Community health department provides grants for college mentoring programs
The Michigan Department of Community Health announced earlier this month a $325,000 grant to be spread among 13 Michigan universities for the Campus Connections Program.
MSU will receive $30,000.
Campus Connections is a mentoring program that links incoming-freshmen volunteers with upper-class mentors. The mentors have been trained to help freshmen adjust to college life without the use of alcohol.
The programs, which are developed by universities, offer drug-and alcohol-free activities that help freshmen establish a drug-free social routine and help them make friendships with other nondrinkers.
Geralyn Lasher, spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Community Health, said this is the third year the department has funded mentoring programs at MSU.
“These programs have allowed universities to take a proactive approach in dealing with this situation,” Lasher said. “They’re working to dispel the myth that going to college means drinking.”
Erica Berg
Students to protest, educate about U.S. military exercises in Vieques, Puerto
The Puerto Rican Student Association is holding a protest at noon today at the rock on Farm Lane.
The event is being held in response to the U.S. Navy conducting military exercises in Vieques, Puerto Rico. The group is opposed to the use of ammunition and bombings in the area and the harm it has inflicted upon the island’s inhabitants.
Victor M. Torres-Velez, a doctoral student in anthropology, organized the rally to teach others about issues affecting the Puerto Rican community.
“It’s a matter of educating people here in Michigan of things that are happening abroad because there is a lot of misunderstanding,” he said. “People don’t know what’s going on. Nobody is doing anything. If they knew there were children getting cancer because of this practice, they would send letters to the press. I want to get some information and let people know the facts to see what they can.”
Camille Spencer
Author to speak at Sparrow Hospital about end-of-life health care issues
Author Thomas Lynch will speak at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital, 1215 E. Michigan Ave, on Tuesday about issues dealing with the end of one’s life.
Lynch, a mortician who wrote “The Undertaking - Life Studies from the Dismal Trade” and “Bodies in Motion and at Rest,” will present his speech “Bearing Our Burdens Honorably.”
The lecture will take place at 7 p.m. in the Sparrow Hospital Auditorium.
The event is part of a six-month communitywide initiative, called “Living with Dying,” to learn more about end-of-life issues. The purpose is to foster community dialogue and raise public awareness of services related to end of life care in the community.
Nan Simons, communications specialist for Sparrow Health System, said more than 30 community organizations have participated in program events.
The initiative kicked off in January with “Wit,” a play about a woman dying with cancer, which showed at BoarsHead Theater in Lansing. It will end in June with an international conference about death and dying at the Radisson Hotel in Lansing.
“I think our society values youth and health and we tend to overlook our care of the terminally ill and dying,” Simons said.
Erica Berg
