WAFS Newsletter | March 2021
WE ARE for Science
Feeling motivated and discouraged? Here are some tips for a productive semester:
- Set small, short term goals. For example, rather than “Finish paper by Friday”, break the checkpoints down into smaller sections such as completing the introduction by Monday, the methods section Tuesday, etc. Setting smaller, attainable goals helps to accomplish more and make the work seem less heavy.
- Read for fun. Finding time to read something other than academic papers such as mysteries or self-help books can help keep your brain active while still taking a break from direct work-related responsibilities.
- Exercise. Even going for a 15-minute walk can help relieve anxiety and give you a clear perspective on your day.
- Have open communication. Being honest and transparent with your friends, teachers, and advisor can prevent a problem from even happening and keep everyone on the same page.
- Monitor your caffeine intake. While caffeine can provide the extra kick you sometimes need, too much can send you into a spiral.
- Listen to music. Quiet background music can often give the extra push of motivation and keep the environment light.
- Reward yourself. Treating yourself to something special after you completed a goal can give you something to look forward to.
- Schedule time for something you love. Intentional time to enjoy an activity can help balance out your lifestyle. Work hard, play hard!
- The State College Borough will discuss and vote on a resolution condemning the anti-Asian bias incidents and hate crimes (see page seven of the Borough Council packet https://content.civicplus.com/api/assets/2c73fb44-a8ef-4bad-926e-59e123a81b06) at their meeting on Monday.
- University of Pittsburgh (March 15 @ 4 pm) and UPenn (March 19 @ 1 pm) have some upcoming events that engage these topics (see images below and attached flyers)
- CSGD hosted a workshop on the model minority myth yesterday. If there is a recording, I will send it out as well.
- If you witness or experience any such bias, please be sure to report at http://equity.psu.edu/reportbias
Interview with WEMS Co-founder Kayla M. on How People Can Get Involved
With the 2024 election upcoming, there is already buzz around whether or not Donald Trump will seek re-election and how successful a bid for re-election might be for the single term president now impeached twice for high crimes and misdemeanors. Despite his impeachments in the House of Representatives, Trump was not convicted in the U.S. Senate on either occasion making him eligible to hold office in the United States in the future. Given that he received the most votes of any republican to ever run for the presidency of the United States, there is a non-trivial chance he may indeed win re-election. However, many raise the point that many Gen Z voters are more politically active than their predecessors at an earlier age, and that these young people will be a huge base of 18-25 year old voters in 2024. To take a closer look at how young adults are engaging the political system, we sat down with Kayla McCauley to chat about how she got involved and started participating with the political system and her community here at Penn State.
Kayla is a senior in undergraduate degree looking to attend graduate school in Meteorology starting in the Fall. We asked her about the founding of the organization she currently serves on here at PSU called WEMS (Women in EMS). “For a long time we were underneath the student council but we decided to become an independent organization in order to be more inclusive to a broader array of students,” she said of the choice to branch out into their own organization.
Kayla really started getting active and involved in organizations in 2016 when she was a senior in high school surrounding the election of controversial US Presidential candidate Donald Trump. She was involved in an org called the Harry Potter Alliance, an org that uses shared interest in pop culture to promote activism and leadership in communities with platforms such as youth activism, LGBTQ+ equality, and racial justice. However, she couldn’t shake the feeling that as a young person, she just wasn’t being spoken to or taught about the political system. “We felt like we just weren’t learning about this stuff, it wasn’t being taught in classrooms, so people really only had their families to turn to,” said Kayla of what it was like to be a young person at such a pivotal moment in the US.
In response to the need to get dialogue going, Kayla as a senior in high school founded an organization called Viking Currents, where they discussed current events and topics in politics each week and worked to find communally accepted solutions. “The ‘Viking’ part was because our high school mascot was a Viking and the ‘Currents’ referred to current events,” Kayla explained. One thing that stood out to us was that even as a young person, she understood the importance of bipartisanship and reaching out to people who hold differently beliefs in order to accomplish shared goals; in a practical sense, she had to find a teacher to sponsor the founding of her organization and that teacher, holding their group meetings in her classroom each week, was actually a conservative. “We would all talk out a problem together and then see where we could meet in the middle to find common ground.”
We
asked Kayla what she would say to young people looking to make a difference and
if she could share about how it was for her to come to Penn State as a young
person looking to make a change. “Well, I’ve always loved leadership and
getting involved, but I didn’t know specifically what I wanted to do when I
first arrived at Penn State. I went to the Involvement Fair and looked at all
the different options available. Meeting other people who were making a
difference was a huge inspiration and eventually I was able to find my
passion.” Kayla says her biggest passion here at Penn State has been serving as
an EMS Ambassador!
Finally,
we asked her about what’s coming up next as she makes the transition (fingers
crossed for you, Kayla!) from undergraduate to graduate student this year. When
asked if she plans to found another 'women in STEM' organization at her next
academic institution, she said, “Yes, definitely, although hopefully they
already have one. One thing that’s been really impactful is to have other women
who do science to talk to, because I don’t always have that personal connection
in life, otherwise.” She mentioned one of her favorite activities is when young
women alumni come back to Penn State and talk about their experience in their
careers because they have so much in common and those women can share what
their experience has been like in the working world.
Kayla is looking forward to transitioning into a PhD program in Meteorology in the Fall, and the ladies here at WE ARE For Science are wishing her all the best!
There’s a new president in town, and he’s kicked off his administration with a flurry of executive orders in order to set the tone for policy in the Biden-Harris Administration. Here, we’ve compiled a simple list, collapsed where possible for brevity, of what is in the executive orders as we understand them:
1. Rejoining the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
2. Promotion of racial equity; the government is to conduct an equity assessment of its agencies and make efforts to reallocate resources for the purposes of advancing equity for all with a specific call out to people of color who have been “historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality”
3. Ending the controversial Muslim-majority Country Travel Ban
4. Requiring face masks to be worn on all federal property
5. Asserting a whole of government, federal led approach to Covid-19
6. Revoking the previous administration’s executive order targeting sanctuary cities which shielded undocumented immigrants from deportation
7. Including undocumented immigrants in the US Census
8. Canceling the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline
9. Banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation by extending federal nondiscrimination protections to LGBTQ+ community
10. Suspension of all rules passed in final days of Trump administration; these will be reviewed by federal agencies
11. Undoes Trump admin policy requiring two pieces of regulation be disregarded for every one added
12. Revamping the process of regulatory review
13. All government appointees must now take an ethics pledge prohibiting things such as accepting gifts from lobbyists or becoming lobbyists within two years of leaving government
14. Defunding the border wall
15. Deferring departure for refugees from Liberia
16. Reaffirming DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)
17. Several covid-19 protocols which are collapsed here for brevity, but which include increased safety protocols for travelers, expanded access to treatment, and advocating for data driven responses to the virus’ spread. These orders also address key issues with re-opening such as advocating for workplace safety and resources for reopening of schools.
18. Expanding SNAP federal food assistance programs
19. Assisting veterans with debt
20. Guarantee of federal unemployment insurance for those who will not or cannot work due to covid 19 risks
21. Assistance with the delivery of benefits by federal agencies
22. Series of actions of to expand delivery of stimulus payments
23. Order directing all government agencies to identify actions they can take within their agencies to address the pandemic and economic crisis
24. Walking back trump admin regulations that had previously rolled back protections for federal workers
25. Undoing Trump admin transgender military ban
26. Closing loopholes that allow companies to offshore production and jobs while qualifying for U.S. domestic preferences
27. Calling for examination of Trump admin’s Dep. Of Housing & Urban Development policies
28. Ending reliance on privatized prison by directing DoJ to not renew contracts
29. Denouncing anti-Asian discrimination and xenophobia
30. Announcing new calls for scientific integrity requiring Office of Science and Technology to institute policies calling for appointment of senior employee to ensure integrity
31. Re-establishing presidential council on science and technology in order to ascertain information that the Biden admin feels is needed to inform public policy related to admin platforms such as racial equity, homeland security, public health, and other such topics.
32. Reinforcing Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, and expanding access to reproductive health care by repealing the Trump admin ‘global gag rule’ that blocked federal funding from going to orgs that perform abortion
Sources: NBCnews.com, CNN.com, whitehouse.gov
Anything we missed here that you think we should include? Reach out via email and we’ll include your comments in future updates.
