Judging from a discussion we're tracking in PIOnet, it's apparent that students around the country are heading to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region generally during the winter break to assist in the clean-up and recovery. Following is a round-up of ProfNet subscribers involved with such efforts:
**1. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY students will be in New Orleans during spring break, March 6-10. Students participating in the university's Alternative Spring Break program during that period will work on the West Bank, working through churches doing non-denominational work, clean-up and evacuee support. Partnering with Tulane University on this, they are doing some preliminary survey work and working with local communities to give the students meaningful, but safe, tours of the hurricane-affected areas. About 25 students have signed up for sure, and the university may be conducting a second trip. MSU's College of Education is working with the Catholic high schools there for a post-semester trip for three weeks (early May) to help with catch-up for high-school students in terms of educational needs, because of their displacement rate in terms of education. These are mostly African- American students who do not come from affluent homes and whose parents need to make choices about where to send their children to continue their educational pursuits.
**2. Sally Jamal Murad is the current president of the local SOMA chapter (Student Osteopathic Medical Association) at MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY. SOMA is a national organization with chapters at each osteopathic school. This year, they've joined forces to participate in the SOMA Unity Project, a nationally organized event with nearly 100 medical students from across the country going to Long Beach, Miss., to participate in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The students left on Dec. 26.
**3. Several dozen EMORY UNIVERSITY students will head to the Gulf Coast to work on clean-up and rebuilding efforts in the affected regions during the university's spring break, March 11-17. Emory's Alternative Spring Break student group will have at least 30 students traveling to Mississippi. Similarly, Emory's Journeys of Reconciliation, an inter-religious project promoting relationships between Emory and communities around the world that have a history of violence and exploitation, will lead a trip to the Mississippi Delta. Emory Hillel is also working to put a trip together.
**4. About 22 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY students are planning a trip to Biloxi, Miss., in January to help rebuild houses damaged by Katrina. They will leave Sunday, Jan. 8, and arrive the next day; they'll stay two weeks and are working with a church group. Two students, Zirui Song and Tom McBride, are leading the effort. They are both seniors, public health majors and members of the Pre-Medical Honor Society.
**5. The UCLA School of Law will have 13 law students heading to New Orleans over the next two weeks as part of the Student Hurricane Network, a national association of law students and administrators dedicated to providing long- term assistance to communities in the aftermath of hurricane destruction. The UCLA law students will be providing legal assistance in a number of areas to those individuals affected by the horrific hurricanes that devastated the Gulf Coast region.
**6. SUNY PURCHASE students will be helping with rebuilding and clean-up efforts Jan. 7-15. A second group will be in New Orleans Jan. 3-8 as part of the Center for the Living City Program. They will interview local officials and will write reports about what they observe.
**7. Students and faculty at BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY, STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK, will participate in two relief projects in the Gulf Coast region. The Hillel Jewish Student Union will send nine students and a staff member to Gulfport, Miss., in January to aid in relief efforts, such as debris removal, basic rebuilding and home clean-up. Engineering Professor George Catalano and a number of students and faculty are heading to Baton Rouge in March to work with the Humane Society and LSU's emergency animal shelters. The students, all members of the University's Engineers without Borders (EWB) chapter, will offer their engineering skills to help clean up and build new shelters.
**8. Students from the COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY will be traveling to the Gulf Coast to assist in Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts in January. An alumna has offered housing to the group of 10 students and two staff members for a portion of the trip, and one of the students involved is originally from Louisiana. The group will be in the area Jan. 4-13.
**9. Approximately 70 AUSTIN COLLEGE students will participate in a Jan-Term semester (Jan. 5-24) dedicated to making a significant difference in the lives of those affected by Hurricane Katrina. Students will be able to serve primarily in the New Orleans area. Worksites include cleaning/clearing out houses and removing sheetrock with Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities and other organizations. Students will be staying at First Union Presbyterian Church in Luling, La. This Jan-Term project is headed and organized by Dr. Steve Stell, associate professor of religion. Austin College is affiliated by covenant with Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
**10. Forty-four students and six staff from the UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN- RIVER FALLS will assist with housing reconstruction in Gulfport, Miss., in conjunction with the University of Southern Mississippi and the Pass Road Baptist Church. They will be at Gulfport Jan. 9-13. Previously, UW-RF students "adopted" some 100 students from the University of Southern Mississippi to provide them with academic supplies and personal items that were lost in Hurricane Katrina. During their visit, the UW-RF students on a daily basis will be journaling and taking photos to document their experiences. They will be sent electronically daily to the UW-RF Office of Public Affairs.
**11. CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY had two groups of students doing restoration work in the New Orleans area for Alternative Breaks. Site leaders for the first group are Valerie Heitman and Jessica Kreuyer. The second group leaders are Allison Webster and Nikki Dubrock. All site leaders would be happy to share what they are doing. Each group has 12 students who were selected for this special disaster relief alternative break experience through CMU's Volunteer Center.
**12. Anne Wakenhut, who teaches special education at CENTRAL MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY, and Gary Wakenhut entertained in churches, shelters, hospices, nursing homes and other places with Celtic harp, Irish whistles, flutes and hammer dulcimer, because they learned that most musical instruments were destroyed by the hurricanes. They borrowed a motor home from a friend in Tennessee and are traveling around where needed in the Gulf region. Both are certified music practitioners and often perform healing songs for hospice patients throughout the year.
**13. Two groups of UNIVERSITY OF DAYTON students, staff and their families are traveled to Biloxi, Miss., during the Christmas break. One student in the group and her family relocated to Dayton from southern Mississippi after being displaced by the hurricane. The groups stayed at a retreat center operated by the diocese of Biloxi and helped with general clean-up. UD students have made numerous trips to the Gulf Coast to assist with clean up. During UD's Thanksgiving break, 15 students and staff traveled to Biloxi, and more than 90 UD students, faculty and staff spent the university's mid-term break in October aiding clean-up efforts.
**14. Twenty-four students and six faculty and staff members from ASHLAND UNIVERSITY traveled to Ocean Springs, Miss., from Dec. 16 until Dec. 22 to help in the clean-up effort to aid those affected by Hurricane Katrina. The university funded the trip after AU's cabinet members voted to forego the annual faculty/staff Christmas dinner and use those funds for hurricane relief. The group worked with Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs and they ate and stayed at the church. Students pulled debris from houses, worked to stock a food bank and may have staffed a soup kitchen and distribution center.
**15. ALMA COLLEGE staff members Carol Gregg and Brian Stratton, both ordained ministers, went to Gulfport, Miss., over holiday break to lead worship services and be part of a "roof-building blitz." During Winter Term break in February, two teams totaling 40-plus students and six staff members are going to Gulfport and Biloxi, Miss. One team is working through the National Relief Network. Our annual service trips are coordinated and partially funded through our Discovering Vocation Project at Alma College. Media Relations Editor Skip Traynor is spending five days traveling between the Hurricane Relief trips and three trips in Florida documenting the service as part of a blog on the college's Web site.
**16. On Sunday, Dec. 18, a group of GEORGIA TECH students traveled to Mobile, Ala., for a five-day trip to help residents clean up their flood- damaged homes: "We worked in an area that was flooded by creeks as a result of the storm surge. We tore sheetrock out of houses and cleaned up mold," said Sarah Brackmann, assistant director of student involvement. "There's still going to be a lot of need for the future. We want to do future trips over the spring and summer. That will be when we can really get to rebuilding the infrastructure in the affected areas."
**17. Through a student-run organization at TUFTS UNIVERSITY in Medford, Mass., more than 100 students and alumni will travel to Mississippi in January to spend a week helping people rebuild their lives after Hurricane Katrina. The group includes 86 undergraduate students, 14 graduate students and 10 alumni who will leave Jan. 11 to travel to three rural Mississippi towns -- Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis and Waveland. During the week, the students will "be doing mainly debris clean-up, distributing supplies to families who are still in the area, and some reconstruction work," said senior Rachel Rosen, one of three trip organizers.
**18. UT ARLINGTON volunteers traveled to New Orleans Jan. 2 for a week-long effort to rebuild the New Orleans Rescue Mission, whose roof was torn off, front facade blown away, the facility flooded and contents destroyed by high winds and rain. The family shelter that was under construction was completely destroyed. The student volunteer group will help clean and rebuild the mission, which will serve as a central location for returning evacuees.
**19. The SAVANNAH COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN is partnering with the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, and the Association of Preservation Technology to assess damage to historic structures in coastal Mississippi caused by Hurricane Katrina. SCAD is the first college in the nation to partner with these agencies to provide professional-level historic structure assessments. Twenty-five faculty, staff and students from the college's historic preservation, architecture and interior design programs worked with the agencies in the Gulfport and Biloxi areas from Nov. 28 to Dec. 7 conducting assessments and assisting in clean-up efforts. Photos and b-roll are available.
**20. About 20 students and faculty from WHEELING JESUIT UNIVERSITY traveled to New Orleans to help clean up and rebuild in the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. This trip was planned for Jan. 2-8. The points of contact for this are Jill Kriesky, director of the Service for Social Action Center at WJU; Fr. Paul Stark, S.J., director of Campus Ministry; or Erin McDonald, assistant director of the Service for Social Action Center.
**21. Forty-five members of the DICKINSON COLLEGE Lacrosse Team are heading to their adopted city of Carlisle, La., from Carlisle, Penn., to assist in relief efforts for a week during their winter break. They decided to do this instead of going to England to play in a tournament. An additional 25 Dickinson students, working through the college's office of community and religious life, are heading to Pascagoula, Miss., for a week over break to work with St. John's Episcopal Church and their relief efforts in Pascagoula. Everyone going will sleep on the church floor in bags loaned to them by the college's ROTC office.
**22. ARCADIA UNIVERSITY students (Glenside, Pa.) are planning a service trip over Spring Break.
ROUND-UP: EDUCATIONAL ELECTRONICS
Since the late 1990s, the young children's market has exploded into a host of new and more elaborate electronics marketed as educational. Despite the commercial success, though, a recent report by the Kaiser Family Foundation indicates there is little understanding of how the new media affect young children -- and almost no research to support the idea that they are educational. Following are education, parenting and technology experts who can discuss the pros and cons of educational electronic toys for kids:
**1. JEFF GOMEZ, CEO of STARLIGHT RUNNER ENTERTAINMENT, is the writer/producer of video games and animation based on "Magic: The Gathering," "The Black Belt Club" and others. He is an expert on leadership and success strategies for young people: "In researching major entertainment brands, we discovered that educational electronics provide rehearsal platforms for young people to become familiar with new and emerging media. Toy computers, cell phones and interactive books are, in effect, wiring children's brains so that they will perceive the media and the world quite differently than their parents." Anecdotes and first-hand observations are available.
**2. MARTI OLSEN LANEY, PSY.D., Portland, Ore.-based marriage and family therapist, is the author of the upcoming book "The Hidden Gifts of the Introverted Child." In the book, Laney breaks down the positive and negative effects of video games (or "electronic houseguests") on children. She says some of the negative aspects are that video games reduce imagination, shorten attention span and reduce time for other activities. The positives include breaks from their overactive outside stressors and the fact that they are relaxing and often depict other countries, interests and ways to live. Laney also offers advice to parents on how to create rules about video game playing. She is also a teacher, public speaker and the author of "The Introvert Advantage," published in 2002.
**3. BROCK ALLEN, professor of educational technology at SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY, teaches graduate courses on educational product design and the psychology of technology-based learning. He is the past president of the division of instructional development at the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, and has published over 40 articles or book chapters on computer-based learning environments, interactive media, instructional design and related topics. He currently serves as editorial consultant to a variety of journals, including Educational Technology Research and Development.
**4. BOB HOFFMAN, associate professor in the Department of Educational Technology at SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY, is an expert in the use of education multimedia and virtual reality. Hoffman earned his Ph.D. in education from a joint program with the Claremont Graduate School and San Diego State University. For the past several years, Hoffman has been developing a series of experimental studies examining some of the details of how people learn from interactive media. For example, do "virtual" learning environments in which users manipulate computer-generated animated graphical objects help them learn?
ROUND-UP: HURRICANE PREPAREDNESS (continued)
We've added the following to items posted previously at http://profnet.prnewswire.com/organik/orbital/thewire/lst_leads.jsp?iLRTopicI D=5828
**1. CINTA PUTRA, co-founder and CEO at 3N (NATIONAL NOTIFICATION NETWORK), which provides effective mass notification systems for both emergency situations and daily business activities: "In a crisis, the first, ongoing and most powerful tool is an organization's communications platform." Putra can offer helpful advice for organizations in need of a communications platform based on a five-step process to creating a mass notification strategy. These steps can and will prepare any organization for disasters large, small and unthinkable.
_____LEADS
**1. EDUCATION: TIPS ON UNDERSTANDING THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE. PERRY A. ZIRKEL, J.D., Ph.D., university professor of education and law at LEHIGH UNIVERSITY, offers the following advice for administrators on knowing the law behind the pledge: "1) Know your jurisdiction. Different circuits have consistently disagreed on rulings regarding the pledge. 2) Have an opt-out provision when implementing policy, but don't rely too heavily on it -- it may not hold muster. 3) Keep it simple and straightforward by avoiding extra provisions to try to enforce patriotism. 4) Keep abreast of further judicial developments in this area; the composition of the Supreme Court is currently in flux, for example, so changes may be in store."
**2. EDUCATION: BRIDGING EDUCATION GAPS -- HIGHER LEARNING IN URBAN SCHOOLS. ERIC J. COOPER, president of the NATIONAL URBAN ALLIANCE FOR EFFECTIVE EDUCATION (NUA): "There is a crisis in America -- too many black, Hispanic and poor Americans are ending up in prisons, the streets, gangs or graveyards. This result has partially been born from an American belief that race and poverty define the life trajectories of urban schoolchildren. Poverty and failure doesn't have to be destiny. We need to show every child there is hope. They can succeed because of good schools that believe in them. We (NUA) provide instructional strategies that enable educators to empower their students. Our advocacy is defined by demonstrating to the teachers and communities that all children, regardless of their life situation, are capable of graduating high school and can prepare to enter a college of his or her choice."
**3. EDUCATION: EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES OFFER ACADEMIC, SOCIAL BENEFITS. STEVE PEHA, president of TEACHING THAT MAKES SENSE, INC.: "Two studies by researchers at Connecticut College and the University of Michigan found that greater involvement in extracurricular activities is associated with a range of academic, psychological and social benefits. It certainly can't be good for anyone to be 'over-stressed' and 'over-scheduled,' so, clearly, the goal is for kids to be appropriately engaged in their lives. Yet no one has yet defined what that means. I think it's important to differentiate between the needs of kids at different ages. It makes sense that teenagers would benefit from being able to explore adult life roles. But it makes much less sense to put 7-year-olds through this. Where over-scheduling is most harmful is with kids in the pre-teen years and below. With 5- to 8-year-olds, for example, there's a need for them to have large blocks of unstructured play. But when they're 10 years older, similar amounts of unstructured time may represent opportunities lost."
**4. ENVIRONMENT: WATER QUALITY IS BECOMING A CRITICAL ISSUE FOR CONSUMERS. LAURA DEMMONS, CEO of SYLVAN SOURCE, a Silicon Valley-based company that provides technically advanced ultra-clean water systems designed for residential and industrial use: "Water quality is becoming a critical issue for consumers -- not just their community water systems. While the vast majority of water utilities meet today's clean drinking water standards, a rapidly growing number of people choose to take control over water quality themselves. To do so, they are turning to a wide range of water purification technologies that they can implement at home to further minimize their exposure to unwanted contaminants."