College Jolt

In our “Campus Insider” series, we’ll be profiling a new college each week, giving you the inside scoop straight from the students who go there. This week we’re giving you the skinny on Penn State at University Park!

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One hundred and forty six years ago, at right around now, at 3:30 PM, Major General George Pickett started his famous charge in the battle of Gettysburg. Last Saturday, around 3:30 PM, I walked the short distance that is Pickett’s charge, and was surprised to think… how cool it was. I mean seriously, battlefields are for boys! They like all those cannons and bullet holes, and like looking at the old guns that generally don’t interest me. But to imagine that short distance being a struggle because the men were being shot at, and to know the back story behind the charge, was actually quite fascinating.

Considering it is the Fourth this weekend, I figured it was about time to write about a historical event in the USA. Since the battle of Gettysburg’s anniversary is also this week, and I happened to just visit the battlefield last Saturday and Sunday, it seemed like maybe those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to do so, whether because you live in Washington State, or you live in Philadelphia but were never interested, might want to know a little more about it. Yes, even you girls–there were quite a lot of brave individuals whose story can sometimes get lost in History class. (more…)

College can be like thousands of colorful fish swimming in an enormous cluster in the Pacific Ocean, or a tiny school of goldfish, zooming around a pristine little pond. Decisions, decisions. High school students in search of their perfect postsecondary fit can be like fish finding a body of water to call home, except that they must choose between jam-packed sporting events or astoundingly small class sizes. Perks are numerous on both sides and the debate still rages. No clear universal winner has emerged just yet, but the decision depends on one question: just how many classmates would you like to have? In other words, how big do you want your pond to be? (more…)

Isn’t it beautiful that life simply flows together?

Photo courtesy: Palm® Pre™

Introducing the Palm Pre.

You’ve seen it with Jim Cramer on CNBC, you’re local Fidelity stock broker, or that riveting finance site where you check for your exclusive insider information each morning before the insiders start trading: a HOT stock. On the Road to Recovery, we’ll talk about more than what’s personally affecting you as a teenager with finances by delving into the elusive stock market, and, each week, see one outstanding stock that is recovering and shining above the rest.

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Certainly we’ve all heard the saying “Karma: What Goes Around Comes Back Around.” On the same note, the symbol for karma is depicted as a circle with no end or no beginning, but instead just one continuous loop. I’m sure some of you reading this are thinking that you’ve done some pretty heinous acts against Karma in the past, or maybe even just a few, tiny misdemeanors. Isn’t it about time you gave back? Regardless of your religious orientation, Karma and paying it forward are great mantras to live by. While I’m no guru, by any means, I can, in good conscience, tell you that volunteering does wonders, not only for the organization, but as a low-pressure (and often fun) way to give back to your community. And if you think you’re already as good as you’re going to get, volunteering is a wonderful way to boost your resume and college/graduate school applications.

Volunteering doesn’t have to be a punishment, either.  Many people think of it as the consequence for doing something wrong or unfair because it’s unpaid, “horrendous” labor. And I’ll admit, a few years back I was on this bandwagon, harping and moaning because, as a requisite for graduation, I had to complete 100 hours of community service. I thought this was a death sentence, positively outrageous… that is, until I started volunteering at the Children’s Hospital. (more…)

Money, money, money… from O’Jays’ R&B “For the Love of Money” to Pink Floyd’s funk rock “Money,” I guess we all get the message that “money isn’t everything, but without money, we can buy nothing!” We may not agree that college life is fun and exciting, but there is one conclusion all of us should be able to draw: we need money to get through college. Yes, we have loans, and maybe part-time jobs to support our daily expenses, but what if we want to buy that little luxury good from Amazon.com? In this series, I will show you how you can turn your spare time into extra cash and gifts.

Life is a contest. We take part in it every day. What we will get in the end is unforeseen. While it’s one big contest, we have devoted our time to participate in various smaller competitions throughout the journey. Some of these competitions are rewarding, such as academic success and athletic championship. Some are merely a waste of time and energy, like petty rivalries among our friends.

If you are tired after a semester of competing for academic and athletic success, and despise the stupidity of challenging your friends on childish things, consider participating in a variety of legitimate contests for fun. These contests can be easily found online or in local newspapers. The tangible outcome of winning these contests is getting valuable prizes, which can be anything ranging from cash to electronics. The intangible benefits entail satisfaction and fame that come from winning, and knowing that you have put your summer to good use. (more…)

In the ’80s, TV critic Neil Postman claimed that the invention of television had zapped the national print culture –– that our generation had stopped reading, that we couldn’t write for beans, and that to top it off, this made us “lousy citizens.” Harsh. I may be all for TV, but I am also all for books, and I believe most people are. In particular, I am for the books that show up in this blog –– and you should be too! So let’s prove the Postman wrong, eh?

Full confession: Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is my favorite book of all time. I used to be one of those kids that couldn’t pick a favorite anything, from color to movie to song to whatever, but no more. (more…)

During summer, student’s normally tend to lead double lives. They are part of the labor force, and are part of the educational system as well. They try to find a balance between the two, trying to discover their identities, all while trying to soak up the sun at the beach or roasting a bonfire.

It seems that, during these imperative two months, they try to take on the world by storm. This time, it seems that the world took them by a massive storm. The unemployment rate has hit the all-time high of 9.4%, and it seems to the be increasing as the days go by, as if things can’t get any worse; summer school has been canceled (depending on where you live or attend school). Tuition costs are rising, classes are being cut, and teachers are being laid off.

Oh, summertime, here we come!

The big question here is: what can I do during the summer? (more…)

Everyone is passionate about something. My passions lie in things that most people refer to as geeky, such as anime, sci-fi, video games, or anything of the like -– I love them. The Geek Guide is here to explain, show, and review all things geeky.

I never really got into comics as much as other geeks, but I’ve always liked the bigs–you know, like Batman, Spiderman, Xmen–stuff like that. Unlike most of the world, I wasn’t even sure what Watchmen was, and wasn’t aware that the movie was coming out until about January. I had friends urging me to read it, so I finally got around to it.

Watchmen, created by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins, has long since been hailed as the “best graphic novel.” I have to agree–it really is. The plot is subtle and beautifully executed. The characters show the superhero genre in a new light; vigilantism has been banned, so the characters are superheroes gone to seed; well, most of them at least. (more…)

For the reader interested in nonprofit work, serving one’s community, working with kids, or simply the idea of good people doing what they can for other people, I write about my present day experiences serving with the youth of Braddock, PA as an AmeriCorps member.

It seems to me that the longer I live, the worse people get at communicating with one another. As we grow up, we start to hold people to higher, often unrealistic, standards, and we expect those close to us to simply know how we feel about things. Sadly, most of us are neither omniscient nor clairvoyant; therefore, a lot of things that go unsaid also go misunderstood.

In my mind, some of the best communicators are the young people of the world. To them, things are still simple. I like you, I hate her. I want to do this, I don’t want to do that. They speak their minds in the most direct of fashions. At the Braddock Youth Project where I work, we cater our disciplinary system to this appreciation of directness and sincerity, and it has proven itself much more effective than anything previously tried. (more…)