just by a tiny bit.

I’d never suggest that small kindnesses are a cure for all our problems. If I pay for the coffee of the man behind me in line, that’s definitely not going to change his view that men are biologically superior to women. But it’s certainly not going to make things worse. And when we do end up in fights, maybe it’ll be the memories of the kindnesses we’ve given and received that’ll make us keep working towards what we believe.

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Drexel to roll out new freshman program, Experiential Edge

In the fall of 2018, Drexel University will be rolling out the Experiential Edge program, giving incoming students in four designated programs the opportunity to delve into hands-on learning experiences immediately upon entry to Drexel.

Freshmen students pursuing degrees in art history, culinary arts and science, nutrition and foods, and entertainment arts management will be eligible to spend their first quarter doing a “mini co-op” where they will also attend workshops with the Steinbright Career Development Center, build connections with current students and receive peer mentoring.

“They are able to start their experience with an in-field learning experience instead of starting with a traditional term of courses,” Koren Bedeau, vice provost for academic programs and strategic initiatives, said.

Bedeau says the program will prepare students for the courses they will take and the co-op they aspire to have as an undergraduate, while ultimately getting them ready for their career after graduation.

“It supports a different learning style that will be attractive to students,” she said. “And it will increase awareness of unique degree programs that are available at Drexel that a student may not be able to get at another institution.”

Bedeau says that early orientation will get students excited for their field and could also serve as motivation for academic success in the future.

While the students participating in the program will have to give up their summer to fit the program in their schedule, Bedeau says every other aspect of their plan of study will remain the same. After the quarter with Experiential Edge, the student will have three consecutive quarters of classes.

Since students are not taking credits while in the program, they do not have to pay tuition during this time. They are still responsible for housing, but Drexel will also be offering stipends to participants to encourage involvement.

Bedeau has been collaborating with Provost Brian Blake, provost fellow Bret Asbury, and several program directors and department chairs including Elizabeth Milroy (art history), Rosemary Trout (culinary arts and food science), Brian Moore (entertainment and arts management) and Stella Volpe (nutrition sciences) to bring the idea to fruition.

“It’s a part of the provostial mission of building on academic success,” Bedeau said. “We wanted something that fits with the distinctiveness of the co-op model.”

The team is currently working on laying out precise expectations and identifying interested industry, cultural and community partners. While partners are still being negotiated, they are expecting several law firms, the National Academy of Sciences and local restaurants to join the program.

They will also be communicating with high schools and counselors to explain that Experiential Edge will be an option. Students who are applying to the four specified programs will be contacted to see if they’re interested.

Students that prefer hands-on learning are encouraged to apply, she said.

Bedeau said the program could also be a solution for students who are thinking about taking a gap year.

“They can have a meaningful learning experience that’s not the traditional classroom setting,” she said. “It’s a pause, but it’s still contributing to your education.”

The number of students who will initially participate will be based on interest, though the team is aiming for about 20 students for each program when it first rolls out, she explained.

Bedeau thinks it will get interest from other programs and faculty at the university once the framework of the program is more established. She hopes that one day, all departments within the university offer an Experiential Edge program.

“It’s a way to build on and expand on what we’re known for, in terms of co-op,” she said. “It supports the entrepreneurial spirit that already exists and will continue to attract that sort of student to Drexel.”

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Net neutrality

Photograph courtesy of Backbone Campaign at Flickr

Net neutrality keeps the internet free, equal and democratic. The idea is simple — your right to use the internet is equal to mine, as long as you are able to pay for your service.

That doesn’t mean that the internet service provider isn’t allowed to provide different speeds of internet — they are allowed to do that, with the rule that service between two different users will be relatively equal, assuming that they are paying for the same tier of speed. It also means that speeds slow down for everyone by an equal proportion under high loads.

Instead, the focus is on avoiding discrimination based on the identity of the user or the content of the traffic. That’s where the “neutrality” part comes in — it doesn’t matter what you’re doing on the web, the ISP must be agnostic to the activity that you’re doing, whether you’re a researcher reading papers online, a streamer broadcasting his gameplay to the world or a developer creating the replacement for Instagram.

Hypothetically, if traffic is high during prime time hours, everyone would suffer a 10 percent decrease in speed, even if you’re a Netflix viewer using more bandwidth than average. While this is a burden on internet service providers, it has allowed the internet to become a superconductor of data and innovation. It keeps the internet as a level playing field for everyone and enhances user experience. Even a potentially disruptive innovation that utilizes the internet can’t be shut down by established companies who have enough resources to pay off ISPs. A streamer who uses up more bandwidth than a researcher has the same right to access as someone who occasionally checks his emails.

Despite the benefits of an open internet, ISPs and deregulation activists claim that this holds them back from providing better and faster internet services. Being forced to comply with these regulations cuts into their profits, which could be used to upgrade infrastructure.

Why should they charge a streamer the same price as someone who casually browses? Doesn’t it make sense to charge more for people who use up more bandwidth? And what about companies? If a company wants to bid for exclusive access to shut out their competitors or gain higher priority traffic, why can’t they do that?

Their users tend to use more data too, so it stands to reason those users should have to pay for additional packages to maintain the same speeds. It would only be fair, after all, to make high bandwidth services like Hulu and Netflix bid for the best access speeds because their services use up the most data.

While this would ensure that the most demanding internet users pay more than the average user, the effects of this would create a two-tiered internet. A possible outcome of this is that certain content providers will have to pay more for ISPs to make their content available, but it would have a much higher priority than other web traffic.

Alternatively, the cost would be placed on the user — in order to have speeds fast enough for said content, an additional fee would have to be paid. In either way, the end result is the same — web traffic from a select few applications is privileged, and the rest of us who aren’t using that application are relegated to slower speed internet. Netflix, YouTube and Hulu all use up large amounts of data, so it is likely that their services would be chosen for privileged access — give the ISPs more money to cut in front of everyone else, or cope with slow speeds and risk the possibility of being denied service.

Does that mean that the internet is unsustainable if we don’t put in tiered access to provide for the cost of infrastructure? The answer isn’t clear. While smaller ISPs tend to be hit harder by these rules because they don’t have the resources to keep up with the demand, established providers that supply most customers are able to do so while still making a large profit, and the average internet speed has actually increased at a steady pace after net neutrality was implemented.

However, if the costs of an open internet are as high as what service providers suggest, then it is an even stronger argument for the internet to be treated as a public utility so that some of the infrastructure costs can be shared by the public. Even in the unlikely worst case scenario where internet infrastructure needs to be subsidized in order to maintain net neutrality, the cost is still warranted by the benefits of unhindered internet innovators and equal access for all.

An open internet benefits everyone, acting as the road to the greatest asset of the twenty-first century: information.

We would lose an unthinkable amount of progress, innovation and freedom if access to information was hindered simply because it doesn’t align with the financial interests of a select few, or because it isn’t immediately profitable.

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Confessions of a retail worker

Photograph courtesy of Free-Photos at Pixabay

Clothes shopping is truly an interesting thing. I used to think it was as simple as going into a store, looking around, grabbing a shirt and then leaving. I never gave a second thought to the workers that offered help. The only thing that ever concerned me when I walked into a store was whether or not I was going to find the pants or shirt I was looking for in my size. But that all changed the day I started working in clothing retail.

So what’s the deal with clothing stores?

Let’s just say there is a lot more going on than you’d think when you step into a store to make a quick buy. I learned that being on the other side.

I’ve seen a lot of different types of people come into the store I work for. It is customary to greet them upon entering. The attitude of customers who come in and ignore greetings leaves a lot to be desired.

Don’t get me wrong; it’s understandable that some of the sales associates buzz around like bees and can annoy people who know what they want already. Everyone knows what it’s like to go into a clothing store and purchase their favorite shirt or pair of jeans. You go in, you zip and dodge around looming associates, make small talk to the cashier and then you’re on your way out.

It’s our job to help, though, so we do our best. If you are ever upset that this is the third sales associate in a row that has come up to you asking in a chime-like voice, “Is everything alright?” just know that the big woman or the big man is floating around the store, whispering in everyone’s ears to be on every customer’s tail.

For situations where customers are in the fitting room, there is an unspoken rule for etiquette.

The most important of those rules is absolutely do not leave a heaping mess of clothes all over the fitting room, off the hangers, on the floor and inside out. People who do this are the scum of the earth in the eyes of a worker. Everyone has probably done this once or twice. Nothing is more annoying than watching a customer awkwardly dash away from a room, only to find that when you get closer you see the disaster they left behind.

Some people bring clothes back on hangers or slightly folded to the fitting room attendant, which is nice. When that is done, it makes my job easier, as I can fold it right and send it back out on the floor. If you want to take your items back out with you and put them back yourselves, by all means, earn some brownie points. But if you’re going to leave your clothes in the fitting room, please at least fix it up a bit so it’s not a mess.

Lastly, if you ever go into a fitting room with a pile of clothes and leave with a shirt, I will smile to you on the way out, but you will disgust me as a human being after you leave.

It’s always important to find that one pair of jeans that fits you like a glove, so I’ll go out of my way to help you look for it. If they say that there is only one pair of jeans in your size in the entire store, we will hunt it down. If I have to strangle a mannequin because she’s wearing the last shirt in the store that you need, I’ll give her a good fight if it means that you’ll wear it when you leave. If I have to sort through the fitting room for that one top that was to die for, but you didn’t know how much you wanted it because you left it, we’ll get it. Just please, don’t make me work just to see that one item you wanted so badly sitting on the table when you walk out.

Some customers often have a lot to say about the types of clothes offered at a store. I normally prefer to be honest, at least in the good way. If someone asks me if I think a shirt is ugly, I will normally agree. Not every item of clothing in a store will fly off the shelves, and it’s probably for a reason. I’d rather make a real connection with a customer than lie to them and say it is to try to make a sale. Some won’t agree with that, but normally these customers come back to me because I was honest. Trust me, I will honestly tell you if that top does not go with those shoes.

I think one of the most annoying things about being an associate now is the promotion for store cards. Most clothing stores have their own, and if they do, good luck. I have to hear upper management tell us to sell them like hotcakes, and the average person doesn’t know what they are. Store cards are like credit cards specific to that store, and you get rewarded with loyalty points for shopping with them. In some cases you can either use it only at that store, or they are Visa cards which you can use anywhere.

The first thing I say to a customer — trust me — is not going to be “Hi, do you want to get a credit card?” It’s not my favorite thing to mention. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea sometimes and can help you save big. You could come out with four pairs of jeans for the price of one if you play your cards right. It’s just that, in my opinion, 70 percent of shoppers just so happen to walk into a store, and the last thing on their mind is making a decision like building credit. Some people don’t even have good enough credit to open the account.

We have to promote store cards because it boosts sales, but it always feels like I have to rip off or hustle someone just to get it. Not many people, whether they think it’s a good idea or not, will bite and open a card. If you’ve ever been hassled about opening a store card, chances are the sales associate wanted you to buy one more than they wanted you to save.

My golden rule is that customer satisfaction is key. Pushing things that people don’t want or need because it’s company policy shouldn’t be company policy. I interact with many people at work and hear a lot of different things. Some people say they need help and some people say nothing at all.

I think it’s important to greet customers, so at any clothing store expect a nice hello and a warm welcome. After that, you’re free to ask anyone for assistance. When associates shadow over customers waiting for them to say something, I know it’s very uncomfortable.

It’s even worse when every single associate in the store asks you how you are doing. It only takes one person — two max — to see what’s up. By the second person, a customer will say what they’ve been thinking about. When four people back-to-back say “Hi, how may I help you?” I wouldn’t be mad if a customer puts their clothes down and leaves.

Sometimes I feel like I’m being watched in stores and I hate that. It makes me feel like prey, and the sales associate is only talking to me because they have a secret agenda, which they normally do. Stores have a chain of command, and sometimes the people on the ground just have to listen to the higher-ups because it’s what they think is best. But then again, I think sometimes employees forget what it’s like to be a customer, which is weird. Customer service should be offered on a silver platter, not thrown at you like a football.

One last word to the wise: as a customer, please read the fine print. A store advertises in a fashion that is meant to attract customers, but there’s always some kind of catch. If you see 50 percent off on a sign, make sure you read the “up to” part, because that changes everything. If that shirt was 50 percent off yesterday and now it’s full price, don’t think someone will just price override because of a pretty face, and especially not if you’re going to argue over it.

There are positives and negatives on both sides of the table. Being a sales associate at the end of the day means you’re here to serve the customer because the customer is always right. As a customer, though, don’t abuse your power and pull a fast one either.

We’re all trying to make it out here, some trying to buy a shirt, and some trying to sell one.

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Adulting is Hard,’ take it easy

Photograph Courtesy of Paul Furtaw

The premise behind the new “Adulting is Hard” poster campaign at Drexel University is that life is all about conquering setbacks.

A Drexel University counselor has started the “Adulting is Hard” poster campaign to promote positive psychology and combat the growing stigma against college students seeking counseling for anxiety and depression.

Spearheaded by Dr. Paul Furtaw, associate director of counseling at Drexel, and Janie van der Toorn, a former public health intern at Temple University, the campaign aims to improve the overall climate of coping to help students realize that failure is a natural component of growing up.

“Whatever the circumstance — whether it’s personal, academic, professional — what we’re trying to do is help students be clear in their minds that attitude is more important than the setback itself,” Furtaw said.

Most college students manage a multitude of daily stressors, and Drexel students in particular have to deal with a hectic quarter system and co-op process that only further exacerbate their stress, he said.

Although many students are frightened of failing, they often keep negative thoughts to themselves, which can lead to anxiety and depression. The posters act as reinforcements to remind students that they can conquer anything, despite possible hindrances they may face in this challenging setting, he said.

“We don’t want students to lose faith or feel ashamed when they deserve credit for going after really difficult things,” he said.

Furtaw hopes the campaign will be preventative and ultimately enhance overall well-being while also decreasing the need for mental health services.

“Life isn’t all good stuff and you need the bad stuff to grow and learn,” van der Toorn said.

“What we’re trying to do is help people feel like it’s permissible to grow in order to be amazing and not just be amazing and never get to grow,” Furtaw added.

Both Futraw and van der Toorn stressed the importance of learning to cope and in the end, van der Toorn said the campaign comes down to empowering others.

She said designing the posters was an extensive process and — in addition to receiving input from Drexel staff and faculty members — she spoke to Drexel students directly to uncover common nuisances at the university.

With the help of two Drexel graphic design students, Annie Wang and Hanna Karraby, their visions became a reality. With four designs, the duo has already put out over 400 posters throughout campus in residence halls, academic advising centers and departments buildings, Furtaw said.

Furtaw and van der Toorn hope the campaign can gain further momentum. They plan to pursue a social media campaign and are currently crafting messages for an email blast. In the long run, they hope to ignite a true campus resilience initiative.

“There’s more to be done,” Furtaw said.

They have been communicating with Thomas Jefferson University to have their materials distributed to other institutions in the state, since Jefferson initially funded the campaign. They’ve also shared the final product with a suicide prevention group, the Jed Foundation, who is assembling a toolkit for best practices of resilience programs.

Developing resilience programs has become a popular theme among many colleges and universities, including schools like Harvard and Stanford, Furtaw said.

Furtaw and van der Toorn will continue handing out posters, which are available upon request, and they hope for a positive contagious effect.

For now, they want students to keep these messages in mind while they “adult.”

“Students struggle because that’s how we grow. Failures are opportunities for learning … and anything worthwhile, you have to fight your way through,” Furtaw said. “Once students have cracked the code in terms of how they can keep their determination or their positive mindset in face of great odds, there’s no stopping them.”

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How we’ve lost the war on drugs

Photograph courtesy of babawawa at Pixabay

Since the 1970s, America has been waging a “war” on drugs.

Operating under the premise that drug use can be curbed through the application of the criminal justice system, federal and state law enforcement agencies have begun to use more aggressive tactics in pursuing drug users, including surprise raids on homes and businesses, frequent deployment of military-style SWAT units and harsher punishments for drug use and possession.

In theory, this approach is supposed to be far more effective than harm prevention strategies. Aggressive police actions should cut off the supply of harmful drugs, while harsher prison sentencing, known as mandatory minimum sentencing, should serve as a nearly perfect deterrent to drug use.

Reality shows that this isn’t the case, and that all of the approaches above are flawed to some degree. In particular, mandatory minimum sentencing has been shown to be the least effective and most counterproductive of these drug war strategies.

Once a person is found to be guilty of a crime, there is a sentencing hearing, which in some cases can be quite lengthy. In simpler cases, this hearing could occur within a few moments after the verdict has been read. In more complex convictions, it can often occur days after the conviction and involve multiple presentations by the prosecutor, defense attorney and probation board on whether a lenient or harsh sentence is justified.

This is an essential part of our criminal justice system — that we have nuance to go beyond the determination of guilty and innocent when it comes to a crime because codified law cannot capture the exact nature and intent of every criminal offense. A universal sentence for each offense is injustice in and of itself because other factors also play into the gravity of it. Was the person a repeat offender or a first-time offender? What were the motivations? What is the risk of a repeat offense? These are important questions that a judge must consider when considering a sentence.

Despite this, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has signaled his intent to withdraw a memo from Eric Holder, the Obama-era Department of Justice chief, which allows federal judges to use their own discretion when sentencing low-level drug offenders. If this plan goes through, it will force federal judges to follow mandatory minimum sentencing laws enacted in the 1980s, which often feature harsh punishments for low-level drug offenders. This effectively removes the necessary and intricate sentencing procedure in favor of the “quick ‘n dirty” justice approach — default to the harshest sentence and most severe offense possible and make it a hassle for the judges to give a lower sentence, even if it would be more appropriate. It doesn’t matter if the person caught was a low-level dealer barely scraping by, or an addict supplementing his addiction by dealing on the side — they all receive the same sentence.

These sentencing guidelines have resulted in several unusually long prison terms and felony charges for offenders who would normally be charged with misdemeanors or put on probation. Selling marijuana, even a small amount as an informal transaction to a friend, can result in a five-year sentence and a felony charge, which often deters possible employers. Possessing over a certain threshold of hard drugs (which differs depending on the specific drug) is automatically counted as drug trafficking — even for low-level dealers and users with larger stashes. This issue is compounded by police departments using questionable methods and accounting to exaggerate the amount of drugs found, which can even result in users with one to two day doses being classified as “traffickers.”

The results of these sentencing laws are clear — half of the people in federal prison are there for drug offenses, and the number of people in prison has swelled from 25,000 in 1980 to 225,000 as of 2012. Of the individuals in federal prison, 35 percent are first-time offenders. When these offenders do get out, the prospects for them are bleak: unemployed felons have raised the U.S. unemployment rate by 2 percent. With treatment programs scarcely available and a lack of connection to the legitimate economy, it is highly likely that these offenders will return back to their old ways.

Our current drug strategy is inhumane and ineffective. Despite the heavy handed tactics of the criminal justice system, drug use is at an all-time high. We’ve lost the “War on Drugs,” we’re not gaining ground and we’re firing a few shots back while running away from the frontlines.

Portugal faced a similar situation in 2001. After facing a drug epidemic of unseen scale, they undertook a radical approach at the time: full decriminalization of all drugs, mandatory drug treatment for addicts and a clean criminal record for all but the most serious offenders. Along with a robust job training program, Portugal’s drug induced death rate has dropped to record lows, and has the second lowest rate of death from drugs in the EU. The Swiss undertook a similar approach in the ’90s, with similar results.

The data speaks for itself. Instead of getting tougher on drugs, it’s time for America to be smarter about drugs.

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Don’t let newspapers die

Photograph courtesy of Mr DCA at Flickr

My mom was perusing a copy of the newspaper that she typically buys at Wawa every week for $1 when she looked up from it and asked me a question.

“Why are newspapers dying? I really wish they weren’t.”

It’s quite simple. News companies are no longer making enough money to keep reporters on staff, let alone print paper in mass quantities that nobody will buy anymore.

In recent years, the overall circulation of newspapers has declined sharply, although digital subscriptions have been on the rise for big news corporations, such as The New York Times.

Technology has advanced rapidly over just a few decades, so people have taken more interest in going the digital route rather than reading from an archaic, giant piece of newsprint.

Digital news has made certain things simpler for newsreaders — information is more concise and convenient, since digital devices can be taken anywhere and they won’t slap the person sitting next to you on the train when you open them. Social media pages and articles posted online also typically provide an open space for commentary and discussion.

It also has not compromised the word-of-mouth aspect of news. Scrolling through social media is pretty much a one-person activity, but since social media is such a huge part of our culture, we are always talking about what we see on it.

While the internet seems to be a smarter and more convenient way to read news, it has negatively impacted how people perceive the overall credibility of the media.

Anyone can post absolutely anything online that they want and share the link with thousands of people, especially on social media. The stakes are not high online because anything could be added or deleted within a matter of seconds.

The epidemic of “fake news” has made more readers skeptical of where they receive their news. Even Facebook has taken steps to eliminate fake news and help its users identify it.

On the other hand, it is difficult to fix errors in print once they’re already on stands. Editors fact check and proofread several times during the copy editing process. Also, printing newspapers tends to be pretty expensive, so news organizations try to avoid mistakes as much as possible.

News organizations that once had lots of success in print have moved online and cut costs doing so. In 2016, The Independent ceased publication and became the first digital-only national newspaper.

The truth is that newspapers are fading away rather quickly, but this does not mean that the integrity of news can’t still be preserved.

Everyone could continue to support real journalism by being smart about the news that they read. Support credible news organizations and always fact check articles that sound suspicious before sharing them with others to stop fake news from spreading.

For those who buy newspapers, please continue to do so. Spending $1 or $2 for a newspaper may not seem like much, but if enough people do it, it may be enough to save a news organization from bankruptcy or prevent reporters from being laid off.

Digital news readers should turn off ad blockers when reading an article on a news website. Ads have become a huge source of money for news organizations. If they are not making revenue from newsprint, they have to get it from here, since accessing most news websites is free in the first place. They have to pay their reporters, editors and correspondents somehow.

I wish newspapers weren’t dying either, but it is up to everyone to support honest journalism and share the facts. Real news is still out there, it might just be more difficult to find for now.

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Steinbright works to decrease number of unpaid co-ops

Photograph courtesy of Free-Photos, Pixabay

A group of co-op coordinators at Drexel’s Steinbright Career Development Center are working with employers to transform unpaid co-ops into paid positions.

“We don’t have as much funding as we’d like,” Lynne Hickle, the executive director of cooperative education, said. “That led a small group of staff members here to start a grassroots effort on their own.”

The team, spearheaded by employee relations coordinator Maura O’Connor, contacts employers who do not offer paid co-ops and tries to get them to rethink the compensation they could provide to students.

“It makes the experience on both sides more worthwhile,” O’Connor said.

O’Connor had the idea when she realized that students across all schools within the university gravitated towards paid opportunities, so she wanted to give employers kind and respectful pushback. Spencer Grieb, Liz Schwartz and Megan Strouss-Rooney initially supported O’Connor, but the strategic initiative now fully encompasses all of Steinbright.

“It’s really about working with the employer to see what they can offer and what might meet the students’ needs,” Hickle said.

Hickle said the team has been successful so far.

“They have been making huge strides,” she said, explaining how so far, more than 152 individual jobs have gone from unpaid to offering at least some compensation.

O’Connor put together extensive training guides, manuals and scripts, and from there, Steinbright employees are on the lookout for unpaid jobs in the system. They then reach out to those employers and explain the benefits of offering paid co-ops.

And their efforts are not going to waste. Two years ago the percentage of unpaid co-ops was 25 percent, but now it is at 20 percent, Hickle explained, saying that they expect this number to continue to decline.

“We really try to do the hard sell to employers to try to encourage them to think about paying our students full-time,” Hickle said.

O’Connor explained how more and more partners are saying yes as they realize offering perks leads to increased applicants and overall retention.

However, not all companies have the resources available to provide paid co-ops, particularly many non-profit organizations. The team actively works with those companies to think of other benefits they could use to appeal to students.

“I would love for all jobs to be full time and paid but that’s not necessarily possible yet,” O’Connor said, explaining how pay is typically dictated by the industry itself.

If a company cannot pay a student full-time, they are encouraged to provide other types of compensation, such as free public transportation, free lunches or tickets to shows.

“We don’t want to deny any organization the opportunity to hire a co-op student because they can’t afford a co-op student,” Hickle said, emphasizing how important it is to maintain positive relations with employers.

This initiative varies from Drexel’s current corporate partners program, which raises money from corporations for unpaid co-ops and co-ops outside of the Delaware Valley region. Rather than pooling funds for eligible students, this strategy attempts to compensate particular individuals.

It requires a lot of manual work, but the team was willing to take it on, Hickle said.

“It’s been incredible. It took a lot of ambition and motivation,” she said.

Tracking the companies and specific jobs can be a tedious task for the team since everything is done by hand, she said.

The team also worked hard to present the idea in the National Cooperative Education Internship Association conference in April and they are actively working on improving the SCDC online system, so that students will soon be able to quickly identify compensation available instead of manually searching through job descriptions.

Students can expect some online enhancements to roll out this year, O’Connor said.

O’Connor said, “I would love to see the landscape of all higher-ed in all jobs be full-time and paid so that students can truly have a quality experience and have the longer duration to be there to contribute and learn and to improve themselves.”

Hickle also hopes that one day, all jobs offered through the SCDC system will offer at least partial compensation so that students can have the very best co-op experience. For now, she is just happy about what the team has accomplished.

“The proudest thing for me that this was generated by staff,” Hickle said. “Staff that wanted to support our students in a different, stronger and better way.”

O’Connor said, “We’re doing this because we really, truly care about our students and our employers.”

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