As I waited in nearly a mile long line for Starbucks between classes the other day, some ridiculing student confidently rolled by and screamed at us all: “MY GOD! It’s JUST coffee!!!”

I glared at him angrily, what an idiot. It’s not just coffee, it’s Starbucks. It’s delicious… and it  is caffeine!

Did anyone move out of this line after he so kindly reminded us we were only waiting for coffee? No. Of course not. 1 in 4 students run off of caffeine at Penn State. Did I just make that up? Yes. Completely. But I am sure, based of my own experiences and observations that a good amount of us depend on caffeine to get us through the sleep deprivation, studying, and events we go through at school.

Is it healthy? Well a cup of coffee a day wouldn’t hurt anybody; it actually is known to have many benefits (thank you BBH 101.) However, 3 veinte iced coffees in a day could bring about an issue.

However the above^^ seems to be the motto for many of those nights before huge exams and lab reports (me this week for example.) Sleep sometimes has to be put on the back burner. It sucks, but it has to happen. So thank you caffeine!

http://www.theonion.com/articles/future-us-history-students-its-pretty-embarrassing,19099/

Ahh yes The Onion… satirizing huge issues today that clearly leak out the truth of the matter. In the above article (please read it; it’s short and entertaining) the author pretends to be from the year 2083, interviewing some students on the topics they are learning in their history class. The one issue that they focus on is gay marriage.

The students are “amazed,” “shocked,” and “astonished” that at one point in history, not too long ago (2013,) gay marriage remained illegal in the US as a whole. The kids could not understand how such notable senators and polictic leaders, loved by the country, did not believe in the marriage between homosexuals.  The kids called the people from the 2000s “dumb” for this blatant ignorance. They failed to understand how gay marriage could be nearly as controversial as dating one’s clone. (Lol)

The next topic this class from the future would be moving onto was “how their grandparents’ generation was too late to do anything about global warming.”

This article, though a little corny, is a great way to look into the absurdity of the gay marriage debate. We are reaching a point in in history where it is time to stop discriminating against somebody just because they love the same sex as themselves. Does a male hurt his country by marrying another male? Will a lesbian wedding bring strife and pain to the community? No. It doesn’t; it brings happiness to those in love who want to spend the rest of their lives together.

Many contest that marriage is such a sacred institutuion and we do not want to “disgrace” the holiness of it. Well celebrities seem to get married and divorced in the span of a year, a month, gosh… even a day (cough, Britney Spears, cough.) If that doesn’t give the sacredness of marriage a slap in the face, I do not see how two extremely devouted and in love people of the same gender should be denied the right as well.

The point of the matter is that there are so many more important things and bigger issues that have much more negative consequences if we continue to ignore them: global warming, sustainability, gun control, etc. Why should the country waste so much time on telling people who they can and cannot love when there are more pressing matters.

It is ABSURD that in this day and age, with all the freedom we are granted that gays are still discriminated against. The government has no right saying they cannot get married.

I was warned about the Freshman 15 before heading to Penn State, but I didn’t really understand how unexpectantly it could creep on everyone. Many girls go to school expecting to work out in the nice on campus gyms and pick healthy choices at the dining so we can look cute in our going out outfits, or maybe meet our future husband somewhere on campus.

However the reality does not always turn out like this little vision in our heads. The dining halls and downtown are filled with temptations: Creamery ice cream, Mac and Cheese and cookies from West, Chipotle, Taco Bell, and ColdStone. No one is around telling us to eat our vegtables or gasp at the amount of food on our tray. It’s all up to our judgement now, and that is a big change for many freshmen.

Even when we think we are making healthy choices, are we really? Breaking news was revealed on Onward State this week.

http://onwardstate.com/2013/03/25/not-so-guilt-free-zucchini-bread/

The labeled “Guilt Free Zucchinni Bread” is actually more than 1000 calories with 60 grams of fat. It’s a delicious treat that I always assumed was more healthy than grabbing bag of chips when in Redifer but now I am doubting what things are even real in this world!!

Also the average panini in Redifer has around 1000 calories… what. I always assumed they were somewhat healthy! The fact of the matter is that calories can seriously creep on you here. They are hidden and the unhealthy and “healthy” food around and it’s smart to get informed about the nutrition facts on campus.

For those students who used to play sports in high school: they no longer have those daily grueling practices.

For those students who choose to drink, add on all the calories added on from the beverages they consume to their normal caloric intake.

The Freshman 15 is no laughing matter! May you do you’re best to escape it or work it off 🙂

So basically I’m just editing and fixing my final deliberation essay.

Moderating Philosophy Statement

My individual approach when it came to be my turn in acting as moderator for our class deliberations developed throughout the process. By the end, I constructed my own personal approach that I felt comfortable with and allowed me to help carry out civil discourse between my classmates. The two things I tried to maintain through the discourse were an open discussion and to not let myself get overinvolved (remain passive) but if needed, lightly guide the conversation back on track or into greater depth.

A deliberation works best in an environment where all participants have a chance to talk and all participants must feel comfortable to discuss their own individual opinions. It is vital that the conversation is able to flow back and forth between opponents. Therefore, as moderator, to accomplish this, I felt it worked best by keeping the overall mood and tone of discussion as open as possible: This was accomplished by encouraging participation and complimenting certain aspects of their response, such as highlighting on some of their main ideas. Since an open conversation was the goal, I did not allow the group to focus on one side of the conflict the entire time, the discussion was aiming to include all viewpoints. Therefore, if the conversation became too “one-sided” I could intervene with a question such as, “Why do you think those who disagree with this do?” Therefore, the discussion would be moved towards other viewpoints and beliefs and spark the thought process of why others have differing opinions.  With an open conversation and atmosphere, controlled by the moderator, it allows all viewpoints to be respected and listened to and a civil discourse to have a greater chance at being successful.

My other main approach while moderator was to not become overbearing or heavily involved in the conversation. My job is to make sure everybody stays on tasks and is working towards a conclusion, not to talk about my own personal ideas and thoughts. Intervention is only necessary when I needed to refocus or redirect the group on a certain topic of conversation.  My comments could direct or lead the people to main points in the discussion, or get the people back on track after discussion. But these comments should not be overused and only used when necessary. The moderator should not dominate the discussion, just be dominant to make sure it stays appropriate and on topic.

I felt that I was very good at not intervening too much, but when needed I would pose the necessary thought provoking questions to make the conversation go more in depth or more on topic. I also was able to keep my mouth shut and not butt in even when I disagreed with the arguments others were fighting. It became difficult at times when the conversation slowed down and an awkward silence arose. As it is the moderators duty to keep the conversation rolling, on the spot, it becomes difficult to find the right words to say or the next aspect of the debate to approach right on the blue, especially when all eyes are staring at you.

Overall, I enjoyed my time as moderator. It’s important to gain skills in handling a debate rather than just being directly involved in arguing in the debate.

Civic Issue Forum Deliberation

As a whole, our class deliberations on the Civic Issue Forum on sustainability were successful. No voices were raised, no feelings hurt, and everyone listened to each other’s ideas with moderately open minds. By the end of events, most people in my group concluded that the best way to live a sustainable life for the future was through combining aspects of each of the choices.

To begin our deliberative discussion we first needed to create a solid information base. All participants were held responsible to read and analyze the Civic Issue Forum handed out to us and be ready to put the material to work. In addition to this, we also needed to find online articles, pertaining to the topic, issue, our beliefs we were discussing, that would further add to the knowledge known on the issues. In addition, the students participating were all intelligent young adults, with even more advanced knowledge on some of the topics from past classes and experiences. We next needed to prioritize the key values at stake. To start off, we went around in a circle and each delivered our own personal stake, what we felt was most important when it comes to the topic of sustainability. Most people had similar beliefs that this is an issue that can no longer be put off and we immediately have to start making any kind of change and be willing to make sacrifices so we can still live healthily and enjoy our home, Earth.

There is not just one clear way to solve the issue of sustainability and thus, it was vital to identify a broad range of solutions. Our broad range included three differing solutions: “Take Action to Repair and Protect Crucial Resources,” “Focus the Power of Markets and Technological Innovation,” and “Transform the Culture” (Civic Issues Forum). The first option focused on government regulation and pressure on to business to be more environmentally cautious, no matter what the added costs would be. The second option focused on reliance on solutions made by inventers, entrepreneurs, and the market to get us out of this crisis. The third option focused on shaping America with more frugal and altruistic outlooks that will ultimately lead to a healthier planet.  I personally believed the Civic Issues Forum did a good job in covering this range of solutions with the three topics. They condensed thousands of ideas into three options, which made sense, and were easy to read and follow.

Along with condensing the issues and presenting them clearly, they vividly pointed to the pros, cons, and trade-offs of each option: a necessary step in deliberation. For example when we discussed choice 1, we talked a lot about how added taxes on to gas could really help with conserving fuel, a vital resource. The pros are clear, people would waste less gas, drive less, be forces to carpool; however, the cons were clear as well, daily life becomes completely altered, people in economic difficult may not be able to afford driving to work and so forth. This is why it became tricky to reach conclusions in our deliberation. An idea or option seemed fantastic… until we looked at it from a different point of view, or realized what would need to be sacrificed, most of the times in this case our way of life.

At the end of all of these discussions some type of decision or conclusion needed to be made, and obviously the best one needed to be reached. In our deliberation we did not all agree and settle on one best option. Instead, the majority (I think nearly all of us) decided that the best way to sustain our resources was through combining all options. It’s difficult to make such drastic changes especially when the state of our declining environment is not tangible. Not just one invention can save us from this wreck, changes with our government, businesses, and cultures as a whole need to make big and small changes with regards to our environments future, This would be the most effective and painless solution. An example of why not just one option wouldn’t worked was highly stressed during our debate. Say, we discover transportation that is extremely fuel-efficient. If our culture obsessive on luxury and indulgence remains the same, we will still continue to waste resources in which we should not be. Maybe they overuse this extremely efficient transportation. This matter cannot be solved through one big change, but many changes of all sizes.

Many social aspects factor into whether a deliberation is successful. First off, speaking opportunities should be adequately distributed. Overall, this held true in our deliberation. If anybody had anything to say, they had a chance to. People were, for the most part, not cut off. If anything, some participants just had more to say than other participants, based off their preparation, knowledge of the topic etc. The moderator was used as a tool to get people who were slacking to talk. They would sometimes directly ask certain people questions, which was effective at getting everyone involved. As for ensuring mutual comprehension between the entire group, we slacked on this a bit. More than once group participants were confused by certain responses and would not know how to reply. This led to a little bit of a bump during the discussion and the moderator would have to get involved to smooth it out. Also, some people were not prepared enough for each discussion making it a bit harder for them to comprehend fully.

Respect is a major part of a successful deliberation. It is vital to consider others ideas and experiences while discussing your own and listening to their own.  Our group was extremely respectful. A group member shared his experiences in India, and the ways they go about sustainability in other countries. These broader ideas and individuals with different experiences really added to the conversation. For example, those who have been to Europe discussed how people typically walk places, and don’t have the issues we do with an immense need for fuel. Food is locally grown as well. We took these experiences and knowledge and tried to shape them into solutions that could fit the US. No fights were broken out and I can say as a whole we were all very respectful. They where minor skirmishes, due to immature and bored college students, but nothing that took away from the deliberation.

Overall, I think the deliberations went smoothly and were successful. My group concluded that the measures needed to be taken should be drawn from all three options discussed in the Civic Issues Forum, rather than just one. I think we were able to reach this conclusion because not too many people were highly opinionated on the issue, unlike a topic such as gun control. We were all educated and informed of the same information from reading the same forum, so we were not focusing as much attention on possible faulty Internet sources. I’d say for a small in class deliberation on a huge issue such as sustainability, this one was a success!

Online Deliberation

The online deliberation was an interesting assignment. Everyday we see debates and arguments on websites, twitter, Facebook, news sites, yet I myself, always avoided getting involved unless I was extremely passionate on the issue. I decided to fulfill my online deliberation on the Facebook group page made more this specific assignment. More than fifty English kids in our particular class commented, posted, and added their input.

I personally tried to make my posts easy to read, well written, and strong so I could get my point across to the others also commented on the issue.  I did not just want to babble and take up space and use people’s time. I also really tried to make them not that long. It becomes extremely tiresome to read a person’s ginormous comment. When you respond to them, it is overwhelming on what exactly to respond to since they mentioned so many different things. This then causes the discussion to become disconnected monologues, as others neglect to read everything that a person has written.

I personally, posted a question to spark deliberation on whether the drinking age should be lowered to 18 or not in the United States. I set the commenters up with some preliminary questions as moderator. However, once from there, the students took over. Each had many ideas and opinions on the issue. I believe in the first few posts it was extremely deliberative. People took into account other’s ideas, and agreed to them, added to them, or completely disagreed with them. However as the comments kept adding up, it became more of a separate monologue of various comments and less of a flowing conversation. That is the flaw of the Internet verses an in person discussion in which all attention is giving to the topic, while this deliberation was depending on how often one chose to check their Facebook. A productive deliberation would be one in which all participants were informed on the issue, reading all comments, posting insightful comments linking to the last ones, and reaching some type of conclusion at the end. I’m not too certain that this online deliberation could be labeled as “productive.”

Another reason I don’t think these discussion weren’t very productive because people were trying to hard to be deliberative and it just made the conversations awkward. People weren’t truly getting their main beliefs across as they felt it was necessary to agree and be polite and add on to what everyone was saying. Also, the discussions were very forced. People mainly tended to comment once or twice and flee, as this was just an assignment, not a full deliberation in which they had many personal ties to. Overall, the Civic Issues Forum was much more effective. Online deliberations cannot replace the effectiveness of being face to face in a classroom setting. People were forced to talk and confront each other, and some type of conclusion was much more reachable. In these Facebook posts, no conclusion of any sort was ever reached; everyone had given up or lost their attention on the topic by that time.

For the future, I think that, given the user is using this Facebook method, the commenter should ask the last two commenters each a question to insure that each extra post is a link to the previous comments rather than a separate monologue. Also, this online deliberation would have been a lot more exciting if people outside of our English class commented, adding to the information involved and to spice up the diversity. These two factors could lead to a more effective online deliberation in the future.

I am about 50% Irish and very proud. With reddish hair and millions of freckles, my Irish side of the family loves to show me off when we go to “McCloskey family reunions” or celebrate St. Patricks day together. Aside from reading childhood books about leprechauns, I have never really heard any tradition, mythological Irish tales. Therefore, it was very interesting and insightful to hear this storyteller from Ireland speak.

I really loved how she began her performance by asking us to call out names that describe Ireland. People yelled out green, sheep, drunk, leprechauns, lucky, baroque, etc. Her response to our stereotypes was that she would now show us the truer essence of her country through these tales.

So with her strong Irish accent and bright kelly green shoes, she proceeded to tell and act out a couple of the 150 so stories she knows by memory. Her stories dealt with beautiful god-like people, and hideous people, a king locking his daughter in a tower, stories of a midwife meeting magical spirits and love.

Her stories were not about four leafed clovers, and little leprechauns with top hats and red hair, they had more substance to them. They reminded me of the greek mythological stories a bit. It was super cool for me to hear stories my ancestors may have grown up hearing. I would love to learn even more about the Irish culture, from a non-american perspective.