For my Advocacy Project I advocated for Green2Gos. I attached some pictures here to show the table I had, some pictures of the pledge students signed, and a video attached that shows a conversation with 2 students and a presentation I gave at a student council meeting.
My pledge says: “I will do my best to reduce my food waste on and off campus by not taking more than I need and saving my leftovers in a Green2Go. I pledge to avoid disposable items and instead use reusable utensils and Green2Gos to reduce my waste. *write your email if you want to be signed up for Mainstream: Penn State’s Sustainability Newsletter*”
I attached a link to a video showing me advocating at Redifer and at Schreyer Honors College Student Council.
I attended a deliberation on 2/21 for Beth Parfitt’s class. My friend was on the deliberation team, so I wanted to go to her event and participate. It was about abortions on the basis of down syndrome testing. This deliberation was set up very differently than our deliberation. It took place in a classroom during class time, which I think made it difficult for students to show up to. However, it was a very interesting topic and I was excited to attend.
I believe only me and another person were able to show up because it was during class time, however I enjoyed the conversation. I feel like I participated a lot because me and the other girl were the only ones not in the class nor part of the deliberation team. However, I got some really interesting perspectives, and I feel that this issue is more of an ethical issue than my deliberation was (binge-drinking). I feel that most people have differing opinions on abortion, while not many people have differing opinions on binge-drinking (although there are plenty of differing opinions on how to approach it).
One of the things that was most interesting to me was the assumptions that people brought to the table. One girl said that a “perfect society” was one where no one had disabilities. However, I’m not sure that I agree. I understand that no one wants to be disabled and that disabilities (physical or mental) can be straining and difficult. However, I do not think it’s ethical to say that (essentially) getting rid of disabilities is the way to make our society better. I think that we learn a lot from hardships and from people who experience life differently than the average person. So I think that this conversation came from a perspective with the assumption that people with down syndrome are bad and unwanted.
I think that there were a couple of really interesting arguments made about how aborting on the basis of down syndrome sets a precedent for aborting for any reason. So if we allow abortions for down syndrome testing, why not allow abortions for those that cannot afford a child and then so on and so forth. Eventually it’s possible that abortions are legal for any reason. (That may be a good or bad thing depending on one’s views). I also think that there could be a precedent set of NOT allowing an abortion on the basis of down syndrome, ultimately leading to abortions in general becoming illegal. If you can’t allow an abortion on the basis of down syndrome, can you allow an abortion on the basis of other disabilities? What about monetary reasons?
I think what separates abortion on the basis of down syndrome from other reasons is the question of the quality of life for the child. It was a really interesting discussion to try to gauge the quality of life for someone with down syndrome, and how that differs from other situations in which a parent may consider abortion.
On February 22 I went to Jonathan Haidt’s talk “What Capitalism Does for Us and to Us.” He spoke at the Business Building tailoring his conversation to business students. Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He focuses on the psychology of morality and moral emotions.
Haidt talked about the discrepancies in how people view capitalism. As he explained, many people view capitalism as a giant vampire squid (complete with pictures), however others view capitalism and the most amazing part of America. Some people think that trade teaches everyone to be the same. According to Haidt, Industrial Revolution creates more prosperity, and the United States middle class helped create our economic system. Haidt mentioned how in the free market, you can usually only win by making other people better off. He said that capitalism was not evil.
Haidt discussed the differences between communism and capitalism in a “1948 experiment” which was when North Korea was founded. Haidt compared the prosperity of North Korea and South Korea, showing that capitalism was more prosperous than communism.
Another interesting topic that Haidt discussed was happiness. He said that GDP per capita is the best predictor of a country’s happiness. (Later he says that more money doesn’t always make someone happier, which does not agree with this point. During the questions section someone pointed this out and he said that he had never realized that contradiction before.)
According to Haidt, America is more divided now than during the civil War. He said the political gap is 36 points in 2017 while it was 15 during the 1900’s. This is a huge jump between those two time periods, showing how much America’s politics have changed over the years.
Haidt discussed tame and wicked problems: tame problems are like cholera where people can work on them meanwhile wicked problems are difficult and everyone thinks differently about it. The right knows the answer to our economic problems: lower taxes while the left also knows the answer: no more racism (although racism should end, that isn’t what the left thinks the answer is exactly to our economic problems…but that’s how Jonathan Haidt worded it). Wicked problems can only be defined by the background of people’s values. So it’s important to have diversity in values which leads to political diversity. Through this people can argue their way to a solution, instead of immediately agreeing with their partners and not finding the best solution. Haidt believes that people can only solve problems if they’re on different teams because there is some truth to both sides.
Haidt had a very interesting talk, although I did not agree with everything he said. I do think that it’s necessary to have diversity of thought, but I think that he was a little too nice to capitalism than need be. I don’t think he talked about the downfalls of capitalism, and failing to recognize its faults means a failure to fix our economic system. I think that capitalism could be improved upon if we focused on what its problems are, and that could help make all of America more prosperous.
Unfortunately this weekend I did not bake. My parents came up to visit on Sunday and I was busy on Saturday. However, I am planning on baking cookies this Thursday to thank my friend’s family for being so kind to let me visit in Virginia. However, that will be too late for me to blog about. So I wanted to reflect on this blog, and look at how baking has affected my freshman year.
I’ve always enjoyed baking, but towards the end of high school and especially now, baking has become an important part of my identity. I ran into one of my friends and one of his friends at the HUB this weekend, and his friend said, “you’re the girl who made the amazing cookies! Please let me know the next time you bake!” He remembered that, even though I haven’t baked cookies for weeks.
I’ve also learned that baking can help when I’m stressed or upset, but I can also get stressed about baking. When I make baking an assignment, like I tended to do with these blogs, I would get stressed and not want to do it. But over winter and spring break I’ve noticed that I wanted to bake more since I wasn’t baking to write a blog about it, but to have fun and share food with other people.
I want to encourage everyone to find something that they’re passionate about. People can hate baking and that’s totally okay, but maybe someone is passionate about sewing or knitting or painting or reading; the list goes on and on. There are so many activities to learn and pursue, and I really recommend finding something that’s fun, and a great way to relieve stress. I’ve found that I like baking so much because I can give back to others, and I think sewing knitting or even painting has that same effect! Reading can also spark interesting conversations and start new friendships.
I was having a conversation with a friend yesterday who is going through a breakup. He said that he wanted someone as a support system or someone to be there for him. But I think that that passion can be redirected to a hobby like baking or sewing or painting, instead of relying on someone else to make him happy. Ultimately, I think that we should do what makes us happy, and I highly encourage everyone to find what hobby that is!
I use baking as a way to relax and relieve stress. Baking helps me when I’m having a bad day. However, this week I’ve had baking on my agenda for my blog, but it lead to stress. Since I was planning on baking for homework, not for fun, I saw it as a task I needed to do and started to dread it. Since I realized that baking was no longer the fun activity it once was, I decided to not bake this week. I am planning on baking this weekend with my friend in my dorm, not specifically to write a blog about, but because she asked me to make carrot cake with her.
Since I have been doing research on the treatment of animals and how factory farms are very harmful for the environment for my Issue Brief, I wanted to look up some tips for vegan baking. I know that the chickens that eggs come from are horribly mistreated, to the point where many of them are unable to walk. Because of this, I want to bake without supporting these horrible practices (as buying new eggs or more milk or an animal product from a factory farm would do) and I wanted to share some ways that people can bake more ethically.
Eggs are probably the most important change when baking. I have recently used applesauce and bananas as substitutes for eggs. I also found that a new egg replacement is aquafaba, which is the liquid that comes in a can of chickpeas. One can of diet soda can replace two eggs, according to the Ultimate Vegan Baking Guide.
Another thing to consider is butter. Although margarine is a popular substitute for butter, many brands are made with hydrogenated oils, which are not healthy. Earth Balance is a brand to consider, which does not have hydrogenated oils. Coconut oil (substitute one-to-one) or olive oil (1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons is equal to one cup of butter) can also be used to replace butter, and they do not include these harmful oils.
Another tip I found is to take honey out of baking. I did not realize before that honey is not vegan, but if you’re planning on baking for someone that’s vegan, you should avoid honey. Maple syrup or agave can be used as a replacement for honey.
I’m really excited to try these tips out. In the past I have not noticed a difference in taste when I’ve replaced eggs with applesauce, and I hope to have similar outcomes when I continue to use vegan recipes.
This weekend was one of my best friend’s birthdays. Instead of buying him a gift, I decided to make him brownies. I thought that that was a fun way to celebrate his birthday, and also show my appreciation for him!
By now my friends know that when I start bringing stuff out to the kitchen, I’m going to be baking. Everyone hung out around the kitchen, waiting for my brownies to cook. Luckily they only take about 20 minutes to cook in the oven, and only about 10 minutes to mix together. So my friends didn’t have to wait too long (it usually takes upwards of an hour to bake brownies).
It was very easy for me to make the brownies. I simply used the Betty Crocker Fudgy brownie mix that I got from Louie’s and followed the recipe. I cracked open two eggs and mixed them together. Then I added a quarter of the brownie mix. Then I added 3 tablespoons of water. Then I mixed in about half of the brownie mix. Finally, I added 1/3 cup oil and then mixed in the last quarter of the mix. It should be thicker than usual, which makes it a lot more fudgy. I heated the oven to 350 degrees and then put the brownies in for 18 minutes. They came out perfectly; however I always recommend testing the brownies by sticking a toothpick (or in my case a knife) into the center and making sure it comes out clean.
So I did something a little different with my brownies this time. Normally, I use three eggs and make the brownies more cake-like. However this weekend, I decided to use two eggs and the brownies were a lot thicker. They were more difficult to mix, because it was more dry than normal brownie mix (with a third egg there is more liquid, from the yolk and egg whites, which makes the mix more liquidy and ultimately easier to mix). And I’m always concerned about undercooking my brownies, however when they came out of the oven, I used a knife to test them and it came out clean. These brownies were still very fudgy and a little more liquidy. However, they were not undercooked, just baked a little differently.
I had a lot of fun baking brownies, and thought that it was less expensive and more meaningful if I baked brownies than if we went out to get ice cream (which was the original plan). I would always recommend baking as a gift for someone; it’s truly a kind thing to do and anyone would appreciate home baked goods.
I attended the “Plastic State University: Reducing Single-Use Waste” deliberation on Friday February 22. Both mine and the other half of my class’ deliberations had a lot of similarities, including the size, almost universal agreement on the necessity of fixing the problem, and the set up/location of the deliberation.
Although both deliberations were on well known topics, single-use plastics tends to be treated as more of a scientific problem, while binge drinking is seen as more of a social issue. In creating an information base, it was more important for the plastics moderators to explain the science behind single-use plastics and eco-friendly programs at Penn State. Most people understand the inherent issues with binge drinking, so moderators for the drinking deliberation did not have to explain as much as in the plastics deliberation. The audience may have felt like they learned more from the plastics deliberation because the moderators had to create the information base that the binge drinking deliberation already had.
The plastics deliberation set up their deliberation to discuss a multitude of solutions, but the binge drinking deliberation discussed only three solutions. There was more creativity in the discussion of the plastics deliberation. Both methods of discussion fostered productive and informative conversations. The plastics deliberators discussion covered more topics, but the binge-drinking discussion was more focused.
In both deliberations the moderators made discussing the pros and cons very important. In the binge drinking deliberation students started discussing the cons too early in the conversation, but the moderators did a good job of trying to steer the conversation back to pros. The pros and cons sometimes overlapped; some people thought that the truth-style campaign, could be harmful and influence people to partake in embarrassing activities, while other people thought it would influence students to not embarrass themselves. So some people’s pros were other people’s cons and the tradeoffs were discussed (is it worth having this campaign if it may prevent some students from drinking, but may also encourage others to do embarrassing things). For the plastics, an interesting tradeoff/con suggested was that disabled people may need single-use plastics because it may be too difficult to have a green-to-go that they have to bring back to the dining commons.
The microphone made a difference in distributing speaking opportunities. Both deliberations took place in Webster’s and it was difficult to have a deliberation in a small space where it was relatively loud. I think that the microphone helped distribute speaking opportunities more for the plastics deliberation, because the moderators were able to pick who got the microphone and everyone had to listen to the person with the microphone. However, the microphone became too much of a hassle for our deliberation because of the cord and difficulty in getting it to everyone. Although I thought that without the microphone the binge-drinking moderators did a good job of distributing speaking opportunities, it was clear that the people in the front participated more than the people in the back. Most people raised their hands, and the people in the back did so less often. However, towards the end people stopped raising their hands, and on occasion someone would talk too much and it was difficult for the moderators to pick who spoke.
In both deliberations the moderators remained neutral during the discussion, while considering a range of ideas. In the plastics deliberation, for example, we spent a lot of time on the eco-coin. The delibertators built off of what others said, and many people talked about the eco-coin even though they had never heard of it before. It was clear that those in the discussion listened to what other people were saying, and had a genuine conversation rather than simply speaking for themselves. I think that this was also done in the binge drinking deliberation, especially when we spoke about disagreements between the community approach. The disagreements showed that students were listening and reacting to what someone else said, and then explained their point of view (deliberators argued over whether students will stop drinking if they see there are fun things to do besides drink, or if they are going to drink anyway).
In both deliberations everyone was respected. With binge drinking it was more important that people felt comfortable speaking about drinking or their experience with drinking culture. When one student spoke about Penn State’s Responsible Act Protocol, the deliberators did not judge her nor make her feel bad for sharing a personal story. There was no problem with respect in the plastics deliberation; everyone in the group showed that they care about the environment. To foster a good conversation, it is important that everyone feels respected. All of my classmates did a great job of making sure the conversation was respectful and productive.
During Spring Break my dad asked me to bake with him. I was super excited to do so. His only request was to have “anything with icing” so I decided on macarons. We would make the shells, and then while they are cooking fill them with icing. They turned out delicious.
I’ve made macarons once before, but that was in middle school. My mom basically baked them and I was just in the kitchen with her. But this time I worked with both of my parents, and all of us had a part in making the cookies.
Macarons are very difficult to make, but are extremely enjoyable when made right. The shells have a simple recipe: 3 egg whites, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1 2/3 cup confectioners sugar, 1 cup finely ground almonds. The almonds were the most difficult ingredient; they stuck to the side of the blender. I would recommend using almond flour instead of blending your own almonds.
Heat the oven to 285 (which is pretty low for baking). Beat egg whites until they are foamy. (This means genuinely foamy, not a couple of bubbles) Then, beat in the white sugar until soft peaks form. This means you can take the mixers out of the mixture and it will hold its shape. Then fold in a mixture of the other 2 ingredients into the wet mixture.
Using a bag with a small hole in the corner (or a piping bag), squeeze small disks onto a baking sheet. I would recommend lining the baking sheet with parchment paper to make clean up easier. Bake in the oven for about 9 minutes, and then let the shells cool.
While cooling, I made the icing. Mix together 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened, 3 3/4 cups Domino® Confectioners Sugar, 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. Once the shells are cool, scoop some icing in between the shells and make a cookie sandwich. Voila, you have homemade macarons.
Surprisingly, the shells tasted great on their own, but with my sweet tooth I loved having the icing in between the shells. I would recommend making macarons with your family; it’s a great bonding experience. And at the end of it, you get to enjoy a nice dessert. That was my favorite part of break, because it was an easy and simple way to spend an hour or two with my parents, focused solely on a really fun activity. 
One of my favorite TV shows is Nailed It. I love this show because it shows the fun of failing at baking. It seems like a low pressure show, where everyone is able to mess up without any large consequences.
Today, I felt like I was on Nailed It.
I tried a new recipe today; I tried to make funnel cake. The key word is tried. I was gifted a funnel cake maker for a White Elephant, and I was really excited to make something new and different.
There was a pitcher, metal ring, and a packet of funnel cake mix in the box. I borrowed a pan from my friend, and put the ring in the pan. I poured oil into the pan, and it was supposed to fill halfway up the metal ring. However, the metal ring did not trap the oil, so a lot of extra oil spilled out and filled up the rest of the pan. I used a lot more oil than expected, but I figured that that was normal, so I continued on.
I heated the oil for a while, and mixed the cake mix with water. The directions said to pour some of the batter into the pan, and then cook it and take it out of the pan. Then I was supposed to repeat the steps again (4-6 more times) until the batter ran out. However, I failed to read that part of the directions, and I poured all of the funnel cake into the pan the first time. It took a lot longer than 30 seconds to puff up and brown, and I knew there was a problem. There was way too much mix in the pan, and the oil did not cover all of the mix, so the top did not fry.
I flipped it over, but in the process of flipping had to take the metal ring out because it could not flip otherwise. It ended up a huge mess of funnel cake spread throughout a pan of boiling oil. I left it in for a while, and eventually gave up and just took it out of the pan. I poured it onto a plate. The cake, drenched in oil, tasted……….horrible.
I could not bring myself to ask my friends to try my funnel cake, it was a huge oily mess that was not thoroughly cooked. I had to throw it out. But, I learned a very valuable lesson: read the directions before you cook.
Unfortunately, this weekend was yet another no baking weekend for me. So, I decided to look at the psychological benefits of baking. I found an interesting article from the Huffington Post about baking for others, and its benefits. I’ve noticed that when I’m stressed out, I can bake and share it with others to cope with whatever is stressing me out. Baking reminds me of the people that I care about and how I can give them something to show appreciation.
The first benefit that the article cited was that baking is a creative outlet for people. I completely agree, because I enjoy decorating cupcakes and cookies. And when I have a finished product, I feel proud of my work and I think that it helps to have created something. Being creative is productive and helps create a stress relief for those doing the work. Especially since I have not been dancing recently, it is nice that I have a way to let my creativity flow.
Baking is also a form of communication. Similar to what I mentioned earlier, when I can communicate to my friends that I appreciate them through giving them baked goods, that makes me feel good and it helps show them that I care. This article explains that in many ways, food is an expression of love, and I completely agree with that.
Baking is a form of meditation and mindfulness, both of which help increase happiness and reduce stress. Baking requires a lot of attention; it’s easy to be consumed by the act of mindfulness in the present moment, and that helps reduce stress. Baking helps balance the small moments, of measuring things or following a step-by-step process with the bigger picture, which is the ultimate baked good.
If you give your baked goods to others, that can help increase one’s well being. It helps people feel that they’ve benefitted other people and done something good for the world. And, baking to some extent can be a sacrifice made for someone else (sacrificing your time and ingredients to make food for others), and this selfless act helps someone feel really good about themselves.
Although baking has all of these benefits, if it stressing the baker out, then the baker should consider another way to provide appreciation for their friend. Baking is not for everyone, and it’s important to recognize when it’s not for you.
