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Protesting students teach Iranian authorities a cyber-lesson

13 Dec 2009 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord turned away Israel's enemies, the reading from the Book of Zephaniah this Sunday tells us. Even though Iranian officials turned away foreign journalists, slowed Internet service to a crawl, and took other measures to suppress coverage of student protests Monday, footage of violent clashes with authorities quickly flooded the Web. Government news agencies, which initially didn't mention the protests, were forced to acknowledge them by Monday afternoon. Violence erupted at and around university campuses across Iran as demonstrators took to the streets during the regime-sanctioned Student Day, but used the occasion to press their months-long protest against the government. Students chanted "death to the dictator" and anti-regime slogans and set fire to pictures of Iran's Islamic leaders and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, according to eyewitness accounts and videos posted on the Internet. The opposition planned what they called a "green traffic" tactic for 5 p.m. today, at the height of rush hour in Tehran. Supporters were asked to bring their cars to a standstill, making it difficult for security forces to navigate through the city. Iran's leadership, however, has been striking back across national borders. In an effort to stamp out dissent worldwide, authorities have threatened to punish relatives of Iranians living abroad who protest the regime. Part of the effort involves tracking the Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube activity of Iranians around the world and sending threatening e-mails to anyone who expresses dissent. As protests were reported online Monday, Iranian state TV was broadcasting a round-table discussion about how loyal students are to the system. Source: Articles by Farnaz Fassihi for the Wall Street Journal, Hannah Allam for McClatchy Newspapers, and BBC News

internet protests iran mahmud ahmadinejad student day students
. . . Beatification raises hope for others

19 Sep 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Just as Saint Paul was “teacher of the Gentiles,” campus ministers in the U.S. hope Cardinal John Henry Newman’s beatification will help them make the British scholar, philosopher, and writer more familiar to today's college students. Newman, who died in 1890, established the Catholic University of Ireland (now University College, Dublin) and wrote the widely influential The Idea of a University, a series of lectures in which he examines the role of religion and morals in a university setting and liberal versus professional education. He is often associated with campus ministry because of his emphasis on students developing and integrating their faith and intellect. He also advocated that Catholic students who attend public universities be given a place to gather to support and encourage one another in their faith. Contemporary Newman centers—where Catholic college students meet for liturgies, prayer, service work, discussion groups, and socializing—are located on the campuses of many public university campuses. Barbara McCrabb, assistant director for higher education at the Secretariat of Catholic Education of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, described Newman's beatification as a great opportunity for Catholic colleges and Catholic campus ministry programs to gain a deeper understanding of him. This summer she surveyed campus ministry programs around the country and found that many of them were linking campus programs to the beatification with special lectures, liturgies, courses, and events. Father Eric Nielsen, director of St. Paul's University Catholic Center at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, said Newman has had more of an influence on those who lead campus ministry today than the students themselves. In part that's simply because "it's a rare student who would pick up Grammar of Assent [one of Newman's books] and get excited about Cardinal Newman," he said. Nielsen hopes sainthood is not far off for Newman because it would raise his profile even more and likely promote his writings to college students. But in the meantime ministry leaders continue to take up Newman's challenge to help students integrate faith and intellectual study and ultimately "bring Christ to the world." Source: An article by Carol Zimmermann for Catholic News Service

john henry newman beatification college students newman centers
Undergrads underperform

23 Jan 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

From the earliest days of his public ministry, as described in this Sunday’s gospel, teaching was a central aspect of Jesus’ mission. A new study reports that freshman and sophomore college students, by contrast, are not focusing on what they are supposed to be learning. Some 45 percent of students in the study showed no significant gains in learning after two years of college. Findings are based on transcripts and surveys of more than 3,000 full-time traditional-age students on 29 campuses nationwide along with their results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test that gauges students’ critical thinking and analytic reasoning and writing skills. The results form the basis of the book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses. Even after four years of college, 36 percent of students showed little change in knowledge. Students spent 50 percent less time studying compared with students a few decades ago, the research also shows. “These are really kind of shocking, disturbing numbers,” says New York University professor Richard Arum, lead author of the book, published by the University of Chicago Press. He noted that students in the study, on average, earned a 3.2 grade-point average. “Students are able to navigate through the system quite well with little effort.” Among other findings: 35 percent of students report spending five or fewer hours per week studying alone. Yet, despite an ever-growing emphasis on study groups and collaborative projects, students who study in groups tend to have lower gains in learning. Fifty percent of students said they never took a class in a typical semester where they wrote more than 20 pages; 32 percent never took a course in a typical semester where they read more than 40 pages per week. Source: An article by Mary Beth Marklein for USA TODAY

college students learning academically adrift richard arum studying
Poverty taking a bigger bite out of family lunch budget

04 Dec 2011 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The prophet John the Baptist, who proclaims the coming of the Lord in this Sunday’s gospel, survived in the wilderness by feeding on “locusts and wild honey.” Millions of American schoolchildren are only able to eat a more nutritious meal than John thanks to free or low-cost subsidized lunches, and the number of families needing such assistance is rising dramatically, new government data indicates. Millions of once solidly middle class parents have lost jobs or homes during the economic crisis, qualifying their families for the decades-old safety-net program. The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-2007, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis of information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program. Eleven states had four-year increases of 25 percent or more, huge shifts in a vast program long characterized by incremental growth. “These are very large increases and a direct reflection of the hardships American families are facing,” said Benjamin Senauer, a University of Minnesota economist who studies the meals program, adding that the surge had happened so quickly “that people like myself who do research are struggling to keep up with it.” All 50 states have shown increases, according to Agriculture Department statistics. In Florida, which has 2.6 million public school students, an additional 265,000 students have become eligible for subsidies since 2007, with increases in virtually every district. “Growth has been across the board,” said Mark Eggers, the Florida Department of Education official who oversees the lunch program. In Tennessee the number of students receiving subsidized meals has grown 37 percent since 2007. “When a factory closes, our school districts see a big increase,” said Sarah White, the state director of school nutrition. Source: An article by Sam Dillon for the New York Times

Children recession students public schools school lunch program
Muslim college students feel welcome at Catholic institutions

09 Sep 2012 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“The Lord protects strangers,” the psalmist declares this Sunday. Catholic colleges do a pretty good job, too, at least according to an increasing number of Muslim students who choose to attend Roman Catholic schools rather than secular ones because they prefer a place where talking about religious beliefs and adherence to a religious code are accepted and even encouraged.”I like the fact that there's faith, even if it's not my faith, and I feel my faith is respected,” said Maha Haroon, a Muslim born in Pakistan who attends Creighton University in Nebraska. The flow of students from the Muslim world into American colleges and universities has grown sharply in recent years, and women, though still far outnumbered by men, account for a rising share. No definitive figures are available, but interviews with students and administrators at several Catholic institutions indicate an even faster rate of growth there, with the Muslim student population generally doubling over the past decade and the number of Muslim women tripling or more.At those schools, many Muslim students said they believe that they are more accepted than they would be at secular schools. Haroon and her twin sister, Zoha, said they chose Creighton based in part on features rooted in its religious identity, such as community service requirements and theology classes that shed light on how different faiths approach ethical issues. “I don’t have to leave my faith at home when I come to school,” Maha said. Source: An article by Richard Pérez-Peña for the New York Times

muslim students catholic colleges catholic universities creighton university maha haroon
Quick take on religion

10 Nov 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Differing faith traditions have caused conflict which has even led to torture and death, as this Sunday’s first reading reminds us. For a better way of trying understand each other, some are borrowing a page from the popular speed-dating format of meeting a lot of people for a few minutes at a time. "Speedfaithing"—explaining your faith to the curious in 10 minutes—or speed-dating for religion, as it is described, is gaining interest among curious students on college campuses.Dozens of students at the University of California Irvine raced from room to room one recent evening to listen to religious students (and two atheists) break down the core tenets of their belief system while on the clock; "Is it required to wear wraps on your head?" "What exactly do you do on a mission?" "Do you go to an atheist church?"Before students began faith-shopping, organizers offered a little advice: Don't see it as an opportunity for debate. Just listen. And keep it short. "You obviously can't learn everything about a religion in 10 minutes and that's not the point," said Karina Hamilton, director of the Dalai Lama Scholars Program at UC Irvine.Speedfaithing was developed by Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago-based nonprofit that promotes religious tolerance, as a way to help young people interact with members of diverse faiths. Since it began in 2005, similar events have been held at colleges across the country."In Orange County we have tremendous diversity," said Raid Faraj, diversity educator for the school's Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity. "We have members of almost every major religious faith you can think of. . . . This is an opportunity to create a safe environment for people to come together and ask questions."Homily hint: Perhaps it is inevitable in the age of the instant message and short attention spans that reducing millennia of faith tradition to 10 minutes would become popular. On the other hand Jesus reminds us that our God is God of the living, and as long as people are gathered together the seed of faith can be planted in a moment or a word. Source: An article by Paloma Esquivel for the Los Angeles Times

religion college students interfaith youth core uc irvine speedfaithing
Use of smartphones may not be so smart

12 Jan 2014 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The prophet Isaiah says the Lord’s servant will "open the eyes of the blind" and “bring out prisoners from confinement.” Less use of cellphones, recent research indicates, may open the eyes of young people and help lead them out of the prison of unhappiness.A new study of 500 college students found that those who use their cellphones most often are likely to be less happy, more anxious, and less successful than those who sometimes ignore them. “There is no ‘me’ time or solitude left in some of these students’ lives,” said Kent State University researcher Andrew Lepp. “I think mental health requires a bit of personal alone time to reflect, look inward, process life’s events, and just recover from daily stressors.”After tracking the students’ cellphone usage, Lepp and his team found that those who could put their cellphones aside for periods of time earned higher GPAs and experienced less anxiety and greater happiness than more frequent phone users. “The social network sometimes just makes me feel a little bit tied to my phone,” one student said. “It makes me feel like I have another obligation in my life.”Homiily hint: Alongside the many capacities smartphones offer when it comes to socializing and and taking advantage of online resources, the ability to connect constantly seems to have some downsides. Urge those in your community—and maybe try to lead the way yourself—to turn off the phone every once in a while and enjoy the benefits of some good old-fashioned introspection. Source: An article for The Daily Mail (U.K.)

happiness college students smartphones cellphones
Homily stories

09 Dec 2018 - Second Sunday of Advent, Cycle C

My aunt Karen is a professor at a small Christian liberal arts university. She teaches in a special “bridge” program for students who have academic potential to go on to college but who are lacking in what educators call “soft skills”—that is, social and emotional intelligence. Karen had previously taught at-risk students at both the elementary and secondary level, so she knows where these kids are coming from. No one ever taught them basic organization, time management, or goal-setting. They need help developing their ability to communicate and apply themselves so they can successfully navigate the adult world. She says their biggest problem is they often simply have a bad attitude. One of the first assignments Karen gives her students is positive affirmations. They roll their eyes every time, she says. She gives them her personal example. She loves to ski, but she’s a careful person and sometimes the runs scare her a little, especially as she gets older. When she gets off the chair lift, she doesn’t say to herself, “Gee, I hope I don’t break my legs.” She takes a big breath and says, “I’m strong and confident!” And she charges with thrilling gusto down the hill. Her hope is these young adults will learn that the little voice in our head won’t change what we encounter on the path, but they have tremendous power to prepare us to tackle, with a happy heart, whatever challenges lie ahead.

Authors Jennifer Tomshack

positive affirmations students Teaching challenges

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