When I first started telling people that I was going to Penn State I was immediately met with comments about its “party atmosphere”. I’m sure if you’re a fellow student here you’re familiar. “Penn State is a ‘party school’, you’ll have so much fun”. The problem with these comments isn’t the comments themselves, it’s the fact that they’re true. Sure, perhaps they’re a bit exaggerated, and definitely generalizations, but they’re…

If you’ve ever been around a group of college students you will likely find that mental health is not a new topic for them. As I’ve continually mentioned in previous blog posts, mental illness is an epidemic, especially among college students. Now, I’m not a psychologist, but to me that indicates some sort of correlation. One of the greatest barriers to addressing collegiate mental health is the assumption that students’…

Rachel Letts Dr. Bodaski CAS 138T 3.24.23   Prioritizing Student Health:  Providing Curricular Flexibility for Student Health Emergencies   Introduction   Successful education, especially as it is on the collegiate level, requires well rounded environmental development. That means the anticipated expansion of knowledge and development of analysis skills. However, that also includes supporting the physical and mental wellbeing of the students we are educating. At present, while The Pennsylvania State…

Rachel Letts Dr. Bodaski CAS 138T 3.24.23   Prioritizing Student Health:  Providing Curricular Flexibility for Student Health Emergencies   Introduction   Successful education, especially as it is on the collegiate level, requires well rounded environmental development. That means the anticipated expansion of knowledge and development of analysis skills. However, that also includes the physical and mental wellbeing of the students we are educating. At present, while The Pennsylvania State University…

Serious question: You have a paper due tomorrow you haven’t finished, but you have to get up for class in four hours. Are you going to work on the paper, or go to sleep? It may seem like a trivial decision, or even a personal one. Maybe you’re thinking, “who cares if I miss some sleep tonight, I’ll make it up later”. I wouldn’t blame you, I’ve thought the same…

You wake up in the morning. What’s the first thing you do? Turn on the lights? Let the coffee start brewing? Maybe pop some bread in the toaster? Ok, maybe those things come second or third, but the reality is, they all require electricity. I think I can confidently say that most of us are heavily reliant on electricity in our day to day lives. Every time we plug something…

If you’ve ever been a student at Penn State you’ve heard about our meal plan. Perhaps you’ve watched the money slowly dwindle, heard the stories from your friends, or experienced the all too familiar rush to find a job as you realize that funding your appetite is much more demanding than initially expected. Don’t get me wrong, I understand that food is costly. People all across the world, those who…

Reflecting upon our group deliberation I think that many things were successful, while there were definitely areas for improvement. Some of our strengths, I believe, were sufficiently educating the group on the problem, and the current state of solutions. I also think that while it may seem trivial, our topic altogether was a great selection for this particular cause. Not only was it a cause that impacts the entire group…

For my Criminology class this semester we recently had a reading about the impact of mental illness on crime. The article mentioned that getting statistics exact about mental illness can be difficult because there is no clear cut definition. I haven’t stopped thinking about that. I’ve struggled with my mental health for a long time. I’m only eighteen. One of the most difficult problems I faced while struggling in silence…

As a Penn State student, I, like many others frequent the HUB on a day to day basis. Walking in the doors you may have noticed the sign that greets you saying, “Penn state is number 1 in the BIG10 in sustainability”. That’s great! Don’t get me wrong, being a leading university among our rivals in sustainability is not only a huge feat but also an important one. So whats…