Public Issues Forum: Re-examining the role of the public university

Going into the public issues forum, I was rather nervous because it seemed so “official” and although I have deliberated in class in the same style, the in-class deliberation was so informal. When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not that formal and conversation flowed quite freely.

After being split into three groups, each group went off to a separate space to deliberate the three approaches. I feel like my group’s deliberation was really productive. We covered so many topics in such a short time, fluidly transitioning from one talking point to another. Although we started off with Option 1, we quickly ended up touching upon the other options   in our consideration of the facets of Option 1. Option 1 consisted of focusing on staying competitive in the global economy.

We all came to the conclusion that a holistic education featuring a variety of disciplines is very important for quality. This included classes that educate students on better citizenship, which goes into the second option, which is repairing an ailing society. Since this consensus includes a holistic education for everyone, we began discussing options providing access to such education, especially since tuition is so expensive nowadays.

At some point, we went on a tangent about the legitimacy of standardized testing in secondary education, and weighed the options on how to assess students for college preparedness. After the moderator brought us back to topic, we continued our discussion in terms of higher education. We spent a lot of time debating on the value of college.

One interesting perspective was brought up by a guy named Eli who had his own tech company since high school. He is in college now, but is seriously torn between his parents’ wishes to stay in school and his industry mentors’ cries to quit school and focus on his business. I’m glad to hear his viewpoint because it is so unique and rare to find someone who is pushing against the common mold, especially in an environment of Scholars and PLA members where the thought of dropping out of college would be abhorrent and nonexistent.

We somehow got out of that and moved on to Option 2. The moderator did a great job in terms of sitting back and letting the conversation flow, but sometimes, I feel like we really got off-topic to a certain degree. We never really discussed some of the points that were on the packet with all of the options.

We did not talk much about STEM fields or the promotion of it, but touched on it at some point. I think that’s because we all agreed that while they are important, they should not be promoted as the only things to learn. I feel like that was actually quite detracting from true deliberation because not all viewpoints were really represented. Of course, the goal is to reach an agreement, but I like thinking of deliberation as a learning process, almost an exercise, which is why reaching an agreement is not that important to me, at least not for the most part.

However, this deliberation had a purpose to it, so reaching agreements were high on the priority list. There was another nontraditional student in the group who attended culinary school and then ended up going to Penn State to get a “traditional” education, so to speak. He talked about how he really believes in the value of a liberal arts education, which is why he decided to go back to school and start over at college.

With that said, we did agree on that college is not for everyone, even though that is the societal path that American kids are “supposed to” follow. For most, dropping out of college or not going to college is inconceivable. Some people would be better off in a trade school or not going to college at all because the whole experience might not suit their needs and/or wants. The institution and the societal norm of going to college, as seen in Eli’s case, could be restrictive. In other cases, students are underprepared for the rigor collegiate learning and/or the independence of college.

I really enjoyed this event and hope that State College found it useful. One of the highlights of my evening was this elderly lady who gave the greatest one-liner of the night. During our discussion about the purpose of college and what students come to college to learn, she burst out saying, “They come to learn how to party!”

Nathan Wolfe: The Virus Hunter

As a member of the executive board of GlobeMed, a public health organization that hosts Penn State’s Annual Global Health Conference, I was able to not only attend the presentation Nathan gave, but have access to pretty much all of the guest speakers. Unfortunately, Nathan could only stay for the reception after his talk, and not for the whole conference, but talking to him and listening to him answer other people’s questions was quite cool.

For his lecture, Nathan explained what he does and the reason behind the travel aspect of his job. In order to detect novel viruses before they become endemic, Nathan goes to the sources of these viruses, which are often animals. When humans come into contact with wild animals, especially animal carcasses, viruses are transmitted from the animals to the human. From there, the human will spread the virus to other people via contact.

In his presentation, Nathan showed a lot of rather disgusting pictures of dead animals. Because his work relates to animal-human transmission, he often comes into contact with the ongoing issue of the bushmeat trade during his time in Africa. Bushmeat is the hunting of wild animals, often endangered species, for meat since nutritious food is scarce, especially protein.

Since I am really interested in learning computer programming, I thought it was really cool how Nathan’s team developed computer simulations that can track viruses and predict potential pandemics. This is very useful in terms of finding solutions to deal with problematic situations involving novel viruses and possible containment measures.

During the Q & A session after his presentation, the audience was quite engaged and asked a lot of good questions. There were a lot of Immunology and Infectious Disease Majors there, and a lot of them asked Nathan questions since he is the figurehead of epidemiology. One girl asked him why he did not test semen samples for this one case of determining transmission methods. That was a really funny moment because she was so demanding in the manner she asked that question.

Overall, I really enjoyed the lecture and had a good time talking to him afterwards at the reception. I am glad that I was able to be part of hosting this event, and seeing this to fruition was really rewarding.

Two Degrees: Peter Walters

On Saturday, the 6th Annual Public Health Conference continued, beginning with breakfast, and then some breakout sessions prior to lunch. Unfortunately, I had to “conference-hop,” so to speak, to three different conferences in the space of a day. I could only attend two of the breakout sessions before I had to bid adieu to the Global Health Conference.

Breakout Session II was one that I really liked because I had the opportunity to chat with the speaker, Peter Walters, the evening before during the reception after Nathan Wolfe’s presentation. He was a really cool guy whose marketing acumen and passion for solving world issues is very evident. The way he presented his pitch for Two Degrees, a social enterprise, was really appealing, especially when he talked about taking advantage of the business machine of consumerism to do good.

Two Degrees is a company that produces snack bars that are made with completely natural ingredients, contains low sodium, gluten-free, vegan, and GMO free. Moreover, they contain extremely healthy superfoods such as quinoa, chia and millet. For every snack bar sold, they provide a meal to a malnourished child. This is crucial because malnutrition during childhood hinders proper development, which prevents children from expressing their full potential going into adulthood.

Although Peter talked quite a bit about his company, he went into his background as a social entrepreneur. In middle school, he started his first business deejaying dance parties for his fellow students. It was very successful, and he was able to raise thousands of dollars to donate to various charities.

Then, he went on to talk about his primary venture in high school. He founded Concord Carlisle SafeRides, which provided rides to teenagers as a way out of uncomfortable situations. However, the main purpose of it was to prevent teenage drinking and driving because it is a given that teenagers will find ways to drink, but if they cannot get a ride home, they will often drive themselves, which is very dangerous for many people.

I really liked his relaxed style of speaking and his open personality. I do understand that part of his purpose of coming to Penn State was to market for his father’s company and try to get our campus to sell his product. However, his passion for the mission that he presented was genuine, and his creativity in finding solutions to problems was admirable, especially with his accomplishments during grade school. I think he was probably my favorite speaker during my time at the GlobeMed Conference.

Pecha Kucha: Another Way to Advocate

For the last two projects of CIVCM 211, my class was required to do video projects called “pecha kuchas.” “Pecha kuchas” are presentations that last 6 minutes and 40 seconds, with 20 slides that last 20 seconds each. This style of presentation was developed by architectures for a conference as a concise, fast-paced way to share information and fit multiple speakers.

Although it is primarily used in the creative fields as a mode of communication, my professor has extended its purpose for the class. We could advocate, persuade and/or inform our audience about a public issue. I am vacillating between my what I wrote for my editorial for her class and what I wrote for my analysis of a public problem. The former work was about the use of smart guns while the latter was for equal pay for women.

I do not know which one I am going to choose. My in-class presentation is not until April 18th, so I do have time to decide.

Even though Dr. Eberly says that we can use PowerPoint to do this and auto-advance the slides, I am going to use iMovie and incorporate some music into the standalone one. The in-class one will just be a presentation, but the problem is, whatever you say has to be timed well with the slides. I am really worried about that because it would be extremely awkward if that did not happen and it would take away from any ethos that I have established.

The primary advantage of a pecha kucha is its shortness and uniformity in terms of displaying artwork. Twenty seconds is plenty of time for the eye to view something yet not too long to bore the audience. While pecha kuchas are okay, I would prefer to make a short, free-standing video because then I would have more freedom in timing and adding more images to suit my script. I hope to be able to decide within the next week what my topic is so that I can begin research on it.

 

Yum, Yum, Food for my Tum…but Really.

Right after I work out, I decided that I like food way too much and that I’m going to indulge. Story of my life. Of course, I also like to cook and honestly, if my mom wasn’t so territorial about her kitchen, I would’ve done a lot more cooking at home. My love of cooking and food shows has not diminished by that. Even though it gives me major food cravings, I really enjoy watching those shows because I can empathize with the sensory experience that the people on the show must be having.

Instead of picking a more well-known, established cooking show, I decided to take a risk and go with CBS’s “The Taste.” “The Taste” is a show in which anyone who thinks that he or she can cook something to impress the four chefs on the judging panel with one spoonful, or really, a taste of whatever they are making. This includes everyone from home cooks to professional chefs to anyone in between.

This episode was the second one of the season, and the premise was that the judges are trying to pick four cooks for each of their teams. Coming in, some of the judges had already picked people, presumably from the premier, and now, they are just trying to fill up the remaining slots.

Overall, “The Taste” was extremely unoriginal, very much modeled after “The Voice,” except with spoons and food. Although there is supposed to be a fair chance for everyone, the judges leaned heavily towards professionals. To be fair, these people are in the industry, so they obviously knew what they were doing, but it would have been nice to see more than the occasional amateur being accepted. Otherwise, it is just too biased, and the so-called “equal opportunity” that was more present in “The Voice” (looks didn’t interfere with your singing), was noticeably absent.

There seems to be a rivalry going on between Malarkey and Ludo in terms of competing for team members, but like everything else in the show, it seems forced. The judges have very particular tastes, and while that is fine, it would be much more refreshing for them to take on someone against “their type,” so to speak.

As the biggest name on the panel, Anthony Bourdain was quite a disappointment, coming off as a vegetarian-despising, vegan-hater, and a person who doesn’t seem to be half as into the game as Ludo and Malarkey. Ginella, the female judge, was beautiful, but like Bourdain, she comes off as flat and boring. Even her British accent wasn’t enough to save her, and even though she was the only female judge, she did not add much in terms of that or even her experience. Perhaps it is too early to tell. Maybe as the season goes on, the viewer will be able to warm up more to the judges.

Overall, this show has not been appealing enough to keep viewers reeled in even though it is so early in the season. The only redeeming quality is the curiosity of what the dishes will be and the judges reactions to them. The samples are sometimes quite amazing, and considering the one-hour time period, those are commendable. However, it seems that desserts are generally unacceptable, and savory dishes tend to dominate, which is rather unfair because desserts can certainly be culinary works of art and definitely a high-end gastronomic experience.

After one taste, I have had enough. “The Taste” was not appetizing and honestly, my face looked very much like this at the end. If I was to continue to watch it, it would be for the contestants and out of curiosity about the food due to my culinary interest, but since I don’t have to, I would not recommend this to a viewer looking for someone of this genre. Perhaps next week’s fare will improve.

LatiNO?

A common problem in the United States is that anyone of Hispanic or Latin American descent is called “Mexican.” This is extremely offensive because first of all, not everyone is from Mexico. Second of all, in the U.S., “Mexican” is often used in a derogatory manner due to the problem with illegal immigration, border issues, and the general lower socioeconomic status of Mexicans, Hispanics and Latin Americans.

With the election of new Pope, who hails from Argentina, many people, especially those who consider themselves among the Latino community, are wondering what the definition of “Latino” or “Latina” is.

As with all cultural and racial identity issues, the line is is very indistinct, if there is even a line at all. Is there? I feel like it’s more of a sea of gray, with many shades, almost like a monochomatic color line.

Pope Francis, or Jorge Mario Bergoglio, is ethnically Italian, with Italian parents. However, he was born in Argentina, which is comprised of a diverse mix of ethnicities all blended into one. Issues dealing with definitions of culture, race, and/or ethnicity are often very complicated, taking many perspectives into account.

The primary points of contention are whether geography of birth, the sharing of culture or the ethnicity of the person fits the definition of “Latino.” In the U.S., the term “Latino” generally those of Spanish, African or Native American descent, often a blend of all three or at least two of those categories. Since Pope Francis is of Italian descent, some people are confused as to why he is considered “Latino.”

However, many people from Argentina and/or South America would argue that he is definitely Latino since he was born in Latin America, and he shares its culture, language and history.

Arguably, that could also be for attention and a point of pride because it is unprecedented for a pope to be from Latin America, and now that there is one, people want to be identified to share that ethnic definition with him.

However, there is also the term “Hispanic” to consider. According to the accurate source that is Wikipedia, the definition of “Hispanic” usually denotes a relationship to Spain or basically the region of ancient Hispania, located on the Iberian Peninsula.

However, it could also have the connotation of Latin American countries that were once colonized by Spain, which gives this term a sense of imperialism.

The term “Latino” itself is also imperialistic, derived from when France was challenging the dominance of Spain and Portugal in the Americas, so it wanted to redefine the region as connected to all Latin-based languages.

Interestingly enough, it’s really much of a bigger deal here in the U.S. rather in Latin America itself. People there tend to identify themselves by their individual countries of origin. For example, Pope Francis would say he is Argentinian because he is from Argentina.

Scholars say that there is even a difference between “Latino” and “Latin American” just because of the nuances of its usage and meaning. “Latino” designates anyone who is  of Latin American descent in the United States, although it could be used for other countries. “Latin American” is used in the U.S. to describe those who come from Latin American countries, although ironically, they themselves don’t use the term.

In the end, does this all really matter? The concept of racial and ethnic identity is convoluted enough as it is, and based on the minute differences between the three terms “Latino,” “Hispanic” and “Latin American,” it just becomes really confusing.

Honestly, I believe people should be able to identify themselves as whatever they want. Biologically, we are all the same, and race is purely a social construct. Ethnicity, perhaps not as much, but still socially-based.

That’s my two cents about diversity. It exists, it’s political, it’s social, but at the end of the day, we’re all human.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/readers/2011/07/latino-preferred-over-hispanic-in-most-cases.html

http://news.yahoo.com/pope-revives-latino-134354010.html

Public Issue Brief

For this week’s Work-In-Progress, I think I am going to go with gun control as the topic of my issue brief. For the online deliberation portion of the last assignment, Dr. O’Hara actually brought up gun control, and through some digging, I think I have found a potential measure that can be part of the solution.

In New Jersey, there is legislation for smart guns, which are currently in development. Smart guns are biometrically tailored to the owner, meaning that no one but the owner can use it. Combined with other measures such as perhaps limiting military-grade weapons (that will have to be defined, somehow) and taking tests to obtain a license, the problem may be ameliorated. Also, the approach of improving mental health care access, quality and research is becoming ever more important.

I feel like innovation as an approach, combined with other public and legislative practices is unique in the sense that it is not really discussed. Very much like the sustainability deliberation on the three approaches, using implementing multiple solutions is probably the best way to go about it.

Otherwise, I could talk about healthcare reform in terms of health, economics and/or reimbursement. Doctors are currently going bankrupt because they would take on patients, offer treatments that sometimes can be expensive, but never get paid for it. As a nation, we have the most expensive healthcare system yet the people are unhealthy. A solution that should honestly be gaining more ground is primary care. However, that’s not a popular option for doctors because they do not make much money nor have many opportunities in career advancement.

The Walking Dead…are Alive!

As someone who is usually rather unaffected by the horror genre, I always wonder what my “scare limit” would be. Which movie or television show will finally give me chills up my spine and goosebumps on my arms? I was thinking that The Walking Dead might do that, since it has been branded as an acclaimed horror show.

The Walking Dead is a show set in a dystopic era after a zombie epidemic ravages the human population. The main protagonist, County Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) finds himself utterly alone after waking up from a coma. This show tells the story of the weeks and months that follow after the apocalypse, highlighting the personal struggles of Rick as well as other members of the supporting cast.

In the mid-season premiere, two brothers, Merle and Daryl Dixon are forced to fight for their lives in the town of Woodbury. Daryl is part of a group led by Rick consisting of Hershel, Carl, Maggie, Carol and Glenn. Michonne is there as well, but from what it seems, only temporarily.

This episode seemed to appeal to pathos, focusing more on the relationships among all of the characters. There was quite a bit of dialogue and not so much action, although the little action that was there helped develop the story. I guess the episode that I stumbled upon just happened to be rather uncharacteristic of the show as a whole.

I thought that the actors did a good job with the portrayals of their characters. It wasn’t shallow or fake. Each character showed a lot of depth and investment in each scene through the timing of the dialogue, the gestures and everything that comprises acting.

Obviously, the make-up and sets were, considering how compellingly real they were. The zombies were gruesomely realistic and they did not hold back on showing bloody scenes.

One scene I found notable was the suspenseful moment of when the two of the visitors of the prison were contemplating killing Carl, the little boy (Rick’s son) and Carol. The other two were arguing against it and trying to stop them. It reached to almost a breaking point of when the two were just about to make their move. Being held in that moment was rather nerve-wracking because of the mixed tensions of not knowing the outcome and in my case, rooting for Carl.

Since I probably watched an oddball episode, I will be sure to check this out again in the future and see it as a more “scarier,” action-based time. Otherwise, a good show worth watching.