$7,490,133.87 FOR THE KIDS!

This past weekend was the 46 hour no sleeping and no sitting dance marathon for pediatric cancer. Penn State's THON broke the record and raised almost $1 million more than last year. This is nothing short of amazing, impressive, and admirable. Anyone who was a part of THON, whether is was just donating, raising money, or actually a part of THON weekend in University Park, should be proud to have made a difference in this outstanding total.

I unfortunately did not have the privilege of being in the Bryce Jordan Center, but after canning and helping raise money the past two semesters, I wanted to stay connected to what was going on somehow. The THON website is great. Throughout the course of the weekend, people were able to go to a THON blogging site where the dancers posted what was going on from their perspective as it was happening. There was also a camera broadcasting THON live in the Bryce Jordan Center, which also provided pictures that were tagged as "taken 3 seconds ago... taken 6 seconds ago..." etc.

Penn State's football coach, Joe Paterno, came on stage and spoke to the dancers and moralers that were there this weekend. Whether you're a Joepa fan or not, he said some things that really expressed the energy in the Bryce Jordan Center during those 46 hours. He said, "I wish the whole world could see and feel what's in this room right now; love, commitment, and dedication. It just reeks from this room." Later, he also said, "In my 58 years at Penn State, I've never been more proud than right now. God bless every single one of you. And I hope you will remember what you can achieve later on in life, what you've achieved here for yourselves, the people you've helped, and how proud you've made everyone connected to Penn State. God bless every single on you." And of course, the end of his speech concluded with the famous "WE ARE...PENN STATE" chant.

The dancers, those who remained on their feet for the entire 46 hours, are absolutely amazing. Hopefully these individuals will inspire more people to become involved in some way, and next year's total will be even bigger... FTK!!

MySpace versus Facebook

The majority of people my age have either a myspace or facebook account, or both. People argue all the time about which is better, which I believe to be insignificant. Facebook and myspace are just the current generation's form of communication via technology. Key words: current generation. It may seem a little ridiculous from certain perspectives, but it is what it is. 

Facebook started off in 2004, originally designed for college students. A lot of people complained who couldn't join, but it soon became available for everyone. That kind of defeated the purpose, but I guess they had to step up their game to compete with myspace. Myspace has almost 110 million users and is known as the largest social networking site on the internet. I'm probably going to use the word creepy several times throughout the rest of my blog, and I have a good feeling the majority of readers, those who are active users of either network, will understand what I'm talking about. I feel like a large amount of user profiles on myspace are annoying bands and/or creepy 40 year old men who enjoy lurking young girl's profiles. That is probably a biased opinion and not really fair, I get it. But nonetheless, there is a reason myspace consists primarily of one generation; once you hit a certain age, you should probably stick with your generations form of communication. I apologize to anyone in a band who uses myspace as a promotional tool, but tone it down a few notches, we're not all interested in being your friend and checking out your shows. 

I liked the concept of facebook being strictly for college students. It was less creepy and seemed more plausible as a social networking site for college students. I have friends on facebook who don't go to college, so they probably won't like this next opinion, but you win some and you lose some. There needs to be restrictions to avoid the creepiness, and even though facebook is ten times better in my opinion, it seems to be becoming more like myspace everyday. Each site has so many similar applications, soon it's going to be hard to tell them apart. 

We can probably all agree that facebook can be pretty distracting between pictures, bumper stickers, games, etc., but that's kind of the whole idea. I've waisted so many hours of my life doing pointless things on facebook, and I love every minute of it. We need those simple guilty pleasures in life that are insignificant. I don't always want to pick up a book or a newspaper when I'm bored or need a break from school. Sometimes I just need to do nothing that is entertaining. The idea of facebook being a place for college friends and a source of networking with people in your classes or field makes is seem less insignificant. 

I received a friend request from a family member, many many many years older than me, and I just can't find the point. Older people should have the same rights as younger generations, blah blah, but why do they want all the same rights? I understand certain parents joining facebook to stay in contact with their kids and their kid's friends, and professors who want to stay in contact with students and other faculty, but if you're over the age of 40 and get the same pleasure browsing photo albums and bumper stickers as a college student avoiding writing a paper or waiting for class to end, you might want to reevaluate the time you have on your hands. I like the idea of my parents not understanding certain things I do, they're not supposed to. That's the difference between generations, and that's what makes things interesting. If we listened to all the same music as our parents, wore the same clothes, and were friends with all the same people, I would probably want to cut off my big toe. I love trying to explain things to my parents and seeing their reactions, or watching them attempt to text message, or trying to make sense of the things on the internet that I find amusing; it's amusing in and of itself. 

Higher Education and Civic Engagement

Being a student at Penn State, I'm well aware of the amount of civic engagement that occurs on and off campus. I think it's interesting when I talk to my friends who attend community colleges and find out how less engaged they are. It makes me wonder if there is a connection between institutions and engagement. 

After research, I found I was not the only person with that question. A specific article, For-profit post-secondary education and civic engagement, was written in response to a researched hypothesis regarding civic engagement and students who attend community colleges compared to students who attend Universities. The authors of the article used data from the U.S. National Center of Education Statistics (NCES), National Post-secondary Student Aid Survey (NPSAS90), and Beginning Post-secondary Survey (BPS) to test the hypothesis that students who attend for-profit schools show lower levels of civic and community engagement than students in community colleges. This hypothesis does not support my theory that students who attend community colleges are less engaged, but it still goes into depth on the topic, which I found to be interesting.

During the course of their research, they consider the differences in civic behavior being the result of the different types of schools, and/or the experiences students may have in their programs. They find their hypothesis strongly supported. Students attending for profit schools show less involvement in civic and community engagement than students at non-profit community colleges. The conclusion to their research agreed with other researchers ideas that for-profit schools have more narrowed institutional goals that strictly prepare students for the labor force, which then causes these students to be less aware of others and less interested to participate in the political process and community affairs. 

After their hypothesis was supported as expected, the authors furthered their research to understand why there is such a difference. They considered questions regarding the students who attend these types of schools, the size of the institutions, and the higher education outcomes. They found that larger institutions with higher enrollments have less students who interact with faculty. They also have substantial evidence that major differences between community colleges and for-profit schools are found within the curriculum, extracurricular activities, and community service programs that foster civic engagement.