As a woman, I understand the importance in sharing stories to help protect other women. No, I am not talking about going around and gossiping about what so-and-so are wearing, I am talking about the more serious things.

Whether you would like to believe it or not, women in this day are often targets of many crimes from purse-stealing to sexual harassment to abduction. I feel it is my civic duty as a woman to publicize stories of these events near me because with that knowledge, other women can further protect themselves.

I am not quite sure if men work the same way or not, since their situation is not the same as women’s today. However, I am interested to find out if the same thing happens amongst the male population of America or not.

I am sure some of you have already heard of the “organization” “God the Mother” that has been travelling across college campuses of the area. For those of you who do not know, this organization is posing as theology students who are looking for young women to join their bible study. Sightings report two or three women in their 20s or 30s doing so. They target women on college campuses, show them some bible verses that employ the idea that God might be female, and then ask for contact information.

What this group really is, however, is a sex trafficking organization. They are trying to ploy young women for personal information and do so through the contact information that they receive after the on-campus meet.

Currently, this is being blasted around Temple and St. Joe’s campuses because that is where they have last been seen. I do not mean to scare any of you, but they have already been here.

Last September/October I was approached by two women of the same age range who claimed to be theology students visiting from abroad while I walking with a friend through Pollock. I had no idea of what this group was at the time, however I did not give them my email or anything, but rather asked when the study groups would be at. (They sort of scrambled and said something along the lines of “Oh, Sunday afternoons…” …yeah I know, sketchy.) Not so lucky was my friend from East who did give her contact information, as well as my friend who goes to SJU.

If these girls had known about the group beforehand, they would not have given up any information and probably would have left the conversation right away. Luckily, they both know about it all now and are no longer going to answer any emails. Women who do not know about this and are involved need to know so they can protect themselves too, which is why spreading the word is so important in female populations today.

So, if you ever hear of any stories like this, whether or not you know they are true or false, I believe it is your civic duty to help other women/men by telling them and thereby preparing them for a situation that could arise.

By reading my whole blog, I’m sure you have discovered how much helping others (in varying degrees of ways) is a part of my daily life. I’m sure you’ve also noticed that my life is full of annoying drama.

Today’s post includes more drama, but it is about something that wasn’t my responsibility to help with, so I researched into a Penn State program that can help and will be helping in this situation: Student Legal Services.

This program was instated in 2010 at Penn State, University Park and has since been providing “Penn State students at the University Park campus with advice, representation, referrals and other legal services” (“General Info”). They pride themselves in offering many free services such as notary services, walk-in and pre-scheduled appointments with attorneys at law, legal presentations to educate students on various legal issues, and more.

Now, you might be wondering why I’m talking about legal services…

This past week, out of the blue, one of my two roommates (Rachel) for next year texted my other roommate (Sam) and myself that her mom wants her to live at home next year due to all of the troubles that she has been having this year. Being that we all signed a lease for a single-bedroom apartment for an outstanding monthly rent of $380 per person, I thought everything would be fine for Sam and I to just pay and live there without Rachel, but I was wrong.

My parents informed me that they already budgeted for $380 per month and there was no way they or I could afford to pay an extra $190 per month for the next year, and Sam’s parents also agreed. So, we told Rachel that since she agreed back in October that she would pay $380 monthly rent alongside Sam and I (and signed a legal document promising she would!), that she would have to do so, whether she lived there or not. Since her name will be on the lease until we agree to take it off, she is bound to do so. We made a compromise that if we could find a new roommate that Sam and I and our parents were comfortable with us living with, then we would drop her name from the lease, but reality is, it’s February and everyone that we would most likely be alright with rooming with has already found somewhere to stay.

Angered by our proposal, Rachel has decided to seek legal guidance from the Student Legal Services. She hopes she can simply remove her name from the lease and leave Sam and I to pay the rent on our own every month. I know that the apartment complex we signed with has had issues like this in the past and has taken people to court for similar situations, so I don’t believe Rachel will find any such way out without a court date.

However, I will leave that up to Student Legal Services to tell her, since she is seeking their help. If this situation reaches any further, I suspect Sam and I will also be taking the legal services up on their free services, so stay tuned for any updates on my experience with that.

“General Information.” Student Legal Services, Student Affairs at Penn State, 2017, studentaffairs.psu.edu/legalservices/.

Being a Penn State student, most of us have experienced the party lifestyle. We go out every weekend with our friends to some Frat house or an apartment, drink, and have a lot of fun. But what happens when something goes wrong?

We often don’t think about what things could go wrong on just another night out, but in reality, so many things can go downhill, and you’ll never know how fast.

Lingering over the heads of Penn Staters still today is the death of Timothy Piazza. How could such bright individuals as students of THE Penn State have ignored their needs of their friend and peer to the extent they did? Some hypothesize that those involved didn’t know the protocol as to how to handle the situation. Others blame their selfishness under Pennsylvania law and not wanting to get caught in legal trouble of their own. Maybe some could even blame that those students were too under the influence themselves to notice what was really happening.

Whatever you believe, I think there is definitely one thing that we can agree on: Piazza’s death could have been prevented.

So, today I want to discuss how we can be there for our friends when we go out, since it is our duty to our friends and ourselves to be there to lend a helping hand.

Since the Beta Theta Pi incident, Penn State has taken the initiative of educating incoming freshmen about what to do in a drinking situation, how to lend a helping hand, etc. etc. But, how much of this have you actually retained? The only legitimate fact I remember is the Pennsylvania law that if you call the police to get help, you will not get an underage yourself (sorry about your friend, but saving their life is WAY more important than protecting them from legal trouble).

Unfortunately, for me, the ways in which my memory was rejuvenated about the lessons we learned were through personal experience.

Recently, my roommate went out for a night with her close friends and I stayed in since I was sick. When she came back, she was incredibly disoriented and I knew something was wrong. As it turns out, she had the “spins” for the first time. (For any of you who have not experienced this phenomenon, it is incredibly terrifying and you will be nauseous for hours… its not a good time.) I made sure she felt safe, held the trashcan for her, and made sure she wouldn’t fall off the bed and hurt herself.

Even the tiny things like watching your friend when they are sick can make a huge difference for someone. Had someone even just asked Timothy how he was doing, maybe that night wouldn’t have gone down like it did. It’s up to you to do the small things (call 911, sit alongside your friend, make sure no one tries to take advantage of anyone else, tell them that they should hold off on drinking more, etc.), because in reality, the small things that you can easily do to help someone out can turn out to be the most important things in saving that person’s life.

As I mentioned in my very first blog, I was a part of many philanthropy style clubs throughout my high school career from Key Club, an international community service organization tied to Kiwanis, to Relay For Life, an American Cancer Society fundraising program. Relay For Life was practically my lover for the past six years. Come junior and senior year, I organized and planned the entire event along with four other students and adults. Needless to say, my life was run with helping others with cancer in mind; therefore, I was intent on continuing this massive part of my life.

In college, it is frowned upon to participate in more than two or three clubs for time management and personal sanity reasons. Already deciding that I wanted to be in the Planned Parenthood Generation Club, and Anthropology Club, I was left with minimal options to continue philanthropy on a large scale.

Penn State has a Relay For Life, but my heart was set on my Relay event back home, so that was not really something I was interested in. However, Penn State is famous for another cancer program: their annual dance maraTHON.

It was then that I decided I would apply to become a member of a THON committee. I ended up on an OPPerations committee! This committee is responsible for maintaining the cleanliness and sanitation of THON equipment and the Bryce Jordan Center, where THON is held.

So far this year, I have gotten on my hands and knees to scrub mats, attended a few fundraising events, and gone to meetings every Wednesday night for training and group bonding. Cleaning bathrooms and taking out the trash may not sound like the most wonderful job, but it is still essential to operation of THON, hence our name.

For those of you that do not know, THON is the largest student-run philanthropy in the world and is dedicated to raising funds for and awareness of childhood cancer. The event itself is a 46-hour dance marathon that happens over a weekend in February. It began in 1973 with 78 dancers raising about $2,000. This past year, 2017, THON hosted a whopping 708 dancers raising $10,045,478.44!

The mission statement of the organization is: “THON is a student-run philanthropy committed to enhancing the lives of children and families impacted by childhood cancer. Our mission is to provide emotional and financial support, spread awareness and ensure funding for critical research ― all in pursuit of a cure.” My committee kicks off each meeting with this mission statement.

I am incredibly excited to participate in my first THON this February. I will personally not be allowed to dance on the floor for the whole time, but I may have a chance to be out there and enjoy some time with some of the dancers when I am not on a cleaning shift. I will have to spend a few hours cleaning and moving tables and other items, but because there are almost 700 members on OPP committees, I most likely will not have to be there very long for each shift.

I do not mind doing the jobs I have been assigned as an OPP member, and cannot wait to make the Bryce Jordan Center clean and safe for the Four Diamonds kids and their families. If this sounds like something that would interest you as a Penn State student, I do recommend applying next year and making it out to THON 2018 if you have the chance!

For those of you hoping for another Sam and Matt explosion, I bring disappointing news. The two have not spoken to each other in weeks and it seems to me like we have reached an end of the era of their drama.

Because the cut off was so sudden, Sam has been taking everything very harshly. It is easy to just be there for a friend when they are upset, and that has recently been all I have done to help Sam. Matt, in Matt fashion, does not understand the situation and has just ignored it all. Needless to say, I believe they both have begun to help themselves and I could not be more joyful to know that they will both be moving on in the near future.

Now, there is something new to discuss.

This past summer, I worked alongside Elena, who is now also a freshman here, at Penn State. She went to high school with my boyfriend and is genuinely a very nice person. She requested to live in East this semester and was placed with a random roommate.

Unfortunately, this roommate situation is not working out for her. Elena is banned from her room every weekend because her roommate’s boyfriend always comes to visit, and quite frankly, Elena is terrified of him. She recalls experiences from he banging on their door in an infuriating fever looking for Elena’s roommate to hearing of the abuse in their relationship.

Although Elena would like to help her roommate get out of that abusive relationship, her roommate has no interest in leaving him. Elena feels that she is left with no choice but to get herself out of the potentially dangerous situation and move out before next semester.

My roommate and I knew each other from dance and we went to high school together. At first things were going fine for the two of us, but recently things have gone awry. Without going into too much detail, her life has become a mess since she and her clingy boyfriend broke up. I am no longer comfortable being in a room alone with her for extended periods of time and also feel that I should remove myself from the situation before something goes terribly wrong and takes me down with it.

Hence, Elena and I are seeking a rooming assignment together for the next semester. Both in an effort to escape our current situations, we are seeking refuge with each other. It interests me when in an effort to help someone else, I can also help myself, and vice versa. I guess that is the essence of philanthropy itself, because in giving you always receive.

What do you say to someone when they talk badly about your best friend? What if that person is your boyfriend? Those of you that requested an update about Matt and Sam… here it is.

As a recap, two of my friends, Matt and Sam, met through me at the beginning of the semester. After Sam and her boyfriend broke up, the two began “talking,” however it was made clear that Sam did not want a relationship. Flash forward a few weeks and the two were very content with their situation, and then got drunk together with some other friends. When Sam practically blacked out, she kissed someone else. After realizing what happened, she apologized repeatedly, Matt said everything was okay and that technically they were not dating so it wasn’t an issue… and then went back on that and chaos erupted.

In the past week, Matt has gone from accepting Sam’s apology to semi-ghosting her. Although I do not believe things will ever return to how they were before everything happened, I do wish for them to be able to settle things and stay friendly. So, being the helpful mutual friend, I have been intervening.

In my attempt to stay friends with both of them, I have been trying, and failing, to stay neutral on the subject. This is often a good tactic in situations like these so that you can help both sides see things at face value and possibly clear up their own views. However, I do side slightly with Sam on the current situation. I am not saying that what happened is not her fault or blaming Matt for all of this, but I do believe the way Matt has been punishing Sam for the whole thing is unfair.

Matt is hurting, and in his pain is hurting Sam. This really strains me because it is very difficult to help both of them when my scale on the matter has been tipped. In exchange, Matt has talked more about his personal feelings and issues with his friends (within which my boyfriend, Spencer, is included), which has been helping him a bit. So, in situations where you cannot help all sides alone, seeking help to help others is really useful. The number one rule in helping others is also to help yourself; if you cannot get something positive from the experience then you may feel it a waste of your time, and that is not the goal.

However, with Spencer helping Matt instead, Spencer and I have done some talking. Today he told me that he has never been fond of Sam and thinks it would be best if she stayed away from Matt entirely, for Matt’s sake. Sam is my best friend, and I therefore, like many other friends would, feel entitled to stand up for her when something is not right. In any situation, standing against injustice is the right thing to do, whether it is easy or not, and normally my advice would be to do this.

But what will taking a stand do for my relationship with Spencer? Stay tuned next week and we will see if there are any updates to be made, but unfortunately I do not believe there will be must else relevant to my blog that I can discuss for you all to take from this matter.

Lesson: if you can avoid having two of your friends date or talk, do it; it only causes tensions and headaches among all with friendly ties.

Philanthropy is defined as an act done for humanitarian purposes (“Philanthropy”). At Penn State University, the mention of this word almost always incites the thought of “THON.” For me, however, this word just describes my day-to-day life.

In high school, I was a part of many community service organizations from Key Club to Relay For Life. The experiences I had within these groups changed who I am as a person and helped me discover my passion of service in high school.

When I came to college, this passion followed me, but the means in which I was able to express my drive completely changed. At Penn State, there are many philanthropy clubs available to join, but it is discouraged for new students to join more than two clubs within a semester, at least until they adjust to the workload and relaxed lifestyle. After joining two other clubs of interest to me, I was left with no way of fulfilling this everlasting passion of mine.

So, I had to find another way.

This blog will be about my weekly journey with doing what I can for others and my advice in doing good in your community. Also, since in just about every other social setting drama does occur, I will also include the drama that comes with my philanthropic actions

In early October, I applied to be on a THON committee and had an interview to be on either the Entertainment or OPPerations committees. This past week, the meetings began and I am proud to say I made OPPerations! Our responsibilities within this committee are to help keep THON a happy and healthy place for all of the sick and healing children that will attend the event. Up until THON, we just have meetings and become a family (at least that’s what I got from the first meeting). I am very excited to see where this organization will take me and I cannot wait to share it online in my blog as well!

Finally, my friends Sam and Matt have a very complex situation. The two of them met through me as a mutual friend at the beginning of the semester. Sam has since broken up with her boyfriend from home and she and Matt have become very flirty. They have agreed not to date yet because of the delicate situation with Sam’s ex, but they are definitely extremely flirty and it is rumored that Matt desires a closer connection with Sam. This past week, Sam was very drunk and made a big mistake without knowing it. Being the good friend to both of them as I am, both Sam and Matt came to me to have their problems sorted out. I spent hours talking to them both and helping them make sense of the situation as a whole, rather than just from their points of view. As of right now, they seem to be almost back to the friendship they had before the explosion of drama, but I think Matt is realizing that Sam will probably not settle down with him anytime soon. My advice for this kind of situation is to help both sides see everything clear enough to make a decision on their own, but make sure that you yourself are not overwhelmed by having to deal with both sides of the issue.

“Philanthropy.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philanthropy.