To kick off Hispanic Heritage Month, in October, Penn State DuBois students will hold Hispanic Heritage Day from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1. All members of the public are invited to this family-friendly, child-oriented event.
Penn State Laureate Linda Patterson Miller, professor of English at Penn State Abington, will begin her journeys into western Pennsylvania, serving as a "laureate-in-residence" as she interacts with the campus communities at Penn State DuBois (Sept. 13); Penn State Erie, The Behrend College (Sept. 14); Penn State Shenango (Sept. 15); and Penn State Beaver (Sept. 16). Miller will be participating in individual classes and symposiums along with engaging larger audiences in public forums at these locations. "I invite anyone in these geographical areas to join with us for these public presentation as we variously explore the art of American diary-keeping, the lives and art of the 1920s Lost Generation, and the art of Ernest Hemingway as discovered in his letters and early prose," said Miller.
Check in with Miller's travels and follow her literary dialogue, "Literary Landings," at http://laureate.psu.edu/Linda_Miller online. Today, Miller discusses how encounters with art can change lives, as it did for Miller when she first read Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" (1929). To watch a short video of Miller as she provides some background for understanding the transformative power of Hemingway's art, go to http://bit.ly/nVOzuO online.
Independence Day celebrations almost always include fireworks of some kind. The Prevent Blindness America organization recommends attending professionally organized fireworks displays rather than buying and setting off your own. This view is echoed by the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which collects and reports data on fireworks-related injuries every year. They report that 7,000 emergency room visits from fireworks-related injuries occurred during 2008, including seven deaths. In 2007, there were 11 deaths and 9,800 emergency room visits from fireworks-related injury.
Disease remedies using plant products fill the market, but most have not been tested well enough to be able to assure patients that they really work or that they are safe. Here is what is known about a few products that are often of interest to patients with diabetes.
Well more than 100,000 students, alumni, friends and fans of Penn State are staying connected to the University through Penn State's official page on Facebook and through two accounts on Twitter. The University's official page on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/pennstate, is a hub of daily activity for more than 104,000 Penn Staters. On Twitter, thousands are following two official University feeds at http://www.twitter.com/pennstatelive and http://www.twitter.com/penn_state.
With more than $1 billion raised to date, Penn State has entered the public phase of For the Future: The Campaign for Penn State Students, with a goal that will make it the biggest fundraising effort in the University's history. At a celebratory event held on April 23, President Graham Spanier announced that Penn State will aim to secure $2 billion by 2014 to ensure that the University can continue to offer an outstanding education to students from every economic background while benefiting the public through research and service.
"Penn State has made it possible for hundreds of thousands of individuals to sustain their families, advance their professions, and contribute to our country's strength," Spanier told more than 1,000 volunteers and donors gathered at the Bryce Jordan Center. "The For the Future campaign will ensure that we can continue to prepare our students for leadership in a world vastly different from any that previous generations have experienced."
NASA's Swift satellite, whose science and flight operations are controlled from Penn State's Mission Operations Center in State College, Pa., has detected its 500th gamma-ray burst -- a type of explosion that is the biggest and most mysterious in the cosmos. Swift's X-ray telescope and ultraviolet/optical telescope were developed and built by international teams led by Penn State.
A concussion in young athletes can cause significant problems, especially if not recognized and treated properly. The risk for concussion can certainly be reduced by using the proper equipment and following the rules, but it will never be eliminated. Soccer players and lacrosse players risk collisions with opponents or striking their head on the ground after a fall. Softball and baseball catchers and umpires risk getting concussions from foul balls.
As Penn State looks ahead to the future, its administrators are wrestling with what it means to be a public university at a time when public support for higher education is waning. Over the past 10 years, higher education in Pennsylvania has received a 4.8 percent increase in overall funding, while the state budget itself has increased more than 36 percent and basic education has seen a rise of almost 49 percent in that same time period. At the same time, higher education is losing ground in the court of public opinion, as many Americans are skeptical about whether colleges and universities are doing all they can to control costs and keep tuition affordable. Given this scenario, Penn State Provost Rod Erickson said the University cannot continue with "business as usual."
The annual Road Scholars spring tour for Penn State faculty, hosted by President Graham Spanier, is accepting reservations for its May 10-12 trip across southeastern Pennsylvania. The tour offers new and newly tenured faculty several dynamic opportunities to learn about Penn State and Pennsylvania as they travel to several University campuses and tour businesses and popular historic sites. In addition, the tour provides an excellent opportunity for faculty to establish relationships with colleagues across the University, while the itinerary connects them with Penn Staters and residents of the Commonwealth.