July 2010 Archives

"Only a life lived for others is worthwhile" Albert Einstein

I pose this question after just returning from the CIC Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP) conference held at The Ohio State University from 7/22-25/2010. This event is part of the capstone experience for some 464 students who have participated in an eight-week research internship attracting students in numerous disciplines who aspire to graduate study. The goal of SROP is to increase the number of students from underrepresented groups who will enroll and seek graduate degrees at CIC universities. Penn State University had a cohort of 31 students participating in this activity. There were three students from the College of the Liberal Arts in the aforementioned group. During the conference I met four other Penn State students participating in SROP at University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Ohio State University. These students participated in poster sessions and discussion roundtables; networked with faculty and SROP alumni; and attended a recruitment fair.

We had the opportunity hear Astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History in New York as the keynote speaker. He shared his experiences as a young person growing up in New York. His early passion to understand and study the universe was a driving force directing his achievements. He is a frequent guest on the Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and hosts PBS's show NOVAscienceNow.

These SROP participants have a leg up on the process of getting admitted to graduate schools because they have shown the initiative, commitment, and the desire to make a difference by engaging in the research process. Some of these students will continue to be involved in research when they return to their home institution. Over 59% of these students will graduate by fall 2011 with GPAs of 3.4 or above.

If you have not been involved in research, you should consider connecting with the faculty in your major this fall to open this new vista. Check with your advisor or faculty to learn more about research experiences in your major.

Take a look at some of the photos taken at the CIC Summer Research Opportunities conference:

As I begin to wrap up my internship inside the beltway at the Council of the Americas, I thought it would be poignant to reflect on my Washington D.C. experience. Not to echo the excellent post by Mr. Glazier, but I truly believe every student interested in the American political process should pursue spending a summer working in DC.

I feel extremely fortunate to have spent my summer as an intern living in DC. During my short stay, I have had the opportunity to visit and attend events at many places I had previously read about only in newspapers, including the Department of State, National Press Club, and the inner sanctum of the Capitol Building. The food is great, the museums and monuments are all free, and you're more likely to walk past a democratically elected member of the United States Congress on the sidewalk than you'd think. After work, I often find myself reticent to resign to my meager accommodations, preferring to explore the city's sights or indulge in some cheap ethnic cuisine.

Despite all of this, the most rewarding aspect of my time spent in DC has been the other interns I've met. Amongst the executives, ambassadors, and Congressmen that litter Washington DC exists a behind-the-scenes network of students, filling summer internship quotas annually. These students often forgo lucrative opportunities at Fortune 500 companies for a chance to be a part of the massive political machine here in Washington DC. The city shoulders the collective ambition of these college students, which number in the tens of thousands.

Even if traditional politics is not your cup of tea, advocacy organizations tailored to every special interest under the sun have set up shop in Washington, ensuring that their membership's collective voice is heard in Congress. For the skeptics among LAUS' readership, even more traditional college staples, such as beer or video games are readily represented inside the Beltway.

During my time here, I've met students spanning all walks of life, from "faraway" places such as Arkansas, Kansas, and Hawaii. These students begin their experience as political science, economics, history, and philosophy students, and finish their summer as veritable jack-of-all-trades, armed with the ability to readily shift from receptionists, to letter writers, to excel masters, and beyond. Occasionally, we have congregated at a think-tank briefing or a Congressional hearing, networking and sharing our common experiences and stories on a lark.

A notable example comes from a fellow intern whom I met during my time here in DC, Bill. Bill was transformed from a wide-eyed North Dakotan Senate intern into a tour guide extraordinaire; whisking constituents across the pristine halls of the Capitol Complex's various buildings, providing interesting facts and historical anecdotes with the wisdom of a seasoned professional. I know this because I had the privilege of taking a tour with him on one of my days-off. His constituents were shocked to hear that this was his 6th week on the job, remarking that they would have guessed he'd been working with the Senator for at least 2 years.

As I pack my bags and look towards my return to campus, I have amassed a sizable rolodex (not a real one, I assure you) of fellow interns with interests and career aspirations that truly run the gamut. I have no doubt that I will be reading about some of my new acquaintances in magazines and newspapers in the coming years.

In closing, I'd like to express an utmost endorsement for the internship experience. I recognize my employer's patience and humility to take on an inexperienced 20-year-old college student, and I can only express appreciation for their time and guidance.

A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to attend the third annual Learning Design Summer Camp (LDSC), hosted by Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State. The goal of this event is to create a platform that brings together staff, faculty, instructional designers, and other professionals to share ideas and discuss topics related to technology and higher education.

As most of you are aware, this past spring, Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies began to implement a variety of social media in the daily functioning of our office. Our ultimate goal for these technologies was and is to create a community centered on the Liberal Arts undergraduate experience. (To read more about the trials and tribulations, hopes and fears, lessons learned etc. that have accompanied our exploits into the world of social media, see our blog post "Hacking the Liberal Arts"). The Learning and Design Summer Camp was a welcomed opportunity to meet with representatives across the campus and throughout Penn State at large who are thinking through similar issues.

As more and more universities begin to use social media and technology, the main questions seem to be: is this kind of technology truly beneficial within higher education and if so, what is the best way to implement these technologies? The key note speaker of LDSC, Sam Richards, professor of Sociology and Race Relations Project co-director, helped to show how students' educational experiences can be positively impacted by this kind of technology. Everyone should watch the trailer of his SOC 119 course just to get a glimpse of the kind of dialogue and the level of engagement that he is able to generate in this project.

Later in the day, I was also able to attend a breakout session titled "Undergraduate Education Technology Ecosystem @ Penn State " led by Bart Pursel, researcher and consultation specialist for the Schreyer Institute for Teaching and Excellence. In this session, Bart showed us some of the recent research he had collected on the use of wikis and blogs at Penn State. Basically, he broke down data collected about the users of these platforms. He looked at student profiles, faculty user rates, colleges and departments making pedagogical use of these technologies, and the university-wide adoption rate as well. You can find the actual content of this presentation at The Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence blog. It was interesting to see that statistics related to the College of the Liberal Arts consistently ranked somewhere in the middle and even sometimes near the top. This is not to say that our numbers were all that impressive across the board. But it is important to note that because we are one of the biggest colleges at University Park, we seem to have a great deal of potential for growth within all of these categories.

Overall, the Learning Design Summer Camp was an extremely positive experience. It is always helpful and refreshing to meet with colleagues who are interested in and experimenting with similar initiatives. Indeed, as our office continues to strive to create the online community we are hoping for, it is nice to be reminded that this group of colleagues, on which we can rely, exists right here on campus.

Washington is great. 

Moore building construction has been underway since June 7. Actually, we don't see much construction yet. Constructing and renovating buildings are activities governed by a variety of federal, state, local, and university regulations, and a good deal of the preparatory work going on on-site now is in response to that.

Asbestos was widely used in floor and ceiling tiles in the late 1960s when Moore was built. Later deemed a hazardous substance, asbestos removal is covered by federal regulations. Asbestos in place (contained in intact floor tiles, for example) is not considered a threat to human health, but it is considered a threat if the tiles are broken or corroding. That can release asbestos fibers into the air. These fibers are quite dangerous because they embed themselves in the lungs, thus increasing the probabilities of lung cancer and other serious lung diseases. So when buildings containing asbestos are demolished, material containing asbestos must be carefully removed by workers wearing masks and protective clothing before walls, ceilings, and floors can be broken up and destroyed.

That is what has been going on in Moore for the past month or so. All asbestos-containing materials are being removed, floor by floor. At the same time, workers are also removing the boilers, pipes, and other infrastructure in the building. In fact, if you walk past the Moore site, you can see through the building on the first floor where the wall was opened to remove large items.
In terms of university regulations, one of interest is the protection of trees. Though trees have to be removed in most construction jobs, the university does attempt to save as many mature trees as possible. Saving trees was a topic that occurred periodically in meetings planning the building. We particularly prize "heritage trees," those larger and older. Thus, you will see a fence around a large oak tree to the west of the North wing to keep construction equipment away from the tree and its roots.

Work on the west side of the building under the alley that runs between Moore and Nittany parking garage continues. Workers have been laying utility pipes that will carry water and chilled water into the building and sewage from the building. This work has been complicated by several sinkholes that have emerged. Central Pennsylvania is conducive to sinkholes because of the limestone foundations under the soil. Fixing the sinkholes has meant redoing some of the work and is slowing that part of the project. The plan is to be able to reopen the alley before the commencement of the fall semester.

In episode 11 of Liberal Arts Voices, Schreyer Honors College Dean Brady and Onward State founder and publisher Davis Shaver join Dean Long, Heather Summerlin, and Jillian Balay to discuss issues related to web identity and social media.

As more and more schools, businesses, and individuals are using social networks, managing one's web identity is becoming an increasingly central debate. The group considers how web identity relates to the public, private, and professional divides.

Reflecting on their own personal and professional experiences, the group considers a variety of questions and topics that arise. Is it better to keep one's personal and professional identities completely separate? Should one maintain a singular web presence? What information is appropriate to share? With whom? And how? How is one's web identity shaped by being a representative of an institution like Penn State? What responsibilities do we have as students, professors, or administrators in this online landscape? How can we navigate personal and institutional identities? How are personal and professional relationships affected in these social networks?

Join the conversation and share your thoughts by listening to:

Liberal Arts Voices: Episode 11

To subscribe to Liberal Arts Voices through iTunes, click here.

We encourage all of our listeners to write to us with comments, questions, or suggestions at laus@la.psu.edu. We may even respond to these comments on the next episode of Liberal Arts Voices.

Visit Dean Long's blog to see how the initial discussion of online identity got started.

Also, make sure to follow @LAUSDeanLong, @shcdean, @OnwardState, and @LAUSatPSU on Twitter.

As I began the ninth week of my internship, I thought back to all of the new experiences I have had just trying to get to work every day. I've commuted via the metro, I've commuted by bus, and, more recently, I've been driving into the city when parking is available. I've learned that the left side of the metro escalator is reserved for those who plan to walk (or run as I've done before to catch my evening bus). I've learned that yellow traffic lights indicate that traffic should speed up. I've also learned that traffic patterns are absolutely unpredictable. Much of this is new to me, however, the valuable learning begins when I arrive at Capitol Associates, Inc. each day.

On an average day, I work on summarizing Federal Register notices into memos for clients. Federal Register is the daily publication of rules, proposed rules, and notices of the Federal agencies and organizations. In summarizing the notices, I have learned about our bureaucratic system, the paperwork burdens, and also how we, as citizens, have opportunities to become involved in the activities of the Federal government. Most often, I am working with notices of proposed or final rules, collection of information proposals, or meeting notices. Each Federal Register notice that I have come across so far has provided instructions for public comments, and often, a designated time period for comments is required. As citizens, our voices can be heard by these agencies and organizations by submitting our thoughts on their given action.

On some occasions, I attend briefings, which for the most part are in regards to the health care reform law. I have attended health care briefings from a wide range of view points--conservatives', liberals', doctors', small business', community health centers', etc. I am by no standard an expert on the health care reform, but I have had the opportunity to hear many sides of the argument regarding this historic piece of legislation. The law calls for as many as 540 provisions and will take years to fully enact. If you are curious as to how the law will affect you, you can now check out the recently released website at http://www.healthcare.gov/.

My internship is teaching me life lessons that I will carry with me forever. I spent most of my elementary and secondary education learning about the United States government and its three branches, as most students have. However, there is something about working in Washington, DC that brings those textbook pages to life. As Liberal Arts students, we are taught to question those who have come before us and encouraged to use our knowledge and enlightenment for the betterment of society. I think each of us has a responsibility to know our Congressman, vote in elections, and understand the current political issues at hand. As much as I have heard complaints that the Federal government has lost touch with its constituents, I think we have lost our sense of responsibility. We are fortunate enough to live in a country where our voices can be heard, yet how many of us take advantage of this freedom?

Co-authored by Jillian Balay

At the beginning of the spring 2010 semester, Liberal Arts Undergraduate Studies launched what we like to call our "social media empire": our LAUS blogs, our Facebook and YouTube pages, our Twitter and Flickr accounts, and our Liberal Arts Voices bi-weekly podcast. Our hope was to create a community around the Liberal Arts undergraduate experience, with our students, staff and faculty as co-authors; we wanted our contributors to share a sense of ownership of the community. Six months later, as part of the Hacking Pedagogy project, we're reflecting on what this ongoing effort has taught us about the power and challenges of using social media in a higher education setting.

Traditionally, we have seen ourselves--and have been seen by others--as a unit providing services and resources to undergraduates throughout the college. We assisted students by pushing out information, answering questions, advising in a one-on-one setting, and interpreting policies. Over time, however, we noticed that many students in the College of the Liberal Arts did not truly identify with the liberal arts. They identified with their particular major and department, they identified as Penn Staters, and they identified with the organizations with which they were involved: with a number of exceptions, they did not see themselves as part of a liberal arts community. We saw the potential of social media in helping us to create, maintain, and nurture this community.

Every year, more Liberal Arts faculty incorporate new technologies, including social media, into the classroom. New English instructors introduced wikis into the freshman composition classroom over four years ago, and many seasoned professors across the college are now using student-produced blogs and video to engage their students in the subject material. While we could look to these faculty for models when beginning our own initiative, we had to remind ourselves that we are not a classroom; whatever we are "hacking," it isn't exactly pedagogy. Most obviously, we have a much larger and more diverse audience: all Liberal Arts undergraduates, staff, and faculty, as well as alumni and supporters of our college. We struggled at times with how to best accommodate our growing audience while staying focused on the undergraduate experience.

Because we have a such a diverse audience and a wide variety of information to relay, we continue to examine the variety of social media we use. We want to make sure that we employ each tool in the best possible way. Initially, for instance, the information on our Twitter and Facebook accounts was simply fed from our blog posts. We realized quickly, however, that most of our social media was not only pushing out the same information, but also lacked any kind of personality. Although the feeds were perhaps easier to administrate, they were not cultivating the community of engagement that we were striving for. Now we are trying to manage each of our different social media venues in a slightly different way so that the content we are providing is a bit more balanced. If a viewer looks at our blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account on the same day, we are hoping he or she will see a variety of information and different "voices."

We are also continuously trying to figure out how get our readers/followers/fans to actively participate in our initiative. We are, of course, always hoping that our audience finds a blog post interesting and decides to post a comment. Simply asking questions and inviting the reader to participate within a blog post has helped to generate some feedback. We have also found that blog posts focusing on "hot topics" or more widespread themes, like State Patty's Day, have created some of the more animated discussions. Posts written by students also have consistently been been successful on our blog. Indeed, capturing this student voice will no doubt continue be an important part of all of our social media. Encouraging students to take part in what we are doing has repeatedly shown our office that in order to create the community that we envision, we have to relinquish some control of the message.

In one semester, we have learned a great deal from our exploits into the world of social media, but we still have a ways to go. The important thing to note is that social media has enabled our office to build stronger relationships with students, staff, faculty, and the community. We are far more in touch now with what is going on with our students, in the college, and throughout the university. Our audience continues to grow, both in numbers and in levels of participation. As we continue to strive to create a community centered around the Liberal Arts experience, we invite you to participate. The community will only be as strong as we, collectively, make it.

"To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others." - Nelson Mandela
The quote captures the essence of South Africa's Ubuntu culture, "I am because you are."

As you begin to embark on your college journey of discovery, what you will become at the end of the venture is the ultimate riddle. You may ask why such lofty thoughts during the summer. What better time to discuss the quality of humanness than during the World Cup which is centered in South Africa. South Africa, as a nation, was under the rule of apartheid policies until 1994. However the ethical and spiritual teachings of Ubuntu are reflected in its continual recovery.

Your experiences at Penn State will be based on the nature of relationships you develop. Relationships are processes that must be reciprocal. To be fully human you must develop the core values of mutual respect, mutual caring, mutual sharing, harmonious living together and a shared commitment to the ongoing work of peace through justice. The notion of sharing is a key concept in the world and our ethics define how we will operate.

Dr. Maulana Karenga (2010), the founder of Kwanzaa, posits the following as key elements for building a good world we want and deserve:
 

• shared status
• shared knowledge
• shared space
  
• shared wealth
  
• shared power
  
• shared interests
  
• shared responsibility
  

The competencies that you acquire cannot evolve in a vacuum. This Penn State journey will expose you to an array of opportunities to start or continue making a difference in the lives of others. Hopefully you will capture the spirit of the Odu Ifa and fulfill the obligation of bringing good into the world. Build a better world!