WRGW NEWS: Omari Daniels

The George Washington University's School of Business has partnered with local District public schools as part of a new mentor program between business students, local business professionals and students from Anacostia High School.

Labeled the 2+2 Mentor Program, it will bring together high school students in the 10th through 12th grade and mentors to develop ideas and minds to help make an impact on their communities.

Liesl Riddle, the associate dean for MBA programs, said the plan was to focus on an area in the city challenged by unemployment.

"Dean Guthrie, Mayor Vincent Gray and the D.C. Economic Partnership have been working closely to identify ways to stimulate job growth in the District, with a particular emphasis on Ward 8," Riddle said. "We are piloting our 2+2 mentor program concept with Anacostia this year. We are hoping to extend this model to other high schools in the District in the future."

The program will allow GW business students to apply their knowledge as co-mentors while also receiving guidance from a local business leader.

"Our innovative MBA students and alumni inspired us to initiate this program," Ridde said. "Our MBA program focus on the positive ways business can impact society attracts a special kind of student, one who likes to give back to the community, utilizing business knowledge and skills to make a difference."

Riddle also mentioned that the business students benefit from the emotional and intellectual satisfaction of seeing how their business knowledge and skills translate into making a difference in a young person's life.

"All mentors who were selected are passionate people seeking to commit themselves to a valuable volunteer program," Riddle said.

Riddle also said that after the pilot, the business school hopes to extend the model to other District high schools in the future. The plan is to pilot the program for at least three years to give it a chance to grow.

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Lara Logan Talks Foreign Correspondence, War, Journalism on Kalb Report

Lara Logan (center) joined The Kalb Report at the National Press Club.

While other kids were at the beach, she worked at the newspaper. Such was the upbringing of CBS News' Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan during the year's final edition of the Kalb Report last night.

Logan, a correspondent for 60 Minutes from South Africa, spoke of how the injustices of apartheid instilled within her values to stand up against what she believed was wrong. As an embedded journalist, Logan has spent years with soldiers in areas ravaged by war and would gladly trade the comforts of a hot bed for covering a story that puts a fire in her.

"War coverage asks more of you," Logan said. "The story is bigger than you. I didn't do it because I'd become famous, I did it because I wanted to."

On embedded journalism, Logan discussed the rules embedded journalists abide by given the amount of judgment calls reporters must make and the bond of trust they develop over time. She said she never encountered a story that was more important than her integrity.

"Your job is to be a true journalist, not be vilified for giving your opinion when asked," Logan said.

Earlier this year in February, Logan was sexually assaulted in Cairo during the fall of former President Hosni Mubarak. In spite of the experience, she still continues to report, but with a new fear that not many journalists have spoken up about.

"You carry the idea of 'It's not gonna be me' and then one day it is. I hadn't thought of that before," Logan said. "I went back because journalists are anarchists. We don't like to be told what to do."

Logan spoke of giving a voice to the unheard stories in order to give them a place in history. This is part of what has motivated her to remain embedded in war zones for long periods and not be a "parachute in, parachute out" reporter.

She gave parting advice to aspiring journalists in the audience trying to break into the field in light of advancements with social media and quick access to news.

"One thing that's endured is people's demand to know the truth," Logan said. "Believe in the truth, find your niche and don't expect someone to do it for you."

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Professor Reveals Findings on Child Development

Dr. Rochelle Newman gave a lecture this past Thursday in Funger Hall on how early perceptual abilities from infants can later affect how they process language. Newman, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, received her bachelor's in speech pathology and now studies language processing in adults.

Dr. Newman discussed how one thing infants often recognize when they are four and a half years old is their name. This serves as a sign that their auditory system is in development.

"What happens is you use a sound that an infant knows and see if they can recognize it," Newman said. "They may not know what it means to them, but they know it's a sound pattern they hear fairly often."

When sounds are funneled down the ear canal, they strike the same area. According to Newman, this differentiates from sight because when something hits our eyes, it reaches different sensor receptors.

However, because an infant's auditory system is not as well-developed as an adult's, an infant cannot separate different sources of sound. This is especially noticeable when infants are in noisy environments.

"We might expect that infants would have difficulty in noisy environments," Newman said. "We know that second language learners who have less knowledge about the language have problems in noisy environments. Infants will suffer the same problem."

Newman demonstrated this with the headturn preference procedure. A child would sit in a parent's lap, a light would flash and a voice would say the infant's name, often over noise. In cases where the infant would recognize the sound as familiar, they would pay more attention to it.

"When testing with older infants around nine months to 13 months, the amount of time they spent looking at the source saying their name increased," Newman said.

The results of this experiment, Newman explained, showed that infants younger than nine months may not be able to acquire useful speech information in real world settings. By developing perceptual skills over time, they can better develop their language skills.

One of these particular skills is segmentation, which is an infant's ability to separate streams of speech into individual words.

"This is important because parents don't just talk to babies," Newman said. "There aren't pauses in the words when speaking the same way there are breaks when typing a sentence."

The other skill is statistical learning: an infant's ability to recognize consistent patterns in what they hear.

Newman's ongoing work includes a large, longitudinal study with infants that critically examines what skills that develop during infancy are particularly important and how they correlate with sound.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Free Depression Screenings Promote Mental Health

The University held free screenings Thursday to educate and increase the public's knowledge of depression and mental health treatment. As part of National Depression Screening Day, the the Community Counseling Services Center at GW's Graduate School of Education and Human Development allowed students to talk privately with mental health professionals.

Dr. Monica Megivern, the director of Community Counseling Services, said that the center is a place where students do not have to feel afraid to speak openly about their feelings. She said that she sees herself as a mentor to the graduate students who work at the center.

"Counseling is not a stigma," Megivern said. "This is a place where you can be safe. You don't have to feel like you're going crazy just to come here."

The CCSC is a training clinic for grad students in the Department of Counseling and Human Development. Student counselors serve D.C. metro area clients under faculty supervision.

Megivern said that the clinic takes cases from individuals ranging as young as high school students with their parents to people in their 80s and even returning war veterans. Despite the taxing, emotionally draining nature of the job, Megivern said she still enjoys her work.

"We practice compassion fatigue," Megivern said. "Through that, we educate the grad students here to take care of themselves when dealing with clients."

Since the 1990s, there has been a growing trend of students seeking help for mental health problems at campus counseling centers. With the many hurdles college students face, such as freshmen being away from their parents or seniors about to head into the competitive job market, symptoms such as depression, anxiety or suicidal tendencies have made it difficult for some students to function.

Megivern noted that there is a huge gender gap in the amount of females that come in for counseling compared to men; about 70 percent are female compared to 30 percent male.

"Raising kids is still very gender specific," Megivern said. "Men are still being raised to not be very open about their feelings, almost as if they have to be given permission to open up."

Andrew Campbell, a counselor involved in the two-year program at the Center, said that there have been plenty of intense and stressful situations, especially for new students, but the job is still rewarding.

"I've had a great learning experience working here," Campbell said. "There are lot more positives among the negatives."

Campbell, who used to teach high school and will soon be working on his dissertation, said it helps to be used to interacting with people with certain circumstances.

"I think that GW has done a good job raising awareness of this issue," Campbell said. "It helps dispel the notion that counseling is weird."

Tana Schywstell, an intern who received her bachelor's in Family Development and Human Studies, also called the job challenging and draining, but still gratifying. The screenings are a good way to get the Center's name out there, she noted.

Megivern said that for the screenings, it helps to be a genuine person and know how to sit and talk with people in need.

"You need to be able to sit with people's pain," Megivern said. "We play the part of the backseat driver at the center and make a big difference in people's lives."

Students and residents of the D.C. metro area can contact the CCSC by calling 202-994-8645 or visiting their website.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

President Obama to Address Nation's Students on Wednesday

President Obama will deliver his annual back-to-school address this Wednesday at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School. The speech will allow the president the opportunity to speak to students not just in the District, but across the nation as well. This is the third year that the president will make a speech addressing the nation's students.

In a press release, Press Secretary Jay Carney said that in past speeches, the president encouraged students to study hard and take responsibility for their education, and urged them to set goals and be the authors of their own destinies.

Critics of the president's speech took issue with his addresses to students in the past. In 2009, some parents threatened to remove their children from class during the speech, while others saw it as nothing more than political rhetoric.

This year, Banneker made Newsweek's list of America's Best High Schools. Ivory Sherman, a 2008 graduate of Banneker, said she is glad to see the President reaching out to public schools.

"Many have said that Obama delivering his back-to-school speech is his way of pushing his political agenda, but I disagree," Sherman said. "President Obama should be applauded because he is reaching out to future generations, which should be done more often."

One teacher who spoke on conditions of anonymity said that lots of students are anticipating the speech.

"I'd say we're excited to have the president visit, but I think he gets more out of this- an urban public school backdrop- than we get out of it," the teacher commented. "I think kids will remember he was here and that they saw him, but I doubt he'll encourage kids to stay in school here more than they already do anyway."

Friday, September 23, 2011

Students Learn Self Protection at GW Safety Expo

As students and faculty lined up to create their own emergency preparedness kit, the GW Safety Expo held in University Yard this Wednesday had other ways of showing students how to keep themselves safe.

As part of National Preparedness Month, the expo included presentations from local community partners, such as Target and Blue or new groups like Animal Rescue League, which showed how to care for animals in case of emergency. Campus organizations, such as the GW University Police Department, had demonstrations on how students can protect themselves in cases of assault.

Office of Emergency Management Director George Nuñez said that as many as 1,500 people came out to the expo and he hopes more people and groups attend in years to come.

"It shows that GW is an engaged community," Nuñez said. "One goal we have is have as many as 1,000 people make their own preparedness kit."

The kit, which included band-aids, masks and latex gloves, serves as an on-hand tool set that will allow students to help bandage up themselves or friends in case of emergency.

UPD Lieutenant David Heffer noted that self-defense can be useful, but it is also essential to have a certain knowledge of one's surroundings when going out.

"The basis is still awareness," Heffer said, "but if you're going out, do some research on the area where you're going beforehand."

Members of the Office of Health and Safety stressed the importance of random searches of student dorms to make sure they do not have materials they would not be allowed to have on campus.

"It really helps students know what they should avoid bringing, but also what items they have to avoid bringing home for the holidays," said Health and Safety Inspector Chad O'Connor.

Although Nuñez stated that the Office of Emergency Management is busy year round, including the summer, he stated that the website is at its busiest during the winter.

"Lots of students want to know whether classes are cancelled or if it's going to snow," Nuñez said.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Hawk 'n' Dove Temporarily Closing

After serving as one of the District’s main bars and restaurants for 44 years, the Hawk ‘n’ Dove bar, located just a stone’s throw from Capitol Hill, will be temporarily closing its doors on October 2. The momentary shutdown is to make way for incoming owner Xavier Cerveza, who will take over the building’s lease, while the restaurant itself undergoes an overhaul for several months before it reopens next year.

Cerveza already owns a few bars in the area, such as Chesapeake Room, Senart’s Oyster & Chop House and Lola’s Barracks Bar and Grill, and seeks to open more restaurants in the area.

For the past few decades, Hawk ‘n’ Dove served as a common meeting place for lawyers, congressmen, college students and Capitol Hill interns.

Beginning back in 1967, the restaurant opened as a location where pro-Vietnam War “hawks” and their dissenting “dove” counterparts could congregate together. Since then, the bar went on to become its own landmark in the District for more than 40 years.

Terrance Lewis, a resident in Northwest D.C., came to Hawk ‘n’ Dove this past April to celebrate his 21^st birthday.

“It was the first time that I had been out to a bar after turning 21 and I had a great time,” Lewis said. “If they do a complete change, I’m glad I at least got to visit the bar before it closes for awhile.”

To celebrate, there will be events leading up to the restaurant’s closing, such as all of the items being auctioned off. Upon hearing this, Lewis stated that he would try to go down for the auction.

“Maybe if they look hard enough,” Lewis commented, “they’ll be able to find the mug I took up with me on the dance floor. Then I can buy it back.”