Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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City Year members to help Columbia children BY JESSICA CLANTON THE GAMECOCK A community service organi zation that spans 14 communities across the country has close ties to USC and is looking to get clos er. City Year, made up of young adults, has four USC graduates on its administrative staff. The found ing executive director, Marie Louise Ramsdale, and current ex ecutive director, Scott Sayers, are both USC graduates, along with pro gram manager David Bergeron and public relations director Rochelle Brown. “We have a long-standing rela tionship with the University of South Carolina and are looking for USC graduates to come into our program,” Brown said. According to Brown, City Year “unites a diverse group of 17- to 24 year-olds during 10 months of full time community service, leader ship development and civic en gagement.” In 1993, Columbia became City Year’s first national expansion site when it expanded from its birth place in Boston. As a member of Americorp, the organization “seeks to demon strate, improve and promote the concept of community service as a means of building a stronger democracy,” Brown said. City Year members consider themselves part of an action tank for national service. “An action tank is both a pro gram and a think tank, constantly combining theory and practice to advance new policy ideas, make programmatic breakthroughs and bring about major changes in soci ety,” said Alan Khazei, CEO and co-founder of City Year Inc., on the City Year Web site. “City Year is an action tank for national service, working to advance and improve the concept and delivery of volun tary national service so that, one day, giving a year of service will become a common expectation — and a real opportunity — for mil lions of young Americans,” Khazei said. This year, in Columbia, City Year members will complete a total of 70,000 hours of community service. “We hope to make a difference in the lives of thousands of children in the Columbia area,” Brown said. “We plan to focus on educating and developing elementary- and mid dle-school-age children.” City Year is divided into sever al teams that provide various ser vices to surrounding elementary and middle schools. The projects vary from service learning programs for elemen tary children to homework tu toring, character leadership ed ucation and teen wellness pro grams. “Our main goal is to educate SURFYOURSELF Read about this community event and how to get involved at www.cityyear.org/columbia. children in the Midlands and im prove the quality of life for them,” Brown said. Members receive an education al award when they complete the program. The award, up to $4,725, goes toward student loans or grad uate school. During their service time, members receive a weekly stipend that covers the cost of liv ing. In order to become a member of City Year, applicants must complete an application and interview pro cess with recommendations. Today, City Year accepts 30 to 35 members out of several hundred applicants. In January, City Year will ac cept new members to serve for half a normal service term. “We look for people who have a willingness and desire to serve and give back ‘to their community,” Brown said. Comments on this story? E-mail gamecockudesk(a.hotmail.com Health Center offers shots to prepare for flu season USC braces for 3 new strains as winter nears BY KEITA ALSTON THE GAMECOCK As three new flu strains are ex pected to hit Columbia this win ter, the Thomson Student Health Center is giving flu shots to USC faculty, staff and students. The shots, offered from 9 to 11 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m., are $7 for stu dents and $12 for faculty and staff. “Anyone and everyone can get a flu shot,” said Gaye Betcher, a cer tified adult nurse practitioner at the Health Center. Betcher says the vaccine is im portant, especially for people with certain ailments, such as nasal congestion, cough and fever. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 10 percent to 20 percent of U.S. residents get the flu and an average of 114,000 people are hos pitalized each year for flu-related complications. An average of about 20,000 Americans per year die from complications caused by the virus. While Betcher said there has been a shortage of flu shots in the past, this year, USC has about 1,500 doses. Some of the dangers involved in getting a flu shot include the rare possibility of an allergic skin reaction and even death. Those who should avoid flu shots include people who: ♦ are sick; ♦ are allergic to eggs; ♦ are allergic to thimerosal, which is used as a preservative in the flu vaccine; ♦ are allergic to gelatin; ♦ are allergic to latex; ♦ have had a serious reaction to flu shots before; ♦ and take certain medicines. Betcher said faculty and staff should get a flu shot because they are more at risk of getting the flu because they come into contact with so many students. She said a 2:1 ratio of faculty and staff get the flu shot. College students, especially those living in dorms, should think about getting the flu shot, Betcher said. “Anything and everything goes on in a dorm. When one person on the hall gets the flu, everyone is prone to getting it. That’s why they are at a higher risk of getting the flu,” she said. The flu is a viral illness of the nose, throat, bronchial tubes and lungs. Flu season usually begins in November and lasts until April. Symptoms include runny nose, congestion and cough. The flu can also cause fever and body aches, as well as gastric symptoms, such as vomiting and diarrhea. “Even if you live with people in your household with these symptoms', you should get a flu shot,” Betcher said. She said people should get their flu shot once a year, around mid October. “Getting it in October or November will carry you through the flu season,” she said. There are many strains of the flu virus, and they keep changing each year. A new strain can start anywhere and spread around the world in days or weeks, creating an epidemic. These viruses will be used for the flu vaccines because of their growth properties and because they are representative of in fluenza viruses likely to circulate in the United States during the 2002-03 influenza season. The vaccine goes into effect af ter about a week or two. After about six months, the immunity begins to decrease. Betcher said adults need only one flu shot. The CDC says chil dren under age 9 need a second shot after a month. The shot should be given before December. “There are rarely any compli cations to the flu shot,” Betcher said. The most common is sore ness in the arm because the injec tion is usually given in an upper arm muscle. The CDC says most people who get the flu will recover in one to two weeks but some people will develop life-threatening compli cations, such as pneumonia, as a result of the flu. Although Betcher recommends that everyone get a flu shot, she said it is not completely effective. “As with any vaccine, the flu vaccine does not 100-percent guar antee that you will not get the flu,” she said. Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotma il. com Symposium CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 The symposium, one of 12 na tionwide that focus on different problems in society, began Saturday at 7 p.m. and ended Sunday evening with a Native American ceremony of blessing. The series is funded by the Rockefeller Institute. “Religious Intolerance in Our Multi-Faith Society” was spon sored by the United States Conference of Religions for Peace, Partners in Dialogue and the Religious Studies Department. A portion of the program was sup ported by a grant from the South Carolina Humanities Council. Scott Appleby, director of the Kroc Institute and a history pro fessor at the University of Notre Dame, delivered the keynote ad dress Saturday evening. Appleby spoke about fundamentalism and the challenge of being a multifaith society. Sunday’s events revolved around the issue of religion in public schools, and featured two panels that focused on religion and its place in public schools and how we as a nation can work through problems that arise be cause of differences in beliefs. “My own personal belief is to exclude religion is as discrimina tory as to force it down children’s throats,” said Jean Stiglbauer, principal of Dreher High School, in her presentation during Sunday’s panel. “There are ex pectations for schools in the rear ing of children that were not there 20 years ago.” Stiglbauer said that, from her vantage point, things are looking good in terms of religious toler ance. Zohra Arastu, a member of the Muslim faith, said we are one na tion, under God, and we acknowl edge God on our money. “I strongly believe that by leav ing God out of our schools, we are doing an injustice to our children and our nation,” she said. “It takes a village to raise a child.” Comments on this story?E-mail gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Research CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 its philosophy about research. “The culture needs to be such in the academy that people feel that’s just sort of the way you do things when you’re at the University of South Carolina - you apply for grants. That’s the expectation,” he said. Pastides said the faculty isn’t off the hook when it comes to re search just because USC is a pub lic research university. “We could say that we’re just a public university and that there’s little state funding available and let it go at that,” he said. “But there are many top research universities that also are public institutions.” Sorensen agreed that federally supported research typically gains national recognition and will im prove a university’s reputation. Sorensen said many of USC’s facilities are already equipped to handle the type of research that specific departments are inter ested in doing. But he said other facilities are “woefully inade quate” and need funding for ex pansion or renovation. Corporate partners Another vision of USC’s two top research administrators is to have USC partner with local busi nesses for re search projects. Sorensen often I tells South Carolina business leaders about his Sorensen vision for a re search communi ty—modeled alter North Carolina’s Research Triangle — to be cultivated in the Midlands during the coming years. Sorensen said Pastides he would like to see USC make in tellectual discoveries that could be used to design products that corporations would manufacture and market. The companies would pay royalties to USC for its hand in designing the product. “If that were developed, it would give the university millions and millions of dollars,” Sorensen said. Pastides said he is meeting fre quently with corporations statewide to determine whether partnerships would be possible. “We are trying to match the talents of the USC faculty with the needs of local and state commerce and industry,” Pastides said. Joint university efforts Pastides has said since his first day as interim vice president that USC needs to have a close rela tionship with other South Carolina research universities, mainly Clemson and the Medical University of South Carolina. Sorensen agreed with him and said USC can look to a peer university, such as Clemson. to see what type of research is being done at a uni versity in the same region. “We’re not competing with each other,” Pastides said about the relationship between USC and Clemson. “We’re competing with thd’heavyweight research institutions around the country.” Both men said creating paral lel research would benefit uni versity faculty. “When I was an active re searcher and teacher in the clas sic faculty model in a research university, I would bring what I was learning from my research into the classroom and (use it to) inform my teaching,” Sorensen said. “I think the excitement of in tellectual discovery, the fascina tion that researchers have with the subject matter can greatly en hance teaching. Learning occurs not only in classroom settings, but also occurs in laboratories and in the bowels of libraries as well.” Comments on this story? 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