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Violence, School Shootings and Fortnite

Violence, School Shootings and Fortnite

An inside look at the real effects of violent video games on the average student

After the recent school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, politicians, parents and students have been debating on what the source of the issue is and who is to blame.

As with all major issues, this hot topic has supporters and arguments for all possible cases. People are blaming everything from violent video games to relaxed gun control laws. While the efficiency of gun control laws could warrant a fair debate, shifting the blame to video games is unwarranted and factually unsound.

There is little to no scientific data that backs up the theory that violent see in video games causes real life violent behavior. In fact, most studies trying to prove the correlation often prove the opposite; that video games have no effect on actions.

In a 2015 study conducted by Dr. Whitney DeCamp from Western Michigan University, middle school students completed a survey after having their game time and content monitored. The study also tracked how much real life violence the students witnessed such as domestic violence.

 

“Immediately it is clear that playing violent video games does not have a significant impact on the probability of hitting someone within these matched samples,” DeCamp said.

The data from the experiment proved that despite changing the amounts of time and violence of the content no significant change was present. Therefore, playing violent video games excessively will not make a negative impact on children’s arggression or violent tendencies.

In fact, the study found the only variable that significantly affected aggression was the real life violence witnessed. Children who see or hear violence in their own home where more prone to act out and hit peers.

Nik Lukas, a college sophomore, playing Fortnite

The study also tracks the likelihood of a student bring or carrying a weapon at school or around the house. Just as with the aggression tracking, video games play little to know part in determining that likelihood.

In addition, as with the initial study, children from homes that portray real life violence in some form are more prone to carrying a weapon then kids that done.

The important take away from the scientific study is that there is no correlation between the violence seen in video games and the execution of a violent act in real life.

One supporter of the anti-violent games stance is President Donald Trump. During a White House meeting concerning school safety, he pointed a finger at all forms of violence seen in the media.

“I’m hearing more and more people saying the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts and then you go the further step, and that’s the movies,” Trump said.

Misinformation on important issues has led to blame falling on the wrong shoulders before.

After the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado almost 20 years ago, news outlets and politicians blamed entertainment and specifically, Marilyn Manson.

A PlayStation 4 console

The media falsely accused the shock rocker of causing the shooters to act out through his music. An investigation and a lawsuit proved that Manson had nothing to do with the shooters but the incident nearly destroyed his career.

On the campus of Florida Southern College, student enjoy their down time playing games of Fortnite between classes or as a study break. Some students, like Richard Widick, use it as a time to relax and release some aggression in a safe way.

What the average student things about how violent video games effect them

“Sometimes if I am upset or angry sometimes I’ll just play a video game ride around in [Grand Theft Auto] and crash a car,” Widick said.

Widick is a junior business administrations major and a frequent player of violent games.

Lukas playing a violent video game

Students use video games for fun or to release aggression in a safe way. Misinformation causes people to make wrong assumptions about the effects of violent video games.

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The Miss America Organization: A Pageant Rooted In Service

August 18, 1920 was a pivotal day for women across America. On that day, the 19thAmendment granted women in the United States the right to vote. With women on the rise in America, strong women were determined to make their mark on this country. That is just what Margaret Gorman did one year later, when she became the inaugural Miss America in 1921. Now, 97 years later the organization still holds true to the same four pillars it was founded upon. Scholarship, service, style and success.

The Miss America Organization prides itself on being an organization built upon volunteers and attracts and produces women who have a heart for service. This servanthood attitude shines each year on Miss America Serves Day.

 

What is Miss America Serves Day?

Miss America Serves Day is a day where every local, state and national titleholder across the nation get together in their respective states and serve their communities. This annual event was started in 2015, marking this year’s projects the fourth in program history. While their faces are prepped with makeup and there is hair tight with curls, contestants spend this day getting their hands dirty.

This annual day of service is put on by the Children’s Miracle Network which is the Miss America Organizations national platform and this year was held on April 7.

Sydney Groom is a first-time title holder in the Miss America Organization and proudly wears the title of Miss Florida Gator. More than competing, Sydney loves to serve others.

“My favorite thing about Miss America Serves Day is having all the girls together working for one common goal, not for self-gain but for the betterment of the community,” Groom said. “Getting to see each girl humbled down to put their community before themselves was an eye-opening experience.”

Posted by Sydney Groom on Sunday, April 8, 2018

Lakeland is the home of the Miss Florida Pageant and the leaders of the Miss Florida pageant have noticed a need in Polk County, especially among the youth. On April 7, they decided to take charge and make a change in the lives of those in Lakeland.

Titleholders scatter the state, from Tallahassee to Miami, the beaches of Fort Lauderdale and even the city of the Mouse but distance couldn’t stop them from coming together to make a difference. The young women vying for the title of Miss Florida packed up their things and headed to Polk County, with nothing on their minds but to impact the lives of others.

Miss Florida Organizations 2018 Project:

This year, the Miss Florida organization partnered with the nonprofit organization, KidsPACK. KidsPACK is an organization that works to bridge the gap of children who go hungry in Polk County by packing meals for students to take home with them on weekends and over breaks.

According to the Florida Department of Education, in the state of Florida, there are 70,215 registered homeless children and over 3,790 of those are accounted for in Polk County. KidsPACK was established in 2011 to help fill the tummies of those homeless students in Polk County. The following year, the program expanded to serve Hardee and Hillsborough counties. At the end of the 2014-2015 school year, KidsPACK had served 1667 children per week in 72 public schools in those three counties.

Their feeding programs are as follows:

  • Polk Project: Serves 1345 children every week in 63 elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school.
  • Hillsborough Project: Serves 140 children per week in one elementary school.
  • Hardee Project: Serves 182 children per week in five elementary schools

Each contestant worked in their respective communities to gather food items for the project and early on the morning of the 7th, loaded their cars and headed for Lakeland. Shopping carts and laundry baskets hauled hundreds of non-perishable food items into the grand ballroom of the Hilton Garden Inn and the ladies got to work packing food.

Pop-tarts, granola bars, cereal bowls, crackers, trail mix, applesauce and many other non

perishable food items littered the tables and floor of the ballroom.

The Packing Process:

The girls divided their work equally and created an efficient system to begin their work. Some sorted foods, others placed snacks on trays, some cut and wrapped the trays in plastic and the rest of the young women transported those trays to large cardboard boxes for shipping.

Once each package was complete, it included enough food to get one person through an entire weekend complete with a fork, spoon and napkin. The trays were packaged in tough plastic to ensure that the food could be preserved for the whole weekend.

Lindsay Bettis has been participating this national day of service for three years, and sights this project as one of the many reasons why she finds this organization valuable and important. She will be competing at the Miss Florida pageant this summer as Miss Apopka.

” I think this project is important to help the community understand that this is more than a pageant, but an opportunity to serve,” Bettis said. “Most people don’t understand all that Miss Florida and Miss America do and I think it gives than an inside look to what the job actually is.”

While from the outside pageants seem to be about makeup and high heels, the ladies of the Miss America Organization are working hard to break that stereotype. Annual initiative like Miss America Serves day help bring awareness to the good that these young women bring to their communities.

By the end of the day, the girls packed enough trays to feed hundreds of students in Polk County, not only for weekend meals, but now for summer meals. KidsPACK allows students in need to get aid during the summer months as well, so their production rate increases significantly towards the end of the school year and from May to August.

Patti Strickland is a longtime volunteer with KidsPACK and spoke with the young ladies.

“What you all are doing here is incredible,” Strickland said. “While you all will never see their faces, just know that each meal they receive makes them light up. You guys are doing that.”

With another successful year under their belts, these young women will be headed back to Lakeland again in June to compete for the title of Miss Florida. While only one woman will walk as Miss Florida, it is undeniable that each young lady will go back to their community and continue to serve.

 

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Invisible: A Women’s Journey Though Hell

“I always thought Lyme Disease was no big deal [because] you get on 30 days of antibiotics and you are tired and you don’t feel good and then you get over it no big deal. I never knew what it could do to you.”

Shea Webb sat cross-legged on the tan couch in the living room of a family friends house in Fort Pierce, Florida as she flipped through a Lyme Disease information pamphlet to “refresh on some facts”.

Lyme Disease is the caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and is most well known for being transmitted to humans through the bite of infected blacklegged or deer ticks in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic regions. The tick usually attached to a hard-to-see area of the body (groin, armpits, and scalp) and needs to be attached for more than 36 hours before the bacterium can be properly transmitted.

She thinks it was about ten years ago when she first contracted Lyme Disease when she was a camp staff member at a summer camp in Maryland. Shea spent four summers as a waterfront staff at Sandy Hill Camp and Retreat Center in North East, Md.

Shea may never be sure where Lyme became her life because she is a part of a very small percentile who never had any initial symptoms as it stayed dormant in her body for an unknown period of time.

It took Shea over two years to be diagnosed with Lyme Disease after dozens of doctors said that she didn’t or had other illnesses.

“It felt like I was going crazy at times and doctors would even just say that I needed to see a psychiatrist because it was all in my head,” Shea said. “I kept hearing that and then I kinda started believing that too cause I’m like maybe I am imagining it.”

Lyme Disease is known to be an imitator of other diseases and is usually misidentified. Lyme also usually comes with different diseases as Shea was also diagnosed with Mycoplasma  and Babesia

Since Shea has had Lyme Disease here life has been simplified.

Shea isn’t able to nearly as much as she once was able to before Lyme Disease but Shea is still able to make an impact on her community.

Shea works about eight hours per week at a religious non-profit while also posting daily to social media, sharing her story to the world.

The Healing Hope is her Instagram account where she posts daily vlogs to her Instagram story and chronicles her battle with Lyme in her daily posts.

“In the last few months I’ve become a lot more open to sharing my story with this illness and with all that I’ve been going through in my life with it,” Shea said. “It’s the community on Instagram that’s really been such a blessing for me to connect with others who are going through very similar stories.”

 

 

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Intramural Sports Take Over Florida Southern

The net moves with the swoosh as the ball flies through it and hits the ground. The final score is 12-11 and the Roman Empire takes the win. This is just one of the many games Florida Southern College Intramurals offer.

College intramurals are year round sports that are open to any student with a team. The sports vary by season and are refereed by students that work at the Hollis Wellness Center on campus.

Many Greek organizations are involved in intramurals and have rotating teams of different brothers and sisters.

Softball, Photo Creds: Doug Davey

Jason Darby is the Intramural Coordinator at the Hollis Wellness Center. Intramurals have been a part of his life since he was an undergraduate at the University of Mississippi.

“I think the biggest impact [of intramurals] is it gives students that may have been athletically active in high school, that didn’t choose to play at the next level, an opportunity to still participate in a team environment,” Darby said.

Darby went on to say how it is an opportunity for students to learn new sports that they may not have branched out to if intramurals did not offer them.

“It gives a good outlook to kind of get involved and have some form of competition and have fun while doing it,” Darby said.

He also says that it is an alternative option to students who were not as athletically inclined who would not normally go to the wellness center to exercise.

While most teams are representatives of Greek organizations, there are a few teams that sign up to play different games, and a few that stick with intramurals throughout the whole school year. There are even some faculty and staff teams.

“Flag football is still one of the few [sports] that I’ll get out there and play,” Darby said. “It’s a great way for faculty and staff to get involved and interact with students on another level outside the classroom.”

Swim Meet, Photo Creds: Dough Davey

Many students not only play intramurals but work within the wellness center as referees for the different games. This can make it difficult when they have to call fouls and eject people from games that they are friends with.

Junior Deirdre Grogan has worked as a student referee for two years and commented on the nature of students while playing intramurals.

“You see a different side of students when you bring out intramurals,” Grogan said. “You get to see their competitive side but also, it gives them a place and time to escape.”

Grogan hopes to add more tournament style events and games to bring out more competitions and possibly bring out more teams. She loves working softball and soccer because she believes they are the easiest sports to referee.

Grogan not only referees but plays for the Alpha Chi Omega team. But, the games are set up so people who are part of a certain team do not referee their own team in hopes to keep from biased calls and penalties.

As an incentive to get more teams to play, intramurals offer a competition of all sports throughout the school year to win a banner for each men’s and women’s category.

The All Sports Award is given to the team that has not only won many games throughout the year, but always participated and did not forfeit.

 

Although men’s and women’s are separated, there is a co-ed league for each individual sport, with champions for each. These don’t get banners because there are so many sports and a co-ed teams.

Even though many teams are Greek affiliated, students love being able to play for their organization and support their brothers and sisters.

It also keeps these students active, since they may not have the time to go the gym due to time spent between classes and Greek life activities.

“My favorite part of intramurals is getting to spend time with my sorority sisters, playing sports that I love,” freshman Alex Wardell said.

Between working and playing, intramurals has a huge, positive impact on the Florida Southern community. Whether it’s floor hockey or a poker tournament, intramural sports have options for all students.

Sand Volleyball, Photo Creds: Doug Davey
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Eyewitness Testimonies Putting Innocents in Prison

There is no national policy on how law enforcement collects eyewitness testimonies. A professor at Florida Southern College and her mentor want to change that. Dr. Deah Quinlivan teaches psychology at Florida Southern while her mentor that she studied under in graduate school is Distinguished Professor Dr. Gary Wells who teaches and researches at Iowa University. The research that Wells conducts is mainly focused on the reliability of eyewitness identification. The unreliability of eyewitnesses hurts the trust in the United States Justice system as well as “costing taxpayers in appeal courts and payouts to people who were convicted despite being innocent” said Quinlivan.

This problem can present itself especially in police lineups where eyewitnesses are supposedly tested. Usually, the law enforcement assumes that most problems with lineups are handled by having the distractors (people who are not suspects with the suspect in the lineup). The theory backing this idea is that distractors will keep eyewitnesses from guessing. This assumes that the odds of the eyewitness just randomly picking out a suspect from the lineup goes down proportionately to the number of distractors in the lineup.

However, many social psychologists like Quinlivan and Wells do not think that this reduces the odds of a culprit being randomly identified enough. They want the eyewitness reliability test to be updated to help the Justice system. A big policy that could help the eyewitness testimony reliability is if the police have a national policy on collecting eyewitness testimony that in part helps to keep post-identification feedback from affecting the certainty of the eyewitness. When a police officer tells someone that they picked the correct person from the lineup then that person’s certainty and confidence increase and make that person more willing to testify in court that the person that they picked committed the crime.

Current eyewitness reliability test

“There is 30 years of science saying that the current eyewitness test is not enough” said Quinlivan. When there is a false identification by an eyewitness then it matters little how reliable the eyewitness is. When an eyewitness can point to the defendant and say that they did it and say that they are certain, this weighs too much on a Jury’s decision. Most people believe that memory is like a video camera where your brain picks up and processes every detail but memory is vulnerable to many errors. These errors can happen through a myriad of factors from the lighting of the place that the crime took place to whether or not there is a weapon in the area.

Mistaken eyewitness identification testimony accounts for more of DNA proven convictions of innocent people than all other causes combined. People like William Barnhouse who spent 25 years in prison for a sexual assault that he didn’t commit and if it wasn’t for the Innocence Project then he would have served his full 80-year sentence which probably would have been the rest of the man’s life. The process for getting the eyewitness testimony from the victim that the police used was to stand Barnhouse in front of a police car at the scene of the crime and shine a flashlight in his face. In 2016 the Innocence Project had the DNA evidence tested, and the prosecution of the case joined the defendant in asking that his case be dismissed, and the charges were dropped.

The effect of eyewitness changes

Putting innocent people in jail has a cost even when the person is free, especially if a defendant takes the Alford plea. The Alford plea comes from the court case North Carolina v. Alford where the defendant pleaded guilty to be charged with second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder; however, Alford maintained that he was innocent. “The United States Supreme Court upheld a plea of guilty made by a defendant who contemporaneously asserted his innocence to the underlying offense.”

In an Alford Plea a defendant doesn’t admit to the crime but admits that the prosecution has enough evidence to put him away. The court decides that the person is guilty while that person still doesn’t admit that they did the crime or specific parts of the crime. A common use for this is if a defendant has no memory of the events, for example,  if they were drinking too much. This is used to avoid being convicted of a more serious charge.

This plea is also offered to innocent people falsely convicted of a crime. These people may see it as a way out of prison while bureaucracy is taking too long to process their case. The wrongly convicted person still has the conviction on their record, and the courts count the case as solved and don’t try to find the actual perpetrator after this plea is taken. This conviction follows them for the rest of their lives making life much more difficult with anything from getting a job to renting an apartment.

Eyewitnesses are over-relied on in the United States Justice system despite them being proven unreliable due to many factors in both the eyewitness themselves and the different processes used to collect the testimony.  The Supreme Court case that Wells and Quinlivan have on the docket may change the justice system and create a national policy on how eyewitness testimonies are collected. This could help keep innocent people out of jail and create greater trust in the Justice system while saving taxpayer money from appeals courts and payouts to the wrongfully convicted.

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The Effects Air Pollution has on People

Air pollution is a rising and current issue that affects the entire world.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution has attributed to 4.23 million deaths worldwide.

Asia is the continent that has the highest amounts of deaths with 4.25 million deaths in 2016.

Africa and the Middle East followed in second with 647,155 deaths.

Oceania had the fewest deaths at 3868.

 

Air pollution is mainly caused by the burning of fossils fuels which then release gases and chemicals into the air.

The main gases released that attriute to air pollution is the Carbon Dioxide,  Nitrogen Oxides, Carbon Monoxides and Sulfur Dioxides that are released when burning different types of fuels.

These gases are typically called greenhouse gases.

These greenehouse gases emitted are trapped in the atmosphere and also affect not only human health but also can affect climate change.

The afore mentioned death statistics by continent is also relevant to almost every country on the planet.

Almost every country on the planet has deaths reated to air pollution.

The countries with the highest numbers of deaths include China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia and The United States of America.

Air pollution when inhaled by humans can cause health issues like asthma or other respiratory problems.

Air pollution is measured via PM2.5, which is the microscopic particles in the air that cause the air to be hazy and make it’s way into people’s  respiratory systems.

Air Quality Index (AQI), is what is commonly referred to when talking about the PM2.5.

A person’s lung functions also decrease, while risk of respiratory inflammation can also increase when breathing in air with a high AQI.

Hayley Edge is a high school teacher from the United Kingdom currently working in China.

“I regularly get sore throats, I get aggravated tonsils,  I get tonsillitis, more frequently in China than I’ve ever had previously in my life,” Edge said.

The Environmental Protection Agency has a chart to measure AQI levels.

A healthy AQI level is from zero to 50, 51 to 100 is moderate, 101 to 150 is unhealthy for sensitive groups, 151 to 200 is unhealthy and 201 to 300 is very unhealthy.

The highest level is 300 and above, labelled hazardous.

The highest ever recorded AQI was in ShenYang, China, on Nov. 15th, 2015. The AQI level exceeded over 1400.

ShenYang square on a high pollution day.

With all the health concerns regarding air pollution, one thing often overlooked is the mental aspects that come with air pollution.

Living in cities that have high air pollution can have an effect on people who live there and their mental health.

“Being from Australia then moving to Beijing, I became extremely unhappy whenever the air wasn’t good. It was never like this back home,” High School teacher living in Beijing, Sean Stitz said.

People who live in polluted cities like Beijing know, that when the air is bad, they must wear masks.

“I try to wear my air mask when it’s over 200,” Chloe Sandifer-Stech, a student living in Beijing said.

“When I wear my air mask, it’s harder to breathe and also kind of inconveniant,” Sandifer-Stech said. “As a person with asthma, it affects my ability to excercise.”

Air filtering masks are now common in a city like Beijing, where whenever the pollution gets high, the masks are worn.

Households will as well own air purifiers in their house, which filters the air inside the living area to reach healthy standards.

Kan Wing Chiu is an internatonal tax accountant from Hong Kong currently living in Beijing.

“First, I spend a lot of money buying air purifiers for my children. Second if the air pollution is bad, I will not go out for Golf,” Kan Wing Chiu said.

Many people suffer from the same setbacks, as when the air pollution is bad, it typically means no outdoor activities will take place.

Heavy smog at the Forbidden City in Beijing

Many international schools  across China have implemented rules regarding high AQI.

Rules are that when the AQI level reaches over 150, all outdoor activites are cancelled, and that students are to remain inside the duration of the school day as much as possible.

China as well has implemented new rules where if the AQI is predicted to reach over 300 for three days in a row, school and work the following day will be cancelled.

“When the air is bad, it’s harder to run because it’s hard to breathe,” an American currently living in China, Jonathan Mellen said.

All the problems air pollution causes has led it to becoming a leading concern worldwide.

However, treaty’s like the Paris Climate Accord are measures taken that are aimed to combat this serious issue in the near future.

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Going from School to Prison

 

The School to Prison Pipeline has played a major role in kids becoming criminals at an early age. The polices and practices have limited kids and have made it difficult to obtain an education and easier to become “state property.” This pipeline has had a tremendously negative effect on black and Latino students. One of the main reasons prison is majority populated with the races.

The school to Prison Pipeline is polices and practices that directly and indirectly push students out of school and in a pathway to prison. As mentioned, the pipeline has been a major setback for black and Latino students. The racial and ethnic disparities, zero tolerance, school suspensions, criminalization of normal behavior and policing in school all have been main causes of the pipeine.

 

Daquan Jones, a 24 year old from Newburgh, NY,  is still in  prison. He was labeled as a troubled kid and has went from school suspensions to jail time. Jones believes the school systems are too harsh on kids at an early age and felt he was targeted at an early age.

“It’s a lot worst nowadays for kids but I remember growing up and they would try to suspend me for anything. Anything from being late to class to chewing gum. Yes, chewing gum could get you suspended for 3 days,” Jones said.

Daquan Jones and his younger brother Jakwan Jones on during visit in December of 2017 at Green Correctional Facility 

The targets have been the minorities. The Zero tolerance policies in school  are modeled after the criminal justice polices for the “war on drugs.” During that time, it was a period of mass incarceration which also targeted the inner city males which mainly were blacks. These schooling setbacks start minor and eventually become a bigger problem.

The students are more likely retained. Meaning they are held back or fail the current grade they are in. Students are then passed out of school in many different ways. Either they are suspended many times or they get expelled. If that’s not the case, students tend to drop out. On the other hand, those same students are more likely to get arrested or referred to the juvenile delinquency. This leads to the students not being able to graduate.

Normal teenage behavior is now being called criminal. These acts that used to get you written up by a teacher are now leading to a criminal record. Pushing and shoving now has become battery. Stealing is never right to do, but something as simple as swiping headphones is now theft or robbery. Lastly, talking back is labeled as disorderly conduct.

Police Officer forcefully removes student for not wanting to leave class .

Policing in school has also become a problem. More schools are switching from security guards to police officers. School police officers, school resource officers and security guards all have something in common. They all have the power to arrest, detain, interrogate and issue citations.

“It use to bother me when I would have to restrain or arrest a middle school student just for yelling because they pushed someone. If your playing basketball and you push someone you get a technical foul, but in school you get arrested? Like these are kids that I have to treat like adults,” former Resource Officer Dave Shelby said.

Many under resourced schools rely on police rather than teachers and administrators to maintain discipline. As a result, children are far more likely to be subject to school-based arrests. The majority of which are for nonviolent offenses, such as disruptive behavior.

An old detention slip 

In the last 20 years, police presence in schools has been on the rise. Most types of incident now require police notification. The state and federal funding for cops in schools has expanded. There is no solid evidence that show policing in schools make it safer. Increased school policing may have negative impacts. Citations are just as bad as arrest because they bring long term consequences.

There are some key ways to help stop this pipeline. Education is way more important than incarceration. Organizations such as the ACLU have united in over 20 states to challenge school push out and advocate for human rights to education and dignity.

More caring, patient, teachers, and school staff would be a start in school. Teachers that aren’t quick to refer students to the principle office and actually work with the student can lead to better relationship. Less police involvement is also a key to change. If you can limit the role of law enforcement to the more serious issues, than the smaller ones can be dealt with through the school.

These are a few changes or a start to helping end the school to prison pipeline. It is important to give students a chance to be something other than criminals.

“We need more teachers and administrators that can connect with the kids in schools all over the country. Kids listen to people that they can usually relate to. If they can’t relate, then they won’t trust you nowadays,” Jones’s Aunt Rasheeda Davis said.

 

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The Good in Greek Life

In the midst of calls to shutdown Greek Life for good, it is hard to see another side to the story.  Members of the Greek community have been standing up for their traditions and all of the good works they do. In the 2017 school year, they even broke records for their philanthropic endeavors.

Members of the Alpha Delta Pi sorority Philanthropy Committee.

Successes of Greek Life Members

In 2018, there are currently over 9 million Greek members nationally. These members have been historically more successful than those who have not been part of Greek Life during college. Here are just a few statistics that reflect the accomplishments of the Greek community:

  • Of the nation’s 50 largest corporations, 43 are headed by fraternity men
  • 85% of the Fortune 500 executives belong to a fraternity
  • 40 of 47 U.S. Supreme Court Justices since 1910 were fraternity men
  • Every U.S. President & Vice President, except two in each office, born since the first social fraternity was founded in 1825 have been members of a fraternity
  • Over 70% of all those who join greek life graduate, while under 50% of all non-greek persons graduate
  • The first ever female Senator was Greek

Greeks Give Back

Alongside all of these accomplishments, the philanthropic endeavors that Greek members undertake are unmatchable in any other organization. According to the 2014 National Panhellenic Council annual report, sorority women from across the nation raised over $5.7 million for their respective philanthropies and reported nearly 1 million hours of community service in the last academic year alone.

Members of Zeta Tau Alpha fraternity at a walk benefiting the American Cancer Society.

 

Even higher than that, members of the North American Interfraternity Conference raised $20.7 million for their philanthropies and completed 3.8 million hours of community service. The Greek system is the largest network of volunteers within the United States with over 10 million service hours volunteered each year by both fraternities and sororities.

Ryan Prince currently serves as the philanthropy chair for his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, at Florida Southern College and feels as though the good work Greeks do goes unreported.

“You never hear about the good works we are doing. We are volunteering, planning events and raising money, but all you hear about is the one chapter that hazed a pledge. It gives us all a bad name and no one seems to care about the good work we really do,” Prince said.

Locally, the Greek community at the University of Central Florida broke a personal school record in the 2017-2017 school year for raising over $1 million to donate to charity – the most in a single year.

The winning organization Delta Sigma Phi at a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities raising $56,000.

There are nearly 4,000 students who make up the 47 social Greek organizations who worked together to make $1,065,391 from August 2016 to May 2017. The money went to Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Feeding Children Everywhere, Military Heroes Campaign, Huntsman Cancer Foundation, American Cancer Society, American Red Cross and many more.

“Stop Misrepresenting Us” 

“People get the wrong idea and they base their outlook on the entire Greek community based off the mistakes of one person. They need to stop misrepresenting us. They don’t pay attention to the underreported good works that greeks do,” said Josh Gaynor, a philanthropy advisor for the UCF Greek Life community.

Participants at UCF’s Knight-Thon dance marathon.

“Philanthropy comes naturally to us. If you wear letters, you’re held at a higher standard and that has created a culture of giving that continues to grow,” said Gaynor.

In the previous year, the UCF Greek community raised nearly $821,000 and this year, Gaynor says they strategically worked together to ensure that chapter fundraiser events were on different dates so as not to compete with one another.

In this school year alone, the Greek organizations hosted at least one philanthropic fundraising event each semester. At UCF there was Kappa Delta’s Shakedown, Zeta Tau Alpha’s Lipsync, Tri Delta’s Hold Em, Pi Burger Phi, Alpha Delta Pi’s Cheers for Charity, Pizza with the Pi’s, Kappa Sig’s Key West Fest and so many more.

Miss UCF, Courtney Jones, a senior at UCF who head up her organization’s participation in Knight-Thon.

Courtney Jones is a senior member of the Greek community at UCF and has served as her chapter’s chair for these events for the last three years and has a strong connection to community service.

“Philanthropy was one of the main reasons I decided to join Greek Life at UCF. These events are so fun to attend, plan, and compete in and they affect our Greek community, school, and organizations more than people realize. There are multiple students who even benefit from the funds raised and it teaches our Greek students selflessness and so much more to share in a passion of friendly competition and philanthropy,” Jones said.

Selflessness – am embodiment of the Greek Community

In addition to planning events to raise over $1 million, chapter members of UCF volunteered 86,795 hours to both local and national organizations including Boys and Girls Club, Ronald McDonald House Charities, Habitat for Humanity and many more.

Sorority girls at Florida Southern College.

Elizabeth Ryder, a senior member of the Greek community at UCF, participated in Knight-Thon which is a 20 hour dance marathon put on by the Greek students. This event in particular raised money and awareness for the Children’s Miracle Network non profit hospitals. Ryder functioned as the team captain for her sorority.

“Originally our team goal was $12,500 but we were able to surpass that goal during the event and raise over $17,000,” Ryder said.

These figures are enormous and attest to the commitment to service that is exemplified in so many Greek members. Despite that, they still don’t even come close to the unmeasurable amount of personal benefits that being a member of Greek life provides: accountability, lifelong friendships, leadership roles, higher academic standards, and community building.

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Yoga Unites the College Student’s Mind, Body and Spirit

Yoga is a rewarding activity for the mind, body and spirit, especially for college students.

College is intended to be a time in one’s life to harness and prime the skills and knowledge needed for the real world. It encourages you to try new things and gain new understandings not only through classes, but extracurricular activities as well.

“Yoga is great for college students for the physical and mental health benefits, especially with the stress from trying to balance everything and practicing yoga has been scientifically shown to reduce stress levels and anxiety,” Kylie Torres, yoga instructor at Florida Southern College and the Balance Culture, said.

Video: Florida Southern yoga class, taught by Kylie Torres. Background song is Calming for Savasana (Yoga) by Namaste Waheguru, recommended by Torres.

The point of yoga is similar to that of college: the practice gives you the tools you need to further engage with and impact the world, according to Shira Engel from Mind Body Green. In yoga, this cultivation of new understandings is known as dharma.

Yoga allows you to live more comfortably in your body

Pictured: Erin Daugherty, taken by Britt Aubley

Yoga was created by Indian Monks, who would meditate all day long. After sitting for such extended periods of time, muscles begin to cramp.

The Monks needed a practice to stretch the muscles, particularly leg, back, and neck, that suffer most from being stationary. By practicing yoga, sitting becomes easier and more relaxing afterwards.

 

 

College students also tend to sit for long periods of time, making yoga an extremely beneficial exercise to relieve the restlessness and cramping many students experience after a long day of classes. Discomfort is a distraction from the present moment, and if the present is sitting in class, that means less information is being digested than what could be.

“Practicing yoga has allowed me to take time in my day to reflect on myself without thinking about all the other stressors in my life,” Jerri Hunt, freshman, said.

“I’m able to enjoy myself in the present moment and remind myself that there is more to me than being the perfect student or the best employee.”

Specifically, yoga helps alleviate backaches, sore shoulders, and creaks in the back that are common among college students, according to Katherine Carpenter from the OCM Blog. Continuous yoga, such as Vinyasa, goes as far as to improve posture with regular practice as well.

“Yoga allows college students to work out the physical manifestations of stress like sore shoulders and a tight neck from hunching over a desk and textbooks all day,” said Torres.

Yoga allows you to live more comfortably in your mind

Engel also explains that yoga improves concentration, which is key because the ability to concentrate determines how much information is digested. In yoga, concentration is essential, especially while holding balance poses such as the tree pose.

Pictured: Erin Daugherty doing tree pose, taken by Britt Aubley

Many people are familiar with the relaxation that yoga practice brings, not only to the mind but to the body as well. Carpenter goes into detail, explaining that yoga regulates blood pressure and hormones, and when practiced often yoga actually increases serotonin levels and activates the pleasure centers of the brain so you feel as good emotionally as you do physically.

“Yoga has definitely impacted my overall mental health and stress management,” Torres said.

“It gives me a break from whatever is stressing me out and allows me to zone in and focus on what’s going on in the present moment.”

One of the best things about yoga is that each individual can practice in their own way within the limits of their own body. Bodyweight exercises done in yoga practice mimics strength training with machines.

“Yoga is always changing, it can always adapt to whatever your body can do and you can always change up the poses to accommodate your body that day,” Torres said.

Yoga is for everyone, everywhere

Pictured: Erin Daugherty doing three-legged downward dog, taken by Britt Aubley

There are various styles of yoga, from slow flow to Vinyasa, which is a cycle of intense poses and breathing that can increase one’s heart rate to the same as running. For students who want to practice yoga, but may not have time to attend classes, a 30-minute slow flow yoga break during studying helps refresh the mind to refocus on work, according to Carpenter.

“There’s all sorts of different styles, like if more active yoga isn’t your thing there’s plenty of styles for everyone to try and you can find what works for you,” Torres said.

 

The most beloved pose in yoga, as said by Carpenter, is Savasana or resting pose. In this pose, one simply lays down on their back in a comfortable position and focuses on bringing the mind back to the body and then solely focusing on the breath.

Healthy habits, such as yoga, promote self love. Carpenter explains that yoga is beneficial in relieving negative emotions like anger and frustration, which allows more focus on the positive feelings and boosts self esteem.

Yoga is also spiritual through teaching appreciation for what one’s body can do every day, even as it changes.

“Personally, yoga has helped me appreciate more of the little things in life, like thanking the sun, the universe, and tuning in and redirecting my aura,” Yasmine Goodman, freshman, said.

“It’s helped me see things in a ‘what is this telling me/teaching me’ light, rather than ‘why is this happening to me?’”

Furthermore, yoga is a community. According to Engel, yoga is an inherently communal field because people feed off each other’s energy and sharing the experience can make it stronger.

In a life of chaos, yoga is a constant. The mat allows you to feel at home in your body without the influence of any external factors.