Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

God uses Janet to reach people through one-on-one encounters at a bookshop in a closed country.

Hazleton native Megan Bobish has joined the Penn State Hazleton Athletics Department as the newest member of its team.

Rangers vice-chairman John Bennett has criticised the SPFL for their 'cynical tactics' over their labelling of the club's dossier as a "smoking gun" - and insists the issue is not merely Gers vs the governing body.

While Beane’s and Hunsicker’s paths to Penn State Berks were somewhat different, they arrived at the same destination, well prepared for careers in education.

"I'm sure that when I get home, I'll be a better referee than when I arrived here." - We meet U19 EURO final referee Juan Martínez Munuera.

"This is a very values-oriented generation—they seek to work with purpose and passion, and without that, they'll leave," an education leader at Microsoft said about Generation Z teachers.

Senior Steven Shalamanda began his education at Penn State Schuylkill knowing he was interested in becoming an optometrist. But it was this high-achieving biology student’s internship with a local practice that affirmed his vision for the future. In fall 2020, Shalamanda will begin his doctor of optometry program at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry.

Modern classrooms are slowly taking a new approach to imparting wisdom and knowledge to the upcoming generation. Traditional classroom teaching techniques are giving way to a new system of blended learning.

NATURE BOOK

Entries from two Penn State students were among winners in categories for professional television journalists as part of the Keystone Media Awards.

The WireGuard protocol is intended to be the future of VPNs, promising better speeds and security. We tested NordVPN's implementation, and WireGuard appears set to deliver on its promises.

Penn State Health St. Joseph has moved swiftly to tackle the COVID-19 crisis, converting portions of its hospital as COVID-19 clinics, applying tried-and-true methods and learning on the fly.

Penn State Health St. Joseph opened a curbside, chest X-ray service at the medical center’s main entrance at 2500 Bernville Road on May 4. This new service is part of its continued efforts to increase patient safety during the coronavirus pandemic.

St. Joseph Medical Center has begun using an experimental treatment program called convalescent plasma therapy with a growing number of its COVID-19 positive patients.

Cecelia Minnick, who will graduate this Saturday with a 3.98 GPA in accounting and minors in information systems management and legal environment of business, has been selected as Smeal’s spring 2020 accounting student marshal.

Daniela Claudio Pagán, a graphic design senior from Puerto Rico, has been named the College of Arts and Architecture's 2020 student marshal.

God uses Janet to reach people through one-on-one encounters at a bookshop in a closed country.

Source: www.thestar.com - Friday, May 08, 2020
The unemployment rate jumped 5.2 points in April to 13 per cent in the first full month of economic restrictions.

Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

God uses Janet to reach people through one-on-one encounters at a bookshop in a closed country.

Come May 18, College of Education student Gabriela Marsh will commission as second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps. She graduated from Officers Candidate School in August 2019, completed her senior year at Penn State in the Navy ROTC program and commissions with the Marines in mid-May.

Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

God uses Janet to reach people through one-on-one encounters at a bookshop in a closed country.

A 20-member church and a volunteer pastor seek long-term help for sharing the gospel with the 24,000 people in their town.

An OM outreach participant shares the gospel with another group of hikers during a walk down a mountain in France.

For UEFA European Under-17 Championship tournament ambassador John O'Shea, winning this competition with the Republic of Ireland in 1998 paved the way for a glittering career.

Source: www.youtube.com - Saturday, February 29, 2020

In a sprawling but nuanced examination, comedian John Oliver explained why the U.S. standardized testing system exists and the harms it creates.

As a U.S. senator and vice president, Biden focused on preschool, gun-free school zones, and the Obama administration's response to the Newtown, Conn. school shooting in 2012.

By Sr. Joan L. Roccasalvo, C.S.J.

In a week or two, freshmen from around the country will begin their college education. The first year, the most important of the four, is meant to build a strong academic foundation for the remaining three years and even beyond.  

Freshmen year often awakens in the student a love for learning. In college, self-identity is chiseled out, attitudes and values mature, friendships and new loves, discovered. The halls of university academe can be an exciting place to hope and dream about one’s future.

Attending college is both a privilege and responsibility.  Here the phrase, noblesse oblige applies (literally, nobility obliges): Those who have received much are expected to share their gifts with others to make society a better place in which to live. 

Seeking a Liberal Arts Education

Colleges typically organize their curriculum around their mission statement. An institution of higher learning worthy of its name offers a core curriculum, also known as the humanities or liberal arts.  Some have general requirements.

The humanities offer a splendid array of disciplines, and one of them will be chosen as the focus of students’ special attention in junior and senior year.  Courses include: foreign language(s), linguistics and literature, philosophy, theology/religious studies, social sciences, the refining arts—music and art. 

The liberal arts develop the student as an intellectually rounded person exposing students to disciplines that broaden their horizons and add meaning to life.  It has been said that a specialist without a liberal arts background is only half a person.

Importance of the Humanities

Did you know that two-thirds of humanities majors find satisfying positions in the private sector?  If the college one attends does not require the humanities, here are eight benefits for choosing them on one’s own:

They help us understand others through their languages, histories, and cultures. They foster social justice and equality. They reveal how people have tried to make moral, spiritual, and intellectual sense of the world. The humanities teach empathy. They teach us to deal critically and logically with subjective, complex, and imperfect information. They teach us to weigh evidence skeptically and consider more than one side of every question. Humanities students build skills in writing and critical reading. They encourage us to think creatively.   They develop informed and critical citizens.  Without the humanities, democracy could not flourish. (Curt Rice, “Here are 9 reasons why humanities matter. What’s your number 10?”) Listening to the Parents

 Before the 1990s, most parents were satisfied with the college education of their sons and daughters who had graduated with more than a passing knowledge about great ideas and universal questions. 

In recent years however, an increasing number of parents have expressed dissatisfaction: “I spent $100,000.00 for my daughter’s (my son’s) education at a four-year private college.  She graduated with a degree in Peace Studies.  She has no job.” 

Content of subject matter and intolerance of diverse opinions are two major concerns.

Content of Subject Matter

Too many colleges have abandoned required courses—no foreign language, no language arts. 

What great literature and poetry are students studying?  A prevailing attitude sees the Great Books Tradition as little more than the political opinions of dominant groups. 

What of philosophy and religious studies? Why aren’t students exposed to the ancient philosophers who wrestled with perennial questions:  Who am I? What am I doing, and why am I doing it? What is the purpose of my life? Few colleges offer a course in world religions.

As for history and American government, they’re bunk. War after war—it’s all an inventory of political grievances; our American government is composed of corrupt politicians. 

And what of art and music history?  Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bernini?  Are they the preserve of dead white males, a phrase used by collegiates?  Is the answer offering the “gutter phenomenon” of Rock, Rap, or Hip-Hop which use orgiastic and foul language and offering shock art like the photograph, “Piss Christ,” by Andres Serrano?  A few years ago, why did Syracuse University offer a course called “Hip-Hop Eshu: Queen B*tch 101?” To exalt Lil’ Kim? 

Parents are willing to spend generously on education that expands the mind with a classic education but not for studies whose content is without purpose.  Why should they squander hard-earned dollars on a core curriculum that is a sham or on courses that entertain pubescent students with a degraded popular culture? Such institutions are caricatures of what used to be referred to as higher education.

Liberal Intolerance

Until the 1990s, the phrase: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" was operative on college campuses.  Today, those who speak what is opposed to the majority must refrain from giving their opinions that are open to critical and healthy discussion.

In former days, institutions required students to challenge each other to think clearly and logically about a topic.  In class, the Socratic methodology was employed to insure that students’ views could be articulated without reprisal.  In Jesuit education for example, students are required to argue both sides of an issue, including those topics that are abhorrent to defend or condemn.  

To give one example, if a person holds to what he or she considers a good action, does intention alone make for a moral act?  As students work their pros and cons, eventually someone will cite Hitler whose good intention was to exalt the German people beyond all others.  However, he ostracized German Jews whom he derided as polluting the German race.  This view led to the barbaric means he took to achieve his end—their annihilation.  The conclusion to the discussion? The immoral end does not justify a moral means or intention. The intention and the end must together be moral acts.

Since the 1990s, intellectual diversity has gradually muffled honest debate.

A Confession of Liberal Intolerance

Recently, the liberal columnist, Nicholas Kristoff, published two essays in the New York Times on the present status of liberal thinking in this country: Nicholas Kristoff’s “Confession of Liberal Intolerance” and “The Liberal Blind Spot.” Some of his observations apply to what unsuspecting freshmen might find on certain campuses with varying degrees of intensity. Increasing numbers of liberal professors and students pride themselves on their diversity and their tolerance of diversity—diversity of various minority groups but not of conservatives—Evangelical Christians, and practicing Catholics.  Kristoff calls this “liberal arrogance”—“the implication that these groups don’t have anything significant to add to the discussion.”

The unwritten motto may be: “We welcome people who don’t look like us, as long as they think like us.” Or, “I disapprove of what you say, so shut up.” Or I close my mind to what you may want to say because it’s not worthwhile saying, in my view. Thus we hear: “We’re tolerant. You are entitled to your truth, but keep it to yourself.  And don’t force it on me.”

What Is Truth?  

Alan Bloom, the author of The Closing of the American Mind, made the argument in the 1980s that American youth are increasingly raised to believe that every belief is merely the expression of an opinion or preference.  They are raised to be “cultural relativists” with the default attitude of “non-judgmentalism” (Patrick Deneen, “Who Closed the American Mind?”).

Parents object: “My son, my daughter entered college with a moral compass with a belief that there is such a thing as objective truth.  But in my son’s college, only the relativity of truth and the absolutism of relativity are taught across the board.  Thus, there is no longer any possibility of objective truth.”

The Crisis of Higher Education

We are experiencing an intellectual crisis that has already affected our work force, our politics, and our culture.  College costs are escalating, while too many colleges and universities without a core curriculum or without any substantive requirements are failing this generation. Western civilization, the human culmination of centuries of learning is pummeled by a pop culture.  Too many academic leaders fail to uphold the purpose of teaching Western civilization.  Academic leaders don’t believe that the humanities have any fundamental influence on their students.  There are no shared values. The result?  The advent of identity courses: Feminist studies, African-American, Latino, LGBT studies.  As long as everyone is tolerant of everyone’s classes, no one can get hurt. 

Yet not all institutions of higher learning fit this description. Many non-sectarian and private colleges offer a structured curriculum or a core curriculum around which other subjects are framed. At least twenty-five colleges and universities in the United States offer the Great Books tradition to their undergraduates. These books are part of the great conversation about the universal ideas of cultures and civilizations.

The authors of Academically Adrift, the most devastating book on higher education since Alan Bloom’s book, The Closing of the American Mind, found that nearly half of undergraduates show no measurable improvement in knowledge or “critical thinking” after two years of college. Weaker academic requirements, greater specialization in the departments, a rigid orthodoxy and doctrinaire views on liberalism are now part of the university’s politics and cultural life.

Freshmen entering college today should be aware of the crisis of liberal education which is in conflict and incompatible with the traditional aspirations of the liberal arts.

Advice to Freshmen

Choose your friends wisely. Confide in a very few. Find a small group of friends who are serious about studies and who know how to balance work with play.  Form or join a reading group. Establish healthy eating and sleeping habits. Don’t pull all-nighters. Don’t go out on the week nights.  Study for about 50 minutes.  Take a ten-minute break.  Then return to study. Repeat.  Make a habit of this process—study, break, study. If you put your energies into academics, you will be handsomely rewarded later on. Don’t get behind in your assignments.  Make certain that you are up-to-date on all of them.  In the case of writing papers, get started on your research as soon as the assignment is given.  Work a little on the research every day. Keep a dictionary and thesaurus at hand at all times. Make it a habit of looking up the meaning of words.  Words are power and the right word is a sign of right thinking. Be your own leader.  Do not follow the crowd if you sense they engage in actions contrary to your beliefs.  For example:  doing drugs or binge drinking. Be reflective.  Reflection means going below the surface of an experience, an idea, a purpose, or a spontaneous reaction to discover its meaning to you.   Find an older mentor, not necessarily a professor, but someone whom you have observed has wisdom and common sense.  Place your confidence in this person as your unofficial adviser. Remember:  Your college life is an open book.  Whatever you do or avoid doing becomes common knowledge—quickly.     Every College Has its Own Soul

Every college builds its own identity, its own reputation. Some colleges are known for the seriousness with which they pursue academics.  Some are known as “party” schools.  Still others are best known for their sports prowess.

According to John Henry Newman, the ideal university is comprised of a community of scholars and thinkers, engaging in intellectual pursuits as an end in itself.  Only secondarily, does it have a practical purpose, for example, finding a job.  Today, most people would scoff at this assertion.  For them, today’s goal of education is to find a job.   The facts however don’t lie.  Those with intellectual pursuits as an end are the most likely to secure the best positions. 

A university is a place where one looks out toward everyone and everything … without boundaries.  A university is a place where one discovers and studies truth. A person of faith holds sacred this belief.

According to Newman, knowledge alone cannot improve the student; only God is the source of all truth; only God can impart truth. Today, this notion alienates students at secular colleges and universities.  

The Rural School and Community Trust and the AASA, the School Superintendents Association, say the partnership will allow the two groups to expand their reach and play off each other's strengths.

Seven universities are making major changes to how they train future principals, as part of $48.5 million Wallace Foundation initiative to redesign university-based principal-preparation programs, according to a new report from RAND.

Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

God uses Janet to reach people through one-on-one encounters at a bookshop in a closed country.

One young Bangladeshi girl notices the difference an OM team makes for her education when they drill a well for fresh water for her school.

Needing God’s love and job skills, one young woman discovers a new future at OM Bangladesh’s residential discipleship programme.

A Bangladeshi woman sees God answer prayer in an unlikely way. Her new faith teaches her to trust that God hears her.

Saskia perseveres through language learning and connects with a young Albanian girl who becomes a follower of Jesus.

God uses Janet to reach people through one-on-one encounters at a bookshop in a closed country.

South African banks are holding off on any further layoffs as they prepare to help the shrinking economy survive a potential jobs bloodbath.

The horse racing authority is pleading for a partial restart of the industry under Level 4 of the lockdown, warning that a prolonged suspension of activity could lead to massive financial impact and job losses.

The access was being sold on a Russian-language marketplace. The affected airport system was available on the open internet and may have been secured with a weak password.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell, Senator Chris Coons and Newark Mayor Polly Sierer were among the officials who joined representatives from Ingerman today to break ground on Alder Creek, Delaware’s newest affordable housing community. Other attendees included State Representative Paul Baumbach, DSHA Director Anas Ben Addi, HUD Regional Administrator Jane Vincent, Newark Housing Authority Executive Director Marene Jordan, Ingerman Development Principal David Holden and Capital One Vice President Thomas Houlihan.

DOVER — Two Delaware families are becoming homeowners in central Dover with the purchase of single-family homes constructed by NCALL as part of the Restoring Central Dover initiative. NCALL, the Delaware State Housing Authority, elected officials and other partners and supporters celebrated the project today, part of a multi-pronged approach to homeownership and economic development […]

As ‘Karneval’ goers flooded the bars, Riverboat community members heading out on the streets to pray.

Having access to a computer or tablet doesn't necessarily make students computer literate, according to a study of computer-literacy skills across countries.

Sporting CP took their first title as attendance records fell: see the top scorers and new landmarks from Almaty 2019.

There could be an 8.4 percent reduction in the U.S. teaching corps, and some states could see reductions as large as 20 percent, according to a new analysis by the Learning Policy Institute.

Soweto and Sandton's windfalls evade the middle market elsewhere in the city.