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Special Winter Issue 2009/2010 | |
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Carly Auclicky involved in environmental conservation project.
Exploitation of Mother Earth
From the Eyes of an Eco-Feminist
My generation has inherited a troubled world of international and internal social conflicts, violence, war, and an environmental crisis beyond anything we have ever seen before.
The generations before us created an ideal of social status through material wealth, instigating conflict for resources and space. I am ashamed to say that my generation has become the most materialist and wasteful to date.
Over time, the human race has come to think of ourselves as separate from the natural world around us. In our present culture, we live our daily lives without ever seeing the impact that we make on the entire planet.
Even now that the environmental crisis has come to light, we refuse to acknowledge the issues at hand.
It is our actions that have brought about the current environmental crisis and contributed to the critical peril of many of the world’s plant and animal species. Our consumption of fossil fuels for electricity, transportation, and heat has induced global warming.
The human demand for convenience has brought about the creation of plastics and Styrofoam, another piece of our environmental crisis. Plastic chemical construction is extremely stable, making it difficult to recycle by any means. As a result, plastic accumulates all over the face of the Earth.
Currently, the largest accumulation of plastic materials is in the Pacific Ocean in an area twice the size of Texas.
This migrating patch of plastic is called the Pacific Garbage Patch and is considered to be the world’s largest landfill. There are many unfortunate victims of our world of plastic convenience. Many species get caught in plastic six-pack rings, or consume the products.
Humans impact the environment around us even by the simple task of making dinner. Our demand for beef, palm oil, cocoa, soy beans, and coffee have created vast pressures on the rainforests and the native people who live in those tropical countries.
By putting our needs first, we have put the diversity of our planet at risk, and in turn ourselves.
According to the World Conservation Union, there are 16,306 species in the world on the verge of extinction.
The United States accounts for 1,351 species on the list. New Jersey alone has 26 species listed on the verge of extinction.
Humans have pushed Mother Earth to her limits, and like a petulant child, we must be reminded of our place in the grander ecological scheme.
We are just one species, one life form, existing on this planet, no matter how often we try to sequester ourselves above the others.
(This essay is an excerpt from an essay written for Knowledge & Power: Issues in Women's Leadership in the Fall 2009 semester.)—Carly Aucliky |
Douglass student doing last minute assignments on a Sacred Path bench.
Win Up to $300 in the DRC ePortfolio Challenge
Douglass Residential College is sponsoring an “ePortfolio Challenge” to showcase the outstanding ePortfolios that are being created by DRC students.
We have established five categories to capture the most innovative to the most professional.
You can enter into all five categories, or just one or two. Categories are: Most Creative, Most Professional, Best Artifacts/Digital Collection of Work, Best Use of Reflective Writing (within the Matrix section), and Best Overall ePortfolio.
Each winner is awarded $50, but the category of best overall ePortfolio will receive a $100 prize. Also, your portfolio will be showcased on our ePortfolio website.
You can start submitting your portfolios now. The deadline is January 30, 2011.
How to submit: Please email your ePortfolio’s URL address to douglasseportfolio@echo.rutgers.edu. In the subject heading, please identify the category (or categories) to which you are submitting. You can find your URL address by clicking onto the “share content and share portfolio” tab. Simply locate you portfolio in “My Portfolio” then click the action command that says “Share” in the drop down box.
Most Creative Prize $50
What must be completed? About Me, Home Page, at least two cells in Matrix, and at least one resume (Leadership Transcript or General Resume)
Most Professional Prize $50
What must be completed? Home, About Me, at least four cells in Matrix, Leadership Transcript & General Resume
Best Artifacts/Digital Collection of Work Prize $50
What must be completed? About Me, Home Page, and an Artifact added to four or more Matrix Cells. This can include reflection and/or attached artifact such as a paper, video or photo, etc. Artifacts should be accompanied by a reflection in a matrix cell with rationale for including the artifact.
Best Use of Reflective Writing Prize $50
What must be completed? About Me, Home Page, Five or more Reflections in at least four of the Matrix Cells
Best Overall ePortfolio Prize $100
What must be completed? About Me, Home Page, Resume, Four or more Reflections in at least four of the Matrix Cells
**Guidelines: Each category has specific components the judges will be using to choose the winner. Be sure to look them over carefully and submit your URL addresses by January 30, 2010.
*Judges reserve the right to cancel categories that do not have enough submissions. **If you have any questions regarding this contest, please email douglasseportfolio@echo.rutgers.edu. |
Documentarian, Andrea Torrice visits Rutgers (photo by P. Doktor).
Taking Action to Cool Global Warming
Andrea Torrice first heard about global warming on the news and in newspapers in 1997. As a film director, she found it important to inform others about such an important issue.
After finding more information on the subject, she directed “Rising Waters: Global Warming and the Fate of the Pacific Islands,” a documentary that explains and gives a personal take on the effects of global warming in the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Samoa, Micronesia, and Hawaii.
The film also discusses global warming’s effects on the island of Manhattan, New York.
“It’s very difficult for someone living in the United States to grasp the fact that if the sea level rises just a few feet, a whole nation will disappear,” Ben Graham, a citizen of the Republic of the Marshall Islands said in the film.
By making "Rising Waters," Torrice wanted to show how important it is that humans find a way to lower the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or else the amount of carbon emissions will raise the temperature on Earth, begin to melt the polar ice caps and glaciers, raising sea levels, along with countless other problems.
As a part of the Department of Human Ecology’s two-year Ecologies in the Balance? global initiative, Torrice visited Rutgers University in October.
During her visit, there was a screening of her film and a question-and-answer session between students and the director.
At first, when making the documentary in the late 1990s, Torrice couldn’t get funding for two years because environmental organizations didn’t consider global warming to be a big enough issue.
Torrice believes that “misinformation campaigns” by oil companies are responsible for the lack of action taken against global warming from the late 1990s to the present day.
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, between 1998 and 2005, ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 advocacy organizations to mislead the public and prevent government action by discrediting the science confirming global warming.
This is just one example of what the oil companies did to preserve the unconstrained use of fossil fuels.
"Rising Waters" was shown at the 2004 United Nations’ Earth Summit and has been viewed in 110 countries. “This is an exciting, pivotal moment for your generation,” Torrice emphasized.
Torrice advised that some of the most crucial things students can do to help slow global warming are to get in touch with nature, become energy efficient, write to our government representatives encouraging them to support climate change legislation, and to be creative and organize our own efforts to go green. “We need to think globally, and act locally,” Torrice said.—Karin Oxford
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ILLUMINATION: A Photo Exhibition of Yule Log 2009 by AMJAD SAEED, staff photographer
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Douglass Speaks
Women and Leadership
by ASHLEY SAWYER, guest commentator
It is almost eerie to be the keynote speaker tonight.  I feel like it was just yesterday that I was moving into Katzenbach Room 207, looking forward to meeting my roommate.
Before the end of my first month on campus, I had already experienced the Douglass Difference. I experienced an all women’s community, where I felt welcome and encouraged to speak up and discover the leader within me. . .
I also joined the Douglass Black Students’ Congress, where I met Abbey Morgan who was then the president of the organization. Abbey taught me all there was to know about being an exemplary student and role model. She looked for ways that I could excel in other organizations. She suggested me for my current job as a recruiter with Teach For America, and encouraged me to run for an executive board position within DBSC. She was passionate about DBSC, about Douglass and about leadership.
What I’ve learned about leadership is that it is contagious. Abbey and other women inspired me to get involved and to take on leadership positions. Anyone who knows me knows that I am an outspoken person and I am usually the first to volunteer to get involved. However, Abbey especially taught me a more purposeful form of leadership. . .
I envision a Douglass student leadership that lasts for generations. I would like to see us encourage and support new women leaders. Those women will keep Douglass alive. If they feel inspired by us, and if they share our sense of enthusiasm, they will follow our lead and preserve Douglass.
Part of what makes great leaders is passion and inspiration. Leaders who feel that they do things and get involved not just to boost their resumes but to have a greater global impact are effective. Women who feel that their organizations and their work is necessary and that it will have an impact are the most successful and dedicated.
So to remind us of how much we need women leaders, I’d like to remind you that only 2.6% of Fortune 500 CEOs are women, that’s only about 13 out of 500 women. Of the 100 United States Senators there are only 17 women, and even fewer women of color. It is important to see women succeed in these areas because we need people to fight for equal pay for women.
We need leaders who will always consider the impact on women in their decision making. We need to work to raise awareness about domestic violence and the prevalence of sexual assault. These issues are just the tip of the iceberg. There is an underlying disregard for women in our society; women are told to be quiet about sexual harassment and to not complain about our social constraints.
There is a direct connection between what we do as student leaders and those issues. If we encourage leadership amongst college women, we pave the way for a world full of conscious, visionary women who can extend the Douglass Difference to humanity.
We need to remember that the work we do as student leaders is very valuable, and work with that same passion as if we were working to end poverty or to end violence against women, because in a sense we are creating the foundation for the women that might accomplish those things.
(This essay is an excerpt of a speech given at the Women in Leadership Dinner in August 2009.) |
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Douglass Around The World
Discovering Cambodia
by HEATHER S. FAGNANT
Last year I travelled to Cambodia through the Human Rights House (HRH) of Douglass Residential College at Rutgers University. On this twelve day visit, I explored humanitarian and ethical tourism issues.
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Day 1: Checking In
Phew, what a long trip! The HRH finally arrives in Siem Reap after 22 hours of travel, including a 12 hour layover in Seoul, Korea. We are staying at Earthwalkers, an eco-friendly inn complete with a pleasant staff, cold showers, lizards, frogs, and a foot-shaped pool.
Day 2: Angkor Wat
After a hearty meal of “breakfast rice,” white bread with jam, and tea, the HRH group takes a bus to Angkor Wat, the Eighth Wonder of World. For Angelina Jolie fans, this is one of the places where “Lara Croft” kicks butt in the movie Tomb Raider.
Day 3: Visit to the Landmine Museum
At 9:30 am, the group departs on an hour long journey to the Landmine Museum. The museum hosts a vast collection of landmines that had been planted by the Khmer Rouge during the Cambodian Genocide (1975-1979).
The Khmer Rouge supported the ruling Communist Party of Kampuchea and engineered mass deaths against its opposition in the late 1970s.
Ironically, the founder of the museum, Aki Ra, was once a soldier of the Khmer Rouge and whose main job was to plant the mines. Aki Ra now dedicates his time and energy to demining these bombs and working with organizations to train others to do the same.
Day 7 - 10: A New Day Cambodia
January 7, 2009 celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of the defeat of the Khmer Rouge. It is also our first day working with A New Day Cambodia, a center consisting of 100 school children taken from their homes at a nearby garbage dump.
Over the next four days, we bonded with the children, who were instantly affectionate and seemingly stuck to our sides. While there, we planted a garden, painted a mural, and had the kids make a hand-mural on two formally plain white walls.
Day 11: Visiting Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields
We all know that today is going to be hard to face. It is the day that we visit Toul Sleng and the Killing Fields, places of which the heinous crimes of the Khmer Rouge took place.
Day 12: Cooking Khmer, Touring the Silver Pagoda, and saying Goodbye to Cambodia
Squeezing out the last hours of our trip, my friends  and I use our time to discover more of Cambodia. At 8:30 am, we are driven off by tuk-tuks to go to an outdoor market and discover the local foods and flavors, the first step of our Khmer Cooking class.
After our last dinner in Cambodia, we head off to the airport and begin our long journey back home. |
A Message from Dean Harriet Davidson
 As we end one semester and start another, I am always struck by how much students accomplish in a short term or even a year. In this newsletter we hear from students learning about new fields, new passions, new places, as they work with faculty and other students to explore their world.
At a great university like Rutgers and Douglass Residential College, students get exposed to life-changing ideas and experiences every day. The intense learning curve of a university education sometimes seems impossible in retrospect: when we look back, our college years seem to dwarf whole decades of later experience.
This new decade beginning in 2010 will bring challenges and inventions that we can barely imagine right now. Who, indeed, in January 2000 would have predicted the decade to come, with its violent political and financial turmoil? Students are poised to help define our new decade, to make it, perhaps, more peaceful, more green, more feminist, so that we can look back in January 2020 and marvel at the steep learning curve we traversed to make a better world.
Unapologetically STEM: The Douglass Project Supporting Women in Sciences
 In an inconspicuous trailer on Douglass campus, the Douglass Project has cultivated and encouraged pre-college and undergraduate women in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) for the past two decades. The Douglass Project houses a program that has been dedicated to supporting pre-college female youth and undergraduate women interested in STEM disciplines for over two decades.
The Douglass Project also supports the Bunting-Cobb Residence Hall for Women in Math and Sciences, a residential hall that fosters a supportive community for women in STEM disciplines through programs, peer study groups/tutoring, faculty/industry roundtables and female graduate mentors who live in the residence will also house a new living-learning community focused on the environment.
Also, the Bunting-Cobb residence Hall for Women has a new house course that will be offered this spring by the Department of Environmental Sciences.
Additionally, the Douglass Project emphasizes student involvement through its outreach programs for pre-college future scientists. One program connects undergraduates to fourth graders, teaching them about the fun aspects of the field.
Another popular program is “The Douglass Science Institute Program Series (DSI).” This summer academic initiative accepts applications from candidates when they are in the eighth grade. Students return throughout high school to build upon their intellectual development once accepted.
Although the building that houses The Douglass Project remains as a stable fixture on campus, it is helping to build extraordinary women.
Reaching for the Stars: College Students Help Children Become Science VIPs
by GENESIS MENDOZA, DNN Staff Writer
For three Fridays this past October, the Douglass Project operated its annual outreach program, the “4th Grade Science Stars.” Fourth graders from local New Brunswick elementary schools teamed up with Douglass Residential College undergraduate volunteers to engage in interactive labs.  The program took place in Trayes Hall, the Douglass College Center. The space was divided into 13 science stations where students partook in hands-on activities. Using the State’s fourth grade curriculum on the human body, volunteers tried new and fun teaching methods to get the young students interested in their studies.
“4th Grade Science Stars” was initially founded as a creative method to increase student interest in the science fields before deciding on going to college, especially within minority groups. Its ultimate goal is to excite and educate children about science in hopes that more will be involved in actively participating in science fields sometime in the future and its volunteers the opportunity to exhibit their knowledge of the field.
The program is also formatted in a way that would encourage Douglass students to explore their own potential in becoming more involved with Rutgers and in the STEM fields. Elaine Zundl, the Senior Academic Program Coordinator of the Douglass Project, hopes to see the program expand to include more elementary schools once more funds and supplies are collected. In response to the program, she states, “I think it’s really great. I like to see a program in which undergraduates learn from [younger students]. I love to hear when they have new ideas.”
Diversity at Douglass: Minority Women in STEM Receive Support
Incorporated within the “Douglass Difference” is diversity. This semester, for the first time in the history of the college, half of entering Douglass students were of color, thus making Douglass the most diverse in all five of New Brunswick’s campuses.
A fact that was pointed out by Rutgers’ President Richard McCormick in his annual “State of Rutgers” address earlier this semester, the diversity of Douglass campus also extends to the Douglass Project’s empowerment of minority students in STEM fields.
The Douglass Project, a highly structured support system for women in the STEM fields hosts a “high percentage of [female] minority students,” within its various programs. The 2008-2009 annual report by the Douglass Project, stated that African-American and Hispanic students were very active. This includes residing in Bunting Cobb, a residence hall created for women in the STEM fields.
As well, a significant number of women of color were a part of Project SUPER, a program assisting exceptional, low-income students while at Rutgers. According to the Douglass Project, this program offers the “financial support of minority women in science education . . . [to] enhance diversity in the STEM fields by enabling participants to excel academically at Rutgers University and prepare them for graduate school or successful STEM careers after graduation.” |
A Ball with Purpose, Douglass Black Student Congress Celebrate Kwanzaa
by NIKI RATTAY-FOOTE, contributing writer
The Douglass Black Students’ Congress hosted its annual Kwanzaa Ball as part of their “3 Days of Umoja” campaign.
The promotion was designed to connect the ball with the idea of coming together, a principle that is recognized in the African-American heritage festival called Kwanzaa. Umoja means unity in Swahili and was used by DBSC to champion for solidarity in solving problems that are affecting the black community and women.
The Kwanzaa Ball is a semi-formal social encouraging Rutgers’ students to celebrate the heritage and contributions of African peoples, especially in America. Taking place on December 5, the ball began with a ceremony called, “libation,” a ritual where attendees pay tribute to African-American ancestors, as well as those in the Diaspora and on the continent. Also, the flavors of African-American cuisine were explored with a mouthwatering soul food meal.
This year DBSC specifically focused on the values of Imani (Faith) and Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility). Before the dancing began, DBSC members presented all the Kwanzaa principles to guests, with a brief description of each while lighting a candle on a Kinara, or candleholder.
Kwanzaa is a weeklong festival that takes place from Dec. 26 – January 1. It is celebrated by all races, religions and ethnicities.
DBSC is also collecting donations throughout their “3 Days of Umoja” campaign for Women Aware, a local organization that helps to raise awareness and provide support for domestic violence survivors.
The Douglass Black Students’ Congress (DBSC) was established in 1968 to address the academic, political and social needs of black women across Douglass College, and now across Rutgers University.
DBSC works to instill Black consciousness within the college community, and to bring the members of the organization and the community at large closer together through the bonds of friendship and sisterhood.
For more information, please contact email nikirattray@gmail.com. |
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Summer Transformation: An Unforgettable Journey to Bolivia
by PATRICIA SCHWINDINGER, contributing writer
The Rutgers Summer Study Abroad program in Cochabamba, Bolivia, is only two years old, but it is an incredible journey. When I signed up last summer, I was eighteen, had never been outside the country, and had only just completed Spanish 204. I had little idea what awaited me as I stepped off the plane.
We had a brief orientation in Santa Cruz before flying to our new home in Cochabamba, where we met our host families and began our classes. We studied the political issues facing Bolivia today and the methods of cultural anthropology. Also, we were tutored in either Spanish or the indigenous language Quechua.
The program coordinators split us into three groups to run service projects. My group helped to re-established the women’s group in Loma Pampa, and started a youth group as well. They dubbed themselves ‘Las Chicas Wins’ or The Girls Who Win. This project supported the local women and girls in creating a new sisterhood space so that they could provide peer support and grow together.
Every Sunday we all went to Loma Pampa. There we helped construct a community center and taught English lessons. This was a continuum of projects that had begun the year before.
One of our members used the global campaign called “Kids with Cameras” to encourage Bolivian youth to visually document their lives. She brought a number of donated digital cameras, and we took groups of children out to take photographs. Their work will be displayed this spring to raise money for the community. I also taught art lessons, and all the students who came were provided with supplies by the program.
I will never forget the children whose lives we touched, or the strangers who welcomed us into their houses and became our friends. Nor will I soon forget the unbelievable beauty of the country, of the paradox of its wealth of natural resources and its heart rending poverty. In the end, what really transformed was me. |
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About Douglass Now News Douglass Now Newsletter was created to showcase the unique and rich community of Douglass Residential College students by using new media technologies and classical journalism styles. The newsletter highlights the plethora of programs that cater to the wide array of students’ interests, prestigious scholarship, and the encouragement for every Douglass woman to be a leader. Douglass Residential College has a respected reputation for its wide network that includes the following: community service, strong relationships with Douglass Alumnae, and an unbending mission to ensure that students maximize their potential. This newsletter is written by students and staff, a collection of voices that capture a community that cultivates greatness. |
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DNN & Residential College Staff
Editor: Kaia N. Shivers, DRC Staff Member
Copy Editor: Abigail Lewis and Barbara Balliet, DRC Staff Members
Writers: Tiffany Dodson, Kimpreet Kaur, Kayla McDermott, Genesis Mendoza, Karin Oxford, Evita Wade, Anna Zailik, Justine D'Souza
Staff Blogger: Justine D'Souza
Photographers: Petra Doktor, Amjad Saeed
Videographer: Amjad Saeed
Video Reporters: Skylar Nwanonyiri and Samantha Smitte
Video Editing: Kenji Denda
Facebook Mistress: Kim Kaur |
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Contact Us
Please send your comments, ideas, events and suggestions to: douglassnow@echo.rutgers.edu
Facebook us on: facebook/DouglassNOW
We are looking for contributing writers, featured bloggers, guest videographers and photographers. Everyone in the Douglass community is invited to submit including students, DRC student organizations, staff, faculty, and alumnae.
*Please excuse your mistake. On the last issue, we did not list Jill Bartlett as a DNN staff member.
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