Liz Essley

Universities, mental health and Jared Loughner

2011-01-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

I wrote a story for the Student Free Press Association about how universities are handling mentally unstable students like Jared Loughner, the shooter in the Arizona tragedy. You can find the story here, or below.

Colleges using counseling, discipline to address mental health

by Elizabeth Essley - SFPA Member on January 13, 2011

At Pima Community College, Jared Loughner asked odd questions in class. He was repeatedly disruptive. And he posted a video to YouTube that called Pima “unconstitutional” and “my genocide school.”

College authorities suspended him in September 2010. Four months later he erupted at a Safeway in Tucson, Ariz., gunning down 20 people, killing six and injuring 14, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Did the college do the right thing in suspending Loughner? Could it have done more to quell his mental instability?

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Jan. 10 that Pima did all it could to handle Loughner. University officials across America are now asking whether they agree, and what more they can do at their own schools.

Jen Day Shaw, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of students at the University of Florida, a school that regards itself as a model for emergency management, said that suspending mentally unstable students is not always the answer.

“The problem with that is that it doesn’t necessarily resolve the issue. Campuses are open environments. I don’t know of any walled campuses,” she said. “With open campuses you’re actually better off caring for that person and making sure they get help, rather than just turning them loose.”

Caring for them is what many colleges are doing, with even more students needing help in recent years.

Severe mental illnesses are on the rise among college students, according to a recent study presented at the American Psychological Association. In 2009, 96 percent of students seeking treatment for mental health issues were diagnosed with a mental disorder, versus 93 percent in 1998.

Despite this, evidence suggests that college campuses are actually safer than other communities. A study by the Arkansas Safe Schools Initiative showed that the murder rate across the U.S. is almost 44 times higher than on college campuses, and the aggravated assault rate is about 13 times higher.

But in response to the highly publicized crimes that do happen on college campuses, many universities have constructed elaborate systems to handle student threats, including counseling services, campus police forces and streamlined emergency procedures — with many upgrades inspired after the shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007.

The first line of defense for many schools is psychiatric counseling. Alan Glass, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry and and director of the Habif Health and Wellness Center at Washington University in St. Louis, said his university employs counselors and psychiatrists who specialize in caring for college students.

“Since [Virginia Tech] we have added mental health staff and enhanced our work with a campus ‘Care Team,’ a multidisciplinary group of campus partners who convene on a regular basis to discuss the support of at-risk students,” he said in an email.

Multidisciplinary task forces are another favorite strategy on college campuses — teams of administrators and professors from all corners of campus who meet periodically to discuss potentially troubled students. Pima Community College instituted a similar group in September 2010, around the time it suspended Loughner, the New York Times reported.

Eastern Michigan University is among the schools that employ this tactic. Its “Behavior Evaluation Team” includes representatives from psychiatric services, the department of public safety and student judicial services.

Following Virginia Tech it established another, more informal committee, called the “Student Intervention Team,” compose of student leaders who meet biweekly to discuss classmates who may be acting strangely.

EMU’s code of conduct, like other schools’, includes procedures for dismissing students who seem to make the campus environment unsafe.

“The bottom line is: We wanted to have this policy to make our campus environment conducive to learning,” said Bernice A. Lindke, vice president for student affairs at EMU.

Northern Illinois University, which faced tragedy in 2008 when a student opened fire in class, killing six and wounding 18, was able to lock down its campus quickly during the emergency due to procedures established partly in response to the Virginia Tech massacre.

“When Virginia Tech happened, many schools started getting on the fast track with protocols dealing with tragedies like these,” NIU representative Brad Hoey said.

Smaller schools may have an easier job in identifying threats and responding to emergencies, including Michigan’s Hillsdale College, with a student population of about 1,400.

Student affairs staff said even if a student is regularly falling asleep in class, they hear about it and can respond.

“We’ve got a real good net to catch these things. We’re fortunate because of our size,” Dean of Men Aaron Petersen said.

And because the school refuses state and federal financial aid, Hillsdale can do what many other colleges can’t because of privacy rules attached to aid: tell parents if a student is having problems academically or socially.

“If we have the intuition that something’s not right, we can partner up with Mom and Dad real quick,” Dean of Women Diane Philipp said.

“We are clearly a more intrusive school than other schools. And it’s a loving intrusion. We have an honor code and a sense of community,” Petersen said.

Hillsdale updated its emergency response system since Virginia Tech, including a text message system that will alert students in case of a violent situation or natural dangers, such as tornadoes.

Hillsdale’s small size, quiet surroundings and relatively sedate student body give students a considerable feeling of security.

“It’s really safe compared to other campuses. I think the student body is pretty level-headed,” Sam Fiske, a senior who works part-time for campus security, said.

Still, Petersen warned, not even Hillsdale is not immune from danger. Hoey agreed.

“No campus or community is immune from tragedy or heartbreak. We’ve gone through that on this campus; Virginia Tech has gone through it, University of Texas and now the area in Tucson…. I heard someone use the terminology, ‘This is the new reality’…. The key thing is preparedness,” Hoey said.

Winter update

2010-12-27T21:42:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I posted. I never did get my Examiner clips up, but I may still do that for a few of them. As of now I'm half-way through my time as editor-in-chief of The Collegian, Hillsdale College's student newspaper.

Here's a story from the semester. It was a tricky one.

Sept. 23, 2010

Homosexuality on campus prompts policy

Administration on intimacy: “between the sexes, in marriage”

By Liz Essley
Editor-in-Chief
The Collegian

A warm April day in Hillsdale, 2010. Two students lay on the quad, one's head resting on the other's stomach. The two were a couple. The two were also men.

Complaints from other students swirled up to the dean of men's office. This was Hillsdale, one of the most conservative schools in the nation. Why were gay men displaying affection in public? What would Hillsdale do about it?

What would Hillsdale do about it? The episode was not the first to provoke that question.

This summer, the administration decided to answer, writing a document that spells out Hillsdale's beliefs about sexual intimacy and the policy designed to guide its decisions regarding that issue.

The guidelines

The guidelines, approved by the board of trustees and dated July 2010, were announced to the faculty at the pre-opening conference Aug. 27 and were posted on the college's website Sept. 2.

The guidelines document states that the college believes sexual intimacy belongs "in marriage and between the sexes." It states that the college cannot support "organizations or activities that contravene this commitment." It also states that the college welcomes all to thoughtful inquiry who are "willing to work in [a] collegial context."

"The document is a guideline for policies and applies primarily to student affairs. It is meant to articulate a long-standing belief of the college," Associate Provost David Whalen said.

Whalen said the document does not demand agreement from students and that the college was "not looking to antagonize" anyone.

"Questions arose about this, and we wanted some consistent way to address them," President Larry Arnn said.

Though most students remain unaware the document exists, some are already dissenting.

"I respect the fact that as Hillsdale they don't accept government money and they can do as they like... but at the same time I think it's an insult to free inquiry at Hillsdale," former student Ben Crane, who is gay, said.

Gay students interviewed said they knew between eight to 12 gay students, either in or out of the closet, on Hillsdale's campus. They said more had graduated and more may be unknown to them.

Others disagreed with the document because they saw it as an attempt to ban clubs such as the Gay Straight Alliance, which a group of students tried to start in spring 2009.

"From what I've gathered there a lot of gay students at Hillsdale who aren't out of the closet, and this [GSA] would benefit them," senior Christina Stephens, who is lesbian, said. "[The administration] preaches a free-learning environment, but preventing programs like these is detrimental to that."

Professor of Philosophy Donald Turner, though he agrees with the most of the document, believes the college should allow the formation of organizations opposed to the college's mission as long as they are not disruptive.

The discussion

Administrators said they created the document to respond to a national climate increasingly hos-tile to the college's ideas about sexuality, and also to respond to ongoing questions from students.

The school's conversation about homosexuality was jump-started in November 2007, when then-freshman Joel Pavelski (now The Collegian's Vibe editor) published an editorial in which he mentioned he was gay and challenged students to value unity over uniformity.

The discussion moved to the forefront again in fall of 2008, when Jake Morgan '10 published a series of opinions articles in the The Collegian in which he supported gay sexual activity. Morgan and some friends attempted to form a Gay Straight Alliance in spring of 2009, but after months of wrangling with club technicalities, the effort fell flat.

The spring of 2010 saw the issue circulate again when then-freshman Crane and Pavelski changed their relationship status on Facebook to "engaged."

People talked.

"No one looked at me twice when it was just me being gay at Hillsdale. Everyone was like, ‘Fine, do whatever you want'.... But as soon as I started dating Ben … people freaked out," Pavelski said.

Pavelski and Crane were planning to use the college's policy on married couples to allow Crane to move off campus. Under the new guidelines, they would not have been able to do that.

Dean of Men Aaron Petersen said the "ongoing student discussion" over the issue compelled the administration to take it up. He included in the "discussion" Morgan's Collegian opinions, stu-dent complaints about gay public affection and the Facebook engagement announcement.

Fear about pressure from outside organizations also motivated the administration to create the document, Whalen said.

Homosexual in Hillsdale

Homosexuality remains shrouded at Hillsdale. That gay people attend Hillsdale surprises some. Students agree that most people don't know the school has homosexual students.

Gay students interviewed said they came to Hillsdale despite its conservative atmosphere because they leaned libertarian or because they valued the intellectual development Hillsdale could offer.

They said being openly gay at Hillsdale means getting cold shoulders from some, but acceptance from others.

"I think that largely Hillsdale College is split right down the middle," Pavelski said. "There's a huge camp of people who are here because they are conservative Christians ... those people, I think, walk to the other side of the sidewalk when I walk by, don't make eye contact and do what every good Republican does and just ignore it. But I think the other half of campus deals with people on an individual level ... I think that portion of campus sees me as Joel before they see me as being gay."

Students said they had experienced little to no discrimination, with exceptions. Drunken students made anti-gay comments to Crane on a couple occasions. Students approached Stephens and told her to change her lifestyle. Pavelski said two members of the administration attempted to prevent him from joining the Dow Journalism Program because of his views on sexuality.

But on a daily basis, gay students said they experience civility.

"It's not that difficult. I've never been spoken down to, which is nice. I don't feel persecuted or anything," junior Nick Pisano, who is gay, said.

Stephens said she found her friends supportive and her professors accepting.

"There is definitely some hostility. There is also some acceptance. It depends on the individual," she said.

Pisano said he likes being at Hillsdale partly because he likes adding diversity.

"It's a goal to prepare students for the modern world," he said. "If they're too isolated, or if they see [homosexuals] as an abomination or walking sin, they won't be able to deal with them in their day-to-day lives. That's why I'm here."

Gay students interviewed all disagreed with the document on varying points.

Crane saw the document as coming from a college that is drifting from a more libertarian and open attitude to a more Christian and dogmatic one.

"Essentially they want to make it the Bob Jones of the West," he said.

Pisano said he thought the new guidelines would push gay students away from Hillsdale.

"I think 10 years down the road, the chance of gay people coming here will go down. And I think that's what the administration wants. It will make the donors and certain people on campus more comfortable," Pisano said.

Pavelski agreed the college had changed.

"Not only do I think Hillsdale was a different place when I came here, but it actually was," he said. "The establishment wasn't on the defensive, and because they weren't on the defensive, they were more open."

An Update

2010-06-23T20:33:00.001-07:00

I'm at the Washington Examiner this summer, working on the local news desk. That means lots of D.C., Maryland and Virginia stuff. And this summer will be mostly hard news on deadline, not features like last year. I've been negligent in updating this blog with my clips, but never fear — I'll get to that soon.

Final story

2009-08-19T20:49:00.001-07:00

Friday, August 14, 2009

Childhood center gets loan in time

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"Drink your milk," said the teacher in Spanish. The 2-year-old reached again for the glass before her, and after several gulps earned a milk moustache. Meanwhile, outside on the playground, teachers blew soap bubbles toward little hands eager to pop them. "Bubbles!" the children cried in English.

The large house where these toddlers play and are taught in two languages is home to a nonprofit that came under threat in November during the housing and economic crises. The House of Mercy's Rosemount Center, an early childhood development center in Mount Pleasant, found itself scrambling for funds to pay the bills for a previous, much-needed $6 million renovation. Its endowment had sunk in the crisis, its previous loan had fallen through, and it was looking for a new one.

"And in November that was not easy to do," said Barbara Jones, president of the House of Mercy's Board of Trustees.

Cardinal Bank stepped up to the plate and extended a loan to the nonprofit, allowing the House of Mercy and the Rosemount Center to stay afloat.

"We find it important to be supporting the community," said Kathleen Carr, president of Cardinal Bank Washington.

House of Mercy, the oldest Episcopalian charity in Washington, has been serving the District since 1884. Its origins began with a meeting in St. John's Church - the so-called Church of the Presidents, across from the White House.

The Rosemount Center, formerly a home for troubled girls and unwed mothers, changed its focus to young children more than 30 years ago, but still operates in the old home that was built in 1911. After almost a hundred years of use, the house desperately needed an update. Cardinal Bank is now supporting the Rosemount Center as it pays for its renovation.

And the center is supporting 323 families in the Washington area, many of them low-income. It offers Early Head Start and Head Start curriculums for children ages 6 months to 5 years, as well as home-based programs to help meet the needs of struggling families. Rosemount currently enrolls 147 children, and hundreds more remain on the waiting list, said Ms. Jones.

"There is a crying need for [the center]," said Jacques Rondeau, president of the Rosemount Center.

Marsha Riggio, interim program director, agreed, saying Washington lacks free early childhood development programs.

"D.C.-wide this is an issue, especially for those under the age of 3," she said.

It costs about $20,000 a year per child for the Early Head Start program, which serves infants and toddlers, and $9,000 a year per child for Head Start, aimed at preschool-age children, Mr. Rondeau said.

The Rosemount Center stands alone in the District in offering these programs for free in a bilingual setting. Seventy percent of children enrolled come from Spanish-speaking families, and children in every class have two teachers, one English-speaking and one Spanish-speaking. Many of them stay in the programs for all five years, and then enter kindergarten with bilingual abilities.

"The House of Mercy is critical to the well-being of low-income families," Ms. Carr of Cardinal Bank said.

Cathedral

2009-08-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

Friday, August 7, 2009

U.S. military is Cathedral tour's focus

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Shrapnel, swords and bayonets crown Christ's head in the small side chapel, tucked between the expansive Gothic nave and another small room, the Children's Chapel. Stained-glass figures of war heroes - from Richard the Lion-Hearted to Nathan Hale - look down on Linda Strating as she addresses her tour group on its last stop, the War Memorial Chapel of Washington National Cathedral.

"I think it's so appropriate that the soldiers are protecting the children. Even the way [the builders] juxtaposed everything. ... Everything has a meaning," she says.

It was this meaning that inspired Ms. Strating, a volunteer docent at the cathedral, to craft the military-themed tour called Service and Sacrifice.

The Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul in Northwest functions as a church and place of prayer for the nation. It is the site for presidential funerals and memorial services for famous Americans - including Presidents Reagan and Ford and in May, former Rep. Jack Kemp. Also, every president since Mr. Reagan - with the exception of Bill Clinton - has attended Inauguration Day services there.

Ms. Strating started giving the Service and Sacrifice tours in May and has trained about seven other docents to give them as well. They are available upon request.

"The people that built this place had that [military theme] in their minds. I'm really just picking it up and showing it to people," she says.

Ms. Strating, whose father was an Air Force colonel and Korean War veteran, found her first inspiration for the tour in the cathedral's large stained-glass window honoring the Air Force. Building on her docent training and some of her own research, she created the hourlong tour that seeks to honor soldiers and the military.

The Washington National Cathedral is the sixth-largest cathedral in the world. Its first stone was laid in 1907, with President Theodore Roosevelt presiding. Two world wars and the Great Depression halted construction temporarily. The last stone was laid with in 1990 with President George H.W. Bush in attendance. It was built stone upon stone, with no structural steel, using the same methods medieval workers used. The only difference was help from cranes and trucks. Some plaques remain blank for future generations to commemorate future leaders and heroes.

The Service and Sacrifice tour highlights the cathedral's military connections in its history, sculptures, carvings and needlepoint kneelers. Ms. Strating starts at the oldest part of the cathedral, Bethlehem Chapel, where Adm. George Dewey is buried. Dewey served on the original planning committee for the cathedral and was first to suggest that the building be constructed in the Gothic style. Ms. Strating also points out that the chapel, completed in 1912, served as a place of prayer for many soldiers heading to the battlefields of World War I.

Ms. Strating also thoughtfully dwells on another member of the military who heartily supported the effort to build the cathedral: Gen. John J. Pershing. He helped raise $16 million for the cathedral in the first half of the 20th century - a key contribution, as the building was completely funded by private donations, not the Episcopal Church or the government.

"It's simply one huge present," Ms. Strating says.

In the Chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, Ms. Strating points out a mural's depiction of St. John. The saint's face was modeled after that of a young, thin student who worked to gain enough weight to join the Marines and died on the last day of the 1945 Battle of Iwo Jima.

The tour traces these threads - touching everything from the Civil War to Sept. 11, 2001, to the enormous cost of war itself - throughout the cathedral.

Military chaplains, veterans and families of soldiers soon to be deployed have all requested the tour. Ms. Strating remembers taking one man - a Walter Reed patient wounded in the head by a roadside bomb in Iraq - through the tour. They ended at the War Memorial Chapel, where the young war veteran was struck by the image of Christ as the ultimate heroic sacrifice, crowned with symbols of the devastation of war.

"His eyes opened up, and he was blinking, nodding his head. His mother started crying and said, 'He understands. ... This is the most peace I have felt since this happened.' "

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/07/us-military-tours-focus/

Tech story

2009-08-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Real-time text capability on horizon

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The next big advance in telecommunications may be a silent one. Widespread access to technology known as real-time text is likely on the way, largely as a result of the deaf community's petitions for increased accessibility.

Real-time text allows users at each end of a conversation to see each character as it is typed, even before they hit the "send" button. It would allow users to integrate text into their voice conversations, allowing them to type out addresses and names that are otherwise tricky to communicate.

"I think that we'll actually see situations where people are talking and typing at the same time," said Gregg Vanderheiden, director of the Trace Research and Development Center at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Every new phone will support real-time text if the federal agency that oversees accessibility for the disabled - the U.S. Access Board - adopts new regulations. And that is a move it is likely to make within the next few years, according to Mr. Vanderheiden.

The implications of real-time text on every phone are numerous, Mr. Vanderheiden said. Deaf people could use any phone to instantaneously communicate with any other phone, an ability that is especially important during emergency and catastrophic situations.

Though some 911 call centers are experimenting with emergency instant messages, they do not transmit until the user presses "send." With real-time text, a deaf person could type "I am having a heart attac," and even if the message remains incomplete, 911 would receive the characters.

Mr. Vanderheiden also predicted the hearing world would enthusiastically adopt real-time text, as it did captions for television, another initiative first championed by the deaf. Hearing users could use real-time text to supplement voice conversations or to completely replace voice in noisy environments.

Mr. Vanderheiden spoke last week before an audience of deaf, hard-of-hearing, deaf-blind and hearing individuals at the biennial Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (TDI) conference in Washington.

Steve Brenner, a 72-year-old deaf Maryland resident, attended the conference presentation on real-time text.

"I think it's fantastic. It's really a revolution," he said. "We'll never be falling behind the hearing world. ... It blew my mind when they gave the presentation."

AOL Instant Messenger already incorporates real-time text, as do a handful of products geared specifically to the deaf. Google Wave, set to debut this year, has real-time text on steroids, Mr. Vanderheiden said. The e-mail, instant messaging and wiki hybrid lets people create a document together through instantaneous, simultaneous editing.

Claude Stout, executive director of TDI, said telecoms generally support new standards for accessibility and have a real desire to meet the needs of the deaf, though they seek out the most inexpensive way to do that.

Mr. Stout also praised real-time text for more closely resembling actual conversation than instant messaging. He also said it would serve as a bridge between the deaf and hearing communities.

"It will place us more on a level playing field," he said.

Mr. Vanderheiden agreed.

"The nice thing about text is the universal nature of it," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/06/silent-revolution/

Full page color clip, with four photos

2009-08-03T07:16:00.000-07:00

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Home sweet McDonald House

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Paper signs guard the two doors. "ISOLATION," they warn in bright yellow. "Do not enter this area." Inside, a boy calls himself "the prisoner" and his mother "the warden."

The boy must limit his contact with the outside world. In May, doctors eradicated his bone marrow with radiation and chemotherapy before transplanting new marrow into his diseased body. He is on the mend, but his white blood cells have not yet rebuilt their former defense system. A common cold could put him back in the hospital.

This is the story of Alex Ramsey, 16, and the house where he has lived for the past 60 days of isolation.

Alex has severe aplastic anemia - his body started killing its own blood cells. It is a terminal illness. In January, he and his parents found themselves choosing between life spans: Should Alex continually receive blood transfusions and live perhaps another 20 years? Or should he undergo chemotherapy and bone-marrow transplant - fraught with risks - and perhaps live to a ripe old age?

They chose the transplant. However, finding a place to live during the chemotherapy, transplant and subsequent 100 days of isolation proved difficult. It was too long to drive every day to Washington, where their hospital is located, from their home in Hampton, Va. Hotels were expensive, and carpets there could hold thousands of germs lethal to the boy. Then a hospital social worker told them about the Ronald McDonald House, which offers housing at a nominal cost to families in situations similar to Alex's.

"The Ronald McDonald House has been the healthiest and safest bet. And the cheapest. The only thing that would have been better is staying in our own house," says Alex's mother, Missy Leonard.

So for Alex and his mother, the Ronald McDonald House jokingly became their "prison" but in reality became their sanctuary.

ALEX

In October, Alex scratched his leg on the way home from a Boy Scout meeting - just a small cut that should have scabbed quickly. It didn't. It kept bleeding and wouldn't stop. So his parents took him to the emergency room, where they discovered his blood platelets had essentially vanished. The count was 2 - a low normal is 141. After numerous tests, transfusions and a week in the hospital, Alex was diagnosed with severe aplastic anemia.

"I was scared because I had no idea what it meant, no idea what was going to happen. And of course, the typical mom thing: 'Why? Why my child? Why me?' " Ms. Leonard says.

Alex's disease is what doctors call idiopathic, meaning they do not know how or why he got it. It is not hereditary. It is not necessarily a childhood disease.

Unlike anemia, aplastic anemia causes the body to kill off all blood cells - including white blood cells and platelets - not just red blood cells. This wipes out the immune system.

"In other words, I'm my own worst enemy," Alex says.

However, rather than continue to live in fear after his diagnosis, Alex's family chose to remain positive. His father refused to believe his son's disease would be terminal. His mother remains upbeat and cheerful. Together she and Alex make an effort to have fun and laugh often, nicknaming nurses and bantering with them during hospital visits.

"Vomiting?" asked nurse Bonnie Yates, running through a list of symptoms during a recent checkup at Children's National Medical Center in Northwest Washington.

Alex pretended not to hear correctly: "Comedy?"

"Vomiting. Comedy I'm well aware of," she replied with matter-of-fact affection.

Alex's mother says they try to go through their days tongue in cheek.

"We've had a lot of scary moments. But we don't live on them. We live on the fun times," Ms. Leonard says.

They also have poured their time into fundraisers for organizations that help children with terminal illnesses.

"Our way of coping with this was raising money and helping somebody else so that they could get healed more quickly," Ms. Leonard says.

Over the past year, they helped sell aplastic anemia wristbands to raise money for foundations that fight the disease, shaved Alex's head to raise $1,100 for cancer research and helped recruit more than 200 people to donate platelets to their local hospital during a recent shortage.

Now they want to help the Ronald McDonald House Charities (http://rmhc.org).

THE HOUSE

The little boxes by the cash registers at local McDonald's restaurants are easy to overlook. However, they help fund housing for the hospital stays of children across the nation, including Alex. The Ronald McDonald House on Quincy Street Northeast has 16 bedrooms, including one bone-marrow transplant isolation suite, where Alex and his mother stay.

The house, just a few minutes' drive from Children's National Medical Center, charges a nominal donation - $10 a night - for its services but sometimes waives even that. Brightly colored decor, a game room, toy room, computer room, patio and playground make the time pass faster for families.

But the Quincy Street house was built in 1912, and the cost of maintenance continues to increase. In addition, the house usually operates at full occupancy, with no room left for families, especially long-staying bone-marrow transplant patients - some of whom may be turned away and forced to find more expensive housing.

So the charity plans to build a new house with 26 bedrooms and four isolation suites. Donors already have given $4 million, but about $1.3 million remains to be raised, says Cortney Kelly, manager of the D.C. house.

Lynn Hardesty, a social worker at Children's National Medical Center, says the need for the new housing is acute.

"We have a growing number in our transplant population. People are coming from all over the area, from farther and farther away," she says, adding that if families cannot get into the Ronald McDonald House, they have to choose between hotels or apartments.

"There is no other low-cost option," she says.

Alex and his mother hope to help with fundraising for the new house. In addition, to celebrate the halfway mark of Alex's isolation period this month, they started gathering friends' donations of items on the Quincy Street house's "Big Ticket Wish List," including a crib, a highchair and a DVD/VCR player.

"Laughter was the best medicine for us. And helping others," Alex's mother says.

Holocaust memories. "We suffered terribly."

2009-07-24T07:50:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 24, 2009

Holocaust experience

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The 88-year-old woman still remembers the day of the week that Germany invaded Poland. Friday. She remembers the time on Sunday when German soldiers came to her town. Eleven a.m.

And she remembers the words of the Germans as they entered the city. "All the Jews out!"

As Helen Breitowitz, at age 18, stepped out into the courtyard to face the Nazis, she stepped into a world in which she can no longer imagine how she survived.

The clock ticks loudly as Mrs. Breitowitz sits in her Rockville apartment, slowly and patiently recounting her life and Holocaust survival. Though she became an American citizen in 1955, a thick accent still steeps her words. Photos of family - some killed in the Holocaust, some kept alive, some born after it - line her walls.

She recounts the time before the war, when she dreamed to have a dozen nylon stockings. And she recounts the time during the war when all she wished for was a piece of buttered bread with cheese.

On Aug. 9, Mrs. Breitowitz and other Holocaust survivors will share their experiences at a luncheon sponsored by the Progress Club at Ring House in Rockville. About 20 survivors live in the retirement community. The club will invite young volunteers, club members and survivors' guests to gather and learn from the Holocaust experiences.

Mrs. Breitowitz says she and her family want the next generation to remember those years.

"In the beginning, we never talked about it. And in the later years, we never stopped talking about it," she says. "I don't know [why]. Maybe we wanted to forget. And now we think it's very important to talk about."

'Very much in love'

In 1935, Mrs. Breitowitz's best friend introduced the 15-year-old to David Breitowitz, who was then 18. He had come to Sosnowiec, Poland, to work and live with his brother.

They became neighbors. She lived in house No. 9, and he lived in No. 11. As she walked home every day from work, he came outside to talk to her.

Soon she called him "boyfriend."

As the Germans entered Sosnowiec in September 1939, Helen, her family and David hid in their cellar. They came out at the sounds of Nazi screams, and the soldiers arrested the men. The Nazis eventually released Helen's father and brother, but David remained in prison.

Meanwhile, the Nazis gradually were emptying the city of Jews, especially young women. Helen's parents sent her to Russian-controlled eastern Poland to live with an aunt and uncle and their two daughters. She thought she would never see David again.

"I was really, really, very much in love with him," Mrs. Breitowitz recalls. "It was a terrible time. We didn't know what to do. It's just impossible to imagine what was going on. People were running this way and that way."

Then one day, the doorbell rang. She opened the door. It was David.

"I was standing with my mouth open," she says. "I couldn't believe it. And he said, 'Helen, aren't you going to invite me [in]?' "

Mr. Breitowitz had escaped prison by making friends with one of the German guards. He was renting an apartment with his brother in another city. After showing up on Helen's doorstep, he traveled four hours by train to see her, every day, for two months. He wrote to her parents for permission to marry her. They agreed, but she couldn't leave her young cousins, for whom she helped care.

Then one day, the children were out.

"So he gave me an ultimatum. ... 'You have to go with me, and we'll elope.' "

So she did.

"Life is so strange," she says. "He really saved my life, my husband. Because I would have gone back with my aunt. And they didn't survive."

Her aunt, uncle and two cousins perished during the war. Her parents died at Auschwitz.

Darkness and cold

Five months after they married, Russian soldiers came in the night and arrested the young Jewish couple. It was May 1940.

The Soviets gathered the Breitowitzes and 1,000 other Jews who refused to become Soviet citizens or Communists or fight in the Soviet army. The soldiers loaded them onto cattle trains.

"We didn't have anything, just the clothes on our back," Mrs. Breitowitz remembers.

They traveled for six months by cattle train, trucks, large boats, small boats. The train rolled to a stop every night, and their captors gave them hot water, maybe soup, maybe bread. The soldiers forced them to walk for about a day to their final destination, a wood deep in Siberia.

"It was nothing. It was just a jungle with trees. No houses. Nothing, nothing. They gave us an ax and they said, you build your own houses."

The Jews had no knowledge of house-building, but it was November and bitterly cold. They eventually managed to build log cabins. Thirty people slept in a single cabin, kept warm by a large makeshift stove in the center of the room. The Russians gave them rations of wheat and barley. Some prisoners died from lack of nutrition.

"We suffered terribly," Mrs. Breitowitz remembers.

They washed themselves with snow. They cut ice with an ax and melted it for drinking water. There was no work for them to do other than daily to survive each day.

"All day long the women were talking about food, what we used to have, what we used to eat," she says.

The men played cards and dominoes.

Nine months of the year in Siberia were winter and constant darkness; three were summer and constant daylight. The prisoners fought bedbugs in summer.

The local Russians were kind to them, teaching them how to pick summer berries to supplement their diet. Occasionally the Russians would give them candy. Mrs. Breitowitz would eat hers right away, but Mr. Breitowitz would save his and give it to her later.

"We had such a good marriage. He loved me so much, and I loved him, too," she says.

The first winter, Mr. Breitowitz took his gloves off in the cold. His hands turned black with frostbite - "Just like coal," she says. She walked about 10 kilometers every day for several months to a nearby Russian clinic to bring him medicine. Yet he stayed sick, unable to move, until a Russian paramedic came and peeled away the blackened skin with tweezers.

"When he started to take off the skin ... I fainted in the room," she says.

Three years passed in the Siberian prison camp. The Jews were then moved to the Siberian city of Yakutz and then to central Russia. In 1946 - a year after the war ended - the Soviets finally freed them, gave them Polish passports and put them on a train back to their homeland.

"I cannot believe it, that we lived through, we made it," Mrs. Breitowitz says. She can now see the benefit of the suffering in cold Siberia - they were saved from German concentration camps.

"That was our salvation, that they sent us so far away," she says.

They returned to Poland to learn that her brother had survived Auschwitz but most of the rest of her family had been killed. Seven of her husband's siblings had died and also his mother.

"I came back to the city where I came from, and nobody was left," Mrs. Breitowitz says.

A life continued

In 1949, the Breitowitzes came to New York City

"I kissed the ground," Mrs. Breitowitz recalls, beaming while she speaks about America. "I am very grateful to America. I'm a big patriot."

She found work as a seamstress, and her husband, despite not knowing any English at first, became a salesman. He once sold two lamps to a woman who had no table.

"He literally could sell you the London Bridge," Mrs. Breitowitz remembers, smiling.

She says she thought her husband more handsome than Clark Gable. They stayed in love - she remembers how he even would clip her toenails and care for her calluses.

"I never went to a podiatrist, because no one could do it like him," she says.

He died in 2003.

The couple had two sons, both of whom are rabbis, nine grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

As the World War II generation ages, Mrs. Breitowitz wants her grandchildren to remember what happened during those years as the voices of Holocaust deniers speak louder.

"It's very important to me that the grandchildren should know how we survived. Because if it had not been for the survival, there would be no grandchildren," she says. "The Holocaust didn't start with the killing. It started with just words."

A favorite...

2009-07-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Therapy in a saddle

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

When Joseph Grist was 6 years old, his doctors recommended equine therapy for his cerebral palsy. His torso and arms were very weak, his leg muscles contracted.Riding a horse, experts said, could strengthen his core and leg muscles. But when Joseph's parents looked for equine therapy centers, they found only astronomical costs and long drives.

So they thought of another solution.

"We looked at each other and said, 'Why not do it ourselves?' " Joseph's mother, Dawn Grist, said.

Thus the Grists began a journey that uprooted them from their six-figure jobs and their Gainesville, Va., home and planted them on a 35-acre farm. Three years, nine horses and more than 50 students later, they are convinced they are doing something good in the world.

Anthony and Dawn Grist run Misty Valley Therapeutic Riding Center, which provides riding lessons to disabled, handicapped and at-risk children. There are dozens of therapeutic riding centers across Virginia, and hundreds across the nation, but one thing about the Grists' stands out: It's free.

Mrs. Grist said therapeutic riding lessons usually cost about $45 per hour. Some centers charge up to $150 per hour.

At Misty Valley, riders only have to pay for their safety equipment: boots, helmet, kneepads.

Mrs. Grist said this usually surprises parents; some react negatively.

"They're usually looking for the hidden agenda," she said. "I've actually had people ask, 'Well, why don't you charge anything?' I say, 'Well, because it's a service that's needed, and some people can't afford it.' I guess it's just hard to believe that there are good people in the world who are trying to do the right thing."

LOOKING FOR A DIFFERENT LIFE

The Grists started by trying to do the right thing for their family. In 2005, they lived in an 8,000-square-foot house with nine bedrooms, six bathrooms and a nanny for their six children. Mrs. Grist was working 12-hour days, Mr. Grist 16-hour days. Together they made $550,000 a year. But something was wrong.

"Our family life was nonexistent. Our nanny was raising our kids," Mrs. Grist said.

They also needed therapeutic riding lessons for Joseph.

So Mrs. Grist quit her job, and the family moved to their investment property in Culpeper. Mrs. Grist, who had taught horseback riding in the past, became a certified therapeutic riding instructor and completed a yearlong internship to learn how to work with various disabilities.

They started Misty Valley in 2006. This year, they have 41 students, whose disabilities range from Down syndrome to autism to muscular dystrophy.

"It's so rewarding, just to see the kids smile, when you see a kid change over time," Mrs Grist said. "I get a lot of satisfaction helping and giving back to the community. I've been given so much in my life and can now give back to people."

The couple also have accomplished their original goal: helping Joseph. Mrs. Grist said riding has strengthened his muscles and also his confidence.

"It's amazing the difference it's made in his balance and coordination and just his self-esteem," she said. "He's never going to run track or play football. ... He's just not physically capable of those things. But when he's riding horses, he's on the level playing field with everyone else."

STRENGTH IN RIDING

Dee Brown's 5-year-old daughter, Cheyanne, takes lessons at the Grists' farm. A therapist at her school recommended riding at Misty Valley to help Cheyanne's autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

"We couldn't keep her focused very long on one thing, which causes educational problems in school," Ms. Brown said.

Since Cheyanne started riding in March, her attention span has increased from eight minutes to 40 minutes, Ms. Brown added.

Therapeutic riding works because it treats the whole person, said Sandy Artichoke, program and projects manager for the North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA).

"The horse has a three-dimensional motion that is closely related to a human walk," she said. "So when a disabled person is riding, they get the kind of motion they wouldn't get on an exercise machine."

Riding can build muscle strength and tone and also help riders emotionally.

"They'll bond with an animal much more quickly than they will a human. They might open up and let some things go," Ms. Artichoke said.

Ms. Brown said riding is teaching Cheyanne, who struggles with change, how to adapt. The young rider has a favorite horse, Trigger, and having to ride different horses helps her understand "you don't always get what you want," her mom said.

In the past, doctors recommended after-school activities such as dance or gymnastics for Cheyanne.

"And all of these things are expensive, not just the course itself, but the fuel to get there," Ms. Brown said. "I couldn't afford it. There was just no way."

She said she could not afford riding lessons if not for Misty Valley.

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Mrs. Grist said she doesn't know if her riding center can stay open next year. Despite some fundraisers and donors, about 90 percent of the center's funding still comes from the Grists' own pockets, and Mr. Grist had to take a lower-paying job. At minimum, it costs $1,200 per month to keep Misty Valley open. Unexpected costs, such as a recent $700 veterinarian bill for a horse's sliced foot, make it even more expensive.

Mrs. Grist said they don't want fundraising to cover their mortgage or personal expenses, but just basic costs for the center, such as horse feed.

They also would like to buy an adaptive saddle - a $6,000 device that would enable amputees and those with certain muscle disorders to ride. A recent yard sale supported by riders' parents raised $200 for the saddle. If they can raise the additional funds, Misty Valley could start helping more local students and also veterans from Fort Myer.

The Grists are applying for various grants, including one from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, but so far, the future remains unclear. If they don't find outside funding, Mrs. Grist said, Misty Valley may have to start charging riders a nominal fee or close its doors.

"That's really what I'm trying to avoid," Mrs. Grist said. "I don't want to give up helping these kids. I really don't."

Culinary classes under pressure

2009-07-14T10:51:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Culinary arts classes pare down

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

In 1995, 20 D.C. high schools worked with a successful nonprofit for culinary education. This fall, the vocational training program is scheduled to work with two.

The Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP), a curriculum-enrichment program that gives teacher training, equipment and scholarships and hosts student cooking competitions, is being slowly cut from D.C. schools, even as a film touting the success of the program in Philadelphia opens this week in the District.

The independent film "Pressure Cooker" features educator Wilma Stephenson's culinary "boot camp" and three of her students' journeys to college and scholarships through the C-CAP program. It will run at the E Street Theatre for one week, starting Friday.

Meanwhile, the District's C-CAP program has been steadily dwindling. In the 2006-07 school year, eight schools participated. In 2007-08, six. And in 2008-09, three. This fall, Ballou High School in Southeast will have a nighttime culinary class, and Roosevelt High School in Northwest will be the only remaining daytime culinary arts program in the District.

Iris Wilson coordinates D.C. Public Schools' Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, a career-training program that operates within schools, including Roosevelt. She said the C-CAP decline results from budget cuts, funding, teacher availability and the city's emphasis on reading and math.

"A lot of it is funding. Culinary arts is what we call a big-ticket item," she said. "If you're not going to have the latest technology involved in working with these industries, you're really doing these students a disservice."

But as other D.C. schools cut their C-CAP classes, the nonprofit will move into 11 Prince George's County schools, starting this fall. C-CAP founder and President Richard Grausman said the county's programs will help C-CAP stay in the area until the District is able to participate again.

Troy Williams is the C-CAP program coordinator for D.C. and Prince George's County. He said D.C. schools' career preparation now operates on a different vision.

"I just feel D.C. has a lot of other focuses right now, other than culinary," he said.

The D.C. culinary classes will now be more narrowly focused and rigorous. Mr. Grausman sees that as a problem.

"[D.C. schools] took on curriculum from different organizations that was beyond what their teachers could teach and their students could learn. We have been saying for years, that for inner-city schools, where their budget is nonexistent or very small, that teachers should focus on giving their students the ability to get entry-level jobs."

He said high school culinary classes need to focus on "soft skills" -- initiative, punctuality, teachability -- and basic industry knowledge, such as sanitation, knife skills and identification of products and equipment.

"They need to be a realistically achievable package," Mr. Grausman said, adding that the pressure to have larger curriculums and larger recipe lists pushes up the costs of programs.

Ms. Wilson doesn't deny that a more rigorous curriculum is also more expensive, but she said, "Our students can and have stepped up to the challenge."

To make sure D.C. students have the latest technology at Roosevelt, the school district installed a $1.5 million facility that included a full-scale commercial kitchen, a bakery, a 100-seat cafe and a mock hotel lobby complete with front desk and an industry-standard guest-registration system.

The D.C. program now pushes students to graduate with both a high school diploma and professional certification, which Ms. Wilson says chefs increasingly need to enter the industry. Thus, the tougher curriculum.

"If you're a slacker here, you're not going to make it, because it's too competitive," she said.

Basia Davis,18, made it. She graduated from Roosevelt this year with an $80,000 scholarship to Johnson and Wales University's culinary program in Charlotte, N.C. She won the money through a cooking competition hosted by C-CAP, and that made college an attainable goal.

"It took a big burden off of my family's shoulders," she said.

Miss Davis competed in several culinary contests across the nation this year. She said the lack of competitors in the District made it harder to hone her skills. She and her classmates had to practice against one another.

"It's hard to master your field against somebody when you're going against your friend," she said.

She said she hopes the District doesn't continue to cut culinary education "because that's a great opportunity for us."

Young walking philanthropist

2009-07-13T13:23:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Zach's big footsteps

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Eleven-year-old Zach Bonner started walking from Atlanta on April 11. Six hundred sixty-eight miles later, he ascended the steps of the U.S. Capitol.

The young philanthropist walked the distance to Washington to raise awareness for homeless children. He arrived on Thursday, completing the final leg of a 1,225-mile journey he had started in Tampa, Fla., in 2007.

"It's very exciting to finally be done with it," he said, bright blue eyes gleaming. He added that he considered his trip successful. "I've been able to raise a lot of awareness in the media."

His T-shirt summed up his trip and his goal: "Tampa to DC, 1225 miles, Boy's Journey to End Homelessness."

Zach related how his mother would walk with him on the trip while his older sister drove the car a few miles ahead until they caught up. A film crew also joined him for parts of the journey. Zach has inspired a motion picture written by Patrick Sheane Duncan ("Mr. Holland's Opus," "Courage Under Fire") and produced by Philanthropy Project, a nonprofit funded by the John Templeton Foundation.

Zach said he didn't mind being followed by a film crew.

"They were just regular people. They just have a camera," he said.

Jana Taylor, associate producer with Chautauqua Films, the company that filmed parts of Zach's journey, said the boy inspired the entire crew.

"One of the things we all still talk about is how people don't know about homeless youth because they look like every other kid," she said.

Zach stopped at social organizations and charities along the way, speaking about his mission, meeting homeless children and even throwing Chuck E. Cheese's parties for them, something Zach said is not normally in a nonprofit's budget.

He averaged about 13 to 20 miles a day, even walking through rain and 100-degree heat.

When he was 7, Zach started collecting water bottles in his red wagon for children affected by Hurricane Charley. Soon afterward, he started his own nonprofit, Little Red Wagon Foundation, to help needy children.

"It's just a cause that's always been important to me," he said.

Zach won the President's Volunteer Service Award in 2006. He said he wants to be a prosecuting attorney when he grows up.

He came up with the idea to walk to Washington, but, he said, "I didn't know it would be this large."

Upon arriving at the Capitol, Zach sprinted the final yards to be on time to meet Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia and Mel Martinez of Florida. Zach confidently fielded questions from the three legislators and the press.

"He represents the best of America's youth," Philanthropy Project President Michael Guillen told the senators.

Mr. Martinez also praised Zach, saying it was one thing to learn about an issue, another to take action.

At the end of their meeting, Zach asked Mr. Martinez the best way to get a letter to President Obama. Zach has been collecting letters to the president from children nationwide, sent via e-mail. The letters urge Mr. Obama to work with philanthropists to aid homeless children.

Zach said he would stay over in the District to volunteer with Sasha Bruce Youthwork, a Washington nonprofit that aims to help homeless, runaway and abused youths.

What's the next stop for young Zach Bonner?

Summer camp.

"How goodly are our dwelling places?"

2009-07-10T07:34:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 10, 2009

Rabbis oppose housing proposal

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Unlikely allies stood up in defense of Hispanics in Langley Park last week, when four rabbis signed an open letter to the Prince George's County Planning Board.

The Jewish leaders protested what they see as insufficient concern for affordable housing in development plans for the area surrounding the proposed Purple Line, a rapid-transit system that would link the Red, Green and Orange lines of the Metro.

The affected Langley Park area's ethnically diverse community includes many Hispanic and low-income families.

"The concern is that the Purple Line will bring about gentrification and people will be forced out of their homes," said Rabbi Robert Saks, who lives in University Park.

He and other activists worry that the county's plan for the Takoma and Langley crossroads would demolish low-income apartments and build new housing that the residents could not afford.

The rabbis' letter quoted Numbers 24:5of the Jewish Bible: "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling place, O Israel!"

"This is the standard we must hold ourselves to," the letter continued. "How goodly are our dwelling places? ... We fear that without greater detail in the Sector Plan we will fall short in Takoma/Langley Park. ... As currently formulated the plan would displace thousands of current residents, many of whom are long-standing renters and business owners."

Catholic religious leaders have also weighed in on the issue.

"The proposed Purple Line as currently envisioned by the plan will enhance the life of a group of better-off people while causing relocation of people who will endure harsh times," John Geron testified before the planning board last month on behalf of the Prince George's County Justice and Advocacy Council, a local Catholic group.

The Rev. Larry Hayes, chaplain of the Catholic Community of Langley Park, testified at the same hearing.

"I made the case that while development is all well and good, it shouldn't be placed on the backs of the poor," he said.

Father Hayes holds Catholic services for about 500 Langley Park residents every week. He said his concern for the community's housing stems from a desire to love his neighbor.

"It's simply living out the Gospel," he said.

The rabbis' letter expressed their sense of obligation to pursue "peace, security and prosperity" in their neighborhood. Mr. Saks, who led the letter-writing effort, said he frequently shops in Langley Park and cares about social justice for the neighborhood. He has been concerned about the Purple Line plans since he attended a hearing last year.

"The rabbis are not isolated from the rest of the community. We care about the welfare of our neighbors," he said.

The county is receiving written feedback on the plan until Tuesday.

iTunes U

2009-07-06T07:26:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 6, 2009

The iTunes classroom

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The lights dim at the front of the room. Eight scientific graphs flash into your view on white projector screens. Then comes the professor's voice, in a soft German accent. And there he is, in his tweed suit, stalking across the lecture room floor.

"Good afternoon. Last time we spoke about light ... We have seen that light is defined as an electromagnetic wave..."

But you're not in the classroom. You're not even in this professor's class. And you're certainly not paying tens of thousands of dollars a year to attend college and listen to this lecture.

Instead, you're sitting at home, watching it for free on your computer, iPod or iPhone. Plus, thousands more lectures, from universities across the nation, are yours for the downloading.

They're all part of the latest phenomenon in online knowledge-sharing and classroom technology - iTunes U.

iTunes U makes thousands of classroom lectures, speeches and student work available to the public for free. University officials call it a boon to the global dissemination of knowledge. It's changing the way students learn, inside and outside the classroom.

American University professor Patrick Thaddeus Jackson uploads supplemental lectures for his international relations classes on iTunes. His students listen, and so do others. He has received feedback from as far away as Scotland.

"If you're an academic, in terms of producing knowledge, what's better than having the knowledge that you produce be listened to?" he asked rhetorically. "People I don't know in Scotland can listen to my stuff, can contact me and tell me, 'You know, the next time you talk about James I, you might want to know there's this controversy about his religious affiliation ...' That kind of accessibility is really quite interesting."

Apple provides free storage and bandwidth to universities through iTunes U. Schools can display content both publicly - one click away from the iTunes store's main page - and privately, through password-protected features, satisfying professors who prefer that their lectures reach only their students.

Several Washington-area universities have jumped on the opportunity. George Mason, Georgetown, and American universities and the University of Maryland are all iTunes "providers."

Georgetown launched its iTunes program two months ago. George Mason has been posting courses for 1 1/2 years but plans to significantly expand its offerings in the fall.

"We think Apple has the right idea about how contemporary education should be," said Judith Paras Kaul, director of Web communications for George Mason's university relations office. "The learning, we feel, is moving out of the classroom and into online in a major way."

Teachers do more with iTunes U than just post lectures for the public.

George Mason professor Jessica Matthews used iTunes University in her English composition class to display her students' work. With a class full of accounting majors, she required them to write five-minute podcast scripts about how globalization would affect their future careers.

At American University, iTunes has provided Mr. Jackson a global platform for podcasts he has been making for years. After growing frustrated with the traditional 50-minute lecture format of college classes, he decided to deliver reading notes via podcast instead of using class time for them. That way, students arrive at class with a "knowledge base," ready for discussion and more engaging assignments than a simple lecture, Mr. Jackson said.

Stephanie McDaniel, a recent American University graduate, said she enjoyed Mr. Jackson's technological teaching style, especially when she read German philosopher Immanuel Kant.

"Any extra time with the professor is useful in understanding works like these. ... It helps you get into the book," she said. "My only caveat is that professor Jackson is actually quite engaging, and so his podcasts are fun. Some people may not be able to manage being interesting."

His students are not the only ones who find Mr. Jackson engaging. Twenty-eight-year-old Scott Carmichael, of Sparta, Tenn., started listening to lectures on iTunes U about a month ago and has listened to five of Mr. Jackson's.

"I feel like I learn just as much from listening to the podcast as I did when I was in college," he said.

Nevertheless, he missed "interpersonal contact" with the professor - but he e-mailed Mr. Jackson on Tuesday, asking for clarification on a lecture point, and got a response.

"So as far as I can tell, the only thing missing is I can't go up and shake his hand," Mr. Carmichael said.

Schools are betting that iTunes listeners are missing a lot more than a handshake, which explains why they're not afraid to put free content on the Internet.

Bigger universities such as Yale, MIT and Stanford are uploading classes not just through iTunes U, but also platforms such as YouTube and academicearth.org.

Mara Hancock, director of educational technologies at the University of California at Berkeley, said the school gives away lectures on iTunes U and other platforms as part of its mission to further global access to knowledge. That doesn't mean the university will lack tuition-paying students anytime soon.

"What we're doing now isn't a full education. The real aspects of learning take place in the engagement and interaction and the assessment and all that. And that's what the learners, who are watching the lectures, don't get," she said.

In fact, the openness has had at least one positive promotional side effect for Berkeley. Some prospective students are choosing Berkeley based on the content they watched on the Web, Ms. Hancock said.

In addition, students value the ability to review lectures via video or podcast. Seventy-three percent of incoming Berkeley freshmen wanted courses webcast or podcasted, Ms. Hancock said. They can use the online content to choose future classes, catch up on lectures they may have missed or review and fill gaps in notes.

Dani McKinney, a researcher at the State University of New York at Fredonia, is studying the benefits of this kind of instruction with podcasts. Her initial findings, published in November, showed that students who listened to a podcast and took notes scored significantly higher on an exam than those who attended the lecture and took notes.

But she said the podcast alone didn't make the difference. What mattered was what students did with it. The students who listened to the podcast more than once and took notes scored the highest.

Ms. McKinney said she thinks the real benefit lies in the ability to review difficult passages in the lecture because students attending the actual lecture often shy away from asking for repetition or clarification. She said the podcasts could be especially helpful to struggling students, a conclusion Mr. Jackson also reached.

Though Ms. McKinney expressed enthusiasm for both podcasts and iTunes U, she said her research didn't show that students who routinely skip class could get by with a podcast or that online lectures could one day replace physical universities.

"Even if you are video-chatting, that's still not the same as a classroom environment where everyone is learning together," she said. "When I'm teaching, I'm constantly watching their eyes. I'm seeing, are you with me, are you still with me? ... In the same way, do you think telecommuting will ever replace offices? No, I don't. Because you lose too much."

Ex-offenders: legislation, human rights, reentry

2009-07-01T06:44:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Ex-offenders can't find jobs

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Haywood Warner, 54, can't get a job and can't get low-income housing benefits. Why? He's an ex-offender. Though Mr. Warner's conviction was in 1984, he said employers won't hire him because of his ex-offender status. He has applied "everywhere, you could say." Employers tell him, "We'll call you back," but they never do. So he tries to call them but can never get hold of anyone.

Activists will testify Wednesday before the D.C. Council on legislation designed to change the scenarios Mr. Warner and countless other ex-offenders face every day. The Human Rights for Ex-Offenders Amendment Act would make former convicts a protected class under the D.C. Human Rights Act in an attempt to shield them from discrimination.

"There are between 60,000 and 80,000 ex-offenders in the District, the highest in the nation," said council member Marion Barry, sponsor of the bill. "There have been repeated situations where an ex-offender tries to get a job and employers say, 'Thanks, but no thanks.' "

Marina Streznewski of the D.C. Jobs Council will testify in support of the bill. She said the issue should be especially pressing in light of a tough economy and high unemployment.

"Employers are seeing an individual's offender status as a way of sorting among candidates," she said. "[Ex-offenders] have paid their debt to society. How long should they be expected to pay?"

But opponents said that amending the Human Rights Act to include ex-offenders would increase employer liability. Indeed, business groups succeeded in blocking previous versions of the bill starting in 2005. Representatives from the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, for example, worry that employers could feel forced to hire ex-offenders for fear of a lawsuit.

"If two equally qualified candidates are vying for one position, will the ex-offender be hired simply to avoid a potential lawsuit? We hope not," chamber President Barbara Lang said in 2007 testimony.

She also said the bill could push jobs out of the city, with employers finding it easier to conduct business in Maryland and Virginia rather than face increased liability issues in the District.

The Consortium of Universities and the D.C. Hospital Association both oppose the bill for the safety of what they call "vulnerable populations" - young students and sick patients.

The bill, however, makes one major provision for employers: It allows them to rescind job offers if the nature of the conviction rationally relates to the line of work.

"I don't expect a bank to hire a bank robber," Mr. Barry said.

Opponents said discrimination is not the reason ex-offenders can't get jobs.

"This is a bill that feels good, but this bill does not give anybody a job," said Janene Jackson of the D.C. chamber. "It's really a very shortsighted way of addressing the issue of how you get somebody released from prison meaningful employment."

Ms. Jackson said ex-offenders need job training and rehabilitation help. For that reason, the chamber supports the Successful Re-entry Act, which also will be featured in Wednesday's public hearing. The act calls on the mayor to develop a comprehensive D.C. government plan to help returning offenders reintegrate into society.

Though federal agencies such as the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency sponsor some re-entry and job-training programs for ex-offenders, Mr. Barry said he wants the District itself to spend "a significant amount" of its $9 billion budget on prisoner re-entry. He conceded he doesn't know how much such a plan would cost but emphasized that it would save the District money in the long run by reducing recidivism.

Howard Moore, director of the prison ministry at Greater Mount Calvary Holy Church in Northeast, who works with hundreds of returning prisoners a year, said ex-offenders' No. 1 need is housing, followed by employment and health care.

"Once they come back out into the community, if they don't have the support they need, they're liable to go back to old habits," he said.

He also sees a need for an anti-discrimination law, as he says many ex-offenders omit their offenses on job applications, knowing they will be rejected otherwise. They are later terminated for falsifying their applications.

That happened to Mr. Warner in 1995. He left out his convictions - one for robbery, two for selling narcotics - on a job application for a road-maintenance position. He was hired and worked for two years until his background was checked. The employer fired him for lying on his job application.

"But if I wouldn't have lied, you understand, I wouldn't have gotten the job," he said. "And I wasn't doing anything but pushing the lawn mower."

Mr. Warner is attending a faith-based job-training program and is looking for work. He said he doesn't want to return to breaking the law.

"I'm just fightin', just tryin' to survive, on a legit level," he said.

Quick reporting... double byline on front page

2009-06-28T18:48:00.000-07:00

Originally published 04:45 a.m., June 26, 2009, updated 02:50 p.m., June 26, 2009

Mourning King of Pop from U Street to L.A.

Robyn-Denise Yourse and Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The unexpected death of Michael Jackson Thursday prompted an outpouring of disbelief, nostalgia and sincere mourning among his fans - in real life, in the cyberworld, and on the radio.

In Washington, D.C.'s bustling U Street area, once known as the city's black entertainment mecca, patrons who filtered into restaurants and bars were stunned and overwhelmed by the shocking news.

"Oh my God, I can't believe he's dead!" exclaimed Virginia Ali, 75, co-owner of the iconic Ben's Chili Bowl. "I'm just shocked and saddened ... what was he, 50? I listened to his music when he was a kid. It's so shocking, you know? He was coming back. We knew him as a kid when he was on Ed Sullivan."

The mood was equally somber at other U Street mainstays. Kelly and Maze Tesfaye, both 55 and owners of Twins Jazz, wept openly as they pondered Mr. Jackson's death.

"A legend is gone," Kelly Tesfaye sobbed.

"From when he was young until now he was big [but] he was in trouble. Why was there no doctor? Why was there no nurse? Why did they find him in a corner?" Kelly Tesfaye said of Mr. Jackson's last moments. "Where was everybody to save this person, this king? At this age he shouldn't die at all."

Said W. Ellington Felton, 32, a local soul singer, "I cried when I found out," as he prepared to take the stage at the Bohemian Caverns for a Thursday night performance.

"I can say 'Man, where were you on June 25 when Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died on the same day.' It's like JFK's death. Everyone's gonna remember what they were doing," he said.

In Lansing, Mich., Drew Bossler, 28, general manager of Troppo restaurant near the statehouse, quickly put on a Motown compilation CD with '60s and '70s Jackson music to remember the fallen entertainer as his death was confirmed by television reporters.

News of Mr. Jackson's passing trickled through the upscale eatery as guests in the bar area watched the grim broadcast on Fox News.

"We just thought it would be appropriate," he said, as strains of the songs "Ben" and "Got to Be There" played out on the stereo system.

In New York's Times Square, a low groan went up in the crowd when a screen flashed that Jackson had died, and people began relaying the news to friends via cell phone.

"No joke. King of Pop is no more. Wow," Michael Harris, 36, of New York City, read from a text message a friend sent to his telephone. "It's like when Kennedy was assassinated. I will always remember being in Times Square when Michael Jackson died."

Word of Mr. Jackson's hospitalization sent millions of Americans to celebrity Web sites. So many rushed at once that many Internet connections were broken or slowed considerably. And within an hour of the first reports that Mr. Jackson had died, the event had taken over social networking sites.

Before 8 p.m., nine of the top 10 "Trending Topics" on twitter.com were Jackson-related - "Thriller," "MJ," "RIP Michael Jackson" and others. The only exception was another recent celebrity death - "Ed McMahon."

YouTube.com set up a special "Spotlight: RIP Michael Jackson" section and Mr. Jackson's music videos were uploaded dozens of times to the site Thursday. In a single minute, shortly before 8 p.m., more than a dozen new videos with "Michael Jackson" in the tags were uploaded to the site. Fans also posted on blogs and Twitter their favorite songs and television moments of the pop icon.

News channels interrupted regularly scheduled programs to go wall-to-wall with Jackson remembrances. Fox News Channel even ran complete Jackson videos next to a live shot of crowds gathering outside the Los Angeles hospital where he died.

Several radio stations turned their programming over mostly or exclusively to Jackson songs, including at least two in the Washington market - 97.1 WASH-FM and WIHT 99.5. Even stations whose format didn't fit Mr. Jackson's music and didn't play his songs - such as WWDC 101.1 - had his death leading their Web sites.

A broken-voiced Larry King said on CNN he would run his live show for two hours and, contrary to earlier plans to devote it to Thursday's death of Farrah Fawcett, "It's an all Michael Jackson night."

Mr. King also predicted round-the-clock coverage for some time related to the circumstances surrounding his death.

"You think the stories about Anna Nicole [Smith] were big - this is gonna" blow that away, said Mr. King, making a blowing sound.

Other people remembered the biggest stain on the Jackson legacy - his bizarre lifestyle and multiple charges of child molestation.

"As someone who served as Michael Jackson's publicist during the first child molestation incident, I must confess I am not surprised by today's tragic news. Michael has been on an impossibly difficult and often self-destructive journey for years. His talent was unquestionable but so too was his discomfort with the norms of the world. A human simply can not withstand this level of prolonged stress," said Michael Levine, a Los Angeles publicist.

William McKeen, an author who served as editor of the anthology "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay," said he would "try to remember him for 'Off the Wall' and 'Thriller,' one of the great one-two punches in popular music history."

"When we first saw him, as a child, he was singing songs that were both nursery rhymes and love songs. Though he obviously sang with the voice of a child, his phrasing and delivery were those of a mature singer. That was a gift," he said.

For his life away from the stage, Mr. McKeen says he's recalling a quote from the poet William Carlos Williams that now seems most appropriate in defining Mr. Jackson's life. "The pure products of America go crazy," Mr. Williams wrote.

"I'm having death-of-Elvis flashbacks. Though there's much more baggage with Michael's death, I recognize this as another generational shock wave, a reminder of our mortality," Mr. McKeen said.

Many fans and friends expressed anger and disappointment that he will be unable to do his comeback tour.

"It was clearly evident that this was going to be a whole new chapter. He was going to get back on top. I was hoping his kids would see him back on top," Debra Opri, a family friend and attorney to Mr. Jackson, told Fox News Channel.

Kevin Holmes, a 17-year-old University of Pennsylvania student who had filtered into Ben's with the after-work crowd, told The Times that Mr. Jackson "was trying to change and stuff, trying to make a comeback. He didn't have a chance to redeem himself. The last image people have of him wasn't as good as it could have been."

Andrea Billups in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.

Post-Secondary Ed for the Intellectually Disabled

2009-06-23T10:58:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Disabled woman gets college dream

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The speaker's fingers twined nervously through her curly brown ponytail as 150 people listened. "I have always had dreams, since I was a little girl. ... I dreamed about going to college like my twin sisters."

The dreamer, 23-year-old Melissa Gurman, was diagnosed with information processing delays when she was just 17 months old, and later with attention deficit hyperactive disorder and performance anxiety. She is considered intellectually disabled.

But in May, she graduated from George Mason University's Mason Learning Into Future Environments (LIFE) program. Four years at the college have given her a long list of achievements, including mastering her fear of public speaking.

"I have accomplished my college dream," she told friends, family and teachers at a senior recognition banquet.

This year, five students graduated from the LIFE program, which provides postsecondary education and job training for students with intellectual disabilities, whose IQs are usually 70 or below. Designed to help participants transition to independent living, the program accepts students with all types of intellectual disabilities, at varying levels of aptitude.

"At the very least, depending on where they enter, if we bring [them] up to reading signs or directions, we've really given that student a new lease on life," said Heidi Graff, director of the program.

Mason LIFE focuses on basic literacy and math and offers courses on theater, horticulture and current events. Students also learn life skills, such as stove-top cooking and riding the Metro. And they can choose to live on campus in dormitories - another of Miss Gurman's dreams.

Her mother, Jean Gurman, said her daughter didn't even want to come home in the first two weeks.

"You took to it like a fish to water," she told her daughter. "I was the one who was lonesome, to be honest with you."

Now, Miss Gurman can easily lead her mother around GMU's winding sidewalks to show off her classrooms, workplaces, dorm and dining areas. She strides forward confidently, navigating paths and stairs without hesitation. She's only been lost a couple times her entire college experience.

"To me that's the most important - the springboard to independent living," Mrs. Gurman said.

During her time at George Mason, Miss Gurman worked several campus jobs, took electric guitar lessons, comforted a homesick classmate, helped freshmen find their way to their new dorms and, despite her performance anxiety, audited a public speaking class given for the average student body.

"She's just grown so much in that way, to have the composure to get up in front of a group and talk about where she wants to go with her life," Ms. Graff said.

The Gurmans discovered the LIFE program through a friend who attended. But Mason LIFE isn't for everyone. Tuition costs $16,000 a year, not including room and board. And until recently, students with intellectual disabilities were ineligible for federal loans or scholarships for postsecondary education. That will change as soon as authorities iron out rules for the Higher Education Opportunity Act, passed in 2008.

An estimated 200 similar programs have sprung up across the nation, most within the past 10 years, said Debra Hart, of the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI) at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. ICI is surveying those programs.

Thus far, research shows students with intellectual disabilities who receive some form of postsecondary education are more likely to land a job than those who don't. In addition, they earn significantly higher pay.

Mason LIFE graduates work for employers such as T.J. Maxx, Audi and the World Bank.

Miss Gurman is still hunting for a job. She currently works part time at an animal shelter but wants more hours, hopefully at a dog day-care center.

And her dreams don't stop there. In the next few years, she wants to travel to Israel and learn to drive. The first dream will take "time and perseverance," she said. But she's already working on the second dream - Miss Gurman has her learner's permit and is studying for the test.

"She has no fear," her mother said.

Homepage pictures

2009-06-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

If you see this post today, go check out www.washingtontimes.com. My picture is on The Times' cube — rotate it to the story about shoes. Fellow Hillsdale-r John Krudy wrote the story.

Three pics ran too.

2009-06-18T07:49:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Good works on menu

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Two workers from Christian Relief Services sat behind a table most of one afternoon, brochures spread out before them. They were there to take advantage of an opportunity - Non-Profit Tuesdays at Busboys and Poets in Arlington.

The restaurant gives nonprofits space to share information about their work and donates 5 percent of the evening's dinner proceeds - usually between $200 and $400 - to the day's nonprofit.

Megan Carter, program assistant at Christian Relief Services, said this kind of service is unique for a restaurant.

"Busboys is the only place I know that actually has one day of the week dedicated to helping nonprofits, which is awesome," she said.

Christian Relief Services (CRS) used the space to raise awareness about the organization and to recruit runners for its 26.2-mile fundraising marathon.

The Tuesday event fits into the mission of Busboys - part-restaurant, part-bookstore, part-community-gathering-place.

"The whole idea behind Busboys was to create this space to promote peace and social justice. We've tried to let that permeate every aspect of the business," said Kat Hansen, director of marketing and events.

Barbara Moller participated in two Non-Profit Tuesdays last year with her initiative Paper to Pearls, which imports jewelry made of recycled paper by poverty-stricken women in Uganda. Through jewelry sales and the donated dinner revenue, the two Tuesdays raised a total of $1,248 that went directly to the Ugandan women. Ms. Moller said the project fascinated Busboys customers.

"People are always interested in the project, particularly at a place like Busboys, being a progressive type of environment," Ms. Moller said. "I was a big fan of Busboys before this, and now I'm a really big fan of Busboys. It's a great contribution to the nonprofit community."

Busboys' two locations in the District offer significant discounts on room rental fees to nonprofit organizations. The Arlington location does not have rooms to offer, so it created Non-Profit Tuesdays instead. It also offers a large space in the back with a projector screen to nonprofits that want to give presentations or show films.

The event, which Busboys has hosted for more than a year, focuses on local organizations and usually draws two nonprofits a month. Ms. Hansen said they are still working on creating awareness about the opportunity.

Story #2.

2009-06-15T08:48:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 15, 2009

Home-schoolers take plunge into politics

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

At 17, home-schooler Tyler Fehrman was the youngest paid member of the John McCain presidential campaign. In the last five years, he's worked on 18 political campaigns in five states. Now, at 18, he is running for an at-large seat on the Mount Vernon, Ohio, City Council.

"My dream for some day is to be the governor of Ohio," he said. "But you gotta start somewhere and take it one stage at a time."

Mr. Fehrman, who finished his schooling in May and plans to attend Mount Vernon Nazarene University this fall, represents the forefront of a growing trend: home-schoolers who are actively involved in politics in their communities.

"I think it's definitely a growing trend," Mr. Fehrman said. "Here in Ohio we have a network of about 200 home-schooled students who are avidly active in politics all the time."

Mr. Fehrman's circle runs even larger. Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute, said evidence shows that both home-schooling parents and their children are more civically involved than the general populace. His 2004 study of more than 7,000 home-schooled adults showed that home-schoolers were more likely to vote, volunteer for political campaigns, participate in boycotts or write letters to the editor.

Although there is no way to confirm the numbers, Mr. Ray estimates that growing numbers of students -- about 2 million -- are now learning at home.

Home-school political activism manifests itself in such groups as Christian youth organization Generation Joshua, designed to educate students in civics. Founded in 2004 as an offshoot of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, the organization now has about 6,000 student members nationwide, an estimated 70 percent of whom are home-educated.

Although Generation Joshua itself is nonpartisan, members often actively campaign for political candidates.

"We consider our mission to be to give the young people the training, knowledge and inspiration to get involved. And then they go and work on the campaigns," said the director of Generation Joshua, William Estrada, also a lawyer and home-school graduate.

Mr. Estrada recognizes political activism as a growing trend in home schooling, but said it was not necessarily new. Both he and Mr. Ray pointed out that many states still outlawed home education at the birth of the modern home-school movement in the 1980s. This forced home-schooling parents to petition state and local government for the freedom to teach their children.

Mr. Ray said the nature of home schooling also draws parents who are firm in their beliefs.

"Just by choosing home education, they're, in a sense, activists. It's not unusual for them to get involved," he said.

He also noted that although home-schoolers' beliefs are important to them, those beliefs are not necessarily uniform -- home-schoolers could not be characterized as liberal or conservative. The most common thread, Mr. Ray said, was a "classical liberal perspective," a government-hands-off attitude.

Mr. Fehrman, who calls himself a Reagan conservative, said home schooling not only gave him the flexibility to be heavily involved in campaigns, but also gave his parents the ability to instill in him a strong biblical worldview.

Seventeen-year-old Daniel Oberlander, a home-schooler in Lovettsville, Va., and a member of Generation Joshua, said his parents raised him to care about politics and the right to vote.

He has helped register voters and made calls for political candidates.

On Election Day last year, Mr. Oberlander stood on a street corner with a group of Generation Joshua students, waving McCain signs.

A car drove up to the stoplight. The driver signaled for Mr. Oberlander and his friend to come over.

"Hey, where are all the Obama kids?" the driver asked from his rolled-down window.

Mr. Oberlander's friend replied: "They probably slept in."

Most of the page was mine today. Story #1.

2009-06-15T08:47:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 15, 2009

Engaging pupils through hip-hop

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"How many of y'all know this song?" The saxophone player smoothly yielded the notes of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."

The nearly 200 children in the audience started to sing along. But then the saxophone player added a few extra tones, jazzy tricks and backflips of sound.

"What is that?" the player asked.

A child's voice shouted out: "Improvisation!"

Saxophonist William E. Smith -- or W.E.S. as he is known in hip-hop -- heads the jazz band the W.E.S. Group, which gave a free concert Friday for grade schoolers.The band led the students through music basics, as well as swing, jazz and the blues, showing how each related to a style more familiar to them -- hip-hop.

"Trouble, trouble, I have it all my days," Mr. Smith sang in low, bluesy notes.

He then explained how hip-hop connects with his mournful song: "Hip-hop talks about some of the same things. Hip-hop talks about stress."

Then came an upbeat rap with the chorus: "Do 'ya know how it feels to be stressed out, stressed out?"

Kelly Hernandez, 9, a third-grader at Powell Elementary School in Northwest, said it was her first time to hear blues and swing music. It was definitely as cool as jazz and hip-hop, she said.

Students from four area schools attended the event, including Barnard, Kenilworth and Two Rivers Public Charter School.

"Kids are moved by music, so the arts are really important," said Kelly's teacher, Maren Richards.

Mr. Smith would agree. He started the International Association for Hip Hop Education, a nonprofit that takes hip-hop to classrooms, hoping to engage students in their studies through rhythm and sound. Besides hosting an annual conference and giving concerts, the organization goes to after-school programs, integrating lesson plans into hip-hop-style chants.

"Women in history, our song ... Women in history, are strong" starts the chorus of a fill-in-the-blank history lesson.

A former American University assistant professor of music, Mr. Smith now teaches in North Carolina but divides his time among his teaching job, his nonprofit work and his jazz band, often coming to the Washington area for concerts like Friday's, part of the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival. He said helping kids learn with hip-hop works.

"In this day and age, it's the best way [to engage kids], because it engages all their faculties," he said. "Through hip-hop you speak their language. ... Being able to speak in their rhythm and in that cadence, it reaches them more effectively."

The W.E.S. Group plays hip-hop with a positive message, unlike the music Mr. Smith said he sees in the mainstream media.

He sang out to the students on Friday: "I'm gonna show you the power inside me. You can't hold me. You can't stop me. 'Cause I was born to succeed." The children sang back, in call-and-response.

Mr. Smith teaches the same song to his after-school students, who at the end perform a concert of what they've learned. Mr. Smith said seeing hundreds of kids stand up and sing those words is what warms his heart most.

"That's like 'Wow,' " he said. "That's really powerful."

VBS story... harder than you think to write

2009-06-12T04:14:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 12, 2009

Summer fun with the Bible

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Blue Jell-O represented the Jordan River one summer at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Northwest Washington. The memory stuck with vacation Bible school participants.

"The kids just ate that up, literally and figuratively," said Lisa Wackler. She sends her children - ages 4, 10 and 13 - to vacation Bible school every year.

With school out in summer, churches - across denominations and across the nation - jump on the opportunity to minister to children. Vacation Bible school (VBS), dating back to the early 20th century, differs from church to church but often uses hands-on activities, songs, snacks, skits and recreation to educate youngsters in the Christian faith.

Sherry Waldrep, chairwoman for VBS at National Presbyterian Church on Nebraska Avenue Northwest, said her 8-year-old triplets usually talk about the skit after coming home. Other kids look forward to the songs.

"One mom told me she's looking forward to getting the new music because they continually listen to last year's music," Ms. Waldrep said. "People who have gone to VBS who are young adults now will tell you they remember the songs."

"And they remember the stories," said Mary Theresa Heneghan, director of Religious Education at St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Rockville. "If you ask them about it a year later, they still remember."

The interactive, hands-on aspect of vacation Bible school is relatively new in its long history. Programs of the past were more traditional.

"They were more like a Sunday school lesson back [in the 1920s], just very churchlike. I think now the focus is more on fun, with a Christian background," said Marcy Levering, an editor of VBS curriculum for Standard Publishing.

VBS became more widespread and elaborate in the 1980s as churches began realizing they needed to offer more to children, she said.

Most modern VBS activities present Bible stories, such as Moses and the burning bush, within a weekly theme. "Crocodile Dock, where fearless kids shine God's light," and "SunRock Kids Camp, where kids build their lives on the rock: Jesus," among other themes, will debut this summer in the D.C. area. Because churches purchase curricula from a limited number of publishers, many share themes.

The Rev. Meredith Lovell, associate pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran, said VBS curricula are very adaptable to particular churches.

"We further adapt it to match our theology, our teaching. ... For us, in our Lutheran tradition, the big thing that we try to teach kids is about God's grace, that God loves them, no matter what they do and where they go. And because of God's love for them, they will always be connected with God," she said.

Miss Heneghan said VBS has caught on recently in the Catholic Church, so much so that Catholic publishers are teaming up with VBS publishers to produce curricula specifically geared toward Catholic communities. The themes and much of the material remain the same as for the Protestants.

"We're Bible-based, as opposed to Catholic Church-based," she said.

She called that element another plus to VBS - that it can bridge the divide between Protestant and Catholic. Many non-Catholics come to St. Elizabeth's VBS, and in the past, the church even teamed up with the Methodist church across the street to offer VBS.

Some churches, including St. Elizabeth and St. Paul's Lutheran use VBS not just as Bible education, but as outreach to the community.

"For kids who might not ordinarily go to church on a weekly basis or might not go to our church or might be a different religion, it's a good way of introducing them to Christianity," Mrs. Wackler said. About half of her church's VBS participants come from outside the congregation.

Diane Smith, children's ministry strategist for the Virginia Baptist Mission Board, said most children spend just 37 hours a year in church. VBS usually hosts children for 20 hours - more than half of their exposure to Bible teaching, she said.

Some churches also incorporate a focus on missions into the teaching. National Presbyterian Church will collect backpacks this year for urban missions and hats for a mission to Haiti, Ms. Waldrep said.

And many churches, including National Presbyterian, also just want to have a good time.

"Some people think, 'Oh religion, oh that's boring,' " Ms. Waldrep said. "But we have fun."

For the Plugged in: Business section

2009-06-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Monday, June 8, 2009

Mandating sick leave

Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

If you're sick, stay home.

That has been the message from the government as it tries to cope with a potential swine flu pandemic.

But for 57 million Americans without paid sick leave, it's easier said than done. Catching the flu can mean having to choose between showing up for work or forfeiting pay.

So last week Connecticut tried — but failed — to be the first state in the nation to mandate that businesses provide paid sick leave. The bill passed the state's House of Representatives but came up one vote short in the Senate, even after a three-year-long battle to push it through.

The fight showed how difficult it may be for proponents to pass a similar law on the national level. The Healthy Families Act (HFA), legislation introduced in Congress last month by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat; Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat; and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, will make its subcommittee debut Thursday.

Businesses are scrambling to oppose the federal legislation, saying that mandated sick leave will result in more wage and job cuts in an already turbulent economy.

Lisa Horn, manager of health care at the Society for Human Resource Management, said her organization opposes a "one-size-fits-all" government sick leave mandate because it forces businesses to make budget cuts in other areas.

"Employers are going to have to scale back on benefits that employees value," she said. "Overall, it limits an employer's flexibility."

James Sherk, a labor policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, agreed.

"It's going to be a mandatory pay cut for every worker affected by it," he said.

But supporters say that guaranteeing sick leave will boost productivity because workers will get the rest they need to recover and won't be spreading illness in the workplace. They say that's especially important in light of swine flu's spread.

"The lack of paid sick days is a public health concern. This was brought front and center during the H1N1 outbreak," said Ms. DeLauro, the House sponsor of HFA.

In addition, the HFA would provide paid leave for workers when they take days off to care for sick children or spouses.

"If Congress passes this bill, millions of workers will no longer have to choose between a paycheck and recovery when they get sick or a family member needs care," National Partnership for Women & Families President Debra L. Ness said.

A previous version of the HFA stalled in Congress in 2007. The new version would mandate paid sick leave for all workers at businesses with more than 15 employees. Workers would accrue one hour of sick leave for every 30 hours worked, capping at seven days per year. Workers would have to provide documents proving illness if they take a leave longer than three consecutive days.

After three years of alterations, the Connecticut legislature's bill required all businesses with more than 50 employees provide paid sick leave on an accrued scale similar to the HFA's. Its failure to pass at the generous level of 50 employees does not bode well for the HFA.

The Connecticut legislation faced fierce opposition from the Connecticut Business and Industry Association (CBIA).

"To have government mandate a minimum amount of paid sick leave in a time when many businesses are struggling around here, is just nonsensical," said Kia Murrell, assistant counsel for the CBIA."You're literally at a point where you could cripple people."

She also noted that Connecticut was one of the toughest states in which to do business, even before the recent recession.

But Connecticut Sen. Edith Prague, a lead supporter of paid sick leave legislation, said Connecticut businesses would profit from the requirement.

"There was an article in Forbes that clearly documented the fact that if your employees are healthy, they produce a better product. They don't infect other employees," she said.

Ms. Prague was not aware of the Healthy Families Act. When informed it applied to businesses with 15 or more employees, she responded: "15? Oh, I love it!"

Supporters of sick leave legislation say 79 percent of low-wage workers do not have access to a single paid sick leave day. A 2008 survey by the University of Chicago National Opinion Research Center, however, put the number at 38 percent for workers in all sectors who did not have any form of paid sick leave whatsoever. And publications from the Heritage Foundation said that 86 percent of full-time workers have paid sick leave.

In the past three years, both San Francisco and Washington passed laws requiring businesses to offer sick leave.

Jim Lazarus of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce said the 2006 law has had a negligible effect on the 2,000 businesses that the chamber represents. He said that's because 90 percent of the businesses already had a sick leave benefit of equal or greater value to that required in the legislation. He said his office has received very few complaints regarding the law.

Janene Jackson of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the 2008 D.C. mandate, said proposed regulations have been confusing and there is not yet enough evidence to say how the law has affected businesses. D.C. officials have not yet issued final guidelines for applying the law.

Mr. Sherk of the Heritage Foundation was especially concerned with the HFA's potential effect on small businesses.

"It's the smaller companies which are less likely to offer it, because they're concerned for the potential for abuse," he said.

Smaller companies are more reliant on workers to show up, he said, because employees who can call in sick at any time of the year without having to offer a doctor's note, by right of law, injure small businesses' work flow and reliability for customers. Mr. Sherk cited the "rampant" abuses of the Family Leave and Medical Act of 1993 (FMLA), as documented by public comment to the Labor Department. He said that the cases showed workers had used FMLA to skip work or misuse leave.

An experience

2009-06-06T20:33:00.000-07:00

An unpublished story... and how I got my first press pass....

[SPELLING BEE HEADLINE]

BY LIZ ESSLEY

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Number 276 steps to the microphone.

The audience waits hushed. Only two contestants remain.

“Hi Tim,” says pronouncer Jacques Bailly.

The lights beam on Tim Ruiter, from Centreville, Va., homeschooled, 12 years old.

Thin-framed, in a yellow polo neatly tucked into belted khakis, his voice sounds small as he replies: “Hi.”

This is the Championship Word contest — the final trial of spelling prowess — at the Scripps National Spelling Bee, held Thursday night in downtown Washington, D.C. There are 16 words to go.

Two hundred and ninety-three students, none of the past the eighth grade, descended upon the Hyatt Grand Hotel for preliminary rounds on Tuesday. Eleven remained at the start of the final round.

As words like “caerphilly,” “fackeltanz,” “jacqueminot” and “grisaille” came at them, each bought time by asking question after question. Meaning? Etymology? Part of speech? Alternate pronunciation?

Bailley eased nerves by dropping quirky lines when asked to used the words in a sentence: “Enough of this low carb madness! Bring me the palatschinken.” The spelling word means “pancakes stuffed with jam.”

In round eight, the word "derriengue" went to Neetu Chandak of Seneca Falls, N.J. She missed an "r" and knew it immediately. "Deriengue... dang!" she exclaimed as the bell sounded, indicating the misspelling.

The tension in the room was tightened by ABC’s live coverage. Voices in the back of the room led into television features and commercial breaks: “ABC’s ‘WipeOut’ is back on... spell-it-right: A.B.C,” came the voices.

So when “16 words to go” flashed on large screens on either side of the stage, the eyes of the room fixed on Mr. Ruiter. He and his remaining opponent — 13-year-old Kavya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kan., who wants to be a neurosurgeon when she grows up — had made it through nine words. If they made it through 16 more, they would tie. One mistake, and Mr. Ruiter would walk away with second place.

The pronouncer gave the boy’s word in three different pronunciations. It meant “a generous benefactor,” and was from a Latin name, said Bailly.

Mr. Ruiter bit his lip. “Are there any alternate pronunciations?” he asked.

“I have just three,” Bailly replied, and repeated the three he said a moment before.

Mr. Ruiter said the word to himself again. “And it’s from a Latin name?” he asked cautiously.

This doubt was new for Mr. Ruiter. He burst with confidence through his previous words in the finals.

He set out. “M. Y. E. C. E. N. U. S.”

Quiet. Then the aching noise: a soft ding of the bell.

Mr. Ruiter spelled “maecenas” incorrectly.

Miss Shivashankar stepped up and spelled “laodicean” right for the victory and some $40,000 in prizes.

for the Suburbia page

2009-06-02T07:01:00.000-07:00

A ray of hope to save energy

Loudoun Valley High students say solar-powered sign just the beginning

By Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES | Tuesday, June 2, 2009

"Vikings are conserving energy. Please close the door behind you."

The Loudoun Valley Vikings take their energy message seriously. On Thursday, the school will host a celebration marking a yearlong student effort to light the school sign with solar energy. And it's only phase one of their planned four-phase project.

"The spark has already been set, and other schools are recognizing what's going on at Loudoun Valley," said Mike Barancewicz, energy education specialist for Loudoun County schools. He assisted and encouraged students throughout the project, which participants hope will spur other local schools to use solar energy as well.

Students teamed up with German teacher Dennis Roos, whose visit to Freiburg, Germany, inspired him to pursue solar energy locally. He described the German town as a "solar city," a large part of it powered by energy from the sun.

"When I came back to the States after that trip, I came back to the public school system and said, 'Hey, we should have solar power in our schools,' " Mr. Roos said.

Mr. Roos, together with students from the German club and the Conservation club, put together their four-phase project to bring solar power to their high school. Lights for a sign and the parking lot and energy for the water heater and school trailers would all be powered by solar energy under the plan.

A parent organization and the senior class together contributed $5,000 for phase one - lighting the school sign. Project participants installed the solar panel, battery and lights last Wednesday night.

"It was incredible fun. ... We all had a screwdriver and instructions and were passing them around," Mr. Roos said.

But stages two through four will cost a lot more money. So students are petitioning Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine for $150,000 in federal economic-stimulus money. They coordinated an effort to send more than 300 letters to the governor and made their own trips to legislative offices to inform officials about their plan.

Their argument was multifaceted: Not only would the solar panels save the district money that could be used instead in the classroom, but the stimulus money would help fuel a local startup company - the students' partner, Solar Shade and Power of Lovettsville, Va.

Making the project reality - from obtaining a permit from local government to showing slide shows to fellow students to building a cardboard model of the solar panel - has taken the students since September. Mr. Roos said students have told him, "This [project] is the most fun thing I've ever done at school."

Clayton Cope, 18, plans to attend the University of Virginia in the fall and aspires to be an environmental lawyer. He said the project cemented his interest in the environment and energy conservation.

And the students continue to dream big. "Eventually, one day, the entire school is our goal," Ginny Blair, 17, said.

"It's not just the lights," Mr. Roos said. "It's what these guys have gone through to accomplish this."

He said many times he wanted to give up and say the project was too hard.

He gestured toward his students. "These guys wouldn't let me say that."

The fruit of a mini in-house press conference... for our Service page

2009-06-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Actor Sinise takes on special role

Aids troops, Iraqi children

By Liz Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES | Sunday, May 31, 2009

Gary Sinise, best known as detective Mac Taylor on "CSI: New York" and Lt. Dan in the Academy Award-winning "Forrest Gump," sat down for lunch Monday with editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

Mr. Sinise, who was in town to co-emcee the previous night's memorial concert and serve as honorary marshal of the National Memorial Day Parade, makes an effort to speak out for the military and veterans.

A tour with the United Service Organizations (USO) took him to Iraq in 2003, when he met Iraqi children in desperate need of school supplies.

"Five kids would have one pencil, and they'd pass it around," he said.

So Mr. Sinise took action: He co-founded Operation Iraqi Children with "Seabiscuit" author Laura Hillenbrand in 2004. The organization collects supplies for Iraqi schools and ships them to U.S. soldiers, who deliver them to children. The operation recently added Afghanistan and Djibouti to its delivery stops.

Mr. Sinise said the idea took shape after his second tour in Iraq, where he journeyed with troops to a school they refurbished in the city of Balad. The school originally had a dirt floor, a hole in the ground for a toilet and no windows. The American soldiers spruced it up, installing windows, a toilet and a cement floor.

"At that time ... probably for every positive story there was maybe 10 negative stories coming out of what was going on over there," Mr. Sinise said. "I was seeing the troops interacting with the Iraqis in a very personal way, in a very protective way, in a very supportive way. And I wanted to do something else to support that."

Mr. Sinise said he knew he couldn't tour with the USO every month and wanted to do something from home. So when he returned to the U.S., he showed video and pictures from his trip at his children's school and asked the students to bring in school supplies for Iraqi children.

"The kids really got into bringing all this stuff in for the [Iraqi] kids. ... They put pictures of their classes in the boxes," he said.

The first shipment made its way to Iraq soon afterward.

Through a mutual Army contact, Mr. Sinise then teamed up with Ms. Hillenbrand, who was working to send Arabic translations of her book to Iraqi youths. They launched a Web site for their newly founded Operation Iraqi Children, and after help from the nonprofit People to People International and TV promotions, the operation grew. Mr. Sinise said the organization has shipped about 300,000 school supply kits overseas and also thousands of pairs of shoes.

The organization's Web site shows letters, pictures and e-mails from grateful U.S. soldiers and Iraqi children. "My name is Hadeel," wrote one Iraqi teenager. "I am very grateful to your help to Iraqi children. ... It's nice to know there [are] still good people in this world. ... You made a lot of kids happy."

My first White House story... small beginnings

2009-05-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

White House field trip a lesson

Elizabeth Essley THE WASHINGTON TIMES

"Our field trip to the White House is on Thursday, May 21," announced Lori May in her kindergarten class's newsletter. "We will go rain or shine."

But it was neither rain nor shine that shut the gates Thursday on the Stafford County, Va., school bus. The White House turned away 130 Conway Elementary School kindergarteners from their scheduled tour after traffic delayed the group. The White House had no time left for the children: It had to prepare President Obama's reception of the Super Bowl champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

The Conway Elementary group was scheduled to arrive at 9:30 a.m., said Valerie Cottongim, a spokeswoman for Stafford County Public Schools. White House coordinators kept the arrival window open until 10:30. But students arrived shortly after that.

"I'm sure the White House has a very tight schedule," she said, adding that teachers had planned ahead in case they couldn't get in.

She also said the school and the White House are working to reschedule the event, but only 3 1/2 weeks remain in Conway's school year.

Teachers used the circumstance to teach the children about life's disappointments. They continued with their backup plan: filling out a worksheet about the number of steps at the Lincoln Memorial and discussing life cycles while watching baby ducks at the Reflecting Pool.

The school had been planning the trip for some time, but principal Roxie Cooper, who helped chaperone the trip, said she saw not one tear shed by the children. She said one kindergartener approached her Friday and said, "We sure had a good time yesterday, didn't we?"

Resume, June 2010

2009-05-23T07:15:00.000-07:00

Liz Essley

eessley[at]hillsdale.edu
eessley[at]gmail.com

RELATED EXPERIENCE
Internship, The Washington Examiner— Summer 2010
Writing for local news desk.

Internship, The Washington Times— Summer 2009
Features and hard news.

News Editor, The Collegian, Hillsdale College’s weekly student newspaper— Fall 2009 – Spring 2010
Assigned, packaged, edited stories for five-page section.

Reporter, The Collegian, Hillsdale College’s weekly student newspaper — Feb. 2008 - present
Editorial awards: May 2008 — “Best Newcomer." Sept. 11, 2008 — “Story of the Week." May 2009 — "Newsroom excellence."

Photographer, The Collegian; Hillsdale College — Jan. 2008 - present
Photography also featured in The Forum (monthly campus opinions magazine), The Tower Light (biannual literary digest) and The Winona (yearbook).

Copy Editor, The Collegian; Hillsdale College — Aug. 2008 - May 2009

Circulation Manager, The Collegian; Hillsdale College — Aug. 2008 - May 2009

Selected as Editor-in-Chief for senior academic year (2010-2011).

EDUCATION
Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan — Bachelor of Arts, Expected graduation May 2011
Major: History
Minor: Classics
Concentration: Dow Program in Journalism
Dean’s List all semesters

CAMPUS ACTIVITIES AND LEADERSHIP
Omicron Delta Kappa, Leadership Honorary
Lamplighters, Women's Leadership Honorary
Honors Program, President — December 2008 - December 2009
The Lyceum (Politics Club), Treasurer — December 2008 - May 2009
Debate Team, Parliamentary debate — 2007-2008
Hillsdale Christian Fellowship, Aug. 2007 - present
GOAL Volunteering, Aug. 2007 - present
Christian Communicators of America (High school speech and debate league), volunteer research assistance

AWARDS
1st place Investigative Reporting, Michigan Press Association, 2008-2009
"General excellence," The Collegian, May 2010
"Newsroom excellence," The Collegian, May 2009
“Story of the Week,” The Collegian, Sept. 11, 2008
“Best Newcomer,” The Collegian, May 2008
Winona Yearbook Photo Contest Winner: Overall, Greek Life and Athletics Categories, December 2008
Dow Journalism Scholarship
Green Journalism Scholarship
Montgomery (Merit) Scholarship
1st Place Team, Parliamentary Debate, Richard Weaver Invitational, October 2007
Quarterfinalist, Parliamentary Debate, Hollatz-Larson Invitational, February 2008
4th Place Speaker, Parliamentary Debate, Hollatz-Larson Invitational, February 2008
1st Place Team, Parliamentary Debate, MISL State Tournament, March 2008
5th Place Speaker, Parliamentary Debate, MISL State Tournament, March 2008

REFERENCES
Available upon request.

Testing, 1, 2, 3...

2009-05-12T12:32:00.000-07:00

The beginning.