Minnesota State University, Mankato Fights Back Against Cancer

Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Colleges Against Cancer chapter hosts 9th annual Relay For Life 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrate

On April 14 Minnesota State University, Mankato students put on their boxing gloves and fought back. Fought back against the what the Center for Disease control recognizes as the second largest cause of death, cancer.

Relay For Life is a family friendly, overnight event hosted by the American Cancer Society nationwide. The event took place in Meyers Field House starting at 6p.m. Friday, April 14 until 6a.m. on Sat., April 15.

The total of contributions from the 42 teams participating in the MSU, Mankato Relay For Life amounted to more than $25,000, surpassing last years giving. Those funds will be dispersed amongst various programs provided for cancer patients through the American Cancer Society. Participants raise funds through online donations, personal contributions and fundraisers.

As Pat Lueck, Colleges Against Cancer advisor says, 

“[the funds are] an insurance policy; bringing cancer awareness to people getting checkups, looking for the signs and trying to stay as healthy as possible…these are funds that could save your life someday.”

Remember

As the night progressed and the dark fell upon the event, the Luminary Ceremony-a ceremony that honors those who have lost their battle with cancer, was addressed and luminary bags were lit.

Walkers walked the track in remembrance by placing their glow sticks in the Luminary bags that had been created prior to or during the event. The walkers were accompanied by the student cover band Neon and the Noble Gases. Throughout the past year Neon and the Noble Gases have entered the MSU campus scene with their win at Impacts Battle of the Bands.

“When the band started to play ‘Lights’ by Journey my heart became overwhelmed and I was inspired; inspired to continue my dedication in the fight against cancer.” said MSU sophomore, and Physical Therapy (P.T.) club member Hannah Walsh.

During the ceremony it is a tradition for speakers, ranging from those affected by cancer to those who have survived cancer, to give their story of hope.

This year a first time participant, Colleges Against Cancer member and survivor Jessica Munsch shared her story.

Only a sophomore in high school at the age of 15 years old, Jessica Munsch was faced life-changing news about something as to which some refer to it as “the silent killer.”

When Munsch was undergoing an emergency ultrasound she was introduced to what she calls a “big, round white mass” or technically known as an eight pound tumor that was sitting on her ovary. She was diagnosed with stage one ovarian cancer. Stage 1 suggests that the cancer is within the tumor only and has not spread to the outside.

Munsch, a dedicated student refused to have her operation the week that was recommended for her by Dr. Downs and his team in Minneapolis. Munsch was due to have a mechanical baby for a class and did not want to have any conflicts  during her assignment.

When she returned to school after her operation she was confronted with allegations and the assumption that she had an abortion. It was a difficult concept for her peers to wrap their minds around, but her teachers were more than understanding.

“I always felt bloated, but I never seemed to lose my stomach.” said Munsch.

Ovarian cancer has similar symptoms as pregnancy:

• Bloating
• Having the urge to constantly urinate
• Pelvic or abdominal pain
• Lower back pain
• Tighter fitting clothes in the waist

Within the first five years of one’s operation to remove a cancer tumor the cancer is more prone to appear in the other ovary.

“People can see the scar when I’m walking around in a bathing suit and I can tell they are looking at it.” said Munsch.

 As of December 15, 2011 Munsch has been cancer-free for 6 years. On her fifth anniversary of being cancer free, she got a tattoo that says live life with a teal ribbon. All cancers have a specific ribbon awareness color, and teal represents ovarian cancer.

Fight Back

Colleges Against Cancer (CAC) is an on-campus organization that strategically focuses their efforts on:

• Advocacy
• Cancer Education
• Relay For Life
• Survivorship

 Brittani Felten, CAC committee chair says that it is important to her to raise awareness and spread education to students “because cancer does not discriminate.” Early detection and treatment are your best chances of beating this disease, and everyone deserves to know how they can go about that and the different resources they have for themselves and their loved ones.”

The Mankato chapter is one of the 300 participating active members nationwide with guidance from their local American Cancer Society office.

Lueck believes that at the university level everyone is so enthusiastic and the energy and willingness to help with anything helped make this year’s Relay For Life successful.

Here is a glimpse of some of the happenings that participants were able to experience at Relay For Life.
Made by: Abby Holst and Jessy Stanton

Connect with MSU, Mankato’s Colleges Against Cancer

Meetings are every Tuesday, 9p.m. in the Centennial Student Union (CSU) 201.

Facebook

Email: cac@mnsu.edu

DiMeglio Announced As Guest Speaker For MSU, Mankato Annual Media Day

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Jessy Stanton

Email: jessy.stanton@mnsu.edu

Twitter: @JessyStanton

Steve DiMeglio

Phone: 703-854-6473

Email: sdimegli@usatoday.com

Twitter: @sdimegUSATgolf

______________________________________________________________________________________

SPEAKER ANNOUNCED FOR MSU, MANKATO ANNUAL MEDIA DAY

USA TODAY ‘s  Senior Golf Writer Steve DiMeglio returns to his alma mater to give students an insight to a career in journalism.

 

Steve DiMeglio

MANKATO, MINN.- On April 24, USA Today‘s lead golf reporter, Steve DiMeglio, will speak at this years Media Day-an annual scholarship banquet for Minnesota State University, Mankato mass media department .

DiMeglio’s address, ‘Steve, Mickey Mantle is on Line One!’ will be presented in the Ostrander Auditorium from 4 p.m. – 6p.m.

DiMeglio, an award-winning journalist, will present an insight in his professional journey from his time at the MSU Reporter to providing coverage of high profiles.

Throughout his career, DiMeglio has covered people such as:

• Tiger Woods
• Bill Clinton
• George W. Bush
• Tom Brady
• Peyton Manning
• Derek Jeter
• Arnold Palmer

Professor and former MSU Reporter advisor,  Ellen Mrja  says of him as being,

“…absolutely the most dedicated sports editor our paper has ever had. His sports pages were more than scores; they were interesting, informative and consistently outstanding.”

The Nadine B. Andreas Foundation supporting the 2012 annual Media Day. This event is free and open to the public.

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For more information on this event please contact, Jessy Stanton at jessy.stanton@mnsu.edu.

The ‘How To” on Audacity

If you are in dire need of finding an application to learn how to edit audio from Audacity, I would recommend Mindy McAdams Audacity Basics. I am very much a visual learner and by watching her tutorial as to how to use Audacity was helpful and made learning what may seem like a complex system, simple.

McAdams takes you step by step from deleting content to saving your file to be MP3 compatible. If you are just as nervous as I was to dive into another Apple program, don’t fret. As you learn and watch about the basics of Audacity one may find that most of the functions are the same as what you might use in a Windows application; copy and paste to everyone’s favorite, the undo button.

She emphasized, like any project, you want to save repeatedly. Once you have made a little change, those changes add up and if you lose your project you may loose hundreds of changes. That was probably one of her most important tip of advice given throughout the tutorial.

I have always found that I am better at talking than writing, so this was more fun for me than a lot of writing that I do for my classes. Maybe someday I’ll start a blog of my own that includes podcast’s, but that would require me finding time. One can dream. As for now I’ll just play around on the program to hone more skills and tricks.

Be sure to check it out.

By: Jessy Stanton

An Analysis of Multimedia Today

A look at the investigative reporting of the fatal Las Vegas strip construction

In 2006, Las Vegas was in the beginning stages of the $32 billion expansion on the Vegas strip. The expansion was noted by the Las Vegas Sun to be the largest private commercial development in U.S. history. Beginning in late 2006, over the course of 18 months, 12 on-site construction workers have died from work related instances. The first time that I had heard about this, along with several of my classmates, had been last week when it was introduced to us for our midterm.

The package of different multimedia capability that the Las Vegas Sun has produced affects not only the emotional but in-depth factual quality for readers. The opening page of the Construction Deaths package is made up of three different options to start your journey through events leading up and following the deaths of the construction workers.

The three links presented include an interactive map of accidents on the strip, a video and a pictorial slideshow. The links offers several ways a reader/user can cater to their learning styles thus presenting a favoring case as to why online media can be more beneficial than print for audience control.

According to the textbook Online Journalism by James C. Foust, several techniques give online journalism more of an advantage over the traditional form of print journalism. On Sunday, March 20, 2008 at 2a.m., one of now highlight archives, a posting of the first information on the matter was present to the general public via the Las Vegas Sun online. This goes to show that the time and place of retrieving the story can be instantaneous compared to the counterpart, print.

As investigative reporting around the Construction Deaths case continued by the Las Vegas Sun, it created large-scale audience participation from federal officials. Sen. Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton and Ted Kennedy wrote to President Bush to enforce a safety reform to the Labor Department.

The nonlinearity organization of the information makes it easily accessible to continued information that makes the internet an easy resource. The nonlinearity of this story makes one dive deeper into a personal investigation of what was happening at the works site.

The video for this story package exemplified extensive background research and time commitment. Through learning various techniques of multimedia and digital photography from my classes this semester this video incorporated a considerable amount of media techniques. This video presented different facts than the original page story.

It illustrated the story through photographs, parts of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration documents, recordings of a phone call with Steve Holloway, executive vice president of Associated General Contractors and other forms of multimedia.

One of the most impacting moments of the video was when the reporter asked a worker, David Rabun, why he was working on a specific construction site and he stated he wanted to work there because that is where his died. He said that he wanted to see what it was like on-site and what his son endured for working conditions. I do not understand how someone could go work for the same place that had essentially killed my child, but that was moving.

The user-generated content of other blogs and videos surrounding the case were linked from the original page near the Highlighted Archives section, or articles that were seen as being important to the overall story. These examples were the only social media that I have seen through the research I have done on this story being utilized. The immediacy that users had through multiple media outlets encouraged them to continue their personal investigation on the case. Users did not have to wait 24 hours to read about the federal hearing; rather they could watch it immediately from a posting of a video of the official hearing.

I did not find any reports or mentioning the use of social media as an influencing factor. Granted this package was created several years ago, it could have been a pivotal moment to start something maybe no one had thought of before. The article mentioned that Senators had written the President for a reform, but how much of a bigger impact could it have been if the letters came from community members and the American public.

Prime example is that more than half of my peers had not of even heard about this story until a week ago. If we had seen campaigns trending on Facebook and Twitter, it would have potentially gotten more people involved to fight for safety of others. Having people stand up for something that might not affect them directly can make an impact on the overall outcome if what is seen as a consensus from the public.

This multimedia package was perfect for online usage. The internet allows us to have an unlimited space and so having those different options for viewing what was going on was appropriate for the circumstances. This type of story would have taken days and an ample amount of space in a print newspaper to explain the happenings, and the details would have been shorted. This example of Construction Deaths goes to show that the internet has a bigger advantage over print journalism in terms of storage and retrieval. Even after four years, I can still pull up the full investigation about the story.

The internet has defied contemporary journalism and challenges journalist the meaning of a “full report or investigation” on the story. The mediums that can be produced and copied on the internet are transforming journalism to more than just giving the facts. It is bringing that story to life and playing on emotions to activate response or action. I was surprised at how emotional I was over this story, especially seeing the photographs. It is amazing to see where journalism was four years ago and what it is today, what will they do next?

Poynter’s News University: Telling Stories with Sound

Audio journalism is a lot like print journalism, the only difference is that it uses sounds to create the story. Have you ever been watching a scary movie, and it comes to that point when you know something bad is going to happen and the music changes to something slow and scary and it might pause for dramatic effect; well sounds can create a mode or tone for a news piece as well.

Poynter’s News University has several applications to learn about different journalistic approaches, one of course being Telling Stories with Sound. As a senior in college I have never taken a formal class on audio storytelling, so all of this information was new and exciting.

Like print journalism, planning and executing time needs to be carefully organized. Sometimes in audio reporting you need to be a little more attention to detail in that in print you can see things, but in audio you need to visually create those through words and sounds. There were several important tips that the course emphasized repeatedly:

• Ask interviewees to be as descriptive as possible to paint the story for listeners
•  Record sounds prior to interview and day of
• Set up microphones well in advance to interview to get accurate and clear recording

Audio reporting, like all forms of journalism, need to be careful in making sure the story is told in an unbiased, accurate manner but in audio with an emphasis on sounds and making sure sounds are not represented.

Print journalism calls for a professional, tell the facts manner while audio reporting is based on a conversational tone to engage the listener through music, sound bites and other voice overs.

Examples and Importance of Audio Journalism 

For 41 years National Public Radio  (NPR) has been sharingthe news through sound-bites. Yesterday on the NPR program ‘All Things Considered’ the story of a recent deceased convicted Nazi camp guard, John Demjanjuk was presented. During this presentation you can hear several techniques used that was described in the course.

During the beginning you can hear what is ambient noise, the natural buzz of the surroundings.

This clip also uses different sound-bytes from interviews to add to the story and to help show different views about this particular person.

As a college student, we are encouraged to blog or find creative ways to journal. Audio journalism does not always mean that you will produce for the radio, this medium can also be produced into podcasts.

In 2011 a BBC report examined the general thoughts on podcasting and the importance that it could have as an impact on one’s career.

“Podcasting is the best way to showcase your talent, especially with commercial radio running out of space for personality.”

So maybe if you are not interested in writing newstories and are better conveying the news through words maybe you will be interested in creating podcasts for media outlets.

I know I like talking a lot more than writing.

 

Google Map Application

The “unknown” the “what-if’s” are always scary and create unnecessary stress. For me, as a graduating senior, I will be entering this realm shortly. I have not decided what exactly I am or want to do but graduate school at some time in the near future is a set plan for my life.

I have created a Google Map of graduate school possibilities. The listed schools are my top 5 graduate schools, in no particular order, I would love to attend.

My own pictures are yet to come, later today. Stay Tuned.

The Declaration of Independence (Anchor Link Practice)

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

Preamble
Grievances
The Pledge

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IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

Obama Higher Education Agenda Urges Increase in Value

Obama administration pressures post-secondary schools to demonstrate importance of higher education

The duty of tackling the issue of inconsistency between education and unemployment rates have been on the forefront of several administration agendas prior to the Obama administration. President Obama has now taken action and requested that post-secondary schools be more transparent about the costs of education and graduate success.

• On average, students with loans graduate with more than $25,000 in debt
• An estimated 40% of students are not graduating when enrolled at a 4-year university or 2-year program (according to College Measures)
• Drop-out rates are costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars annually (according to American Institutes for Research)

As the federal government continues to administer $140 billion in federal grants and loans annually, the rate of unemployment remains considerably high.

The George W. Bush administration found that literacy rates were consistently declining, and that higher education had become “increasingly risk-averse at times self-satisfied and unduly expensive.”

By: Jessy Stanton

HTML Exercise

HTML Tutorials
HTML Tutorials

• http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Guide/
• http://www.w3schools.com/html/
• http:www.webmonkey.com/tutorial/tag/web_basics

About HTML There is a lot more you can learn about HTML. And the best place to turn for complete information on any topic related to Web design is, of course, the Web. The following sites offer helpful tutorials so you can learn more about HTML.

“Lets Get Back to Work” Program Gives Back

Southern Minnesota Airports and Unemployed Get Help From Federal Government.

In an effort to help the unemployed, Congress approved $564 million in the building and repairs funds of southern Minnesota airports. The spending is part of the government’s “Lets Get Back to Work” program created to employ the laid off in the construction and engineering industry.

“This is a small price to pay to help folks out who want to work.” said President Obama.

Critics have voiced that this is just more federal spending and could ultimately cost the government $1 trillion.

·     Blue Earth Municipal Airport: Blue Earth, Minn.  $2.3 million for runway repairs.

·     New Ulm Municipal Airport: New Ulm, Minn.  $3.8 million for a runway extension.

·     Le Sueur Municipal Airport: Le Sueur, Minn. $96,000 for purchasing land.

·     Waseca Municipal Airport: Waseca, Minn. $62,000 for an implementation of a taxiway.

Other southern Minnesota cities granted federal money include Rushford, Jackson, Faribault and Owatonna.